3rd year /

Study of Civilisation texts

Teacher: Mr. Mokhtari
American imperialism
The U.S Foreign Policy in the 19 Century
In purest form, Isolationism is a nation's total retreat from the world stage. The term,
however, usually describes a policy of non-interventionism: avoiding foreign alliances and
conflicts, and waging war only if attacked. Isolationism has been a recurrent theme in U.S. history.
It was given expression in the Farewell Address of President. George Washington and in the early
19th-century Monroe Doctrine. Much of U.S. history reflects an ambivalent tension between the
desire to withdraw from messy foreign problems and the belief America should serve as the
dominant force in world affairs — "the indispensable nation," The founders of the United states
were isolationists as they saw America's geographical separation from Europe as an ideal
opportunity to cultivate the new nation in solitude. "Our detached and distant situation invites and
enables us to pursue a different course," George Washington said in his 1796 farewell address.
Thomas Jefferson, too, warned against "entangling alliances," though he waged war when North
Africa's Barbary pirates started seizing American merchant ships. With the notable exception of
the successful 1846–48 Mexican War, which expanded U.S. borders to include California and
much of the West, the young nation disdained military adventures in other parts of the world.
America does not go "abroad in search of monsters to destroy," Secretary of State John Quincy
Adams declared in 1821.
Expansionist sentiments and U.S. domestic politics inspired annexationist impulses and filibuster
expeditions to Mexico, Cuba, and parts of Central America. The Civil war in the United States
put a temporary halt to interventionism and imperial dreams in Latin America. From the 1870s
until the end of the century, U.S. policy intensified efforts to establish political and military
hegemony in the Western Hemisphere, including periodic naval interventions in the Caribbean
and Central America, reaching even to Brazil in the 1890s. By the end of the century Secretary of
State Richard Olney added the Olney Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (“Today the United States
is practically sovereign on this continent and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it confines
its interposition . . .”), and President Theodore Roosevelt contributed his own corollary in 1904
(“in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force
the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of wrongdoing or impotence, to exercise
an international police power”). American policy toward Latin America, at the turn of the century,
explicitly justified unilateral intervention, military occupation, and transformation of sovereign
states into political and economic protectorates in order to defend U.S. economic interests and an
expanding concept of national security.

The Annexation of Hawaii

At the end of the nineteenth and the dawn of the twentieth century, however, Europeans and
Americans competed for military and economic dominance of the entire globe. Most of the Western
European powers (France, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain) had already laid claim to and colonized much
of the known world and established elaborate and jealously guarded trade routes that spanned the Atlantic
Ocean. These trade routes linked the valuable raw resources of the colonized territories in Africa, Asia
and South America with lucrative markets in Europe and Eastern North America.
1
 The United States’ expansion into its western continental territories, fueled by the idea of “manifest
destiny,” began the U.S. experiment with empire. By the late 1700s, a sizable number of American settlers
had reached the Pacific, a vast ocean that promised unfettered access to the Asian continent and ports on
the islands of the South Pacific. The trade in Pacific Northwest furs during this time period established
strong economic relationships between American, Canadian and Chinese business interests. Spices, exotic
merchandise and tropical resources such as sugar from Asia and the South Pacific made their way back to
the Western ports of the expanding U.S. territory.

The islands of Hawaii, with a sizable native population governed by a native monarchy, occupied a
key position in the Pacific Ocean and quickly became a restocking station for ships hauling goods and
materials to and from Asia and the North American coast. It also became a contested nation among the
global powers. During the 1830s, Britain and France, with their formidable military might, forced the
Hawaiian monarchy to sign treaties granting them economic privileges on the islands. U.S. political
leaders were concerned that Hawaii might become part of an expanding European empire in the Pacific
which would jeopardize US trade routes. After much lobbying in Hawaii and in Washington DC, in 1849
the United States and the Hawaiian monarchy concluded a treaty of friendship that provided a foundation
of political and economic cooperation between the two parties.

A key provisioning spot for American whaling ships, fertile ground for American missionaries, and
a new source of sugar cane production, Hawaii's economy became increasingly integrated with the United
States. U.S. sugar plantation owners, the elite of the population, soon came to dominate the economy and
politics of the islands. Haole (non-native) residents of Hawaii formed the Hawaiian League to protect the
property interests of white land owners. The Honolulu Rifles were a sub-group of the League, a military
organization armed with rifles from the mainland US. In 1887 the powerful pro-haole interests used the
threat of the Honolulu Rifles to force King Kalakaua to sign a new constitution, replacing the treaty of
friendship that had governed US and Hawaiian interests since 1849. The new constitution vastly reduced
the power of the Hawaiian monarchy and nominally extended political representation to anyone who was
literate and owned more than three thousand dollars worth of land. Because so few Native Hawaiians met
these requirements, this “Bayonet Constitution” basically put the white Americans in control of the
Hawaiian government and people.

