AFP NOTES 2/20
LECUTRE 10, AMERICA AS WORLD POWER: 1898-1913
A) the Spanish American War, 1898
Remember the Maine
McKinley tries to mediate the US-cuba problematic relations
USS Maine gets sent down to cuba to chill and help with relations
Maine gets blown up
-Yellow Press takes this and runs with it
-April 19, there was a joint resolution by House and Senate
-Gives president a blank check to go to war, take action against spain
-April 25, Congress formally declares war
-one of the shortest and most successful wars in american history
-only from april 25-august 12
-treaty of paris on december 10
-america formally inherits spain's colonial empire
got these vvv
US territorial acquisitions
Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam for 20 million all told
Wake Island
Hawaii (newlands resolution)
-McKinley had no problem with annexing Hawaii
-June 15, 1898 (while the war is still going on), house and senate vote to annex hawaii
War itself
seen as an excellent thing
-Roosevelt's rough riders were idolized
-seen as helping to heal the wounds opened by the civil war
-unifying war
Cuba (platt amendment)
-US never really addressed this in international conferences
-platt amendment states that Guantanamo Bay is sovereign US territory in Cuba
-Cuba is forbidden to join other countries besides the US
-Cuba is not allowed to contract foreign debt
-No foreign treaties
-essentially, US is keeping europe OUT
-Cuba was required to add the amendment to the Cuban constitution
B) Imperialism Theories
Josiah Strong (Our Country, its possible future, and its present crisis, 1885)
looked at the issue of why america needed to express itself on two terms
-not only christian and moral theories
-also social darwinism
-social darwinism was huge in this time
-Strong thought the anglo-saxon was racially and socially superior to its surroundings
-racist justification for manifest destiny
Brooks Adams (The Law of Civilization and Decay, 1895)
he was a descendent of John Adams
economic model
-adams advocated centralization of commerce
-decentralization of commerce regulation was really harming the US economically
-US needs to take control of asian markets
-US needs a REAL leader
-the presidents thrown up by the political system were unsuitable to really lead
-america needed a 'man on horseback' (TR anybody?)
Frederick Jackson Turner (The significance of the fronteir in american history, 1893)
rests the entire thesis on the economic power of free land
-democracy itself rests on the economic power derived from free land
-entire american ETHOS derives from free land
-so long as free land exists, US is safe
-"for nearly 300 years, the dominant fact in american life has been expansion
-dynamic of progress
-said essentially that the frontier has GONE, and this ends the first part of american history
-this will lead to problems
-American West had served as a safety valve, opportunity to escape, no longer exists
Alfred Thayer Mahan (The influence of sea power on history, 1890)
industrial expansion
-leads to competition, leads to necessity of sea power
-leads to rivalries in a few things
-markets to sell to
-sources of raw materials
-how do you secure these?
-naval supremacy
-no one state can ensure both of these things
-a world empire is the way to do things
-'americans must look outwards
-'the growing production of america demands it'
how do you improve seapower?
-CANALS!
-specifically connecting the pacific to the atlantic
-called the 'isthmian canal'
-naval bases
-bases can be used as stepping stones that lead to the asian market
-hawaii and philippines were big here
-BATTLESHIPS are the measure of naval strength
-no more of this destroyer and privateer stuff
-america needs to prey directly on other nations' navies, not only on their commerce
Mahan has some converts
-including Hilary Herbert
-sercretary of the navy, 1893-1897
-naval appropriation acts, 1895, 1896
-HUGE increase in naval power
Theodore Roosevelt
didnt have a specific text or anything, but spoke a shitload
-promotes a 'strenuous life'
-really tries to embody the life of a real man
-looks back nostalgically at the pioneers of early american history
-many problems can be fixed with 'physical prowess'
-unless we can keep the barbarian virtues, the civilized ones mean little
-character is far more important than intellect to society
C) Imperialism: Proximate Factors
Manifest Destiny
Response to European Imperialism
norms dictating international behavior were still predominantly european
-imperialistic
-US perhaps unconciously begins incorporating their values into its own
-combines expansionism with traditional imperialism
-moralism is kinda interesting here
-even if the US wanted to let the newly acquired territory go, they couldnt
-other europeans would just snap them up
-US felt that the peoples conquered weren't racially or intellectually prepared for democracy and self-rule
Commercial Imperatives
the 'Glut Theory'
-US productive capacity had permanently outstripped its consumption capacity
-therefore, huge radical up- and down-swings in economic markets would occur UNLESS US finds foreign markets
The "White Man's Burden"
US is the exemplar of the 'superior civilization'
-US has a duty to expand for the sake of humanity and the sake of civilization
-US talks about the 'trust civilization puts in us'
-US has a 'Legacy of Duty' to the rest of the world
-US is not just acquiring territory for the sake of it, but for the sake of the 'savages' it's governing over
Racial Social Darwinism
the hierarchy stood as follows
-at the top are the Anglo-Saxons
-US stops confronting the UK
-fellow anglo-saxons on a mission to spread anglo-saxon values throughout the world
-next is the Teutonic race
-essentially Germans
-German industry is starting to outstrip that of UK even
-next are Latins
-italians, spanish
-Slavics
-Russians
-at the bottom- the 'Yellow Peril'
-asians
-they threaten to overwhelm the world through sheer numbers and fertility
-Africans, indians aren't even considered, they're just pawns or tools
who will be responsible for the 'regeneration' of culture and value out of the 'stagnant societies'
-whoever controlled china would win the war of regeneration
D) The Roosevelt Corollary
Roosevelt was so popular that the republicans had to dump the sitting vice president to put him on the ticket
-McKinley dies, TR becomes president, run with his own agenda
-Key turning point occured in 1902-3
-venezuela crisis
-president had defaulted on the European loans
-germans instituted a naval blockade, landed troops, sank some ships, bombarded the coast
-punitive expedition to either get their money back or extract what compensation it could
-TR was initially apathetic
-they should have repaid their loans...
-however, TR couldn't just ignore the monroe doctrine
-US fleet mobilized, sent a message to the germans to get the hell out
-TR REJECTED defaulted loans as a pretext for incursion into the new world
1904- roosevelt corollary is introduced
-expansion of monroe doctrine
-enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine may FORCE the US into exercise as an international police power
-if any republic in the new world falls into one of two conditions
-anarchy
-impotence
-US is entitled to move in, restore order, establish order
first test was in santo domingo- 1905
-US took over a collection of dominican customs recipts and arranged a new system of payments
-interestingly- the US actions were taken unilaterally by TR, not authorized by congress until 1907- 2 years later
another test- cuba
-there was a rebellion
-US steps in and manages from sep 1906 - jan 1909, when elections are taken
removing all opportunities for european powers to step in in any way
E) Panama
isthmian canal connecting atlantic to pacific
president polk sent an emissary to what will become panama to negotiate for access to the isthmus of panama
-they refused
-this was NOT cool
pres Grant, for instance, demanded 'an american canal, on american soil'
this was a HUGE problem during spanish american war
-US warships took 68 days to move from coast to coast
-problematic for a bi-costal power
-not only would a canal help its commercial position, but also its military
Columbia and US made a treaty
-long-term leasing land across panama for 10 million, 250k/year
-US senate agreed, but columbian senate rejected it
-in response, US supports panamanian rebels in columbia (who controls it at the time)
-panamanians seize several key points, get independence with help of US naval support
-first thing independent panama does is give up rights to the canal zone
