AFP NOTES 2/19

THE LIMITS OF MANIFEST DESTINY 1865-95
2 real factors that could have led to the expansion of american territory
1) Unprecedented mobilization
-civil war means HUGE army navy, etc
2) Common purpose
-union imposes values on entire US, now actually unified

why didnt it?
1) Casualties
-DEAD 360,000 union, 258,000 confederacy
-WOUNDED 275,000 union, 137,000 confederacy
2) HUGE debt
-incurred due to war

Seward (secretary of state to andrew johnson)
-huge expansionist
-advocated a 'western hemisphere empire'
-advocated big time for the purchase of alaska
-'sewards folly'

US did NOTHING external in this years
-no conferences
-no joint decisions
-no alliances

HUGE economic growth during this time
-trade gaps
-1860- -38 million
-1897- +264 million
-volume of trade
-1860- 670 million
-1897- 1.795 billion

america is really really powerful economically, weak politically
-why?
-mostly because the power was in the hands of different parties
-3 Ds
-Decentralized
-Diffuse
-Divided
-different parties controlled legislature and executive?

presidents try to empower the US on the foreign scene
-really hampered by lots of things
-congress was fighting the executive every step of the way
-extremely limited executive bureaucracy
-presidency was really hampered here

A) Executive vs Legislature

Andrew Johnson
seward was his secretary of state
-not really too effective a president

Tenure of Office Act
-johnson couldn't change a member of his cabinet without congressional approval
-when he tried to fire someone, he was impeached
-retained his office by 1 vote

Alaska Purchase
-7.2 million from russia
-called 'seward's folly'

Ulysses Grant (1869-77)
-favors the annexation of the dominican republic
-dominicans also want this
lots of reasons for this
-going in voluntarily
-annexing a weak power
-fulfillment of manifest destiny
-mission
-threat (other powers could take it? maybe?)
-fulfillment of Monroe Doctrine
-national security (secure the seaways)
-trans-oceanic empire

should have been easy
-executive and legislature both were republican
-sumner just decided to own grant
-bitchslap?
Charles Sumner
-chairman of the foreign relations committee
-sumner happened to be deadset against the project
-huge numbers of congressmen just followed sumner, rather than the president
-why?
-1) huge cost
-2) assimilation of non-white population
-3) unilateral action by the president
-this was said to be the real reason for the rejection, to humiliate the president
-4) legislative primacy
-also this. legislature wanted to preserve the power it had gained
B) Limited Intervention

Samoa
shit i missed it
Hawaii
hawaii sold lots of shit to the us
-99% of its exports were to the US
-75% of imports were from US
american settlers in hawaii "revolted"
-forced the king to sign a constitution that essentially limited franchise to wealthy europeans
-1887- US gets exclusive use of pearl harbor
Cuba
'ten years war'
-1868-78
-first real insurrection inside cuba
-revolting against spain
-US offers spain 100 million for 'indemnity', allowing for all cuban refugees to come to US
-the Virginius (former blockade runner in the civil war) was a big deal
-US navy was running interference for it
-shipping weapons to rebels
-boarded and captured
-spanish summarily executed 53 americans
-in response, US assembled entire atlantic fleet at key west
-entire pacific fleet was told to wait for orders to attack the philippines
-didnt end up a big deal
-it was discovered that the US documents were forged
-they weren't even supposed to be flying the US flag
-running arms to the rebels was illegal under US law
-anyways, the US armed forces (and navy) weren't really that impressive anyways
-allowed to run down to pay off debt
-battleships were a measure of naval strength
-UK had 45, france 39, germany (brand new country) had 21, italy (also brand new country) 13, russia 10, US 5 (12th place)
-US ranked behind china (which was being systematically dismantled by european powers)
-US standing army was actually just TINY
-active force in 1890 was 25,000 men
-ranked 14th in the world (behind BULGARIA)
-even though it was at this point the richest country in the world

C) Commerce
commerce was the way the US empire was extended
"Empire of the Seas"
to ensure the commercial empire, america has to secure naval supremacy

The Open Door
US is saying that it wants commercial access to china
-huge commercial interests
-at the time, european powers were carving out 'spheres of influence'
-US denies the very existences of these spheres of influence
-probably mostly because they showed up late to the party
-China is essentially in anarchy at this point
-boxer rebellion is going on at this point, against the european influx of power
interesting dichotomy here
-US is imposing MONROE doctrine over western hemisphere, while denying the right of the world to do the same in china

D) The End of Isolation

Venezuela
british guiana (tiny territory (island) off the border of venezuela)
-border dispute here
-US offers to mediate
-british refuse
the Olney Declaration
-olney interpreted the monroe doctrine to mean that america has authority to mediate border disputes in the western hemisphere
-US is taking an ACTIVE role, rather than a passive one
-remarks
-'today, US is practically SOVEREIGN over the western hemisphere'
-reduces the rest of the western hemisphere to subordinate status
-gives US implicit rights to negotiate, etc for other nations in the western hemisphere
-why?
-not only morally
-also physically- with regards to resources, geographic isolation, etc