U.S. History 550 words
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4 America on the World Stage
SuperStock/Everett Collection
This illustration from 1900 shows Uncle Sam standing between departing American soldiers and American missionaries who are
arriving to Westernize the Filipino people. The United States annexed the Philippines as part of the treaty ending the Spanish–American
War.
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Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
Define imperialism and explain its significance in the late 19th century.
Discuss how issues of race influenced how some Americans and Europeans perceived imperialism.
Understand how the Monroe Doctrine shaped U.S. foreign policy.
Explore the different ways the United States practiced imperialism.
Consider the ways that new technology and means of communication influenced U.S. imperialism.
Explore how American interactions on the world stage changed or developed once the nation possessed an “empire.”
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© Bettmann/Corbis
Queen Liliuokalani was the last sovereign ruler of Hawaii. Her nation was annexed to the
American Lives: Queen Liliuokalani European explorers had visited Hawaii on numerous occasions during the age of exploration, discovering a lush paradise and a native population of Polynesian descent. British adventurer James Cook dubbed the island chain the Sandwich Islands after his sponsor, the Earl of Sandwich, and published multiple accounts of his visits in 1778 and 1779. Early in the 19th century, American missionaries arrived. They established schools and, working among the local inhabitants, brought Western culture and customs to the nation located about 2,000 miles southwest of the U.S. mainland. In many ways American cultural imperialism, the policy of extending power and influence, touched Hawaii long before the age of expansion in the late 19th century.
Americans also held dominant economic and political interests in the islands that evolved into almost total control by 1890. Starting in the 1840s some saw Hawaii as a natural Pacific outpost for America, and in 1842 President John Tyler declared that the United States would protect its independence against foreign threats. Significant production of cane sugar made the islands an important trading partner. By 1890 nearly all of Hawaii’s exports were bound for the United States, and more than three fourths of its imported goods originated there (Osborne, 1981).
A number of American missionaries and business agents, organized into a special legislative council, became leading advisers to the Hawaiian rulers. Missionaries denigrated Hawaiian culture and even convinced the monarch to denounce the traditional hula dance as “pagan, sinful, and a breeding place for lust” (Lyons, 2012, p. 35). Many Americans, especially those with economic ties to Hawaii, came to argue that it was only logical that the island nation be annexed to the United States.
When Liliuokalani, the last sovereign ruler of Hawaii, inherited the crown from her brother in 1891, she faced rapidly expanding American intervention in her nation’s affairs. The foreigners had forced a new national constitution, dubbed the “Bayonet Constitution,” on the islands, stripping the monarchy of authority and elevating mostly American businessmen to positions of power. White residents could vote, but most native Hawaiians lost the franchise. Two years later American interests launched a revolution to oust Queen Liliuokalani from power and annex Hawaii to the United States.
Liliuokalani’s brief 2‐year reign ended, and after a bitter struggle Hawaii became a territory of the United States in 1898 (Osborne, 1981). The annexation of Hawaii was one among many moves undertaken by Americans at the turn of the 20th century as the nation sought to assert its power beyond its shores. Although the United States decried the actions of European nations as they took over significant parts of Africa and Asia, it engaged in its own form of imperialism, exercising its influence over foreign lands through diplomatic or military force.
Liliuokalani, who was born in Honolulu in 1838, grew up between the two worlds of traditional Hawaii and modernizing America. As was the custom, showing goodwill and reinforcing bonds between families, the advisor to the Hawaiian king and his wife adopted her. In Hawaiian and other Polynesian cultures, it was considered a show of great respect to practice hanai, the adoption of another’s child. Lydia, as she was known, attended missionary schools, where she studied the English language and American culture from an early age. As a youth she spent time at the court of King Kamehameha IV, where she was groomed to inherit the crown. Unlike hereditary monarchies, the Hawaiian leader could be chosen, and the nation’s legislature legitimized the leader’s rule.
As a young woman, Liliuokalani toured the Hawaiian Islands with her
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United States in 1898.American‐born husband, John Owen Dominis, meeting the men and women who would one day be her subjects. The couple also made several ventures abroad. In 1887 they traveled to London, where they joined in the celebration of Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee and were received as royalty. Showing the close association between Hawaii and the United States, Liliuokalani also visited Washington, D.C., where she and her husband met with President Grover Cleveland in the White House.
Once she became queen, Liliuokalani tried to use the traditional power of the Hawaiian monarch to implement a new constitution that would restore balance between native islanders and the newcomers. These efforts failed, and in the midst of an attempted counterrevolution, she was arrested and convicted of fostering armed rebellion. Initially sentenced to 5 years of hard labor, she eventually endured 1 year of house arrest. Her confinement paved the way for her opponents to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic that eventually supported U.S. annexation.
Liliuokalani spent her remaining years in Honolulu, working to preserve traditional Hawaiian culture, writing songs and establishing a special children’s trust. Reluctantly accepting the changes that annexation brought, she offered her people a positive role model as she graciously forgave her enemies and continued to celebrate Hawaii’s traditional past (Garraty & Carnes, 1999). She died in Honolulu in 1917.
For further thought: 1. Why might Americans have held conflicting views on expansion and imperialism? 2. How would you describe the American approach to imperialism?
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4.1 The New Imperialism The industrialization of the last quarter of the 19th century coincided with an era of expansion during which European nations and Japan extended and consolidated their empires. Known as the new imperialism, and lasting into the first decades of the 20th century, it was a time marked by the relentless pursuit of overseas territories. Established nations used new technologies to make their empires more valuable through territorial conquest and the exploitation of natural resources. Despite many Americans’ objections that imperialism was incompatible with the nation’s values, the United States also established an empire in this era by annexing Hawaii, establishing a permanent presence in Cuba, and taking control of the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
World Grab for Colonies Americans watched as one European nation after another expanded its empire. Portugal and Spain had amassed large empires as early as the 15th and 16th centuries, but by the mid‐19th century Great Britain was the dominant colonial power. The possessor of the world’s largest navy, Britain also had a long history of colonization, beginning with Ireland and America in the 16th century. After losing its 13 American colonies, Britain turned toward colonizing parts of Asia, particularly India, and in the late 19th century its empire expanded across the African continent as well. In what became known as the “scramble for Africa” other European nations—including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Portugal—joined the British in carving up the continent between 1881 and 1914 (see Figure 4.1).
