NOTES CH 27 Part 1The Path of Empire 1890 – 1899

READING ASSIGNMENT- 626 - 641

Opening Quote from the text, Chapter 27:

“We assert that no nation can long endure half republic and half empire, and we warn the American people that imperialism abroad will lead quickly and inevitably to despotism at home.” Democratic Party Platform – 1900…does it?

HUGE*****

YOU HAVE TO BEGIN TO CONSIDER A TWO-DIMENSIONAL VIEW OF US HISTORY FROM THIS POINT ON…

FOREIGN POLICY (OVERSEAS) AND DOMESTIC POLICY (HOME)

THEY CAN AND DO INTERACT AND INFLUENCE EACH OTHER… YET… AS WE BEGIN STUDYING THE 20TH CENTURY DRAMATIC CHANGE OCCURS… YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE STORY, THE NARRATIVE… CONTINUITY AND CHANGE… HOW THE PREVIOUS ERA INFLUENCES THE CURRENT ERA AND FUTURE…. IN BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICY.

*********Note: As we begin our study of the 20th Century, often called the “American Century,” Foreign Policy will become an integral part of our study of US History. As a COLONY of Great Britain and in our attempt to GOVERN ourselves as an independent nation FP was a part of our study…. We see our relationships with GB and France influencing many of the actions of the early periods.. As we began the “critical era,” after independence….our relationship to the world continued to have great significance…because there is a question, “Could we, the USA, survive, as an independent nation? We do…and prosper… Early FP ideas such as “isolationism” become a tradition as written in his FAREWELL ADDRESS….GW’s Neutrality, Isolationism, during the long French Revolution becomes to many, even today, the desired American FP Idea.TJeff, during this period, begins to expand our view of what America might become with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which of course leads to the idea of “manifest destiny,” …However as “imperial” contests continue after the French Revolution is over/ and we finally vanquish the Brits after the War of 1812, …. We add to Isolationism, the MONROE DOCTRINE, in effect an effort to preserve the LP and begin to take our “manifest destiny” without competition from Europe…and which acknowledges that the US will be involved and aware of World Affairs…to some extent…it has to… The MD is a statement to the WORLD… that the USA is now the “hegemon” (controlling power) of the Western Hemisphere… ***MD-1 – there would be no further colonization allowed. 2 – European Powers would be required to NOT INTERVENE in the affairs of Western Nations… (to protect the newly independent Latin American Republics & The rest of Western North America below Canada.)

We cannot militarily enforce this statement, but, GB, the most powerful Naval power in the World…can… and enjoys the benefits of free trade in Latin America and so with their support the MD…stands unopposed in 1823 and for the most part keeps the Western Hemisphere free from the European Competition for Imperial dominance…and allows us to focus on our “Manifest Destiny,” to acquire through Treaty, several with Spain, England and France between 1812-1823, and War, Mexico –Mexican Cession (even larger than the LP)the land that makes up the 48 contiguous states by 1854’s Gadsden Purchase…

Throughout the Civil War, our FP, whether CSA or USA was involved in either trying to persuade or to hinder European involvement in this struggle…. The Union was successful in keeping Europe away for the most part…. And so the Union wins the CW…. the only real challenge to the MD during this period is France in Mexico…but as the War ends we see… France expelled from Mexico quickly. And the MD’s –ultimatum is kept…We are still the “hegemon” of the Western Hemisphere.

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As we enter the Gilded Age, 1865 - 1900… We acquire Alaska from Russia, in 1867.. seen by some as a “folly,” butAlaska becomes a source of much wealth for the nation over time….

Beginning actually before the CW around the 1850’s … we see the 2nd Industrial revolution beginning to have its impact across the Western World and into the Eastern World as a competition begins among the European Powers for access to resources to fuel its industrial growth and enrich their nations….this competition to acquire colonies around the world, “Imperialism,”is a continuity… that began long before… and the idea of “globalization,” or a world economy is a continuity as well, the best example being, “The Columbian Exchange.” However, the new technologies create a “smaller world” that allows for faster transportation and access to much of the world by the rapacious Western civilizations, thus advancing the concept of “globalization.” The USA slowly begins to venture into the world…following in some cases the missionaries from the earlier 2nd great awakening who go to the Pacific. We see Commodore Perry’s influence in “opening Japan”, our Treaties with the decaying Chinese Empire in the 1850’s , and the successes of the children and grandchildren of missionaries in Hawaii creating the Sugar and fruit plantations that come to dominate the island. In the post-civil war era as our infrastructure is being completed, TCRR, access to new foreign markets begins to become a reasonable goal… and we begin to question what role the USA should have in this vicious competition (Imperialism) that is developing around us… Should we participate? Or not? Why/Why not? Can we not?

