Chapter 10
America Claims an
Empire, 1890-1899
• Imperialism = stronger
country dominating a weaker
country: politically,
economically, culturally, etc.
Thomas Nast, “The World’s Plunderers.”
Harper’s Weekly, 1885.
Sec.1: Imperialism & America
• A. Causes of American Expansion
• 1. global competition
• 2. desire for military strength
• Alfred T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea
Power Upon History
• 3. desire for new markets
• 4. cultural superiority
• Anglo-Saxonism & Social Darwinism
• “White man’s burden”
Josiah Strong, Our Country: Its Possible
Future and Its Present Crisis, 1885.
“It seems to me that God, with infinite wisdom and
skill, is training the Anglo-Saxon race for an hour
sure to come in the world’s future. … The
unoccupied arable lands of the earth are limited,
and will soon be taken. … This race … – the
representative … of the largest liberty, the purest
Christianity, the highest civilization . . . will
spread itself over the earth. …Can any one doubt
that the result of this competition of races will be
the ‘survival of the fittest’?”
Alfred T. Mahan, The Interest of America in
Sea Power, 1897.
“Whether they will or no, Americans must look
outward. The growing production of the country
demands it. An increasing volume of public
sentiment demands it. … [These] things are
needful: First, protection of the chief harbors …
Secondly, naval force, the arm of offensive
power.”
• B. Alaska (1867)
• 1. “Seward’s Folly” for $7.2 mil. from Russia
• 2. oil and gold 
• C. Hawaii
• 1. 1887 – naval rights at Pearl Harbor
• 2. 1893 – planter revolt
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•
•
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a. high tariff on sugar
b. struggle w/Queen Lilioukalani
c. new gov’t under Sanford Dole
d. Pres. Cleveland rejected annexation b/c
Hawaiians were against it
• 3. 1898 – annexation under Pres. McKinley
Sec.2: Spanish-American War (1898)
• A. Causes of War
• 1. Cuban revolt against Spain – 1895
• a. led by Jose Marti
• b. Gen. Weyler used concentration camps to keep
civilians from aiding rebels
• 2. “Yellow Press” skewed events
• a. Pultizer & Hearst
• b. Jingoists wanted war
• 3. 1898
• a. Hearst published De Lôme letter
• b. USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor
• c. Pres. McKinley pressured by public to declare
war
“Remember the Maine!”
• B. “A Splendid Little War”
• 1. US unprepared except for navy
• 2. Manila Bay, Philippines
• a. help from Emilio Aguinaldo
• 3. Cuba – TR & his Rough Riders
• 4. Puerto Rico – little resistance
• 5. Treaty of Paris (1898)
• a. US gets Guam, PR
• b. $20 mil. for the Philippines
• C. Impact of Span-Am War
• 1. US = world power
• 2. nationalism
Otto von Bismarck of Germany remarked that “there was a special
Providence that looked after drunkards, fools, and the United States
of America”
Sec.3: Acquiring New Lands
• A. Puerto Rico
• 1.. Foraker Act (1900) – end of military rule;
new civil gov’t
• 2. US citizenship – 1917
• B. Insular Cases (1901)
• 1. Constitution doesn’t follow the US flag
• C. Cuba
• 1. military occupation
• 2. Platt Amendment – US can intervene & use
naval bases (Guantanamo)
• D. Philippine-American War
(1899-1901)
• 1. bitter conflict over annexation
• Anti-Imperialist League
• 2. Filipinos led by Emilio Aquinaldo
• 3. Wm. Taft = new governor
• 4. independence – 1946
Platform of the Anti-Imperialist League, 1899.
“Whether the ruthless slaughter of the
Filipinos shall end next month or next year
is but an incident in a contest that must go
on until the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution of the United States
are rescued from the hands of their
betrayers.”
Senator Albert J. Beveridge. Speech to 56th
Congress, Congressional Record, 1900.
“The Philippines are ours forever. …And just beyond the
Philippines are China’s illimitable markets. We will
not retreat from either. …We will not renounce our
part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of
the civilization of the world. …The Pacific is the
ocean of the commerce of the future. …The power that
rules the Pacific, therefore, is the power that rules the
world. And, with the Philippines, that power is and
will forever be the American Republic.”
• E. China and the “Open Door”
• 1. desire for trade
• 2. Sec. of State John Hay’s Open Door notes
• Fair competition in China
• 3. Boxer Rebellion
• Killed foreigners
Sec.4: America as a World Power
• A. Rise of TR (1901-1909)
• 1. Pres. after McKinley assassinated
• pro-imperialism, pro-reform
• 2. Portsmouth Conference (1905, NH)
• Negotiated end to Russo-Japanese War
“Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far”
• 3. Panama Canal (1904-1914)
• a. desire for access to Pacific colonies
• b. “mandate from civilization” to encourage
Panamanian independence from Colombia
• B. Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine
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•
•
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1. use force to keep Europe from intervening
2. “Big Stick” Diplomacy
3. policy towards Latin America
4. “Great White Fleet” sent on world tour
Theodore Roosevelt. Annual Message
to Congress, December 6, 1904.
“It is not true that the United States feels any land
hunger ... as regards the other nations of the Western
Hemisphere. …All that this country desires is to see
the neighboring countries stable, orderly, and
prosperous. Any country whose people conduct
themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship
… [and] it need fear no interference from the United
States. Chronic wrongdoing … may in America, as
elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some
civilized nation.”
• C. Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy
• 1. influence countries by investing in their
economies
• D. Wilson’s Moral/Missionary Diplomacy
• 1. deny recognition to countries hostile to US
• 2. Mexican Revolution (1913-1917)
• Gen. Huerta, Carranza, and “Pancho” Villa
• Gen. John J. Pershing chased after Villa
• ABC Powers mediated (Argentina, Brazil, Chile)
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