Unit 14 Vocabulary: Imperialism/Spanish American War

Alfred Thayer Mahan -wrote The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890); equated sea power with national greatness and urged a U.S. naval buildup. Since a strong navy required bases abroad, Mahan and other naval advocates supported the movement to acquire foreign territories, especially Pacific islands with good harbors. Military strategy, in this case and others, often masked the desire for access to new markets.

Social Darwinism- The application of Darwins’ theory of evolution to society, business, and global involvement.
Frederick Jackson Turner - argued that the closing of the frontier defined the American character; the closing of the frontier led to a desire for overseas markets and resources
The acquisition of Alaska- purchased from Russia in 1867; Seward’s Folly; gold was discovered after 1897; was a US territory until 1959
The acquisition of Hawaii - New England trading vessels visited Hawaiias early as the 1790s, and missionaries had come in the 1820s. By the 1860s American-owned sugar plantations worked by Chinese and Japanese laborers dotted the islands. Under an 1887 treaty (negotiated after the planters had forcibly imposed a new constitution on Hawaii’s native ruler, Kalakaua), the United States built a naval base at Pearl Harbor, near Honolulu. American economic dominance and the influx of foreigners angered Hawaiians. In 1891, they welcomed Liliuokalani, a strong-willed woman hostile to Americans, to the Hawaiian throne. Meanwhile, in 1890, the framers of the McKinley Tariff, pressured by domestic sugar growers, eliminated the duty-free status enjoyed by Hawaiian sugar. In January 1893, facing ruin as Hawaii’s wholesale sugar prices plunged 40 percent, the planters deposed Queen Liliuokalani, proclaimed the independent Republic of Hawaii, and requested U.S. annexation. The U.S. State Department’s representative in Hawaii cabled Washington, “The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe, and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it.” Grover Cleveland was not in favor of annexation; however, McKinley agrees to annex Hawaii
Queen Liliuokalani – see above
Causes of the Spanish-American War – Yellow journalism, the Cuban condition, desire for overseas resources and markets, the quest for new territories, the DeLome Letter, (immediate spark) the explosion of the Maine
Jose Marti – poet and revolutionary in the Spanish American War; he had been exiled to New York; wrote poety and also wrote essays asking for American support for the Cuban Revolution from Spain
William Randolph Hearst – owner of the NY Journal which competed with the New York World. Created “The Yellow Kid”, which provided a name for the sensational journalism called yellow journalism. Both Hearst and Pulitzer used the Cuban situation with Spain to sell newspapers; The papers detailed “Butcher” Weyler’s atrocities against the Cubans, along with blaming the Spanish for blowing up the Maine; leaked the DeLome letter that described McKinley as “weak” and other negative things.
Joseph Pulitzer – see above
Yellow journalism – the use of exaggerated stories to sell newspapers; based on an emotional appeal; one of the long term causes of the Spanish American War
The explosion of the Maine – the USS Maine was sent to Havana Harbor; an explosion occurred and the assumption was that the Spaniards had torpedoed the ship
George Dewey - The war with Spain involved only a few days of actual combat. The first action came on May 1, 1898, when a U.S. fleet commanded by George Dewey steamed into Manila Bay in the Philippines and destroyed or captured all ten Spanish ships anchored there, at the cost of 1 American and 381 Spanish lives. In mid-August, U.S. troops occupied the capital, Manila.
Emilio Aguinaldo - organized a Filipino independence movement to drive out Spain. In 1898, with arms supplied by George Dewey, Aguinaldo’s forces had captured most of Luzon, the Philippines’ main island. When the Spanish surrendered, Aguinaldo proclaimed Filipino independence and drafted a democratic constitution. Feeling betrayed when the peace treaty ceded his country to the United States, Aguinaldo ordered his rebel force to attack Manila, the American base of operations. Seventy thousand more U.S. troops were shipped to the Philippines. By the end of 1899, the initial Filipino resistance was crushed. These hostilities became the opening phase of a long guerrilla conflict. Before it ended, over 125,000 American men had served in the Philippines, and four thousand had been killed. As many as twenty thousand Filipino independence fighters died.