Figure 4.1: Colonial claims, 1900
This map outlines the colonial claims in Africa and Asia in 1900. Africa and significant parts of Asia allowed European empires to grow. Some thought the Americans should also seek to claim new territory.
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The French also expanded into Southeast Asia, gaining control of nations such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The Russians pushed out from their existing borders to extend their influence in the Middle East and Far East. Even the Japanese, who had historically shied away from relations with the outside world, began to aggressively pursue the extension of their borders. Beginning by conquering nearby islands such as Okinawa and the Kurils, by 1894 Japan waged war against China for control of Korea and Taiwan.
The imperial thrust of European and Asian nations reflected patterns and rivalries established centuries before, such as the many historical conflicts between France and Great Britain. But there was a novel and urgent dimension to the new imperialism as well, including a turn toward modernity and especially industrialization. Economic growth and industrial production created dual demands for raw materials and new markets for manufactured goods and agricultural products. Capitalists invested surplus funds in developing nations and expected their business interests to be protected there in return. Technology and capital thus contributed to bigger and more effective navies, which in turn required colonial outposts to serve as fueling stations and bases of operation.
The period’s revival of evangelical religion also drove overseas expansion by Europeans and Americans. Missionaries often preceded imperial expansion. Seeking to spread Christianity and to bring education, medical care, and other important services to the people of Asia and Africa, missionary groups established schools such as the one Liliuokalani attended as a girl in Hawaii. Missionaries believed their own cultures and ways of life were superior, and most showed little interest or respect for the institutions and cultures of indigenous people.
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In some cases, such as in Hawaii, they criticized existing religions and cultural practices and encouraged Christian converts to abandon indigenous means of worship, dance, and even food preparation (Chaudhuri & Strobel, 1992).
Race, Gender, and the Ideology of Expansion The insensitivity of imperialists spread beyond a disregard for native peoples’ practices and cultures. Some viewed the darker skinned inhabitants of Asia and Africa as racially and intellectually inferior to Whites, arguing that colonizing less developed areas of the world was justified because the native inhabitants were weaker and unfit to survive. This inferiority supposedly made it acceptable to seize land and natural resources and to take political control without consultation. Ideologies like Social Darwinism (see Chapter 2), which played a role in exacerbating racial tensions in the United States during the late 19th century, were also linked to worldwide imperialist expansion.
In 1899 British author Rudyard Kipling penned “The White Man’s Burden,” a poem that reflected on European imperialism and offered an important message to Americans who were just then embarking on their own expansionist agenda:
Take up the White Man’s burden, Send forth the best ye breed
Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new‐caught, sullen peoples, Half‐devil and half‐child.
(Kipling, 1899, lns. 1‐8)
Originally penned for another occasion, upon the U.S. annexation of the Philippines, Kipling reworked the seven‐ stanza poem to align with current events. The poem suggests that providing noble service to the inhabitants of the developing world justified the desire for empire. Viewed as a benevolent enterprise, imperialism also made the domination of another nation’s economic and political structure seem necessary and helpful (Love, 2004).
Notions of race and Social Darwinism fueled the opponents of expansion, or anti‐imperialists, in the United States as well. Many argued that annexing foreign territories, thus adding large numbers of non‐Whites to the nation, would degrade the country’s Anglo‐Saxon heritage. In the late 19th century, the nation was already struggling to assimilate eastern and southern European immigrants arriving in waves to fill industrial jobs. Jim Crow laws restricted the rights of African Americans in the South, and customary segregation policies separated the races in other parts of the country. The anti‐imperialists believed that, rather than the nation lifting colonized people up, these non‐White masses would drag the nation down.
Other anti‐imperialists, such as those who formed the American Anti‐Imperialist League in 1899, decried the forcible subjugation of any nation or people as a violation of American democratic principles. Among league members were prominent Americans from politics, business, and the arts, including Grover Cleveland, Samuel Gompers, Andrew Carnegie, and Mark Twain (Manning & Wyatt, 2011). The organization formally protested American imperialistic ideology and actions, and it planned to oppose politically “all who in the White House or in Congress betray American liberty in pursuit of un‐American ends” (American Anti‐Imperialist League, 1899, p. 7). The league demanded that American politicians “support and defend the Declaration of Independence” (American Anti‐Imperialist League, 1899, p. 7), which it believed imperialism disgraced.
The complex ideologies surrounding American expansion also included an important gender component. Imperialists drew on gender and conceptions of American masculinity to build a strong political coalition that supported expansion. The idea that imperialism followed a manly course of action to increase American
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strength around the globe attracted men from disparate parts of society despite their economic, political, and regional divisions (Hoganson, 1998).
Many also associated anti‐imperialism with militarism and war, long the domain of men. The American Anti‐ Imperialist League, for example, welcomed membership, donations, and other forms of support from women but did not encourage their access to leadership positions. Strong male personalities dominated the ideology of both imperialism and its opposition. Chicago settlement house worker Jane Addams, for example, was the only woman associated with the Central Anti‐Imperialist League, one of three groups that combined to create the national league. Later, though, women did lead in gender integrated and all‐female peace and anti‐imperial organizations. More localized bodies—such as the Northampton, New Hampshire, league—even encouraged female officers on its executive committee (Cullinane, 2012).
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© Bettmann/Corbis
The Monroe Doctrine set the stage for America to act as protector of the Western Hemisphere. The doctrine encouraged European powers to look elsewhere for colonies.
4.2 The American Empire Manifest Destiny, the idea that the United States had a divine responsibility and right to spread democratic settlement, temporarily lost momentum once the American frontier filled in with American settlement. Between 1865 and roughly 1880, the United States took a largely isolationist, or uninvolved, approach toward the rest of the world. Most American citizens and policy makers focused inward as the nation industrialized and moved toward the development of modern institutions.
But in the late 19th century, as they watched their own frontier fade and European nations and Japan build ever‐growing empires, many Americans again clamored for U.S. expansion, with special emphasis on the Western Hemisphere. A new form of Manifest Destiny with an undefined frontier came to shape their views.
Business and the Monroe Doctrine Fluctuations in the American economy led many to rethink the nation’s isolationist position. Overproduction of manufactured goods and foodstuffs were blamed for the major economic downturn in 1873 and the depression of the 1890s. Exports formed a small but growing part of the economy, and U.S. businessmen wanted to expand into new overseas markets. Industrialists such as John D. Rockefeller, the head of Standard Oil, expected the government to support their expansionist agenda.