In 1893, Queen Lili’uokalani, who succeeded King Kalakaua, announced plans to establish a new
constitution, replacing the "Bayonet Constitution." The new constitution would have restored much power
to the monarchy. But the move was countered by the Committee on Annexation, a small group of white
businessmen and politicians who felt that annexation by the United States (the primary importer of
Hawaiian agricultural products) would be beneficial for the economy of Hawaii. The move was supported
by John Stevens, the U.S. Minister to Hawaii.

A contingent of Marines from the warship, U.S.S. Boston, had also been dispatched by U.S.
President Benjamin Harrison to restore the “peace.” Despite pleas by the Queen, the overthrow of Queen
Lili’uokalani was successful and the monarchy ended in January, 1893. It was replaced by a Provisional
Government set up and controlled by the Americans. The Provisional Government proclaimed Hawaii a
republic in 1894, which was soon recognized by the United States.

A delegation from Hawaii was sent to Washington DC in 1894 seeking annexation of the Republic
on the grounds that it would serve and strengthen the interests of the U.S. economically, politically and
militarily. But the new President, Grover Cleveland, opposed annexation. He insisted that Queen
Lili’uokalani’s overthrow was illegal and tried to restore the monarchy. In addition, many insisted that
2
Hawaii was too culturally, historically, and racially different from that of the mainland United States to
be able to fit well into the Union. Others opposed annexation on the grounds that the U.S. should not be
involved in such distant places (the isolationists).

Many native Hawaiians also sought to restore independence and during this time sent anti-
annexation petitions to Washington DC. In Hawaii, native Hawaiians staged mass protest rallies. On
January 5, 1895, the protests took the form of an armed attempt to derail the annexation but the armed
revolt was suppressed by the US-backed forces of the Republic. The leaders of the revolt were imprisoned
along with Queen Lili'uokalani who was accused of treason for failing to put down the revolt. Cleveland
was unable to counter the attitudes and actions of the pro-annexation forces either in Washington D.C. or
in Hawaii. Strategically, pro-annexation forces only had to delay Cleveland until the presidency changed
hands again, as U.S. politics was quite divided on the subject of expansion in general and Hawaiian
annexation in particular. In March of 1897, William McKinley, who was in favor of the annexation of
Hawaii, was inaugurated as President of the United States. On June 16, 1897, McKinley and three
representatives of the government of the Republic of Hawaii – Lorrin Thurston, Francis Hatch, and
William Kinney – signed a treaty of annexation. President McKinley then submitted the treaty to the U.S.
Senate for ratification.

In response, grassroots organizations in Hawaii staged a mass anti-annexation petition drive. They
hoped that if the U.S. government realized that the majority of native Hawaiian citizens opposed
annexation, the move to annex Hawaii would be stopped. The “Petition Against Annexation, " written in
both the Hawaiian and English languages, was signed by 21,269 native Hawaiian people, or more than
half the approximately 39,000 native Hawaiians and mixed-blood persons reported by the Hawaiian
Commission census for that year. Queen Lili’uokalani and four Hawaiian delegates successfully lobbied
in Washington against annexation. The treaty was defeated in the Senate in early 1898.

This victory was short-lived, however. The sinking of the Battleship Maine in Havana harbor in
Cuba sparked the Spanish-American War, part of which was fought in the Philippine Islands. Hawaii
became an important mid-Pacific fueling station and naval installation for the United States. The pro-
annexation forces in Congress rallied and submitted a proposal to annex the Hawaiian Islands by joint
resolution, which required only a simple majority vote in both houses. The proposal passed Congress and
was signed into law by President McKinley on July 7, 1898. In an annexation ceremony at the Iolani
Palace in August of 1898, the Hawaiian flag was taken down and the U.S. flag raised.

In 1900, Hawaii was made a territory of the United States. In 1959, it became the 50th state in the
Union. The actions of the U.S. with regard to the colonization and annexation of Hawaii brought into U.S.
control a once sovereign nation. This action was controversial at the time and remains so today. A
resurgence of pride in native Hawaiian culture and a “Hawaiian Independence” movement is growing in
strength on the islands. In 1993, President Clinton signed a Congressional Resolution apologizing for the
“illegal” overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The text states that the U.S. Congress "acknowledges that
the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of
the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished
to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either
through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum".

