Lecture 2 The War of 1898 and the Rise to Empire

Question 1

Frontier Thesis “The Significance of Frontier in American History”

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

Annexation of Hawaii

Answer 2

1898

Question 3

Open Door notes

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Cuban insurrection

Answer 4

02/1895

Question 5

Sinking of the Maine and US ultimatum to Cuba

Answer 5

02/1898

Question 6

Declaration of War on Spain

Answer 6

04/1898

Question 7

Teller Amendment

Answer 7

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.”

Question 8

War with Spain: Three Theatres

Answer 8

✓ Cuba
✓ Philippines
✓ Puerto Rico

Question 9

Treaty of Paris

Answer 9

12/1898:
✓ Independence of Cuba
✓ US acquires Puerto Rico, Guam and thePhilippines
✓ Spain is paid $ 20million

Question 10

Strategic rationales for the war with Spain?

Answer 10

Alfred Mahan and Navalism (The Influence of Sea Power

upon History, 1660–1783, 1890)

Question 11

Main economic factors behind the war with Spain?

Answer 11

✓ Economic Interests in Cuba (Planters)
✓ New (and often “chimerical”) markets in Asia
✓ The Open Door and Expansionism?

Question 12

Causes/Drivers of the War with Spain

Answer 12

✓ Strategic 
✓ Economic 
✓ Ideological 
✓ Inevitability 
✓ Political and electoral factors

Question 13

Rudyard Kipling

Answer 13

“The White Man’s Burden: The United States & The Philippine Islands, 1899.”

Question 14

Kristine Hoganson - reason for the war with Spain

Answer 14

“Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and
Philippine-American Wars”

Question 15

Consequences of War with Spain

Answer 15

✓ Birth of a formal empire
✓ US recognized as a major, European (i.e.: civilized)
power
✓ Deep domestic fracture (strength of anti-
imperialists)

Question 16

Cuba

Answer 16

✓ US Protectorate :

• Military occupation until 1902
• Platt Amendment (1901)

Question 17

Platt Amendment

Answer 17

1901 - Cuba becomes a protectorate of US:

• No Cuban foreign policy
• The US can intervene whenever its wants to

Question 18

Philippines

Answer 18

✓ Unincorporated territory
✓ Brutal War of 1898-1902 and strong domestic controversy
✓ De facto colony from 1905 to 1946

Question 19

Problems with annexing other nations territory debate

Answer 19

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.”

Question 20

Jingoism

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

Drago Doctrine

Answer 21

Called for the governments of the Western Hemisphere to announce jointly their opposition to any intervention in the New World aimed at collecting debts.