1. U.S. Imperialism 1880-1900s Major Factors: Economic Dips:
sterile capital
Labor strife
Turner’s Frontier Thesis: the frontier is “closed,” so no more “safety valve”
search for New Markets
Evangelical Protestants-missionary zeal, Christianize the “savages”
Problem: the U.S. is late to the game

2. European or “Old World” Imperialism
Mercantilism – colonies exist solely to benefit the mother-country
Operates as a closed system
Ideas of racial hierarchies and Anglo-Saxon superiority used to justify conquest and control

5. U.S. Imperialism clashes with “Old World” or European Imperialism
The coveted China Market
The coveted China Market
U.S. response – The Open Door
Admiral Thayer-Mahan, “The Influence of Sea Power on History” (1890)

6. Hawaii Missionaries in the 1820s Dominated by sugar planters by 1875
1883- Sanford Dole “borrows” U.S. military and overthrows Queen Liliuokalani

7. HAWAII
1900-Annexed by U.S.
Coaling Station for U.S. trade/ imperialism in the Pacific.

8. The Spanish-American War
The crumbling Spanish Empire and Cuba
The Role of the Media and the Cuban Independence Movement
Hearst and Pulitzer compete for readership through sensationalized stories
Hearst – “You write the stories, I’ll give you the war.”
1898- DeLome Letter- from the Spanish minister in D.C., writing to Spain, says President McKinley is too wimpy to attack Spain
U.S.S. Maine, blows up in Havana harbor
April 11, U.S. declares war on Spain, fighting over by August

9. May 1, 1898 Admiral Dewey destroys Spanish fleet at Manila Bay
Aug.12-Armistace and Treaty of Paris Dec. 1898
1 million U.S. dead, fewer killed in action or died from wounds than died from diseases

10. CUBA
Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders
The Platt Amendment

11. The Philippines
Filipino Independence Movement, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, 4,000 U.S. dead, 20,000 Filipinos, cost $160 million.
Sporadic fighting until 1913, independence in 1946.

12. U.S. Imperialism and Foreign Policy
Theodore Roosevelt and “Big Stick” Diplomacy
The “Great White Fleet”
The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine sets up Western Hemisphere as the U.S.’s “sphere of influence.”
The Panama Canal

13. William Howard Taft and Dollar Diplomacy
The “carrot” instead of the “stick”
Woodrow Wilson and Missionary Diplomacy

14. U.S. Presence in Caribbean