Chapter 10

America Claims an Empire (1890-1920) I. Imperialism and America (pages 364-367)

A. Imperialism –

B. U.S. join Europe and establish colonies overseas

C. arguments in favor

1. new markets

2. military strength (Admiral Alfred Mahan)

3. belief in Anglo-Saxon superiority

a. Social Darwinism -

b. “White Man’s Burden” -

Rudyard Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden”

Take up the White Man's burden—Send forth the best ye breed—Go bind your sons to exileTo serve your captives' need;To wait in heavy harness,On fluttered folk and wild—Your new-caught, sullen peoples,Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden—In patience to abide,To veil the threat of terrorAnd check the show of pride;By open speech and simple,An hundred times made plainTo seek another's profit,And work another's gain.

D. arguments against

1. threat to our Anglo-Saxon heritage

2. moral grounds

3. practical grounds

II. Examples of U.S. Imperialism (pages 366-381)

A. Hawaii

1. American sugar growers in Hawaii want Hawaii annexed; why?

2. revolution against Queen Liliuokalani (1893); helped by U.S ambassador John Stevens

3. provisional government under Sanford Dole; Republic of Hawaii

4. President Grover Cleveland - recognized but against annexation unless Hawaiians approve

5. President William McKinley - annexed in 1898 without Hawaiians voting

B. The Spanish-American War (1898) (pages 370-381)

1. background

a. long interest in Cuba, Spain’s colony

b. Americans invested in sugar cane plantations

(after 1886)

c. Cuba fought 2 wars for independence

(1.) 1868-1878

(2.) 1895 / Jose Marti / deliberately destroyed

American property . . . to get U.S.

involved

d. American public opinion split

2. causes (in addition to destruction of American property)

a. sympathy for Cuban people / General Valeriano “the Butcher” Weyler

b. “yellow journalism” / Joseph Pulitzer & William Randolph Hearst

c. de Lome letter (February)

d. sinking of the Maine (February)

Reports on the Maine:

Captain Sigbee’s official report to the Navy Department:

Maine blown up in Havana harbor at nine forty tonight and

destroyed. Many wounded and doubtless more killed and

drowned . . . Public opinion should be suspended until further

report . . . . Many Spanish officers . . . now with me express

sympathy.

Sylvester Scovel in the New York World:

The cause of the disaster to the United States battleship Maine

is undetermined. It is not known whether is resulted from a bomb

or a torpedo, an explosion in the magazine, or the carelessness

of the officers. All is conjecture, uncertainty, excitement . . .

George E. Bryson in the New York Evening Journal:

The Maine was destroyed by a torpedo . . . The discovery of thehole in the bottom of the Maine, giving undoubted proof of Spanish treachery . . . shows that the great battleship and her crew . . . were deliberately sacrificed.

Walter S. Meriwether in the New York Herald:

I made the rounds of the hospitals . . . With all possible tenderness andcare the Spanish doctors were dressing the face of a fireman. “There is something in my eyes,” he said. “Wait and let me open them.” Both eyes were gone.

3. the “Splendid Little War” (April- August 1898)

a. after the deLome letter and the Maine most Americans favored war with Spain (despite concessions)

b. April 11 - President McKinley asks to use force against Spain

April 20 – Congress declares war against Spain

c. 3 main areas of fighting

(1.) Philippines

(a.) Admiral George Dewey / Manila Bay (May) -

(b.) Emilio Aguinaldo -

Oh, dewey was the morning

Upon the First of May,

And Dewey was the admiral

Down in Manila Bay

And dewey were the

Regent’s eyes,

Them orbs of royal blue,

And dew we feel

discouraged?

I do not think we dew!

(2.) Cuba

(a.) Admiral William Sampson / naval blockade . . .

sealed the Spanish fleet in harbor of

Santiago de Cuba

(b.) U.S. Army arrives in

June; inexperienced,

ill-prepared; faced

hardships

Recipe for Hardtackhttp://users.lmi.net/mcm20me/20th_Maine/CompG/research/hardtack.htm

(i.) led by Major General William Shafter

(ii.) most famous land battle . . . uphill charge on Kettle Hill by Rough Riders (Leonard Wood &

Teddy Roosevelt) & 9th and 10th Cavalries

(African-American regiments) which led to

infantry attack on San Juan Hill (July)

(c.) Spanish fleet tried to escape blockade; destroyed

(July)

(3.) Puerto Rico

(a.) American troops invaded /little resistance

4. Results

a. armistice signed (August) . . . war lasted only 4 months, few casualties (5,400 out of 300,000; most from disease)

b. Treaty of Paris (December)

(1.) Cuba independent (later Platt Amendment)

(a.) U.S. protectorate

(b.) Good Neighbor Policy (1934)

(2.) U.S. acquires Puerto Rico

(a.) Foraker Act (1900)

(b.) U.S. citizenship (1917)

(c.) commonwealth (1952)

(3.) U.S. acquires Guam

(a.) U.S. Navy

(b.) Organic Act (1946)

(4.) buy Philippines for $20 million

(a.) Philippine-American War (1899-1902)

(b). independence (1946)

C. China - Open Door Policy

1. John Jay / Open Door notes (1899)

2. Boxer Rebellion (1900)

III. America as a world power (pages 382-389)

A. after Spanish-American War U.S. considered to be

a world power (Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, William

Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson)

B. keeping the power

1. “big stick diplomacy”

a. the “Great White Fleet”

b. Roosevelt Corollary

c. Panama Canal

2. dollar diplomacy

3. missionary diplomacy

a. General Victoriano Huerta’s “government of

butchers”

b. War? Pancho Villa vs. General John J. “Black Jack”

Pershing

C. U.S. now more involved in world affairs . . . combined with

the visions of Progressivism . . . World War I