The Closing of the “frontier,” announced by our Census in 1890 motivated FJT’s influential essay AND motivated our government and corporate leaders to ask what next?….Where to now…. Two devastating depressions and political and social unrest begin to worry many in the USA…Where is the new “safety valve?” The answer to some is “OVERSEAS,” and to enter this competition with the powers of the World for economic resources and markets…. THIS QUESTION IS KEY TO THE 20TH CENTURY AND TODAY, STILL.

The conflict that develops over the question, To or Not to…enter the competition…and how we rationalize or explain why or why not to do so…becomes a key continuity of the next unit…

Because it does not just effect how we are seen by the world but also….. how we see or define ourselves, our identity as Americans.

Text Notes/Intro:

Immediately after the Civil War, the American People remained astonishingly indifferent to the outside world…embroiled in completing the idea of “Manifest Destiny,” finishing the work…a “Reconstruction of Society,” most citizens took little interest in international affairs…BUT… as the 19th century began to end….A MOMENTUS SHIFT IN U.S. FOREIGN POLICY BEGINS TO TAKE SHAPE.

Changes to agriculture, industry, and society that came with the 2nd Industrial Revolution,,,BEGAN TO CHANGE AMERICAN DIPLOMACY (FP). ‘THE AGE OF EMPIRE,” BEGINS/CONTINUES….????

Up to this point…America could, to some extent, distinguish itself from the rest of the rapacious European Powers… by pointing to our history of not having colonies…based on the NW Ordinance of 1787 – all new lands acquired by the US were brought into our NATION on an EQUAL STATUS with ALL OTHERS…. They eventually become EQUAL STATES… (now we know there are limitations to this statement, for sure, however….it is true… that all lands acquired up to 1890 by the USA either became states or were in the process of becoming states going through the territorial process set out in 1787…AND THAT DID NOT CHANGE BY 1890…. WE WERE TECHNICALLY NOT AN “EMPIRE,” BY DEFINITION, YET……*********************

BUT, BY THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY….AMERICA-WOULD BECOME AN “IMPERIAL” POWER (WITH COLONIES) ----IN A STUNNING???(really?) DEPARTURE(really?) FROM IT’S ANTI-COLONIAL TRADITIONS….(I wonder how the Native Americans or Mexican-Americans or African-Americans or Asian Americans or Women….would respond to this statement???)

Imperialist Stirrings************various motivations for going overseas************

Why expand overseas? (you should have a few ideas already  )*****

1-Production in the USA boomed….so much so that it was over-producing our market in the US….

This caused periodic financial depressions, which in turn led to popular unrest (labor & farmers)

Overseas markets….COULD…provide a place to sell our overproduction, thus provide a “safety valve” to relieve the popular unrest…ie…providing more jobs and a more stable economy – prosperity.

2- The “YELLOW PRESS” - Hearst and Pulitzer – sensationalist drive to sell more newspapers by printing exaggerated stories to entice the public – foreign exploits are detailed as adventurous and manly…

3-Missionary Christianity Josiah Strong’s book, “Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis,” suggested we go overseas to “harvest new souls” AND to SPREAD AMERICAN VALUES AND RELIGION TO THE “BACKWARD” PEOPLES OF THE NON-CIVILIZED WORLD. (white man’s burden)

4-Jingoistic Attitudes –[A WAR LIKE FOREIGN POLICY] TR, Cabot-Lodge and others…interpreted Darwinism to mean THE EARTH BELONGED TO THE STRONG AND THE FIT…TO “UNCLE SAM,” if America was to survive in the competition of modern nation-states it would HAVE TO BECOME AN IMPERIAL POWER, TOO. [the world was being divided….if we did not partake we would be left behind…and that would be dangerous]*********

