Chapter 20: The United States Looks Overseas

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Chapter 20The United States Looks Overseas

• Objectives
• Describe early attempts by the U.S. to expand in
  the Pacific.
• Identify reasons that the U.S. declared war on
  Spain.
• Explain why and how the U.S. built the Panama
  canal.

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Opening Japan to Trade

• For 250 years, Japan blocked outside trade
• 1853 Commodore Matthew Perry sails into Tokyo
  Bay and presented a letter from POTUS
• Japan did not have the military to combat Perrys
  warships
• Japan agreed to open trade with U.S. soon all
  European nations settled treaties with Japan
• The Japanese transformed their society within 50
  years into a modern, Western nation

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Sewards Icebox

• Secretary of State William H. Seward argued that
  the nation's strategic interests favored the
  treaty.
• Russia was open to the sale of the territory
  because it needed the money to fund its war with
  the British.
• The negotiations concluded at 4 o'clock in the
  morning of March 30, 1867 with the purchase price
  set at 7,200,000 (about 1.9 per acre).

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Reaction to Purchase of Alaska

• Americans saw the purchase as a folly
• Discovery of gold led to many settlers
• Once there, they discovered the many natural
  resources of Alaska
• Timber
• Oil
• Furs
• Minerals

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The Expansionist Mood

• Isolationism avoiding involvement in the
  affairs of other countries
• Imperialism building empires by imposing
  political and economic control over people around
  the world.
• Prior to the 1850s the United States had been
  strictly isolationist, but feared that it would
  be militarily vulnerable if it allowed European
  nations to continue to colonize the Western
  Hemisphere.

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The Turner Thesis

• Basically this theory states that the only reason
  the U.S. started to build the empire was because
  it had Manifested its Destiny.
• Other theories for imperialism in the U.S.
  included a sense of moral obligation to
  civilize the savages of the under developed
  world and the race for economic influence abroad.

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Reasons for an American Empire

• Economic U.S. produced more than it could buy
  new colonies could be markets for American goods
  to new peoples
• Military Europe was carving up Asia and Africa
  U.S. shut out of military bases
• Alfred Thayer Mahan Naval captain and author
  who argued that the U.S. needed to expand its
  navy to become a world power
• Cultural spread of American and Christian
  values (The White Mans Burden)

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The White Mans Burden by Rudyard Kipling

• 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

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Samoa

• Important re-fueling station between U.S. and
  Australia
• Britain and Germany also wanted the islands
• All three nations send warships to area, but
  typhoon struck disabling most of the fleets
• 1899 U.S. and Germany divide Samoan islands
• Samoa becomes U.S. protectorate

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Annexing Hawaii

• In 1893, Queen Liliuokalani announced plans to
  establish a new constitution that would restore
  much of the power back to the monarchy and reduce
  the influence of outside business owners.
• On January 14, 1893, a group of American and
  Europeans formed a Committee of Safety in
  opposition to the Queen, and seized control of
  government.
• United States Government Minister John L.
  Stevens, responding to a request from the
  Committee of Safety expressing concern about
  possible violence directed against American
  citizens, summoned a company of uniformed U.S.
  Marines to come ashore to enforce neutrality.
• President Grover Cleveland established an
  exploratory commission to research the legality
  of backing a nongovernmental entity with federal
  troops. They concluded that the overthrow of
  Liliuokalani was illegal. The U.S. Government
  first demanded that Queen Liliuokalani be
  reinstated, but the Provisional Government
  refused.

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Annexing Hawaii

• When William McKinley became president, this
  issue resurfaced.
• In June of 1897, McKinley agreed to a treaty of
  annexation with these representatives of the
  Republic of Hawaii.
• On July 7, 1898, by a vote of 42 to 21, the
  Senate agreed to the annexing Hawaii as a U.S.
  territory.
• Though several attempts were made to achieve
  statehood, Hawaii remained a territory for 60
  years.
• Plantation owners found territorial status
  convenient, enabling them to continue importing
  cheap foreign labor.
• Finally, in March 1959, both houses of Congress
  passed the Hawaii Admission Act and U.S.
  President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed it into
  law.

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An American Empire?