The Spanish- American War

3
 A turning point in the American foreign policy was the Spanish-American War. During Cuba's
revolt against Spain in 1898, President William McKinley sent the battleship Maine on a goodwill visit to
Havana — where it blew up in the harbor, killing more than 250 U.S. sailors. Historians now believe an
internal explosion destroyed the ship, but at the time Americans — egged on by a jingoistic press —
blamed Spain, and the U.S. declared war. After four months, Spain surrendered, ceding Guam, Puerto
Rico, and the Philippines to the U.S. The conflict made a national hero and vice president of Theodore
Roosevelt, the charismatic leader of the volunteer Rough Riders regiment. When Roosevelt succeeded to
the presidency after McKinley's assassination in 1901, he pursued a muscular foreign policy — his credo
was "Speak softly and carry a big stick." To promote U.S. interests abroad, he ordered the construction of
the Panama Canal and negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese war. Though sometimes bellicose, says
historian Richard Abrams, T.R. also prodded Americans to assume the responsibility "to use their power
for good internationally."

Cubans Rebel Against Spain

By the end of the 19th century, Spain—once the most powerful colonial nation on earth—had lost most
of its colonies. It retained only the Philippines and the island of Guam in the Pacific, a few outposts in
Africa, and the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Americas. AMERICAN INTEREST IN
CUBA The United States had long held an interest in Cuba, which lies only 90 miles south of Florida. In
1854, diplomats recommend- ed to President Franklin Pierce that the United States buy Cuba from Spain.
The Spanish responded by saying that they would rather see Cuba sunk in the ocean.

But American interest in Cuba continued. When the Cubans rebelled against Spain between 1868 and
1878, American sympathies went out to the Cuban people. The Cuban revolt against Spain was not
successful, but in 1886 the Cuban people did force Spain to abolish slavery. After the emancipation of
Cuba’s slaves, American capital- ists began investing millions of dollars in large sugar cane plantations
on the island.

The Second War For Independence : Anti-Spanish sentiment in Cuba soon erupted into a second war
for inde- pendence. José Martí, a Cuban poet and journalist in exile in New York, launched a revolution
in 1895. Martí organized Cuban resistance against Spain, using an active guerrilla campaign and
deliberately destroying property, especially American-owned sugar mills and plantations. Martí counted
on provoking U.S. intervention to help the rebels achieve Cuba Libre!—a free Cuba. Public opinion in the
United States was split. Many business people wanted the government to support Spain in order to protect
their investments. Other Americans, how- ever, were enthusiastic about the rebel cause. The cry “Cuba
Libre!” was, after all, similar in sentiment to Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death!”

War Fever Escalates : In 1896, Spain responded to the Cuban revolt by sending General Valeriano
Weyler to Cuba to restore order. Weyler tried to crush the rebellion by herding the entire rural population
of central and western Cuba into barbed- wire concentration camps. Here civilians could not give aid to
rebels. An estimated 300,000 Cubans filled these camps, where thousands died from hunger and disease.
Weyler’s actions fueled a war over news- paper circulation that had developed between the American
newspaper tycoons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. To lure readers, Hearst’s New York
Journal and Pulitzer’s New York World printed exaggerated accounts—by reporters such as James
Creelman—of “Butcher” Weyler’s brutality. Stories of poisoned wells and of children being thrown to the
sharks deepened American sympathy for the rebels. This sensational style of writing, which exaggerates
the news to lure and enrage readers, became known as yellow journalism. Hearst and Pulitzer fanned war

4
fever. When Hearst sent the gifted artist Frederic Remington to Cuba to draw sketches of reporters’ stories,
Remington informed the publisher that a war between the United States and Spain seemed very unlikely.
Hearst reportedly replied, “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” American sympathy for
“Cuba Libre!” grew with each day’s headlines. When President William McKinley took office in 1897,
demands for American intervention in Cuba were on the rise. Preferring to avoid war with Spain,
McKinley tried diplomatic means to resolve the crisis. At first, his efforts appeared to succeed. Spain
recalled General Weyler, modified the policy regard- ing concentration camps, and offered Cuba limited
self-government.