San Juan Hill - On July 1, in the war’s only significant land action, American troops seized three strongly defended Spanish garrisons overlooking Santiago on El Caney Hill, Kettleman’s Hill, and San Juan Hill. Leading the volunteer “Rough Riders” unit in the capture of San Juan Hill was Theodore Roosevelt, who became a war hero. Emphasizing his toughness and sense of honor, Roosevelt would later use his war experience to reaffirm the aptitude of men like himself for political leadership.
Treaty of Paris, 1898 - Spain recognized Cuba’s independence and, after a U.S. payment of $20 million, ceded the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the Pacific island of Guam to the United States. Americans now possessed an island empire stretching from the Caribbean to the Pacific.
William Jennings Bryan – 1898 anti-imperialist; formed the Anti-Imperialist League
Mark Twain – See above
Anti-Imperialist League – William Jennings Bryan, Jane Addams, Mark Twain, William James, Andrew Carnegie, Carl Schurz, E.L. Godkin formed this league in opposition to America’s imperialist desires; believed the imperialism violated the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; failed by one vote to prevent ratification of the peace treaty
William McKinley – ran and won the presidential election of 1898; favored annexation of the Philippines
Guerilla warfare – use of the environment and other tactics to fight the enemy
William Howard Taft – developed the policy of dollar diplomacy;
Dollar diplomacy – This is an excerpt from Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy speech: “The diplomacy of the present administration has sought to respond to modern ideas of commercial intercourse. This policy has been characterized as substituting dollars for bullets. It is one that appeals alike to idealistic humanitarian sentiments, to the dictates of sound policy and strategy, and to legitimate commercial aims. It is an effort frankly directed to the increase of American trade upon the axiomatic principle that the government of the United States shall extend all proper support to every legitimate and beneficial American enterprise abroad.” The idea was to protect America’s investments across the globe, using the Panama Canal as one avenue of global commerce. Taft invoked dollar diplomacy in Nicaragua in 1911 when a US-backed revolution brought Adolfo Diaz to power. Because it was feared that British powers might want to build a rival canal across Nicaragua, American bankers loaned Diaz 1.5 million in exchange for control of Nicaragua’s national bank, customs service, and railroad. When a revolt against Díaz broke out in 1912, Taft sent marines to protect the bankers’ investment. The marines remained there until 1933.
Spheres of influence – China was carved up by foreign powers into spheres of influence; John Hay wrote The Open Door Notes promoting the idea that China should be free to trade with anyone. This would help America and the global influence. It also made US appear more favorable to China.
John Hay and the Open Door Policy – see above
Boxer Rebellion – Chinese nationalists fought to eliminate foreign presence in China; Killed foreigners, Chinese Christians, and other foreigners
Treaty of Portsmouth- In 1900, Russian troops occupied Manchuria, and Russia promoted its commercial interests by building railroads. This alarmed the Japanese, who also had designs on Manchuria and nearby Korea. Japan and Russia went to war in 1904 after a surprise Japanese attack destroyed Russian ships anchored in a Manchurian port. Roosevelt believed that a Japanese victory would disrupt the Asian balance of power and threaten America’s position in the Philippines. He invited Japan and Russia to a peace conference at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In September 1905, they signed a peace treaty. Russia recognized Japan’s rule in Korea and made other territorial concessions. After this outcome, curbing Japanese expansionism became America’s major objective in Asia. For his role in ending the war, Roosevelt received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Gentleman’s Agreement - In 1906, U.S.-Japanese relations soured when the San Francisco school board, reflecting prejudice against Asian immigrants, assigned all Asian children to segregated schools. When Japan angrily protested, Roosevelt summoned the school board to Washington and persuaded them to reverse this discriminatory policy. In return, in 1908 the administration negotiated a “gentlemen’s agreement” with Japan by which Tokyo voluntarily halted Japanese emigration to America. Japan would only grant visas to Japanese business people and professionals. Californians were fearful that Japanese immigrants would work for lower wages and would take much of the good farmland.
Great White Fleet - In 1907, Roosevelt ordered sixteen U.S. battleships on a “training operation” to Japan. This was an attempt to show America’s naval strength.
