Some historians, such as Harold Evans in his book The American Century (1998), have argued that the USA never actually sought an empire at all. He argues that the decision to annex the Philippines was due to the deciding vote of Vice President Garrett Augustus Hobart. Evans insists that, for economic reasons, the USA did not need an empire because it was carrying out a huge amount of trade with Britain.

US actions in Samoa were an example of preclusive imperialism. America’s interest in Samoa first began in 1872 when the King of Samoa offered the USA the naval base of Pago Pago on the eastern island of Tutuila. Although this was refused, the USA was aware of increasing German and British interests in the area, with the German Trading and Plantation Company turning Samoa into the most important trading post in the Pacific. During a civil war in Samoa in 1898, the Americans and British supported the opposing side to that of the Germans. The following year the three powers abolished the Samoan monarchy and signed the Tripartite Convention in which Britain relinquished all rights to Samoa, the USA established a protectorate in Eastern Samoa while Western Samoa became a German colony. The British relinquished all rights to Samoa in return for being given other Pacific island chains formerly belonging to Germany.

In 1898, the USA annexed Hawaii. Hawaii was important as a stopping station on the way to Japan and China and US missionaries had settled there. Since 1875 the USA had imported Hawaiian sugar duty free, and Hawaii became increasingly dependent on the US economy. By the 1890s, there were 3,000 American sugar growers out of the 90,000 Hawaiians living on the island. In 1887, the USA established its first major Pacific naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In 1890, the McKinley Tariff removed duties on raw sugar, so the Hawaiian growers lost their trading advantage and began to suffer as a result of competition from other sugar interests, especially in Cuba. In 1891, the Hawaiian king died and the new queen, Liliuokalani, led a rebellion and American residents called for help from the USA. The marines arrived and within three days the rebels surrendered. The USA now planned to annex Hawaii because of its important location but was opposed by those who feared that America would become an imperial power, no better than the Europeans. However, the war with Spain in Cuba strengthened the arguments for annexation, which took place in July 1898.

In 1895, Britain and Venezuela were in dispute over Venezuela’s border with the British colony of Guiana. President Cleveland demanded that the British agree to send the dispute to arbitration, a demand which was, at first, rejected by Salisbury, the British Prime Minister. The British eventually backed down when the USA threatened to send 54 vessels to the disputed area. Arbitration eventually decided in favour of Venezuela.

This island was a Spanish colony but had been given a degree of independence before the outbreak of the Spanish–American war in 1898. It was invaded in 1898 by American troops and, after a little fighting, the Spanish surrendered and withdrew. Under the Organic Act of 1900, Puerto Rico was to be administered by the USA. The USA looked to extend its influence in Latin America in terms of political influence and developing trade links. While there was no intention of annexing regions, US business interests sought to exploit South and Central America and in doing so raise their standards of living and quality of life.

Another reason for US war against Spain came from the American view of the Far East and Pacific Ocean. Instability in China and the startling fast modernisation of Japan were seen as threats to United States interests. These concerns about Asia and the so-called ‘Yellow Peril’ were intensified by US hostility in the 1890s to Chinese and Japanese immigration. The term ‘Yellow Peril’ was an offensive racist term thought to have been used in 1895 by the German Emperor, Wilhelm II to express a racist fear of the rise of China and Japan that was already current in Britain and the United States.

Supporters for US intervention in Cuba got their chance when the US battleship Maine while on a ‘friendly’ visit to Havana harbour with the loss of 266 crew. Immediately the US Yellow Press accused the Spanish of sabotage in causing the Maine explosion. The Spanish having investigated concluded that the explosion was due to a fault on board the ship, while the US concluded that the explosion was due to a Spanish naval mine. US public opinion was inflamed, and a naval blockade of Cuba was imposed. It later emerged from an impartial investigation that the explosion was caused by a known design flaw in the ship – a coal bunker fire close to where military shells were stored.

T3 International Flashcards by Alannah .