In February 1898, however, the New York Journal published a private letter written by Enrique Dupuy
de Lôme, the Spanish minister to the United States. A Cuban rebel had stolen the letter from a Havana
post office and leaked it to the newspaper, which was thirsty for scandal. The de Lôme letter criticized
President McKinley, calling him “weak” and “a bidder for the admiration of the crowd.” The embarrassed
Spanish government apologized, and the minister resigned. Still, Americans were angry over the insult to
their president. Only a few days after the publication of the de Lôme letter, American resentment toward
Spain turned to outrage. Early in 1898, President McKinley had ordered the U.S.S. Maine to Cuba to bring
home American citizens in danger from the fighting and to protect American property. On February 15,
1898, the ship blew up in the harbor of Havana. More than 260 men were killed. To this day, no one really
knows why the ship exploded. In 1898, however, American newspapers claimed the Spanish had blown
up the ship. The Journal’s headline read “The warship Maine was split in two by an enemy’s secret infernal
machine.” Hearst’s paper offered a reward of $50,000 for the capture of the Spaniards who supposedly
had committed the outrage.

The War with Spain Erupts : Now there was no holding back the forces that wanted war. “Remember
the Maine!” became the rallying cry for U.S. intervention in Cuba. It made no differ- ence that the Spanish
government agreed, on April 9, to almost everything the United States demanded, including a six-month
cease-fire. Despite the Spanish concessions, public opinion favored war. On April 11, McKinley asked
Congress for authority to use force against Spain. After a week of debate, Congress agreed, and on April
20 the United States declared war.

The War in the Philippines : The Spanish thought the Americans would invade Cuba. But the first battle
of the war took place in a Spanish colony on the other side of the world—the Philippine Islands. On April
30, the American fleet in the Pacific steamed to the Philippines. The next morning, Commodore George
Dewey gave the command to open fire on the Spanish fleet at Manila, the Philippine capital. Within hours,
Dewey’s men had destroyed every Spanish ship there. Dewey’s victory allowed U.S. troops to land in the
Philippines. Dewey had the support of the Filipinos who, like the Cubans, also wanted freedom from
Spain. Over the next two months, 11,000 Americans joined forces with Filipino rebels led by Emilio
Aguinaldo. In August, Spanish troops in Manila surrendered to the United States.

The War in the Caribbean : In the Caribbean, hostilities began with a naval blockade of Cuba. Admiral
William T. Sampson effectively sealed up the Spanish fleet in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba. Dewey’s
victory at Manila had demonstrated the superiority of United States naval forces. In contrast, the army
maintained only a small professional force, supplemented by a larger inexperienced and ill-prepared
volunteer force. About 125,000 Americans had volunteered to fight. The new soldiers were sent to train-
ing camps that lacked adequate supplies and effective leaders. Moreover, there were not enough modern
guns to go around, and the troops were outfitted with heavy woolen uniforms unsuitable for Cuba’s

5
tropical climate. In addition, the officers—most of whom were Civil War veterans—had a tendency to
spend their time recalling their war experiences rather than training the volunteers.

Rough Riders : Despite these handicaps, American forces landed in Cuba in June 1898 and began to
converge on the port city of Santiago. The army of 17,000 included four African-American regiments of
the regular army and the Rough Riders, a volunteer cavalry under the command of Leonard Wood and
Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt, a young New Yorker, had given up his job as Assistant Secretary of the
Navy to lead the group of volunteers. He would later become pres- ident of the United States. The most
famous land battle in Cuba took place near Santiago on July 1. The first part of the battle, on nearby Kettle
Hill, featured a dramatic uphill charge by the Rough Riders and two African-American regiments, the
Ninth and Tenth Cavalries. Their victory cleared the way for an infantry attack on the strategically
important San Juan Hill. Although Roosevelt and his units played only a minor role in the second victory,
U.S. newspapers declared him the hero of San Juan Hill. Two days later, the Spanish fleet tried to escape
the American blockade of the harbor at Santiago. The naval battle that followed, along the Cuban coast,
ended in the destruction of the Spanish fleet. On the heels of this victory, American troops invaded Puerto
Rico on July 25.

The Treaty of Paris :The United States and Spain signed an armistice, a cease-fire agreement, on August
12, ending what Secretary of State John Hay called “a splendid little war.” The actual fighting in the war
had lasted only 16 weeks. On December 10, 1898, the United States and Spain met in Paris to agree on a
treaty. At the peace talks, Spain freed Cuba and turned over the islands of Guam in the Pacific and Puerto
Rico in the West Indies to the United States. Spain also sold the Philippines to the United States for $20
million.

