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Imperialism Unit Reading

Directions: Highlight, no margin notes needed. Answer all the questions and define all the terms and two great images.

Robber Barons or Industrial Statesmen?

The success of these strategies led to the rise of mass fortunes for those individuals who owned and operated these companies. When Andrew Carnegie sold his Steel corporation to banker J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million, Morgan said he had just made Carnegie the richest man in the world - at least until John D. Rockefeller had amassed an $800 million fortune over his lifetime.

Commentators at the time referred to them all as Robber Barons, a term from the Middle Ages when renegade knights exacted tribute from all who passed by. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the term was used to refer to capitalists who extracted riches from the economic system while adding nothing to it.Jay Gould, for instance, drove the Erie Railroad into bankruptcy, but was still able to amass a fortune by manipulating its stock price while buying and selling with an insider's advance knowledge. Gould died in 1892 worth $75 million. In fact, these robber barons came to see themselves as immune to the legal system. "Law?" railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt once bellowed, "Who cares about law? Hain't I got the power?” Defenders, however, held them up as symbols of the individualist creed in America: the result of untrammeled opportunity; public benefactors building a profitable enterprise out of a sense of obligation to consumers; industrial statesmen. Work hard, Alger told his readers, and you too can be like them.

But we need to put this into context. The industrial revolution had led to a huge gap between "haves" and "have-nots" in America. By 1890, the top 1% of the population controlled 25% of the nation's wealth. If we take it down a little further, we can see that the top 10% of the population controlled 75% of the nation's wealth. To put it another way, 90% of the American population had 25% of everything that was of value (money, stock, property) to divide up amongst itself. It's not surprising, then, that with some calling for a socialist revolution, the rich would turn to the individualist creed as justification for their wealth and exploitation

Gospel of Wealth

Some, such as Andrew Carnegie, tried to put a more positive spin in justifying their wealth. There's no shame in being rich, Carnegie explained, but to die rich was worse than a "stinking fish." The rich, therefore, had an obligation to help the poor, but Carnegie was not suggesting that the poor should be coddled. Indeed, handouts would only make them dependent and weak. Rather, private money should be devoted to libraries, universities, museums, and other cultural and scientific endeavors. Such institutions would not only create a better society for all, but would give the poor the tools they need to help themselves. The individualist creed is quite evident in Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth.

Social Darwinism

There were others, however, who thought that even these indirect efforts to help the poor would be a waste of time. Drawing on English author Herbert Spencer's "Survival of the Fittest" theory (which was a distortion of Darwin's biological theories), William Graham Sumner declared that millionaires were rich because they were naturally selected. Competition, Sumner explained, is the law of nature, and those that are most fit are the ones who are going to succeed. The implication, of course, was that any government interference to help the poor through welfare policies or social reform would interfere with natural social processes, and so must be strictly avoided.

Laissez – Faire

Regardless of Sumner's exhortations, most politicians from both parties were in agreement that the government should take a backseat role to business in running the economy as they embraced a Laissez-Faire economic policy. This is an old debate which goes back to the birth of our Republic and has much to do with the popular belief that if individuals grew too dependent on their government, they would lose their freedom. But the myth that private industry grew rich without government intervention is just that - a myth. The reality is that government was there from the very beginning as it imposed tariffs on foreign imports to protect American industries, passed legislation to facilitate corporate financial growth, and provided millions of dollars in cash and land subsidies to developing industries.

  1. What is the key idea in the article (Explanation)? Cite it as support!
  1. Define Robber Barons:
  1. Define The Gospel of Wealth:
  1. Define Herbert Spencer
  1. What is the articles meaning of “naturally selected” and how does it apply to our unit (Interpretation)?
  1. Were your views about the great industrialists shaped by what we learned, yes or no and why (Self-Knowledge)?

From United Streaming Video: Survival Theories: Social Darwinism and Eugenics (02:09)

A clip from the program Great Books: The Origin of Species

  1. In your opinion has Social Darwin been a positive mark on Human history? Explain your answer.

After the Spanish-American War. - - - Define the terms (9-13) below before reading

The conclusion of the Spanish-American War confronted the U.S. with the problem of organizing and administering Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Cuba, now independent of Spain and under U.S. occupation. The U.S. held a protectorate over Cuba until 1902; in that year, after the Cubans had incorporated into their constitution a number of provisions insisted on by the U.S. for its own military and commercial advantage, and had held elections, the U.S. occupation forces turned Cuba over to its first president, Tomás Estrada Palma. In Puerto Rico, by terms of the Foraker Act, Congress in 1900 set up a civil government, and the Jones Act of 1917 granted U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans. In the Philippines, insurgents led by Emilio Aguinaldo initially resisted the U.S. occupation, but the last guerrillas gave up in 1902. The Jones Act of 1916 instituted an elected senate and promised eventual independence; however, not until July 4, 1946, did the Philippines become a sovereign state.

Roosevelt's "big stick."

During the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, the foreign policy of the U.S. was aggressive; in the Caribbean area, in the Far East, and elsewhere, U.S. policies were vigorously stated and enforced by diplomatic or military action when necessary. The Spanish-American War, during which U.S. naval units in the Pacific were forced, when needed in the Caribbean Sea, to steam down the coast of South America, around Cape Horn, and then northward, proved the necessity of an ocean-to-ocean canal either in Nicaragua or the Isthmus of Panama, which for reasons of national defense would be under exclusive U.S. control. On the initiative of President Roosevelt, the U.S. in 1903 concluded the Hay-Herrán Treaty with Colombia, of which Panama was then a province, granting the U.S. a long-term lease over a 16-km (10-mi) wide zone in Panama. The Colombian senate rejected the treaty, whereupon a rebellion, actively supported by the U.S., broke out in Panama, which became an independent republic. By the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 with the Republic of Panama, the U.S. obtained in perpetuity, for an initial payment of $10 million and an annual payment of $250,000, the 16-km (10-mi) zone it required for a canal. Construction of the canal was begun at once and completed in 1914. (By treaties ratified in 1978, the U.S. relinquished the Panama Canal Zone in 1979 and pledged to hand over the canal itself to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999.) . . .

United States of America. Funk & Wagnalls® New Encyclopedia. 2005. unitedstreaming. 9 May 2006 <

  1. Who was president during the Spanish-American War? What year did the Spanish American War occur?
  1. Define Protectorate:
  1. Define Insurgents:
  1. Define Vigorously:
  1. Define Perpetuity:
  1. Define Relinquished:
  1. What did America use to assert its presence and desires in the Latin American region?
  1. How might Latin American’s feel about American intervention?
  1. Why did Teddy Roosevelt help Panama win its independence?
  1. What have been the long-term implications of American Imperialism – use the textbook or knowledge from outside the classroom to help you?
  1. Have your views about American foreign policy been altered by this unit – why or why not?

Draw Two Images – one that is Pro-American Imperialism and one that is Anti – the images must be connected to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

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