Chapter 10

ImperialismAmerica Claims an Empire

Section 1 – Defining Imperialism and

Americans’ Views on Imperialism

Do you think it will be looked on it favorably or unfavorably?

Imperialism: The policy by a stronger nation to attempt to create an empire by dominating weaker nations economically, politically, culturally, or militarily.

What is an empire?

Def: a group of nations or peoples ruled over by an emperor, empress, or other powerful sovereign or government:

What is Imperialism?

European Nations had long established imperial colonies

• British India• French Indochina• Spanish Pacific and Caribbean

What about United States?

Africa

Most Americans gradually warmed to the idea of Imperialism

Why? (wait to list)

1) Economic competition among industrial nations…

2) Political and military competition - some believed U.S. lacked powerful armed forces and not able to defend its economic interests

3) Belief in the racial and cultural superiority of Anglo-Saxon (English) descent as compared to nonwhite people

$$$

#1 reason – EconomicThe Industrial Revolution

• Advances in technology after Civil War enabled farmers and factories to produce more than American citizens could consume

• US need raw materials and new markets for its manufactured goods

• Solution to overproduction – FOREIGN TRADE (sell more than you buy)

• Unemployment – Job Creation

“…Whether they will or not, Americans must now begin to look outward. The growing production of the country demands it. And increasing volume of public sentiment demands it…” - Alfred T. Mahan (meet him later)“But today we are raising more than we can consume. Today we are making more than we can use. Today our industrial society is congested; there are more workers than there is work, there is more capital than there is investment. We do not need more money – we need more circulation, more employment. Therefore, we must find new markets for our produce, new occupation for our capital, new work for ourlabor.” - Senator Albert J. Beveridge

?? What course of action are Mahan and Beveridge suggesting for the United States and Why?

#1 What are they saying?

What do we see happening…?

#2 - Military Strength and

Alfred Mahan?Who was he?

Other nations establishing a global military presence…American experts agreed the US should build up its own military strength

Wrote - The Influence of Sea Power upon History

Argued for a strong US navy to defend the peacetime shipping lanes essential to economic growth Also needed strategically located bases where fleets could refuel

* Admiral; Pres of Naval War College; outspoken advocate of American military expansion

Suggested…3 Part Plan

a) Naval bases in Caribbean

b) Canal through Panama

c) Acquire Hawaii and other Pacific Islands

Military StrengthTo demonstrate, Congress approves to build up American sea power

Includes 9 steel-hulled cruisers - called Great White Fleet* (ex: Maine, Oregon)

Under Roosevelt used to demonstrate growing American military power and naval capability. Hope to enforce treaties and protect overseas holdings

#1 Great Britain#2 Germany

*popular nickname

Transformed us into the world’s 3rd largest

naval powerAny Guesses - #1 and #2?

#3 Ideological Motives - Cultural

• A desire to “civilize” non-Europeans also spurred the development of imperialism

• During this time – rise of a philosophy called Social Darwinism – a belief that free-market competition (def: A market economy based on supply and demand with little or no government control) would lead to the survival of the fittest with a belief in the racial superiority of Anglo-Saxons

Darwin’s handwritten cover page for The Origin of Species

Herbert Spencer

Literature of the time“The White Man’s Burden”

By British author Rudyard Kipling

Let’s take a look at the poem…

Published in the February, 1899 issue of McClure’s Magazine and London Times

Background – The White Man’s Burden• Coincided with the beginning of the Philippine-American War

– U.S. Senate had begun ratification of the treaty that placed Puerto Rico, Guam, Cuba, and the Philippines under American control (Prize of winning Spanish-American War*)

• Kipling's aim was to encourage the American government to take over the Philippines

• Kipling friend of Roosevelt – he sent him a copy of the poem• Theodore Roosevelt (Gov. of NY soon to become vice-president and

then president) copied the poem and sent it to his friend, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge– T.R. commenting that it was “rather poor poetry, but good sense from

the expansion point of view.” – Lodge responded that it was "better poetry than you say," while

apparently agreeing about its "standpoint

– Not everyone was as favorably impressed as Roosevelt– The racialized notion of the “White Man’s burden” became a

euphemism for imperialism• Both for Imperialists and anti-imperialists (opposition)

The “White Man’s Burden” appeared in children’s books and even in advertisements of the time period.

US had a responsibility to spread Christianity and civilize the world’s “inferior” people

Highly racist – why?

Defined civilization according to the standards of only one culture

Many authors wrote poems of their own mimicking “The White Man’s Burden” and attacked Kipling’s ideas

Let’s take a look at Henry Labouchère’s “The Brown Man’s Burden” (offered a particularly harsh response).

Anti-ImperialismSome Americans believed in ethnic superiority to justify it BUT others saw

imperialism as a threat

– Rejected on moral and practical grounds“To ‘protect the weak’ has always been the excuse of the rule and tax-gatherer, the chief, the king, the baron; and now, at last, of ‘the white man.’ “ Jane Addams (activist)

Nothing justified dominion of other countries

– Those claimed were not given U.S. Constitutional protections• Suggested that US citizens were superior to the residents of the territory Ex: The American Anti-Imperialist League

- created to battle the American annexation of the PhilippinesOpposed expansionBelieved that imperialism violated the fundamental principle that just republican

government must derive from "consent of the governed." Argued that such activity would require the abandonment of American ideals of self-

government and non-intervention — ideals and values expressed in the United States Declaration of Independence and

Constitution, George Washington's Farewell Address and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Anti-ImperialismSome Americans believed in ethnic superiority to justify it BUT others saw imperialism as a threat

– Cost of maintaining military force large enough to enforce U.S. claims abroad

– Fear that expansion would take away jobs from U.S. workers…sounds like an argument of today…

Tweet Debate

marktwainempirerocks

Mark Twain - Active Anti-Imperialist• Became outraged when the US

became involved in imperialism. • In 1898 Spanish-American war

– Began with intervention on behalf of the Cubans, but the American victory in Cuba led to the Spanish surrender of all their possessions in the Pacific.

– The United States had to decide what to do with them…Kipling wrote to keep them

– President McKinley decided to keep most of the possessions.

Most controversial was the Philippines. The Filipinos resisted American rule Philippine American War Forcing the Philippines to accept American rule outraged Twain.