Lecture 2 The War of 1898 and the Rise to Empire Flashcards
Frontier Thesis “The Significance of Frontier in American History”
Frederic Jackson Turner 1893 - “frontier individualism has from the beginning promoted democracy… And now, four centuries the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history”
William Appleman Williams led the “Wisconsin School” of diplomatic historians by arguing that the frontier thesis encouraged American overseas expansion, especially in Asia, during the 20th century. Williams viewed the frontier concept as a tool to promote democracy through both world wars, to endorse spending on foreign aid, and motivate action against totalitarianism.
Annexation of Hawaii
1898
Open Door notes
1899-1900 - Secretary of State John Hay’s
The policy proposed to keep China open to trade with all countries on an equal basis, keeping any one power from total control of the country, and calling upon all powers, within their spheres of influence, to refrain from interfering with any treaty port or any vested interest, to permit Chinese authorities to collect tariffs on an equal basis, and to show no favors to their own nationals in the matter of harbour dues or railroad charges
Cuban insurrection
02/1895
Sinking of the Maine and US ultimatum to Cuba
02/1898
Declaration of War on Spain
04/1898
Teller Amendment
04/1898 - “hereby disclaims any disposition of intention to
exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over
said island except for pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people.”
War with Spain: Three Theatres
✓ Cuba
✓ Philippines
✓ Puerto Rico
Treaty of Paris
12/1898:
✓ Independence of Cuba
✓ US acquires Puerto Rico, Guam and thePhilippines
✓ Spain is paid $ 20million
Strategic rationales for the war with Spain?
Alfred Mahan and Navalism (The Influence of Sea Power
upon History, 1660–1783, 1890)
Main economic factors behind the war with Spain?
✓ Economic Interests in Cuba (Planters)
✓ New (and often “chimerical”) markets in Asia
✓ The Open Door and Expansionism?
Causes/Drivers of the War with Spain
✓ Strategic ✓ Economic ✓ Ideological ✓ Inevitability ✓ Political and electoral factors
Rudyard Kipling
“The White Man’s Burden: The United States & The Philippine Islands, 1899.”
Kristine Hoganson - reason for the war with Spain
“Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and
Philippine-American Wars”
Consequences of War with Spain
✓ Birth of a formal empire
✓ US recognized as a major, European (i.e.: civilized)
power
✓ Deep domestic fracture (strength of anti-
imperialists)
Cuba
✓ US Protectorate :
- Military occupation until 1902
- Platt Amendment (1901)
Platt Amendment
1901 - Cuba becomes a protectorate of US:
- No Cuban foreign policy
- The US can intervene whenever its wants to
Philippines
✓ Unincorporated territory
✓ Brutal War of 1898-1902 and strong domestic controversy
✓ De facto colony from 1905 to 1946
Problems with annexing other nations territory debate
Sen. Tillman (D-S.C.) and Sen. Nelson (R-Minn.) in the U.S. Senate, Jan 20, 1899
- “The fear of the Senator from South Carolina…is to a large extent based upon the idea that if we annex the people of these territories they become voters, full citizens in every respect. That is not true. A person may become a citizen of the United States and [be] entirely deprived of the right of suffrage. A minor is a citizen of the United States;… a woman is a citizen of the United States.”
Jingoism
Patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy.[1] Jingoism also refers to a country’s advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests. Colloquially, it refers to excessive bias in judging one’s own country as superior to others—an extreme type of nationalism.
Drago Doctrine
Called for the governments of the Western Hemisphere to announce jointly their opposition to any intervention in the New World aimed at collecting debts.
