Imperialism 1890-1899

1
Imperialism 1890-1899
2
 Imperialist Stirrings

• As America bustled with a new sense of power
  generated by the strong growth in population,
  wealth, and productive capacity, labor violence
  and agrarian unrest increased.  It was felt that
  overseas markets might provide a safety valve to
  relieve these pressures.
• Reverend Josiah Strong's Our Country  Its
  Possible Future and Its Present Crisis inspired
  missionaries to travel to foreign nations.
• Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan's book of 1890, The
  Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783,
  argued that control of the sea was the key to
  world dominance it stimulated the naval race
  among the great powers.
• James G. Blaine published his "Big Sister" policy
  which aimed to rally the Latin American nations
  behind America's leadership and to open Latin
  American markets to American traders.
• The willingness of America to risk war over such
  distance and minor disputes with Italy, Chile,
  and Canada demonstrated the aggressive new
  national mood.
•  

3
Monroe's Doctrine and the Venezuelan Squall

• The area between British Guiana and Venezuela had
  been in dispute for over 50 years.  When gold was
  discovered in the contested area, the prospect of
  a peaceful resolution faded.
• Secretary of State to President Cleveland,
  Richard Olney, claimed that if Britain attempted
  to dominate Venezuela in the quarrel and gain
  more territory, then it would be violating the
  Monroe Doctrine.  When Britain flatly rejected
  the relevance of the Monroe doctrine, President
  Cleveland stated that the United States would
  fight for it.
• Although somewhat annoyed by the weaker United
  States, Britain chose to not to fight a war. 
  Britain's rich merchant marine was vulnerable to
  American commerce raiders, Russia and France were
  unfriendly, and Germany was about to challenge
  the British naval supremacy.
• With their eyes open to the European peril,
  Britain was determined to cultivate an American
  friendship.  The Great Rapprochement, or
  reconciliation, between the United States and
  Britain became a cornerstone of both nations'
  foreign policies.
•  

4
Spurning the Hawaiian Pear

• The first New England missionaries reached Hawaii
  in 1820.
• Beginning in the 1840s, the State Department
  began to warn other nations to keep their hands
  off Hawaii.  In 1887, a treaty with the native
  government guaranteed naval-base rights at Pearl
  Harbor.
• The profits of sugar cultivation in Hawaii became
  less profitable with the McKinley Tariff of
  1890.  American planters decided that the best
  way to overcome the tariff would be to annex
  Hawaii.  Queen Liliuokalani insisted that native
  Hawaiian should control the islands.
• A desperate minority of whites organized a
  successful revolt in 1893.  The Queen was
  overthrown and white revolutionists gained
  control of Hawaii.  When a treaty to annex Hawaii
  was presented to the Senate, President Grover
  Cleveland promptly withdrew it. 

5
Cubans Rise in Revolt

• Sugar production of Cuba became less profitable
  when the America passed the tariff of 1894.
• Cubans began to revolt against their Spanish
  captors in 1895 after the Spanish began to place
  Cubans in reconcentration camps and treat them
  very poorly.  Cuban revolutionaries began to
  reason that if they destroyed enough of Cuba and
  did enough damage, then Spain might abandon Cuba
  or the United States might move in and help the
  Cubans with their independence.
• America had a large investment as well as annual
  trade stake in Cuba.
• Congress passed a resolution in 1896 that
  recognized the belligerence of the revolted
  Cubans.  President Cleveland refused to budge and
  fight for Cuba's independence.

6
The Mystery of the Maine Explosion

• William R. Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer led the
  fabricated atrocities of Cuba apart of the new
  "yellow journalism."  The two men caused the
  American people to believe that conditions in
  Cuba were worse then they actually were.
• Hearst's Journal published a private letter
  written by the Spanish minister in Washington,
  Dupuy de Lome in 1898.  The letter, which
  degraded President McKinley, forced Dupuy de Lome
  to resign.
• On February 15, 1898, the American ship, Maine
  blew up in the Havana port.  The Spanish
  investigators deduced that it was an accident
  (spontaneous combustion in one of the coal
  bunkers) while the American investigators claimed
  that Spain had sunk it.  The American people were
  convinced by the American investigators and war
  with Spain became imminent.

7
McKinley Unleashes the Dogs of War

• American diplomats had already gained Madrid's
  agreement to Washington's 2 basic demands an end
  to the reconstruction camps and an armistice with
  Cuban rebels.
• Although President McKinley did not want a war
  with Spain, the American people did.  He felt
  that the people should rule so he sent his war
  message to Congress on April 11, 1898.  Congress
  declared war and adopted the Teller Amendment. 
  It proclaimed to the world that when the United
  States had overthrown the Spanish misrule, it
  would give the Cubans their freedom.