• Ultimately Spain freed Cuba and granted Puerto
  Rico, the Philippines, Guam and Wake Island to
  the United States. In return, the United States
  paid Spain 20 million.
• In 1902 the United States forced the Cubans to
  adopt the Platt Amendment
• Basically stated that the U.S. could have a Naval
  base in Cuba and limited its the trade and
  barrowing abilities.
• The Foraker Act of 1900 set up a limited
  self-rule system in Puerto Rico. The U.S. would
  still oversee much of its affairs, but they could
  make state level decisions independently.
• Because fighting never really stopped in the
  Philippines, the United States did not make any
  such concessions with them. The islands remained
  heavily occupied by American troops until 1946.

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Carving Up China

• China lost Opium War to British
• European powers take advantage of Chinas
  weakness by dividing it into spheres of influence
• Regions in China could only trade with one
  country
• Extraterritorial rights within each sphere

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Open Door Policy

• U.S. excluded from Chinese trade
• Secretary of State John Hay issued message to
  China in other powers in 1899
• Called on them to keep an open door in China
• Guarentee the rights of all nations to trade
• Though many nations agreed in principal, Hay
  announced the Policy as done deal

John Hay
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Boxer Rebellion

• Boxers were anti-foreigner secret society in
  China (Righteous and Harmonious Fists)
• In 1900, Boxers began revolt to expel all
  foreigners in China
• Attacked and killed Chinese Christians and
  westerners
• Burned Christian churches and homes of foreigners
• Took diplomats hostage in Beijing
• U.S. and other powers send 18,000 troops
• Freed diplomats and crushed rebellion
• Looted capital and killed thousands of Chinese
• Forced China to pay reparations

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Revolt in Cuba

• Cuba had been Spanish colony since days of
  Columbus
• Cuba revolted several times, unsuccessfully
• 1895 Cubans revolt again
• Spanish commader Valeriano Weyler begins policy
  of reconcentration
• Cubans were placed in concentration camps
• Many died of starvation and disease
• U.S. press revealed harsh conditions to public
• U.S. Cubans led by Jose Marti
• Urged United States to get involved in conflict

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Revolt in Panama

• In 1903, French canal builders agreed to sell
  their stake in the bankrupt Panama venture to the
  United States for 40 million.
• Colombia, because of its sovereignty over Panama,
  expected part of the payment, but felt the price
  was too low.
• Unwilling to have the sale jeopardized and
  recognizing Panamas desire for independence, the
  United States quietly encouraged Panama to rebel.
  
• The ensuing three-day-long revolution, under the
  watchful eye of two U.S. gunboats, created the
  Republic of Panama.
• A few days later, the United States and Panama
  signed a treaty to build the canal.

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Fighting Disease

• As a result of the large number of deaths in the
  Spanish-American war that were due to Malaria,
  the American government sponsored the large scale
  spreading of pesticides around the canal zone.
• The process used most often was developed by
  William Gorgas, an American tropical disease
  expert.
• By spraying a thin film of oil on the waters
  surface, they smothered any mosquito larvae that
  might be living there.

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The Gatun Locks
North
Gatun Lake
Limon Bay
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The Pedro Miguel Lock
North
Gatun Lake
Miraflores Lake
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Roosevelt Corollary

• On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe
  proclaimed that European powers were no longer to
  colonize or interfere with the affairs of the
  newly independent nations of the Americas.
  (Monroe Doctrine)
• In December 1904 Theodore Roosevelt amended this
  statement by asserting the right of the United
  States to intervene to stabilize the economic
  affairs of other nations within this hemisphere.
• This would prevent wars close to the United
  States and discourage countries (especially the
  Soviet Union) from attempting to colonize a
  country which could not pay back its debts.

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Dollar Diplomacy

• After William Howard Taft took over the
  presidency, he continued to work with other
  countries in North America to expand relations
• The term dollar diplomacy was coined by President
  Taft, who claimed that U.S. operations in Latin
  America went from "warlike and political" to
  "peaceful and economic".
• The term is also used historically by Latin
  Americans to show their disapproval of the role
  that the U.S. government and U.S. corporations
  have played in using economic, diplomatic and
  military power to open up foreign markets.
• It basically means that anything that brings
  positive economic change to both the U.S. and
  other countries of the world is acceptable.