Foraker Act - On April 2, 1900, President McKinley signed a civil law that established a civilian government in Puerto Rico. This law was known as the Foraker Act, and also as the Organic Act of 1900. The new government had a governor and an executive council appointed by the President, a House of Representatives with 35 elected members, a judicial system with a Supreme Court, and a non-voting Resident Commissioner in Congress. In addition, all federal laws of the United States were to be in effect on the island. The first civil governor of the island under the Foraker Act was Charles H. Allen, inaugurated on May 1, 1900 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Platt Amendment - authorized American withdrawal from Cuba only after Cuba agreed not to make any treaty with a foreign power limiting its independence and not to borrow beyond its means. The United States also reserved the right to intervene in Cuba when it saw fit and to maintain a naval base there. The Cuban constitutional convention of 1901 accepted the Platt Amendment, which remained in force until 1934. Under its terms the United States established a naval base at Guantánamo Bay, near Santiago de Cuba, which it still maintains. U.S. investments in Cuba, some $50 million in 1898, soared to half a billion dollars by 1920.
Big Stick Diplomacy - the policy of carefully mediated negotiation supported by the unspoken threat of a powerful military. The Great White Fleet, a group of American warships that toured the world in a show of peaceful strength, is the leading example of Big Stick diplomacy during Roosevelt’s presidency. (“Speak softly, and carry a big stick.”)
Panama Canal (include the acquisition of Panama) – Businessmen and military wanted a canal across the forty-mile-wide isthmus joining North and South America to eliminate the hazardous voyage around South America. In 1879, a French company secured rights from Colombia to build a canal across Panama. Mismanagement and yellow fever doomed the project. To recoup losses, the French company offered its assets to the US for $109 million. In 1902, after the French lowered their price to $40 million, Congress authorized President Theodore Roosevelt to accept the offer. In the Hay-Buneau-Varilla Treaty, Panama gained independence from Colombia and granted the United States a ten-mile-wide strip of land across Panama “in perpetuity” on the terms earlier rejected by Colombia. Theodore Roosevelt said, “I took the Canal Zone, and let Congress debate, and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.” The U.S. canal builders’ first challenge was the yellow fever. Dr. Walter Reed of the Army Medical Corps led the effort to figure out a way to wipe it out. . Earlier, in Cuba, Reed and his research team had used themselves and army volunteers as experimental subjects to prove that mosquitoes breeding in stagnant water spread the yellow fever virus. In Panama, Reed’s large-scale drainage project eradicated the disease-bearing mosquito. Construction on the canal began in 1906, and in 1914 the first ship sailed through it.
Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty – see above
Roosevelt Corollary – This was an addition to the Monroe Doctrine (1823); If any nation intervened in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere, it should be the United States. In December 1904, Roosevelt declared that “chronic wrongdoing” by any Latin American nation would justify U.S. intervention.
Moral diplomacy
Wilson’s actions in Latin America - In 1915, after upheavals in Haiti and the Dominican Republic Wilson sent in U.S. marines, who brutally suppressed Haitians who resisted. A Haitian constitution favorable to U.S. commercial interests ratified in a 1918 vote supervised by the marines. The marines occupied the Dominican Republic until 1924 and Haiti until 1934. Early in 1913, just as Wilson took office, Mexican troops loyal to General Victoriano Huerta, overthrew and murdered President Madero. Bowing to U.S. force, Huerta abdicated; Carranza took power; and the US troops withdrew. In January 1916, a bandit chieftain in northern Mexico, Pancho Villa, murdered sixteen U.S. mining engineers. Soon after, Villa’s gang burned the town of Columbus, New Mexico, and killed nineteen inhabitants. Americans demanded action. Wilson sent troops under General John J. Pershing. When Villa eluded Pershing and brazenly staged another cross-border raid into Texas, Wilson ordered 150,000 National Guardsmen to the border—a massive response that stirred anti-American feelings among Mexico’s poor, for whom Villa was a folk hero. Villa ended his raids in 1920 when the Mexican government gave him a large land grant, but he was soon assassinated. These involvements in Latin America show the basic U.S. foreign-policy goal: to achieve a global order that would embrace American political values and welcome American business. President Wilson summed up this view in a 1916 speech to a business group in Detroit: “Carry liberty and justice and the principles of humanity wherever you go...Sell goods that will make the world more comfortable and more happy, and convert them to the principles of America.”
Pancho Villa – see above
Porfirio Diaz – see above
Francisco Madero – see above
Victoriano Huerta – see above
Venustiano Carranza – see above
John Pershing – see above