In the following decades business interests and government agents worked closely to reform U.S. foreign policy. Rockefeller later fondly remembered, “Our ambassadors and ministers and consuls have aided to push our way into new markets to the utmost corners of the world” (as cited in Chernow, 1998, p. 246). Their cooperative efforts began in the Western Hemisphere, where U.S. foreign policy was already well defined.
Since 1823, when President James Monroe first outlined it in his annual message to Congress, the Monroe Doctrine had dominated U.S. foreign policy. Simultaneously proclaiming a disinterest in European affairs and the leadership of the United States in the Americas, the doctrine warned European powers against future political interventions or colonization efforts in the Western Hemisphere (Johnson, 1990).
Advocates of the new imperialism in the United States began to demand that the nation take a more active role in its hemisphere. Their agenda included a buildup of the navy, the negotiation or annexation of bases in the Pacific and Caribbean, a canal through the Central American isthmus, and recognition of the United States as the supreme political and
economic power in the Western Hemisphere (Blake, 1960).
The Buildup to Expansion Shortly after the Civil War, in 1867 Secretary of State William H. Seward foreshadowed the importance of international trade and expansion when he negotiated the purchase of the Alaska territory from Russia for $7.2 million. At the time, Seward believed that American settlers in the Pacific Northwest faced competition from Russian explorers and traders. Purchase of the territory thus aimed to protect U.S. interests in the region. Opponents of the purchase noted Alaska’s isolation and distance from continental America and the lack of real competition from a weakened Russia, and they derided the purchase as “Seward’s Folly.” But Seward’s move reflected the imperialist principles that were just then beginning to take hold in Europe.
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The Museum of the City of New York/Art Resource, NY
The SS New York was one of many new American naval vessels. Here it is shown patrolling waters off the Cuban coast.
Exploring History through Film: Annexing Hawaii In the 19th century, American missionaries came to Hawaii to convert the native people, and were followed by investors who developed massive plantations across the islands. These groups pressured native people to adopt "American" customs, and later conspired to overthrow Queen Liliuokalani.
The Economics of Imperialism The involvement of U.S. economic interests in the Caribbean, Pacific, and Latin America grew stronger in the last decades of the 19th century, and America came to dominate the economic activities of a number of nations. As noted at the beginning of the chapter, American businessmen gained important economic and political interests in sugar production on the Hawaiian Islands. In 1887 the United States negotiated the location of a naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, one of many needed to make American influence felt across the region. In the early 1880s discussion surrounded a potential canal across Nicaragua or some other location in Central American, a project that would greatly facilitate America’s international trade and its naval operations.
Indeed, U.S. expansion in these regions depended heavily on the creation of a stronger naval force. Policing the Western Hemisphere and protecting it from European encroachment required significant investments in new technologies and ships. As the major European powers began their conquests of Asia, Africa, and other points far from their native lands, they experimented with steam power, armored ships, and rifled guns. Barely considering the need for a navy following the Civil War, the United States found itself woefully behind. Politicians and expansionists argued that a modern naval fleet was essential to keep America competitive in a rapidly changing world (Blake, 1960).
Gilded Age Diplomacy Naval officer Alfred T. Mahan strongly influenced advocates of a naval buildup and expansion. In his book, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890), Mahan argued that national success rested on both control of colonies and market participation. Claiming that a powerful navy was key to the United States protecting its merchant fleet, he advocated annexing bases in the Caribbean and Pacific. With established refueling or coaling stations, the U.S. Navy’s ability to defend the Western Hemisphere, and to wage war if necessary, would be greatly enhanced.
When the European expansion drive began, the U.S. Navy had fewer than 50 ships actively in commission. With the press of imperialism, Congress finally authorized the construction of a New Navy to consist of multiple small vessels and the first two battleships of the modern era, the USS Texas and the USS Maine. Following the publication of Mahan’s book, the Navy Act of 1890 provided for the construction of three additional warships.
Mahan’s book also influenced James G. Blaine, secretary of state during the Garfield (1881) and Harrison (1889–1893) administrations. Blaine urged Harrison to annex Hawaii, Cuba, and Puerto Rico because their locations were ideal for naval bases (Healy, 2001). In 1881 Blaine developed a diplomatic plan to defend the Monroe Doctrine and increase U.S. involvement in the Western Hemisphere.
U.S. policy makers viewed American involvement in Mexico, Central America, and South America as natural extensions of the Monroe Doctrine. Even those who opposed annexing new territory supported a strong and active presence in the Western
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Critical Thinking Questions How might American ideas of "civilization" and race have factored into the development of the American Empire? How is Hawaii an example of this form of thinking?
Hemisphere. Under Blaine’s leadership, the United States opposed allowing Europeans access to any future isthmus canal. The United States supported a potential confederation of Central American states and helped to negotiate a boundary dispute between Guatemala and Mexico. The United States even intervened diplomatically in a war waged in South America. Trade agreements reached with Brazil, Cuba, and several Central American states that produced sugar and other valuable agricultural commodities also helped cement U.S. relations and dominance in the region (Healy, 2001).
Hawaii and Pacific Dreams Blaine, Mahan, and other expansionists saw Hawaii as a stepping‐stone to markets in China, Japan, and Korea. Economic, political, and cultural connections between the United States and the Hawaiian Islands stretched back decades. After a naval base was established at Pearl Harbor in 1887, expansionists campaigned for annexation, but President Grover Cleveland rejected the notion—partly because he objected to the overthrow of Liliuokalani as illegal. These policies would change after expansionist forces triumphed in the election of 1896.
Annexing Hawaii From Title: America Becomes a World Power
© Films Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Length: 2:11
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José Martí, an accomplished poet, viewed the Cuban struggles against Spain as similar to the American Revolution.
4.3 The Spanish–American War The 1896 presidential election brought a new political alignment into play and saw the anti‐imperialists lose ground. William McKinley’s victory initiated a stronger central government that supported industrialization, protective tariffs, and territorial expansion. In 1898 this posture carried the United States to war with Spain. The conflict began as a humanitarian intervention to dissolve the brutal control of the Spanish in Cuba. It ended with the United States gaining political and economic control of Cuba, fighting a war in the Philippines, and acquiring territories in Guam and Puerto Rico. The Spanish–American War allowed America to flex its muscles in the Caribbean and the Pacific and to demonstrate its dominant role in the Western Hemisphere.
