Touchstone 4: Thinking Like a Historian

Part 1: Change Over Time

Write down your selected topic and time period.

US Foreign Policy, 1890-1945

Identify and describe something within your topic that changed over the selected time period, using specific historical evidence. (5-6 sentences)

The most significant change over time is a contrast in the aggressive foreign policy of McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft against the more idealist foreign policy of Wilson.

Under President McKinley, the US gained Puerto Rico, the Philippine Islands, and Hawaii, and began to assert influence over Cuba. Presidents Roosevelt and Taft reinforced the United States’ grip over Latin America with policies such as the Roosevelt Corollary and Taft’s “Dollar Diplomacy,” supported military dictatorships in Latin American states, and used this stability to exploit US trade interests.

President Woodrow Wilson, who took office in 1913, also believed that overseas influence could benefit the US. However, Wilson was not as motivated by economic considerations. For example, in contrast to his predecessors, Wilson told Latin American states that he would not enforce the Roosevelt Corollary - a 1904 doctrine that stated the US should intervene with military force to stabilize Latin American countries and protect American interests there.

Identify and describe something within your topic that stayed the same over the selected time period, using specific historical evidence. (5-6 sentences)

The period 1890 to 1945 saw the steady growth of American influence overseas and the erosion of isolationism as a foreign policy principle. First, Frederick Jackson Turner’s 1890 “Frontier Thesis” is regarded as coinciding with the birth of an American overseas empire. In the decade that followed, the Spanish-American War of 1898-1899 saw the US acquire islands from the western Pacific to the Caribbean. Similarly, President Wilson ended isolationist foreign policy in regard to Europe. After initially trying to maintain neutrality in the face of World War I, Wilson sent troops to the front lines in Western Europe in 1917 and tried to broker the terms of peace. The final foreign policy shift relates to World War II. The government-business partnership during WWII became known as the “arsenal of democracy”--a partnership that allowed US businesses to supply American allies with weapons to fight the Axis powers. The climax of American foreign policy in the period was the Allied victory in World War II, resulting in the US occupation of many Pacific islands and Japan.

Part 2: Context, Causality, and Contingency

Write down the title of the primary source you selected and paste the web link here.

“Declined with Thanks” is a political cartoon by J.S. Pughe. It was created in 1900.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.25453/

Describe what is happening in the source. (5-6 sentences)

In the image “Declined with Thanks,” an enormous Uncle Sam (a symbol of the United States) has his clothes measured by a tailor. The stripes on his trousers are labeled Texas, Louisiana Purchase, Alaska, Florida, California, Hawaii, and Porto Rico. The tailor’s apron has the letters “McK,” meaning President William McKinley (in office 1897-1901). McKinley in the image is trying to create clothes made out of “Enlightened Foreign Policy” and “Rational Expansion” for the oversized Uncle Sam. Three anti-imperialists are offering Uncle Sam a tonic of “Anti Expansion Policy” to “get thin again.” This tonic is what gives the political cartoon its title. McKinley is declining it.

Describe two other things happening in the United States during the topic or event depicted by your source that are related to it. (5-6 sentences)

1. President William McKinley persuaded the US Congress to declare war on Spain in 1898 after blaming Spain for the destruction of the US battleship Maine in Havana, Cuba. The US won the Spanish-American War and by 1899 had gained influence over Cuban politics, seized the Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, the Philippine Islands, and Guam, and absorbed a handful of Pacific Ocean islands. The US now possessed an empire stretching from the Atlantic Coast to the western Pacific.

2. A debate emerged among American citizens, especially journalists, about the ethical and moral problems of expansion. On the one hand, boosters of imperialism claimed that the “white man’s burden” was to colonize and civilize supposedly “inferior” races. By contrast, opponents of imperialism formed the Anti-Imperialist League in 1898, represented by the three figures in the image offering “Anti Expansion Policy.” The League dedicated itself to showing that imperialism contradicted American values and would endanger the American economy.

Describe two things that happened in an earlier time period that led to what is depicted in your source. Explain the cause/effect relationship. (5-6 sentences)

1. Secretary of State William Seward helped the US purchase Alaska from Russia in 1867. The acquisition of Alaska gave the US the opportunity to build naval bases in the Aleutian Islands and exploit vast natural resources (unknown to US leaders at the time). By making it easier for ships to navigate the Pacific, obtaining Alaska set the stage for further US expansion in the Pacific Ocean.

2. Along with this territorial expansion, intellectual developments of the 1880s and 1890s also contributed to a growing sense that the United States should acquire overseas territories. In an 1893 speech to historians, Frederick Jackson Turner stated his “Frontier Thesis”: that the US should expand overseas in order to keep American democracy healthy and to sustain population growth. In so doing, Turner gave practical justification for further territorial expansion while overriding possible objections to such expansion.

Describe two things that happened in a later time period as a result of what is depicted in your source. Explain the cause/effect relationship. (5-6 sentences)

1. The United States’ acquisition of territories in the Caribbean had some immediate results for US foreign policy. President Theodore Roosevelt (in office 1901-1909), encouraged by the country’s expansion in the Caribbean, asserted that the United States could and should use military force to support its foreign policy agenda in the Western Hemisphere. This became known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. As an example of the Roosevelt Corollary in practice, Roosevelt strengthened the navy and used it in 1903 to force Colombia to give up Panama so the US could build the Panama Canal.

2. A second result of territorial expansion was the concept of “Dollar Diplomacy.” The US had already expelled Spain from Cuba. As a result of extending its influence into Latin America at the end of the Spanish-American War, the US continued to attempt to exclude European nations from Latin America into the early 20th century. Latin American states owed money to European countries, so President Taft absorbed their debts in order to forestall any European invasion of Latin American countries.

Part 3: Complexity and Reflection

Were you able to think of more than two things that led to or resulted from the topic or event depicted in your source? How did you choose which things to write about? (5-6 sentences)

In addition to writing about the results of the Spanish-American War, I could have written about the Platt Amendment. This was part of a constitution the US forced Cuba to accept when Cuba became independent from Spain, and it allowed the US military to intervene in Cuba to determine its form of government. This document robbed Cuba of its self-determination and probably led to the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s.

I could have also described the Philippine-American War, an immediate result of the Spanish-American War and the US occupation of The Philippines. Japan perceived this occupation as a threat, and the US temporarily lost The Philippines to Japan in WWII. However, I chose to write about the short-term results of the Spanish-American War instead, as the consequences of the Platt Amendment and the Philippine-American War cannot be described without jumping ahead in the chronology to after World War II.

How can you apply these skills of historical thinking to your daily life? (5-6 sentences)

The skills of Causality and Contingency are especially helpful for interpreting the news. It’s important to see the historical roots of current events. For example, I can absorb news about Latin America with a more nuanced understanding of the history of the United States’ foreign policy in the region.

With the skills of Context and Complexity, I can approach controversial issues with a sense of nuance and an understanding that complicated problems may not have an easy solution. By seeing a problem from multiple perspectives we can better come up with a solution.

For example, given what I know now about the Roosevelt Corollary, “Dollar Diplomacy” and US economic interests in Latin America, I now know that economic instability in Latin America can be caused by multiple factors including US political influence, military intervention, and economic exploitation.