Debate Over The Treaty : The Treaty of Paris touched off a great debate in the United States. Arguments
centered on whether or not the United States had the right to annex the Philippines, but imperialism was
the real issue. President McKinley told a group of Methodist ministers that he had prayed for guidance on
Philippine annexation and had concluded “that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all [the
Philippine Islands], and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and Christianize them.” McKinley’s need to
justify imperialism may have clouded his memory—most Filipinos had been Christian for centuries. Other
prominent Americans presented a variety of arguments— political, moral, and economic— against
annexation. Some felt that the treaty violated the Declaration of Independence by denying self-
government to the newly acquired territories. The African-American educator Booker T. Washington
argued that the United States should settle race-related issues at home before taking on social prob- lems
elsewhere. The labor leader Samuel Gompers feared that Filipino immigrants would com- pete for
American jobs. On February 6, 1899, the annexation question was settled with the Senate’s approval of
the Treaty of Paris. The United States now had an empire that included Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the
Philippines. The next question Americans faced was how and when the United States would add to its
dominion.

Aftermath Victory in the Spanish-American War transformed the United States, a former colony, to
an imperial power. Many Americans saw this development as a natural part of the nation’s “Manifest
Destiny”--the belief that expansion of the United States was both right and inevitable. Opposition to this
new role also existed. In June 1898, the American Anti-Imperialist League was formed to fight annexation
of the Philippines. Its members included former President Grover Cleveland, industrialist Andrew
Carnegie, author Mark Twain, and labor leader Samuel Gompers. A recognized war hero, Theodore
Roosevelt instantly became credible as a political candidate. Roosevelt was elected governor of New York

6
in 1898 and vice president of the United States in 1901. He became the youngest president to date later
that year, when President McKinley was assassinated just months into his second term.

The Open Door policy, a statement of principles initiated by the United States in 1899 and 1900 for the
protection of equal privileges among countries trading with China and in support of Chinese territorial and
administrative integrity. The statement was issued in the form of circular notes dispatched by U.S.
Secretary of State John Hay to Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Russia. The Open Door
policy was received with almost universal approval in the United States, and for more than 40 years it was
a cornerstone of American foreign policy in East Asia.
The principle that all countries should have equal access to any of the ports open to trade in China had
been stipulated in the Anglo-Chinese treaties of Nanjing (Nanking, 1842) and Wangxia (Wanghia, 1844).
Great Britain had greater interests in China than any other power and successfully maintained the policy
of the open door until the late 19th century. After the first Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), however, a
scramble for “spheres of influence” in various parts of coastal China—primarily by Russia, France,
Germany, and Great Britain—began. Within each of those spheres the controlling major power
claimed exclusive privileges of investment, and it was feared that each would like wise seek to monopolize
the trade. Moreover, it was generally feared that the breakup of China into economic segments dominated
by various great powers would lead to complete subjection and the division of the country into colonies.
The crisis in China coincided with several major developments in the United States. A new interest in
foreign markets had emerged there following the economic depression of the 1890s. The United States
also had just gained the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico as a result of the Spanish-American
War (1898) and was becoming increasingly interested in China, where American textile manufacturers
had found markets for cheap cotton goods.
The 1899 Open Door notes provided that each great power should maintain free access to a treaty
port or to any other vested interest within its sphere, only the Chinese government should collect taxes on
trade, and no great power having a sphere should be granted exemptions from paying harbour dues or
railroad charges. The replies from the various countries were evasive, but Hay interpreted them as
acceptances. In reaction to the presence of European armies in northern China to suppress the Boxer
Rebellion (1900), Hay’s second circular of 1900 stressed the importance of preserving China’s territorial
and administrative integrity. Hay did not ask for replies, but all the powers except Japan expressed
agreement with those principles.
Japan violated the Open Door principle with its presentation of Twenty-one Demands to China in
1915. The Nine-Power Treaty after the Washington Conference (1921–22) reaffirmed the principle,
however. The crisis in Manchuria (Northeast China) brought about by the Mukden Incident of 1931 and
the war between China and Japan that broke out in 1937 led the United States to adopt a rigid stand in
favour of the Open Door policy, including escalating embargoes on exports of essential commodities to
Japan, notably oil and scrapmetal. The embargoes are cited as one of the main reasons Japan went to war
with the United States in late 1941. Japan’s defeat in World War II (1945) and the communist victory in
China’s civil war (1949), which ended all special privileges to foreigners, made the Open Door policy
meaningless.