The Cuban Independence Struggle The problems with Spain began on the island of Cuba, which lies just 90 miles south of the Florida Keys. Cuba had been a territory of Spain since the 16th century. It was one of the last remnants of the once mighty Spanish empire in the New World, and the Cuban people had struggled for independence for many years. The United States supported a free Cuba in principle because it would eliminate the presence of a European power so close to its shores. During the 1890s alone the Cubans made three separate bids for independence, finally achieving success with the aid of their American neighbor.
José Martí (1853–1895), one of the Cuban revolutionaries, traveled to America to gather money, weapons, and troops to support Cuban independence. A noted author and journalist, Martí’s essays and poetry gained an international reputation, and he traveled widely throughout Europe, South America, and the United States to press the Cuban cause. Through his writings and his organization of an international Cuban revolutionary committee, Marti became one of the most visible spokesmen for freedom. He returned to Cuba in 1895 to continue the struggle for independence in his homeland.
The Cuban situation was made more difficult in 1894 when the Wilson– Gorman Tariff established a 40% duty on all Cuban sugar entering the United States, causing an immediate crisis in the Cuban economy and increasing Cubans’ resolve to win independence from Spain. Sugar had long been exempted from import duties, but the Panic of 1893 and continuing economic depression led to a decline in tax revenue. Removing sugar from the exempt list had been an effort to bolster government income, but it had the inadvertent result of sparking the uprising in Cuba.
One year later the revolution commenced under Martí’s leadership. Spain sent 100,000 soldiers to quell the insurgency. Many in the United States were outraged, and support for the Cuban cause gained strength (Perez,
1998). American investors in Cuba also clamored for support and protection of their investments. Martí became one of the first martyrs to the Cuban cause, as a Spanish bullet killed him in one of the war’s early skirmishes (Hoganson, 1998).
Public support for American involvement in the Cuban independence struggle was rooted in humanitarian and business concerns. In his first annual message to Congress in December 1897, McKinley detailed the inhumane treatment of the Cuban people by the Spanish military. Thousands of Cubans were “herded in and about the garrison towns, their lands laid waste and their dwellings destroyed” (McKinley, 1897, p. 6). Innocent villagers held in concentration camps faced unsanitary conditions and were provided with few provisions. As much as a quarter of the Cuban population died of disease or starvation (Miller, 1970).
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Business interests in the United States also encouraged aid for the Cubans. During a downturn in the Cuban economy in the 1880s, American investors had gained control of its vast sugar estates and sugar mills. Cuba grew economically dependent on the U.S. market, sending as much as 90% of its exports to America. Investors had a vested interest in the outcome of the Cuban conflict.
Yellow Journalism American newspapers spread the word about atrocities in Cuba. Competition between New York City newspaper publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer fed Americans’ outrage with what came to be known as yellow journalism. The papers printed sensational stories about Cuban atrocities in their bids to boost sales and circulation. Both Hearst and Pulitzer owned dozens of competing newspapers and benefited heavily from exposing the Cuban news.
The genre had several important characteristics, including large multicolumn headlines, diverse front‐page topics from politics to society, heavy use of photographs and charts to accompany the text, experimental page layouts and some attempts at color, reliance on anonymous sources, and self‐promotion for the newspapers. Most important were the reporters and their crusades against the corruption they saw in government and business (Campbell, 2001).
Hearst and Pulitzer perfected yellow journalism with their depictions of cruel Spaniards acting against the freedom‐seeking people of Cuba, helping spur American resolve for war (Gilderhus, 2000). Although some stories were completely fabricated, there was truth to some of the inflammatory stories—like Spanish military leaders forcing women, children, the old, and the sick into concentration camps, where they quickly died from disease and starvation.
The newspapers used salient quotes from public figures to enhance their position on the war. Theodore Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the navy and a strong advocate of the coming war, was quoted saying, “It was a dreadful thing for us to sit supinely and watch her death agony. It was our duty, even more from the standpoint of National interest, to stop the devastation and destruction” (as cited in Cirillo, 2004, p. 6).
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Exploring History through Film: The Rough Riders
After the U.S. declared war against Spain, Theodore Roosevelt helped raise a volunteer regiment for the war. The unit, officially the U.S. 1st Volunteer Calvary, was colloquially known as the "Rough Riders."
The “Splendid Little War” McKinley dispatched the USS Maine, one of the navy’s battleships, to Cuba to reinforce the rebels’ cause and also to show support for American interests on the island. On February 15, 1898, while anchored in Havana Harbor, the Maine suffered a devastating explosion in which 266 of its 354‐member crew died. Americans immediately blamed Spain for the apparent attack. In the U.S. press, the headline “Remember the Maine!” screamed for military retaliation and spurred support for the war. McKinley attempted a diplomatic resolution, but it quickly failed, and on April 11 he sought congressional authorization to go to war with Spain and establish an independent, stable government in Cuba.
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The Rough Riders From Title: The SpanishAmerican War: A Conflict in Progre...
© Films Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Length: 1:29
Critical Thinking Questions How did the members of the Rough Riders reinforce ideas about the American West? How did they reinforce stereotypical character traits associated with men?
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Theodore Roosevelt, center, and his Rough Riders captured San Juan Hill from the
Seven days later the United States announced that it regarded Cuba as a free nation, and Congress gave McKinley the power to remove the Spanish from the island. However, Congress appended its joint resolution supporting war with the Teller Amendment, which assured the Cuban revolutionaries that America would support their independence and did not intend to colonize the island. Crucially, the amendment made no mention of Spain’s other colonial possessions. On April 22, 1898, Spain issued its own declaration of war against the United States. The Spanish– American War had commenced.
The U.S. Army controlled fighting in Cuba. Though it was a strong fighting force, some referred to the preparation for war as a “comic opera” (Gilderhus, 2000, p. 20). For example, many of the soldiers sent to the hot Cuban climate were outfitted with gear suited for the cold and snow. Rations were poor and medical services inadequate. Many soldiers became seriously ill or died as the result of tainted meat and other rations. Because the army failed to change rations to meet the tropical conditions of Cuba and lacked refrigeration, much food spoiled. In other cases rations were of poor quality and led to much complaint. Despite these obstacles, the United States dominated.
Theodore Roosevelt left his position as assistant secretary of the navy to serve as second in command of the First Volunteer Cavalry, known as the Rough Riders. Roosevelt believed that the western fighters and cowboys that filled the unit’s ranks were the best type of men to take into battle, and there was no doubt that he sought the most intense action for himself. In his account of the war, Roosevelt said, “I had determined that, if a war came, somehow or other, I was going to the front” (Roosevelt, 1899, p. 5).