New Ideology: Imperialism

Between 1890 and 1914 European-style traditional imperialism briefly appealed to the US ruling
elite. Most notably this would culminate in the 1898 Spanish American War.
The motives for US imperialism have been explained by historians as a combination of
(1) The closing of the Western Frontier and need for a new frontier.
(2) An historical accident and that the US never wanted an overseas empire.
(3) Progressive imperialism and the US ‘moral’ desire to help ‘civilise’ other peoples.
(4) The need for an ‘Open-Door’ to overseas markets for American businesses, particularly in
China and the Far East.
(5) To preclusive imperialism to occupy lands to defend the Monroe doctrine and prevent them
following into the hands of rival European powers.
Formal Imperialism would be a brief trend against then more powerful Isolationism of the pre and
post WW1 era.

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Accidental Empire

Some historians, such as Harold Evans in his book The American Century (1998), have argued that
the USA never actually sought an empire at all.
He argues that the decision to annex the Philippines was due to the deciding vote of Vice
President Garrett Augustus Hobart.
Evans insists that, for economic reasons, the USA did not need an empire because it was carrying
out a huge amount of trade with Britain.

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Progressive Imperialism

The historian Walter McDougall in The American Encounter With the World Since 1776 (1997)
suggests that US imperialism was motivated by a desire to improve the lives of non-Americans,
shown for example in the removal of yellow fever in Cuba and the building of hospitals and
schools.
In other words, the export of American values to less well-developed countries.
Indeed, some historians go further and suggest that the USA became an imperial power because
it wanted to dominate the world by creating countries in its own image – believing that other
countries would benefit from the pursuit of Americans to civilise the world.
This was linked to the missionary work undertaken by Americans.
The impetus to do this work was linked to the belief that White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPS)
were a superior peoples who had a duty to help members of ‘lesser races’ improve their lives by
following their example.
Missionaries were often followed by colonists, as was the case in the Philippines and Hawaii.

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The Need for Foreign Markets (Open Door)

The need for markets was the primary motive according to William A. Williams in his book The
Tragedy of American Diplomacy written in the 1950s.
However, the USA believed that this need for markets could be met by the ‘Open Door’ policy
rather than actual territorial expansion.
Another historian, Niall Ferguson, in his book American Colossus published in 2003, also stressed
this economic motive with the Depression of 1893 stimulating a desire to see new markets.
Moreover, the USA faced surpluses in farm produce and needed markets to absorb these.

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The End of Westward Expansion

Some historians have argued that Westward expansion in the second half of the nineteenth
century was a form of imperialism and that once this ended America could then turn its attention
to foreign adventures.
These views were first expressed by the historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 in his thesis
The Significance of the Frontier in American History.

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Preclusive imperialism

The term ‘preclusive imperialism’ was first used by the historian William Langer in The Diplomacy
of Imperialism (1935).
It refers to the idea that countries take colonies to prevent others from doing so.
It links with the idea that the USA wanted to copy the example of European powers such as Britain,
France and Germany which had built up empires in Africa and Asia in the later nineteenth century.
Therefore, the USA took advantage of its predominant position in Latin America as well as the
Monroe Doctrine to expand in Central America and the Caribbean.

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Samoa (1899)

US actions in Samoa were an example of preclusive imperialism. America’s interest in Samoa first
began in 1872 when the King of Samoa offered the USA the naval base of Pago Pago on the eastern
island of Tutuila.
Although this was refused, the USA was aware of increasing German and British interests in the
area, with the German Trading and Plantation Company turning Samoa into the most important
trading post in the Pacific.
During a civil war in Samoa in 1898, the Americans and British supported the opposing side to that
of the Germans.
The following year the three powers abolished the Samoan monarchy and signed the Tripartite
Convention in which Britain relinquished all rights to Samoa, the USA established a protectorate
in Eastern Samoa while Western Samoa became a German colony.
The British relinquished all rights to Samoa in return for being given other Pacific island chains
formerly belonging to Germany.

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Hawaii (1898)

In 1898, the USA annexed Hawaii.
Hawaii was important as a stopping station on the way to Japan and China and US missionaries
had settled there.
Since 1875 the USA had imported Hawaiian sugar duty free, and Hawaii became increasingly
dependent on the US economy.
By the 1890s, there were 3,000 American sugar growers out of the 90,000 Hawaiians living on the
island.
In 1887, the USA established its first major Pacific naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
In 1890, the McKinley Tariff removed duties on raw sugar, so the Hawaiian growers lost their
trading advantage and began to suffer as a result of competition from other sugar interests,
especially in Cuba.
In 1891, the Hawaiian king died and the new queen, Liliuokalani, led a rebellion and American
residents called for help from the USA.
The marines arrived and within three days the rebels surrendered. The USA now planned to annex
Hawaii because of its important location but was opposed by those who feared that America
would become an imperial power, no better than the Europeans.
However, the war with Spain in Cuba strengthened the arguments for annexation, which took
place in July 1898.

