Open Door Flashcards
Why the need for open-door?
At the end of 1897 in the beginning of 1898 there was a real and justifiable fear the China would be partitioned.
What is the open-door policy?
The principle of equal rights for all and of the territorial and administrative integrity of China.
Why was it feared that China would become partitioned?
There was a paradigm shift from goods and trade to state concessions (I.e. railroads); trade versus neocolonialism; which began to force and establish sphere of influence strategy amongst competing powers.
Why was the paradigm shift to state concessions a problem for the United States?
Because America relied heavily on Britain as the dominant world power; And Britain did not want to see its merchants excluded anywhere.
Britain eventually began to depart from the Open Door policy. How come?
Britain began an ambitious campaign in the railroad business in China (particularly the Yangtze Valley) and established a sphere of influence in Kowloon; they leased a strategic port in the Gulf of Pechili to balance the Russian position at Port Arthur.
If Britain wanted to slide from the OD policy, why did American statesmen pursue it so heavily?
They didn’t. The OD notes were in response to lobbying by the Imperial Maritime Customs Service which had been snubbed by Britain who closed the IMCS office in Kowloon. The IMCS saw danger that the other powers might bandwagon this trend which could ultimately lead to bankruptcy of China. Tests of American resolve for this Policy, however, proved a near total lack of commitment. America’s establishment of discriminatory regimes in both the Philippines and Puerto Rico attest to our lack of commitment to this as a foreign policy objective.
How did America’s response to Japan’s petition for our assistance in their ambitions in Manchuria demonstrate our reluctance to commit to our previously stated position?
The commitment to “preserve Chinese territorial and administrative entity” vs. “not prepared to…enforce these views…by any demonstration which could present a character of hostility to any other Power.”
How did Americans see the OD notes?
As a diplomatic slam dunk: the ill-intentioned European powers in Asia had been routed by a benevolent, good intentioned America committed to equal rights in the Pacific.