He got his wish when his storming of the Spanish troops at San Juan and Kettle Hills became one of the war’s turning points. In August 1898 Spain surrendered, and Roosevelt’s actions made the front pages of newspapers in the United States. Overnight, he became the war’s hero and among the most famous men in America.
Secretary of State John Hay called the conflict “a splendid little war” (as cited in Thayer, 1915, p. 337) because it removed Spanish presence from the Western Hemisphere and marked the emergence of the United States as a power on the world stage. Beyond the struggle in Cuba, Hay, Roosevelt, and other expansionists saw the conflict as an opportunity to gain a foothold outside the Western Hemisphere. As a result, fighting quickly spread to other areas of the globe where Spain claimed colonial possessions. A few days into the conflict, the U.S.
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Spanish in what would be a turning point of the war.
Courtesy Everett Collection
This photograph shows Buffalo Soldiers ready for action in the Spanish– American War. Along with Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, they helped secure an important American victory at San Juan Hill.
Navy’s Pacific Fleet, commanded by Commodore George Dewey, destroyed the Spanish Pacific Squadron off the coast of the Philippines. Like Roosevelt, Dewey quickly became a
national hero.
The Hawaiian Islands, annexed to the United States by the McKinley administration just a few months before, played a vital role in the attacks on the Philippines, providing the United States an important outpost in the Pacific for resupply and fueling. Control of the Philippines, in turn, gave America better access to China and its vast markets.
American Experience: Buffalo Soldiers and the Battle of San Juan Hill
One of the most decisive actions of the Spanish–American War, the Battle of San Juan Hill, occurred July 1, 1898 on the San Juan Heights east of Santiago, Cuba. The U.S. Fifth Army Corps was charged with overtaking the Spanish troops’ fortified position. Charging into the face of incoming fire, many fell before the ranks split. The Rough Riders charged Kettle Hill, bravely making it to the top of the hill first. Other troops took San Juan Hill soon after.
The American press published sensational reports and widely credited the Rough Riders under the command of Theodore Roosevelt for the victory. The future president quickly became a national hero. Press reports at the time also assigned recognition to members of other U.S. units that fought alongside the Rough Riders, but their service has slipped from the nation’s collective memory. Soldiers from the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments belonged to units of African American troops known as Buffalo Soldiers, who fought bravely alongside their White counterparts in Cuba.
During the fighting at San Juan Hill and nearby Kettle Hill, Buffalo Soldiers intermixed with Rough Riders to make the famous but uncoordinated charge. American casualties were greater than those of the Spanish, but at the end of the day, the U.S. forces gained the position. Immediately after the war Roosevelt told an African American journalist that he could wish for “no better men beside me in battle than these colored troops showed themselves to be” (as cited in Nalty, 1986, p. 77). He later remarked, “no one can tell whether it was the Rough Riders or the men of the 9th who came forward with the greater courage to offer their lives in service of their country” (as cited in Buckley, 2001, p. 152).
Despite Roosevelt’s early praise, it was a very difficult war for African Americans, who not only had to endure challenging battlefield conditions but also faced intense racial hatred from their White commanding officers. Even Roosevelt later changed his story to say that the African Americans only demonstrated bravery because White officers led them. He wrote an article for Scribner’s Monthly in 1899 in which he said that the only way he could convince some of the African American troops to fight was through coercion with his pistol (Astor, 2001). It was another example of the hope and despair that
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African Americans faced—hope in fighting valiantly for their country and despair at returning to racism once home.
Although African Americans fought in every American war, they were not enlisted in the regular army until after the Civil War. Congress then created four units that came to be known as the Buffalo Soldiers. The troops were dispatched to the Great Plains and the Southwest, where they kept peace among the Native Americans and American settlers. Buffalo Soldiers also acted as the nation’s first park rangers at Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Their units were segregated and in almost all cases governed by White officers. In the humid Cuban summer, the soldiers dealt with intense heat, rain, and an outbreak of yellow fever. Some soldiers from the 24th Infantry acted as nurses tending to ill soldiers, but the others saw combat action (Sutherland, 2004).
African American soldiers continued to serve the U.S. military proudly, but their units remained segregated and their opportunities for promotion remained limited. African American troops finally gained equal footing in the military after President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order in 1948, banning segregation in the military.
For further reading, see:
Johnson, E. A. (1970). History of Negro soldiers in the Spanish–American War. New York: Johnson Reprint. (Original work published 1899)
Leckie, W. H. (1967). The Buffalo Soldiers: A narrative of the Negro cavalry in the West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Schubert, F. N. (2009). Black valor: Buffalo Soldiers and the Medal of Honor, 1870–1898. New York: Roman & Littlefield.
America’s Instant Empire As a result of the Spanish–American War, Cuba gained independence and the United States eliminated Spain’s influence in the Western Hemisphere. The United States also expanded its empire. Under the terms of the December 1898 Treaty of Paris, America annexed Puerto Rico and Guam and, in a clause that the Spanish initially regarded with shock, claimed the Philippines. Spain reluctantly accepted the terms—and $20 million in compensation.
This instant empire was met with a great deal of opposition in the United States. Opponents decried Philippine annexation for reasons as varied as the economic costs, Republican ideals about liberty, and racist fears of social and cultural amalgamation. Although public response to the victory over Spain and the new American empire was not universally negative, it did “inaugurate two decades of public debate in the United States about the proper relationship between liberty and power” (Anderson & Cayton, 2005, p. 339).
American forces remained in Cuba until 1902, where they attempted to build an infrastructure of roads and educational and medical facilities. With the Platt Amendment, named for Republican senator Orville Platt from Connecticut, the United States also attempted to force its economic will on the Cubans. The measure prevented Cuba from signing treaties with other nations, restricted its national debt, and formally gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuba to preserve its independence. It also forced Cuba to lease the land at Guantánamo Bay to the United States for use as a naval base. Grateful for help in overthrowing Spanish rule, and under immense pressure from the Americans, the Cubans reluctantly agreed to these terms (Suri, 2010).
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© Bettmann/Corbis
Elihu Root, appointed secretary of war by President William McKinley, reformed the American military using his knowledge of corporate organization.