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he Philippines (1898)

As part of the Treaty of Paris, 1898, which ended the Spanish–American War, the USA was allowed
to purchase the Philippine Islands from Spain for $20 million.
There were various reasons for this purchase:
(1) Many felt that the USA would be able to civilise the islanders through converting them to
Christianity as well as ‘superior’ American ideals.
(2) In addition, there was preclusive imperialism. The fear was that the Philippines might be taken
over by Britain, Germany or Japan.
(3)The islands could not be returned to Spain and the Filipinos, even though they wanted
independence, seemed incapable of ruling themselves effectively.
There was strong opposition to the annexation of the islands both in the Philippines and in the
USA.
The Filipinos had been fighting for independence from Spain and assumed that once the Spanish
were defeated, they would be given their independence.
The USA had to fight a four-year war of subjugation, costing around $600 million and, by 1904,
126,000 troops were stationed in the Philippines.

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US Imperialism in Latin America (1890 - 1912)

The USA looked to extend its influence in Latin America in terms of political influence and
developing trade links.
While there was no intention of annexing regions, US business interests sought to exploit South
and Central America and in doing so raise their standards of living and quality of life.

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Venezuela (1895)

In 1895, Britain and Venezuela were in dispute over Venezuela’s border with the British colony of
Guiana.
President Cleveland demanded that the British agree to send the dispute to arbitration, a demand
which was, at first, rejected by Salisbury, the British Prime Minister.
The British eventually backed down when the USA threatened to send 54 vessels to the disputed
area.
Arbitration eventually decided in favour of Venezuela.

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Puerto Rico (1898)

This island was a Spanish colony but had been given a degree of independence before the
outbreak of the Spanish–American war in 1898.
It was invaded in 1898 by American troops and, after a little fighting, the Spanish surrendered and
withdrew. Under the Organic Act of 1900, Puerto Rico was to be administered by the USA.
The USA looked to extend its influence in Latin America in terms of political influence and
developing trade links.
While there was no intention of annexing regions, US business interests sought to exploit South
and Central America and in doing so raise their standards of living and quality of life.

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The 1895 Cuban Revolution

The main cause of the 1898 Spanish-American war was a revolt against Spanish rule by Cuban
nationalists, led by Jose Marti, in 1895.
The rebels received support from American sympathisers and this support grew stronger after the
Spanish army used brutal methods to crush the revolt.
Many Americans demanded intervention to secure Cuban independence from Spain.
Cuba’s economy was dependent on exporting tobacco and sugar to US markets and Cuba, only 90
miles away from the United States was strategically important.

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The Yellow Peril

Another reason for US war against Spain came from the American view of the Far East and Pacific
Ocean.
Instability in China and the startling fast modernisation of Japan were seen as threats to United
States interests.
These concerns about Asia and the so-called ‘Yellow Peril’ were intensified by US hostility in the
1890s to Chinese and Japanese immigration.
The term ‘Yellow Peril’ was an offensive racist term thought to have been used in 1895 by the
German Emperor, Wilhelm II to express a racist fear of the rise of China and Japan that was already
current in Britain and the United States.

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Remember the Maine!

Supporters for US intervention in Cuba got their chance when the US battleship Maine while on a
‘friendly’ visit to Havana harbour with the loss of 266 crew.
Immediately the US Yellow Press accused the Spanish of sabotage in causing the Maine explosion.
The Spanish having investigated concluded that the explosion was due to a fault on board the
ship, while the US concluded that the explosion was due to a Spanish naval mine.
US public opinion was inflamed, and a naval blockade of Cuba was imposed.
It later emerged from an impartial investigation that the explosion was caused by a known design
flaw in the ship – a coal bunker fire close to where military shells were stored.