5-Alfred Thayer Mahan’s book, “The Influence of Sea Power Upon History,” 1890, posited that –“CONTROL OF THE SEA WAS THE KEY TO WORLD DOMINANCE…read by GB, GERM, JAPANESE, AMERICANS, RUSSIANS, FRENCH, ETC… this book helped to spread MILITARISM…and a NAVAL arms race among the great western powers at the beginning of the 20th century….THIS LED AMERICA TO BUILD A GREATER STEEL NAVY AND THE PANAMA CANAL…

To summarize --Business interests wanted to expand – later called $ Diplomacy

--- “Yellow journalism” that influences PUBLIC OPINION

--- WHITE MAN’S BURDEN – to help the world….A FORM OF “MISSIONARY DIPLOMACY” OR “AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM” – and racism, etc…

-- JINGOISM... compete or die (mahan’s book – Darwism/”survival of the fittest”

******* NOTE: In reality all of these competing motivations….can be part of why….we become an “Imperial power,” and it is important to understand that ALL of these or ONE of these could be the motivation for a particular policy that is to come….it is very difficult, even today, to ascribe one of thee ideas as a sole causal or motivational force for any US action….

HOW DOES THE USA IN THE LATE GILDED AGE BECOME INVOLVED INTERNATIONALLY?

James G. Blaine’s “BIG SISTER POLICY” – Blaine is sec. of state twice, under Garfield/Arthur and B. Harrison – The BSP…was an effort to rally the Latin American Nations behind the leadership of the USA..and open Latin American markets to the USA business community… He presided over the 1st PAN-AMERICAN CONFERENCE in 1889…which began a plan of reciprocal economic cooperation through tariff reductions….IMPORTANT BEGINNINGS OF INTER-AMERICAN COOPERATION.

1889 –Germany and US tangle over the Samoan Islands in the Pacific

1891 – 11 Italian Sailors Lynched in New Orleans.

1892 – in Valparaiso, Chile…2 US sailors die…Chile has a superior steel navy…and pacific coast is worried

1893 – Conflict with Canada over seal hunting off the coast of Alaska….

THESE CONFLICTS DEMONSTRATES AMERICA’S GROWING SENSE OF STRENGTH AND AGGRESSIVE NATIONAL MOOD….that these “minor disputes” could have led to war….foreshadows future US actions…

Monroe’s Doctrine and the Venezuelan Squall ---or “The Great Rapprochement with GB”********

How does the USA go from tolerating GB to “best friends forever?”…. The Venezuela boundary crisis.

1895-96 – Venezuela Boundary Crisis [see map digital edition p. 625]*********

-America traditionally, to this point, was periodically ANTI-BRITISH…. Long memories….

- The boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela, a jungle and in dispute, became a flash point when GOLD IS DISCOVERED HERE….

- President Cleveland and his Secretary of State, Richard Olney, send a note to GB…DECLARING THAT BRITAIN BY BULLYING VENEZUELA WAS VIOLATING THE MONROE DOCTRINE’S NON-INTERVENTION CLAUSE…and that the British should SUBMIT THE DISPUTE TO ARBITRATION…(a neutral 3rd party reviews the evidence and decides the issue) …THE US WOULD INTERVENE (war) if not followed…

- Britain, the world’s #1 naval power at this time, took 4 months to reply to Cleveland-Olney’s note…

Their reply did not recognize the MONROE DOCTRINE and said NO to arbitration…

-Cleveland, now upset, sends a message to Congress: to create a commission of experts to determine the boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela..AND IF THE BRITS REFUSE THIS…WAR.

Britain was concerned…Europe at this point was becoming very militaristic, Canada was vulnerable, as was their business interests around the world…and when Germany became embroiled in the South African Boer War (Dutch and Br.) Britain realized that having America as a friend rather than enemy would be a better solution….

Britain consented to arbitration…and ironically was awarded much of the territory in conflict in South America….

EFFECT(s) of VBC:****

- American Prestige increased due to the MONROE DOCTRINE being upheld and enhanced.