Guerilla War in the Philippines McKinley quickly overcame any ambivalence over acquiring the Philippines, which he later described as “being dropped in our laps” (as cited in Shirmer & Shalom, 1987, p. 22). In his mind there was no alternative to annexation. He believed returning the islands to Spain would be “cowardly and dishonorable” (as cited in Shirmer & Shalom, 1987, p. 22), but at the same time he argued the Filipinos were not ready for independence. He argued that annexation was necessary to bring Filipinos into the fold of Christianity and civilization, but he neglected to note that many residents of the islands were already Christians and that many were members of the Roman Catholic Church. Left without protection, he worried that America’s imperial rivals, namely France or Germany, would intervene and claim the country. McKinley’s assumption that Filipinos were not Christian reflected imperialistic ideology that “natives” must be brought into the modern era through colonization.
McKinley and other advocates of expansion also saw China as the next trading frontier, and the location of the Philippines positioned the United States well to enter Asian markets. McKinley rarely spoke so openly about U.S. motives, however. Instead, he publicly proclaimed it was America’s duty to “uplift and civilize and Christianize” (as cited in Rusling, 1903, p. 17) the Filipinos.
The expansion of the American empire into the Philippines came at a heavy cost. American imperialists, eager for a foothold near the Asian continent, soon found the Filipino people unhappy with the results of the Spanish–American War. Even before it started, they had been fighting for their own independence against the Spanish, and many fought alongside Americans; when the Treaty of Paris gave Americans control of their island nation, their hatred readily transferred.
In their attempt to push the Americans from their shores, the Filipinos initially waged a guerilla war, using raids, ambushes, and mobile tactics to simultaneously fight and elude the stronger U.S. military force. In their efforts to end the resistance and avoid high casualties, American troops engaged in ruthless warfare. American brutality in the Philippine– American War compared to Spanish treatment of the Cubans, sparking cries of hypocrisy among anti‐imperialists. American soldiers even used a form of water torture known as water cure, in which individuals were forced to ingest large quantities of water in a short period of time. African American soldiers among the U.S. forces were particularly conflicted about the mistreatment of Filipinos because many identified with the plight of these dark‐skinned people who fought so hard for their freedom. The African American press railed against African American soldiers fighting other people of color. The Kansas City American Citizen urged against imperialism, calling it a “blight on the manhood of the darker races” (as cited in Mitchell, 2004, p. 64).
Anti‐imperialists hoped for a public outcry, but they were disappointed. Despite some prominent voices among the opposition, most Americans strongly favored annexing the Philippines. Prospects for trade easily overcame fears of the burden of maintaining and incorporating an empire. The war for control of the Asian nation lasted until 1902 and resulted in the deaths of 4,325 U.S. soldiers. The losses of the Filipino people were dramatic. They suffered the deaths of 16,000 soldiers in battle and as many as 200,000 civilians due to disease and violence (Tucker, 2009).
For the American military leaders, one thing became clear from these interventions: The United States needed to improve its military. McKinley gave this job to Elihu Root, who, as a well‐known corporate lawyer and trust regulator, had an unusual background for this position. But Root brought his skills in reforming organizations to the military (Rossini, 1995). By 1903 Root had increased the size of the military fourfold, established the
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National Guard as a reserve force, and created the Joint Chiefs of Staff to advise the president. This staff arrangement was better suited to coordinate efforts among the several branches of the military, all of which now reported to the Secretary of War (today’s Secretary of Defense).
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4.4 On the World Stage The United States emerged from the brief war with Spain with an enhanced reputation on the world stage. The nation stood alongside imperial Europe in possession of an empire, albeit a small one, that stretched around the globe. As the new century approached, attention turned to expanding trade and managing the empire.
The McKinley Assassination The presidential election of 1900 pitted incumbent William McKinley against Democrat William Jennings Bryan in a rematch of the previous contest. The Republican convention chose New York governor Theodore Roosevelt, the larger‐than‐life hero from the Spanish–American War, as McKinley’s running mate. Roosevelt’s popularity had catapulted him into the New York governor’s office, and McKinley’s advisors found placing him on the ticket preferable to worrying if he would make a run for the presidential nomination himself.
Bryan made anti‐imperialism the focus of his campaign, but the issue failed to gain him much traction because most Americans supported Philippine annexation. Economic prosperity and the new American empire made the contest an easy win for McKinley and Roosevelt, whose campaign posters advertised the humanitarian nature of territorial expansion.
The American presidency was forever transformed on September 6, 1901, when an anarchist’s bullet struck McKinley. As the president greeted visitors at the Pan American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York, Leon Czolgosz stood waiting in the receiving line, extending a hand wrapped in a bandage. Beneath the cloth was a pistol, which he discharged twice at very close range into McKinley’s stomach and chest.
In the mayhem that ensued, McKinley staggered and fell while the Secret Service apprehended Czolgosz. McKinley weakly shouted, “Be easy with him, boys,” and Czolgosz responded, “I done my duty” (as cited in Rauchway, 2007, p. 3). Six days later, McKinley died. Czolgosz, an anarchist sympathizer, believed that capitalism was a flawed economic system because it bestowed great wealth on a few and left the multitudes in poverty. By attacking the president, he believed he was attacking the heart of the political structure that controlled American capitalism (Rauchway, 2004).
After McKinley’s death, Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency. Roosevelt fundamentally transformed the nature of the office and the direction of the nation, especially its domestic policies (see Chapter 5). Holding office from 1901 until 1909, his influence on foreign policy defined the path for the United States to emerge as a world power in succeeding years.
Writing to New York politician Henry L. Sprague in 1900, Roosevelt used the phrase that would come to characterize his brand of American diplomacy: “Speak softly and carry a big stick” (as cited in Morgan, 1919, p. 216). The implication was that although the United States promised peaceful negotiation to settle disputes, it was always willing to use force if necessary. The bold policies and actions his phrase suggests affected Latin America, eastern Asia, and Europe and resulted in an important revision to the long‐standing Monroe Doctrine.
Managing the Empire and Defining Manhood As president, Roosevelt embarked on an activist foreign policy. He also led the effort to determine the place of America’s new colonial subjects, whom he believed to be racially and culturally inferior to White Americans, in U.S. society.
Roosevelt went even further by linking American nationalism and imperialism to ideas of racial dominance and the definition of manhood. Asserting control over the Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, and other non‐Whites, according to Roosevelt’s thinking, allowed American men to establish their superior manhood (Bederman, 2008). These conceptions fell in line with the thinking of Social Darwinists, who saw in America’s imperial thrust evidence of
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the nation’s superiority. These conceptions influenced the management of America’s new possessions (see Figure 4.2).
