Chapter 20 Becoming a World Power

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Chapter 20Becoming a World Power

• The American People, 6th ed.

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I. Steps Toward Empire
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America as a Model Society

• Persistent expansion marked the first century of
  Americas history.
• After the Civil War, America purchased Alaska
  from Russia in 1867 for 7.2 million and acquired
  a naval coaling station on Midway Island near the
  Hawaiian chain which was eventually annexed in
  1898.
• Attempts to annex Santo Domingo failed.

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Expansionism in the 1890s
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Profits Searching for Overseas Markets

• Understanding the accepted model of national
  expansion, big business supported the building of
  a stronger navy and widespread coaling stations.
• The tremendous growth in American production
  saddled with the depression forced American
  business to seek markets overseas.

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Patriotism Asserting National Power

• Most Americans of the age saw expansion as an
  expression of national glory and greatness.
• Piety also came into play there existed a
  missionary impulse to carry Western ideals to
  Christian lands around the globe.
• Politics also played a role public opinion was
  emerging as a driving force in shaping political
  policy thanks to a highly competitive press.

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War in Cuba And The Philippines
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The Road to War

• The Cuban struggle against Spains Gen. Weyler
  appealed to a country determined to avenge the
  weak.
• Sugar plantations also sparked national interest.
• When the U.S. Battleship Maine was sent to Havana
  and subsequently blown to bits, America had an
  excuse to wage war against Spain.

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• The most crucial battle of the Spanish-American
  war occurred in Manila Bay when the U.S. fleet
  destroyed the Spanish navy.
• A subsequent Treaty of Paris granted the 7,000
  islands of the Philippines to America in return
  for a 20 million payment to Spain.
• The ratification of the treaty led to intense
  national debate over the nature of expansion on a
  global scale.

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Theodore Roosevelts Energetic Diplomacy
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Foreign Policy as Darwinian Struggle

• Reading the theories of Charles Darwin as a young
  man, Theodore Roosevelt became convinced that
  life was a constant struggle for survival.
• To be militarily prepared and able to fight well
  were both tests of racial superiority and
  national greatness.
• In practical application, this meant maintaining
  large navies and the conviction to use them in
  the negotiations of diplomacy.

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Taking the Panama Canal

• 1850 treaty designating the joint administration
  of the U.S. and England in building the canal
  nullified in 1901 by the British in exchange for
  assurances of global usage
• Where specifically to dig the canal and how to
  administrate the zone solved by U.S. sponsored
  revolution of Panama, then a province of Columbia
• Panamanian independence and the Hay and
  Bunau-Varilla treaty created Canal Zone to be
  controlled by America

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Policing the Caribbean

• After Cuban independence, the U.S. forced the
  signing of the Platt Amendment which granted
  America many economic rights in Cuba and the
  naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
• This pattern was repeated throughout the
  Caribbean in a policy that became known as the
  Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe doctrine.

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