- Europe was upset at American arrogance (MD) but saw that America won…

- Latin American Nations were pleased that America stood up for one of them against the Euro’s

-*******Britain now aware of the THREAT OF conflicts that were to tear to shreds the continent in the upcoming years …DUE TO COMPETITION BETWEEN THEMSELVES…BEGAN TO “PAT THE EAGLE’S HEAD”…”THE GREAT RAPPROCHEMENT” OR RECONCILIATION….BETWEEN GB AND USA…BEGINS WITH THE RESOLUTION OF THE VENEZUELA BOUNDARY CRISIS….GB & THE USA BECOME “BESTIES” FROM THIS POINT FORWARD…A “CORNERSTONE OF BOTH NATIONS FOREIGN POLICY” STILL TODAY******************

Spurning the Hawaiian Pear****see map of usa in pacific…p.630

Hawaii…ahhhh…Hawaii – missionaries during the 2nd great awakening had come to these islands early in the 1820’s…it had become a “way station” for shippers, sailors, and whalers…The missionaries had come to “do good” and their children did even better….Honolulu became similar to a New England Town…

America eventually began to regard Hawaii as an extension of the USA… in the 1840’s the State Department warned other countries “to stay away.” In 1875 and 1887 we make treaties with the native government for economic benefits and A PRICELESS NAVAL BASE AT PEARL HARBOR.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE – economic and political….was brewing…. In 1890 the McKinley Tariff raised taxes on Hawaiian Sugar coming into the USA…The White Planters who controlled the Sugar Production in Hawaii, mostly Americans, thought that the best way to overcome these new taxes on their sugar was TO REQUEST THE ANNEXATION OF HAWAII INTO THE USA…therefore no new taxes on their sugar….

Queen Liliuokalani blocked this gambit…and insisted that native Hawaiians should control the islands.

The desperate White Planters…a tiny minority…organized a successful revolt in 1893…OPENLY ASSISSTED BY US TROOPS…landed under orders of the American Minister to Hawaii…

However, the White Planters would have to wait…. Dem. Grover Cleveland won the election of 1893 and WITHDREW THE TREATY OF ANNEXATION…and sent an investigator to Hawaii…when he reported that the majority of Hawaiians DID NOT WANT ANNEXATION….and so ANNEXATION WAS TEMPORARILY ABANDONED….(the white planters were firmly now in power and Cleveland would have had to us military force to remove them…which would have been unpopular at home…so he ignored them)

This squabble led to the beginnings of a HEATED DEBATE IN AMERICA…OVER “IMPERIALISM” FOR THE 1ST TIME…HAWAII WOULD NOT BE ANNEXED FOR 5 MORE YEARS…WHEN,

HAWAII IS ANNEXED BY PRES. McKinley during the Spanish-American War to come in 1898, as a WAR MEASURE…

Cubans Rise in Revolt (against Spain)…beginnings of how the SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR BEGINS*****AND HOW WE BECOME AN “EMPIRE” W/ COLONIES AFTER THE WAR******

The people of Cuba rise up against Spain in 1895…the rebels adopted a policy which was very harsh…if they did enough damage, Spain might leave…or the United States, due to its large business interests on the island might aid them to limit the damage to their investments.

The American people… always support a people fighting for their freedom…AND the UNITED STATES BUSINESS INTERESTS HAD AN INVESTMENT OF 50 MILLION$$ AND ANNUAL TRADE OF 100MILLION $$ AT STAKE…The Spanish misrule also threatened the shipping routes into and out of the Gulf of Mexico…and a FUTURE ISTHMIAN CANAL…

In 1896 THINGS GOT WORSE… Spanish General “Butcher” Weyler took command. Weyler, in order to crush the “insurrectos” (rebels) herded civilians into “reconcentration” camps…where the Spanish could control the populace and guarantee any natives they saw would be enemies…. These “concentration” camps became places of much death due to poor sanitation and disease.

Congress, in 1896, responding, to an outraged Public…spurred by the “Yellow Press” which documented many of the horrors…passed a resolution calling upon President Cleveland to recognize the Rebels, officially…

Cleveland, refused…he vowed that if Congress declared WAR….He, THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF, would not necessarily issue the order to mobilize the US ARMY.

The Mystery of the Battleship, “U.S.S. Maine,” Explosion

Hearstand Pulitzer engaged in a “yellow” duel to sell newspapers…. Attempting to outdo each other in reporting and in some cases exaggerating the abuses committed by the Spanish Authorities in Cuba…