Figure 4.2: The American empire, 1903
American imperialism resulted in the annexation of several territories throughout the Pacific. Control over these territories helped bolster American influence in the region.
Because the U.S. political system had no provisions for governing permanent colonies, each of the territories was considered separately. Hawaii became a territory in the standard tradition of U.S. western expansion. Already home to many American missionaries and businesspeople, most of its population was eventually granted citizenship (it became a state in 1959).
Congressional debate over Puerto Rico and the Philippines brought general agreement that neither was capable of self‐government because their populations were largely non‐White (Basson, 2008). The United States maintained control in the Philippines until 1946 and administered Guam until 1950, when it was extended limited self‐government. It remains an unincorporated territory of the United States. Puerto Rico remains a territory of the United States, and its residents now enjoy citizenship rights but may not vote in presidential elections because it is not a state.
A Global Power At the turn of the 20th century, the United States was quickly moving toward becoming the world’s dominant industrial producer. Abundant deposits of natural minerals, including coal and iron ore, and natural resources such as timber meant the nation’s industrial capacity could steadily increase, leading the United States to seek out foreign markets for its mass‐produced products. The nation’s foreign policy shifted to focus on expanding trade networks in the Western Hemisphere, especially Latin America, and also in the Far East (Marks, 1979).
Taking the Panama Canal American dominance in the Western Hemisphere and its strong desire for expanded trade networks reignited calls for a canal to cross the isthmus of Central America. A canal would allow ships to cross easily from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, instead of unloading their cargo to be carried by rail or sailing completely around
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Associated Press
President Theodore Roosevelt, standing on the train, greets American troops while inspecting construction on the Panama Canal.
South America. Early efforts supported construction across Nicaragua, but when engineers rejected the Nicaraguan route in favor of a shorter Panama path begun by the French in the 1880s, Panama became the central focus of Roosevelt’s efforts.
There were a number of obstacles blocking the way to the construction of the canal. The United States was obligated under an 1850 treaty with Great Britain to jointly pursue the construction of a Central American canal. In 1901 Britain resolved this issue by nullifying the treaty under the condition that all nations would be able to access the canal. A more difficult problem was that Panama was not independent, but a province under the control of Colombia.
When Colombia rejected U.S. offers to purchase the necessary rights, Roosevelt encouraged a rebellion in favor of Panamanian independence, insinuating that the United States would support the rebels. The American warship USS Nashville anchored in the region in support of Panama’s declaration of independence on November 3, 1903, making it clear to the Colombians that the force of the U.S. Navy stood behind the rebellion.
Later the same month, the United States acquired the rights owned by the French to construct the canal and maintain control over a 10‐mile‐wide Canal Zone. The Panamanians objected, but Roosevelt prevailed, proclaiming that he “took the canal” (as cited in Bishop, 1920, p. 308). After further negotiations, the United States agreed to pay Panama $10 million, and then $250,000 each year for continued use of the zone. The agreement persisted until 1977, when Panama gained full control. The canal was the largest engineering project in American history and cost more than $375 million, at least $8.6 billion in today’s dollars. Construction was completed in 1914, and Roosevelt considered the Panama Canal one of his greatest achievements as president.
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The Open Door The annexation of Hawaii in 1898 and the Philippines in 1899 placed the United States in a position to access trade with Asia, and especially China. War between Japan and China in 1895 demonstrated China’s weakness, and many Americans feared Japan would affect a takeover before the United States was able to secure a trade agreement. Several European nations—including Great Britain, France, Germany, and Russia—had already established agreements granting their nations special trading relationships in various Chinese ports and regions.
A growing number of Americans believed the United States should pursue a similar strategy, although anti‐ imperialists cautioned against exploiting the weakened and crumbling Manchu dynasty in China. The relationship between the two nations was cloaked in distrust and suspicion. Most Americans viewed the Chinese as mysterious and racially inferior, a stereotype reflected in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Although some Chinese admired American business sense, it is not surprising that U.S. attitudes sparked bitterness and contempt.
Secretary of State John Hay sought a policy that would overcome these attitudes and allow for a vigorous trade relationship. Known as the Open Door, the policy guided U.S.–east Asian interactions for the following 50 years.
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Issued as a series of notes to major European nations in 1899 and 1900, Hay first demanded that China’s markets be open to U.S. as well as European trade. In a second note, he declared the United States would join other nations in a protective role to preserve China’s administrative autonomy, moving clearly outside the boundaries of the Monroe Doctrine. In July 1900 Hay announced that Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, and Japan would all respect this Open Door policy in principle, although none of the nations had explicitly agreed to do so.
A challenge to the Open Door came just a month later, when a conservative Chinese society rebelled against both the ruling Manchu dynasty and the growing influence of Westerners in the country (Hodge & Nolan, 2007). During the Boxer Rebellion, activists killed more than 200 foreigners and missionaries and seized a segment of Peking (known today as Beijing).
Standing true to the new policy, an international force, including 2,500 or more U.S. troops, stopped the rebellion and restored order (Silbey, 2012). U.S.–China trade remained meager, never developing into a major outlet for American mass‐produced goods, but the Open Door remained in place and guided the relationship between the two nations through the first half of the 20th century.
The Roosevelt Corollary Actions within and outside the Western Hemisphere in the age of imperialism prompted an evolution of U.S. foreign policy. At the era’s beginning the Monroe Doctrine guided the nation away from conflicts involving European nations and focused U.S. diplomatic actions on the Western Hemisphere. In his annual message to Congress in 1904, Roosevelt enunciated a new policy, which modified and expanded the role of the United States on the world stage. Known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, it shifted national foreign policy from an isolationist to an activist principle. Under this policy the United States would carry its “big stick” to act as the police force of the Western Hemisphere.
By the time Roosevelt ran for election in his own right in 1904, the United States was well established as an important presence on the world stage. Possessing great agricultural and industrial might, America’s status continued to grow after the conclusion of the Spanish–American War and its annexation of new territories. U.S. significance and authority demanded a matching foreign policy. The Roosevelt Corollary repudiated tolerance for European intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean and would continue to shape international relations through much of the 20th century (Hodge, 2008).
For Roosevelt and supporters of an expanded U.S. role on the world stage, the corollary represented a natural progression of policy. One early assertion of its principles came when the British and Germans enacted a naval blockade of Venezuela in an attempt to force repayment of European bank loans. Roosevelt intervened to secure their withdrawal. The policy also justified U.S. intervention in the region’s domestic politics. In 1906 Roosevelt sent forces to oversee a disputed election in Cuba, but fearing potential instability, the troops remained on the island until 1909.