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The Yellow Press

The Maine explosion was used by the ‘Yellow Press’ to push the case for war with Spain.
At the time William Randolph Hearst New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World were
competing against each other in a circulation war to attract readers from each other.
Both papers ran hysterical newspaper campaign for war by running sensational stories of alleged
Spanish atrocities in Cuba.
Perhaps the most famous anecdote surrounding Heart’s zeal for the war involves a legendary
communication between illustrator Frederick Remington and Hearst.
As the story goes, Remington, who had been sent to Cuba to cover the insurrection, cabled to
Hearst that there was no war to cover. Hearst allegedly replied with, “You furnish the pictures. I’ll furnish the war.”

The 1898 Spanish American War in Cuba

Peace could have been easily negotiated but war was the preferred US solution.
American forces swiftly occupied Cuba.
The US navy blockaded Cuba and 17,000 American soldiers landed on the island.
The combination of land forces and a naval blockade forced the surrender of Spanish troops after
less than three weeks of fighting.
In total 379 US soldiers were killed and over 5,000 suffered from yellow fever.
The war helped make a national hero out of Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt who quit his job as
Assistant Secretary of the Navy to lead a volunteer force, the rough riders, in the siege of Havana.
Spain made peace with the Treaty of Paris and Cuba remained under US rule until 1902 when it
became an American protectorate.

The 1898 Spanish American War in the Philippines

The war of 1898 was not only about Cuba – it included the annexation of Spanish possessions in
the Caribbean and the Pacific.
The islands of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands were annexed by the US during the
1898 Spanish-American War.
The previously independent islands of Hawaii were annexed at the same time. Admiral Dewey’s
Pacific squadron sailed into Manila Bay in the Philippines and destroyed the outdated Spanish
fleet.
American land forces arrived to establish military control.
Although American officials had gained the support of Filipino nationalist rebels, led by Emilio
Aguinaldo, by seemingly to promise independence from the Filipinos, it soon became apparent
that this was not going to happen.
A Filipino revolt against American rule broke out in 1899 and was only crushed in 1902 after
ruthless American military action.

The end of the Spanish-American War and the Treaty of Paris (1898)

The USA did not include or seriously consider the Cubans in the final peace settlement with Spain,
the Treaty of Paris, which was signed in August 1898.
The treaty granted Cuban independence, but the USA was allowed to keep possession of
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba as a strategic naval base in the Caribbean.
Spain lost the last parts of its American empire by surrendering Puerto Rico in the Caribbean to
the USA. The USA was able to purchase the Philippines from Spain for $20 million.
Spain also surrendered the island of Guam in the Pacific to the USA.

Roosevelt Corollary

The Roosevelt Corollary sanctioned US armed intervention in Latin America when it felt necessary
to prevent financial and/or political collapse.
This was used by Roosevelt and his successors to justify much more US military involvement in
Latin America.
Roosevelt insisted that countries in Latin America had to pay off their debts from loans that they
had previously received from the USA and act responsibly.
He was setting up the USA as a sort of police force throughout the Americas, both to protect
countries from foreign interference and also to ensure responsible behaviour.
This marked a very significant shift in US foreign policy, which was to have repercussions for the
future.

Roosevelt’s Corollary & Cuba (1901)

Once the Spanish had been defeated and withdrawn from Cuba, a major debate started in the
USA about what to do with Cuba. It could be given its independence and left alone.
On the other hand, it could become a colony or protectorate of the USA.
In April 1898, just prior to war with Spain, Congress had passed the Teller Amendment which
stated that the USA would not annex the island, which would be given its independence.
However, the war led to a change of opinion in the USA where there was a belief that the Cubans
were not ready to rule themselves.
Moreover, independence might threaten American commercial interests on the island. As a
result, in 1901 Congress passed the Platt Amendment.
Cuba’s final treaty with the USA was signed in 1903, which imposed a new political system on the
country and made its economy heavily dependent on the USA.
Cuban sugar and tobacco were tied to the US markets through preferential tariffs, while US goods
entered Cuba at reductions varying from 25 to 40 per cent.
A far-reaching takeover of Cuban land by Americans followed and American businesses began to
move into Cuba on a large scale.
US forces, which had occupied the island since the war of 1898, left in 1902.
However, these forces returned in 1906 and remained until 1909 as a result of unrest that began
during the presidential elections of 1905.
The USA invaded again in 1912 with marines to help the Cuban Government put down a revolt of
former slaves.