8
Dewey's May Day Victory at Manila

• The American people plunged into the war with
  jubilation, which seemed premature to Europeans. 
  The American army numbered 2,100 officers and
  28,000 men compared to the 200,000 Spanish troops
  in Cuba.
• The readiness of the navy (ranked 5th world-wide)
  owed much to the navy secretary John D. Long and
  his assistant secretary Theodore Roosevelt.
• Roosevelt called upon Commodore George Dewey's
  6-ship fleet to descend upon Spain's Philippines
  in the event of war.  On May 1, 1898, Dewey
  slipped by detection at night and attacked and
  destroyed the 10-ship Spanish fleet at Manila.

9
Unexpected Imperialistic Plums

• Foreign ships began to gather in the Manila
  harbor, protecting their nationals.  After
  several incidents, the potential for battles with
  other nations blew over.
• On August 13, 1898, American troops captured
  Manila.
• The victory in the Philippines prompted the idea
  that Hawaii was needed as a supply base for Dewey
  in the Philippines.  Therefore, Congress passed a
  joint resolution of Congress to annex Hawaii on
  July 7, 1898.

10
The Confused Invasion of Cuba

• Shortly after the outbreak of the war, the
  Spanish government sent a fleet of warships to
  Cuba, led by Admiral Cervera.  He was blockaded
  in the Santiago harbor in Cuba by American ships.
• Leading the invasion force from the rear to drive
  out Cervera was General William R. Shafter.
• The "Rough Riders," apart of the invading army,
  was a regiment of volunteers consisting of
  cowboys and ex-athletes.  Commanded by Colonel
  Leonard Wood, the group was organized principally
  by Theodore Roosevelt.
• William Shafter's landing near Santiago, Cuba was
  made without serious opposition.
• On July 1st, fighting broke out at El Caney and
  San Juan Hill, up which Colonel Roosevelt and his
  Rough Riders charged. 

11
Curtains for Spain in America

• Admiral Cervera's fleet was entirely destroyed on
  July 3, 1898 and shortly thereafter Santiago
  surrendered.  General Nelson A. Miles met little
  resistance when he took over Puerto Rico. 
• On August 12, 1898, Spain signed an armistice.
• Before the war's end, much of the American army
  was stricken with malaria, typhoid, and yellow
  fever.

12
McKinley Heeds Duty, Destiny, and Dollars

• In late 1898, Spanish and American negotiators
  met in Paris to begin heated discussions.  The
  Americans secured Guam and Puerto Rico, but the
  Philippines presented President McKinley with a
  problem  he didn't feel he could give the island
  back to Spanish misrule, and America would be
  turning its back upon responsibilities if it
  simply left the Philippines. 
• McKinley finally decided to Christianize and to
  civilize all of the Filipinos.  Disputes broke
  out with the Spanish negotiators over control of
  the Philippines because Manila had been captured
  the day after the war, and the island could not
  be listed among the spoils of the war.  America
  therefore agreed to pay Spain 20 million for the
  Philippines.

13
America's Course (Curse?) of Empire

• The Anti-Imperialistic League sprang up and
  fought the McKinley administration's expansionist
  moves. 
• In the Senate, the Spanish treaty ran into such
  opposition that is seemed doomed to defeat. 
  Democratic presidential candidate for the
  election of 1900, William J. Bryan used his
  influence on Democratic senators to get the
  treaty approved on February 6, 1899.  Bryan
  argued that the sooner the treaty was passed, the
  sooner the Filipinos could gain their
  independence.

14
Perplexities in Puerto Rico and Cuba

• By the Foraker Act of 1900, Congress gave the
  Puerto Ricans a limited degree of popular
  government and, in 1917, granted them U.S.
  citizenship.  The American regime in Puerto Rico
  worked wonders in education, sanitation,
  transportation, and other improvements.
• Beginning in 1901 with the Insular Cases, the
  Supreme Court declared that the Constitution did
  not extend to the Philippines and Puerto Rico. 
• The United States, honoring the Teller Amendment
  of 1898, withdrew from Cuba in 1902.  The U.S.
  forced the Cubans to write their own constitution
  of 1901 (the Platt Amendment).  The constitution
  decreed that the United States might intervene
  with troops in Cuba in order to restore order and
  to provide mutual protection.  The Cubans also
  promised to sell or lease needed coaling or naval
  stations to the U.S.

15
New Horizons in Two Hemispheres

• Although the Spanish-American War only lasted 113
  days, American prestige as a world power
  increased.
• One of the greatest results of the war was the
  bonding between the North and the South.