Roosevelt’s reputation as an expansionist and his contribution to changing the shape of foreign policy also gave him the ability to intervene in international disputes beyond America’s backyard. In 1906 he became the first U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating an end to the Russo–Japanese War. This first major international conflict of the 20th century erupted in 1904 from rival claims of both nations to areas of China and Korea. Roosevelt invited the Russians and Japanese to negotiations at a New Hampshire naval base and eventually became the chief arbitrator fashioning a lasting agreement. By the end of his presidency, the United States was a respected member of the growing global community.
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Summary and Resources
Chapter Summary The late 19th century witnessed global change as European powers and Japan scrambled to annex and colonize overseas territories as far away as Africa and Asia. Technological developments in communications and transportation as well as industrial expansion fostered this new imperialism. European nations sought both natural resources and new markets for their industrial goods. The United States was slow to embrace imperialism, with many encouraging an inward or isolationist focus to national affairs. Others clamored for U.S. expansion, urging the nation to catch up with the fast‐growing empires of its competitors. U.S. imperialism focused on the Western Hemisphere and particularly on Latin America. Once philosophies shifted to support expansion, the nation moved to annex Hawaii and fought a war with Spain over Cuba. Sensational or “yellow” journalism made Americans sympathetic toward the plight of Cubans under Spanish rule and supported their independence movement. The short Spanish–American War grew America’s empire with the annexation of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam, the first of which opened the door to trade with China by giving the United States a foothold in the Pacific. By the turn of the 20th century, the United States possessed its own empire and shaped a new foreign policy that expanded its trade networks and made it a global economic and political power.
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Critical Thinking Questions 1. Why did the United States largely abandon its isolationist foreign policy in the 1890s? 2. Was the Monroe Doctrine a cover for American imperialism in the Western Hemisphere? 3. Did yellow journalism as practiced by the press cause the Spanish–American War? 4. Why did many argue that U.S. security depended on Latin America? 5. Why did some Americans oppose territorial expansion?
Additional Resources The White Man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kipling.asp (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kipling.asp)
Modified to apply to the U.S. conflict in the Philippines, this poem has been variously interpreted as supporting and also mocking American expansion.
The Platt Amendment
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http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=55 (http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php? flash=true&doc=55)
This amendment to the Cuban constitution defined the terms of relations between the United States and Cuba, allowing the United States the ability to intervene as necessary.
The Roosevelt Corollary
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=56 (http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php? flash=true&doc=56)
This alteration to the Monroe Doctrine defined the activist protection of the Western Hemisphere by the United States.
Report of the Surgeon General of the Army on the Spanish–American War
http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/spanam/ARSG1898/index.htm (http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/spanam/ARSG1898/index.htm)
This government report details the significant number of casualties related to disease during the Spanish– American War.
Key Terms
American Anti‐Imperialist League This organization formed in 1898 to oppose the U.S. annexation of the Philippines. It argued that imperialism denigrated the principles of democracy and republican government. Among its more famous members were President Grover Cleveland, Andrew Carnegie, and Jane Addams.
anti‐imperialists Those who opposed imperialism and colonial expansion.
Boxer Rebellion A movement of the Chinese to push Western and Christian influences from China’s government. Europeans and Americans constituted a military force that ended the revolt and allowed trade to continue.
Buffalo Soldiers Four units of African American regular army units first raised in 1866. Initially stationed in the Great Plains and the Southwest, where they mediated between settlers and Native Americans, several thousand were dispatched to Cuba and the Philippines during the Spanish–American War. There they fought bravely alongside White soldiers, including at the Battle of San Juan Hill.
imperialism A foreign policy extending a nation’s territory by gaining control of other countries or territories, including economic and political control.
isolationist Being uninvolved with the rest of the world; prior to the imperial age, the United States generally looked toward domestic expansion and considered its interests isolated to continental interests or perhaps limited involvement in the Western Hemisphere.
Manifest Destiny An American ideology prominent in the mid‐19th century suggesting that the United States was divinely determined to expand democratic settlement across the North American continent.
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Monroe Doctrine Outlined by President James Monroe in 1823, this doctrine dominated U.S. foreign policy for more than a century. The doctrine warned European powers against involvement in the Western Hemisphere and professed the United States would view any attempt to intervene politically in the region as an act of hostility.
new imperialism A period of colonial expansion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in which European nations, Japan, and the United States pursued overseas territorial expansion.
New Navy A new fleet of naval ships, including multiple small vessels and two battleships, authorized by the U.S. Congress to support expansionist ambitions.
Open Door A foreign policy of the United States that urged equal trading arrangements and access to Chinese markets by multiple nations. Under the guise of protecting Chinese sovereignty, the policy really aimed to negotiate the access of competing colonial powers in China.
Platt Amendment Passed by the U.S. Congress and incorporated in a formal treaty between the United States and Cuba, this amendment set conditions for U.S. intervention in Cuban affairs. It stated that the United States could intervene to protect Cuban independence and also granted the United States land for naval bases and coaling stations in Cuba.
Roosevelt Corollary Announced in his annual message to Congress in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt modified the Monroe Doctrine by declaring the Western Hemisphere off limits to the intervention and interests of Europeans.
Rough Riders This nickname was given to the First Volunteer Cavalry unit led by then assistant secretary of the navy Theodore Roosevelt. The unit gained fame during the Spanish–American War for a well‐publicized victory at the Battle of San Juan Hill.
Teller Amendment This joint resolution of Congress enacted on April 20, 1898, qualified President William McKinley’s war message, declaring the United States had no intention of annexing Cuba and would leave Cubans in control of their own governance.
Treaty of Paris This 1898 agreement ended the Spanish–American War. Spain ceded its territories of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the United States and abandoned its claim to Cuba.
USS Maine The second commissioned U.S. battleship of the modern naval era. Its explosion in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, sparked the onset of war with Spain; however, it later became clear that the sinking was accidental.
Wilson–Gorman Tariff A revenue act passed in 1894, this act slightly reduced the tax on some imports but raised the duty on Cuban sugar imports. It led to a crisis in the Cuban economy and increased support for Cuban independence from Spain.
yellow journalism
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Also known as the yellow press, it is a type of journalism that relies on sensational headlines, stories, and lurid images. The name originated from the Yellow Kid, a popular comic strip character who wore a bright yellow costume.