The Platt Amendment (1901)

The Platt Amendment gave the United States control of Cuban foreign, financial, and commercial
affairs. It limited Cuban sovereignty and gave the USA the right to intervene in Cuban affairs.
It also gave the USA certain naval bases in Cuba.
The Amendment was named after Senator Orville H. Platt who introduced it into Congress in
February 1901.

Roosevelt’s Corollary & The Panama Canal (1903)

The USA had long supported the building of a canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The journey round the tip of South America was long and often dangerous by sea.
As early as the 1860s, US Secretary of State William Seward had tried to begin negotiations with
the government of Colombia, which at that time controlled Panama, for a canal, but he was
stopped by the Senate.
In 1881, a French company, under the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps who had built the
Suez Canal in Egypt, began to build a canal in Panama but ran into financial difficulties.
An American Company, the New Panama Canal Company, encouraged by President Roosevelt,
took over the rights to build the canal.
Colombia demanded $15 million from the government of the USA and $10 million from the New
Panama Canal Company to build the canal across Panama. Roosevelt refused to pay.
In 1903 the Panamanians staged a national revolt for independence from the rule of Colombia
and were supported by the USA who sent a battleship and a regiment to support the rebellion.
Panama achieved independence and accepted a US offer of $10 million for a strip of land 16 km
wide through which the canal would be built.
The canal was completed in 1914 with the passage of the SS Ancon through it. Within a year over
1,000 ships were using it annually.

Roosevelt’s Corollary & The Dominican Republic (1904)

The Dominican Republic was an example of the USA using its ‘police’ power in Central America.
In 1903, the Republic defaulted on the repayment of American loans worth $40 million.
Roosevelt was reluctant to invade and, instead, in 1904, took control of the customs revenue of
the Dominican Republic, using it to pay off the debt.
The President described this as his ‘big stick’ policy.

Roosevelt’s Corollary & Nicaragua (1909)

* Nicaragua was of importance to the USA because of its proximity as well as the possible Atlantic/Pacific canal site and a high level of economic investment in the country. * These interests were threatened by Nicaragua’s anti-American president, Jose Santos Zelaya, who, in 1909, cancelled the economic privileges previously granted to US mining concerns. * President Taft sent in the marines to install a pro-American president, Adolfo Diaz, and his Secretary of State, Philander C. Knox, extended American influence in Nicaragua by providing huge loans and, in return, the USA controlled the Nicaraguan National Bank. * Within three years, the USA once again had to send in 3,000 troops when the position of Diaz was threatened by revolution. * The USA now set up a protectorate and occupied the country for a further ten years.

China (1900)

* The USA, unlike Britain, Russia, and Germany, had no desire to expand territorially into China. * In 1899 US Secretary of State John Hay introduced the ‘Open-Door’ policy with the first ‘Open Door’ note asking states to respect each other’s trading rights in China. * In 1900, an uprising known as the Boxer Rebellion, directed largely against foreigners, broke out in China. * The USA sent a small number of troops to assist other countries in the rescue of foreign embassies in Peking. * At the same time Hay announced an extension of the Open-Door policy with a second Open Door note, asserting the principle of equal and impartial trade in all parts of China. * It also asserted that in future the US government would protect the lives and property of US citizens living in China.

Japan (1908)

* Relations with Japan were tense at the turn of the century. * There had been substantial Japanese immigration into both Hawaii and the USA but legislation in 1900 had put a stop to this. * The openly racist nature of these laws upset the Japanese, as did the annexation of the Philippines. * On the other hand, the USA felt threatened by the growth of a large Japanese navy as well as Japan’s ambitions in China. * These threats increased when Japan defeated Russia in the Russo–Japanese War of 1904–05. * Roosevelt helped to negotiate the end of the war with the Treaty of New Hampshire in which Japan was given a free hand in Korea. * However, the Japanese blamed Roosevelt for the decision not to force Russia to pay a war indemnity. * Roosevelt, increasingly concerned about Japanese imperialism, was keen to develop better relations and, in 1908, the Root–Takahira Agreement was signed. * The two countries agreed to respect each other’s interests in China and to maintain the current situation in the Pacific. * The ‘Open-Door’ policy was confirmed for the USA who, in return and without consulting the Koreans, agreed to the Japanese ‘right’ to annex Korea.