American Imperialism

(1890s)
Albert J. Beveridge/U.S. Senator
( Speech, 1898)
• “We shall establish trading-posts throughout the
world as distributing points for American products.
We shall cover the oceans with our merchant
marine. We shall build a navy to the measure of our
greatness. Great colonies, flying our flag and
trading with us, will grow about our posts of trade.
Our institutions will follow our flag on the wings of
our commerce. And American law, American order,
American civilization and the American flag will plant
themselves on shores, hitherto bloody and
benighted, but, by those agencies of God,
henceforth to be made beautiful and bright.”
 Expansion of U.S. Influence

• Alaska (1867)
• Hawaiian Kingdom (1893/98)
• Guam, Puerto Rico, Philippines (1898)
• Latin America (1880s)
• China (1899-1900)
• Panama Canal Zone (1903)
Expansion of U.S. Influence:
Why?

• It was the “Age of Empire.”

• Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia,
etc. were all vying for overseas influence and
territories.
Expansion of U.S. Influence:
Why?
• Need for new markets…global markets.

• Most U.S. trade goods were sent to Europe.

• Only 3-4% entered into the Asian market, i.e.
(Japan + China).
Top Leading US Exports
(1915)
Cotton and Cotton Manufactures
Wheat and Wheat Flour
Petroleum and products
Meat Products
Machinery
Copper
Iron and Steel
Multinational Corporations
(overseas branch offices)

•Singer Sewing Machine Company

•Standard Oil
•American Tobacco
•International Harvester
Expansion of U.S. Influence:
Why?
• Influential ideas and books motivated the U.S. to
seek power abroad and economic influence, i.e.
Alfred Thayer Mahan, Josiah Strong, Frederick
Jackson Turner.
Influential Ideas and
Books
Frederick Jackson Turner
Influential Ideas and
Books
The Spanish-American War
1898
Jose Marti
 Anti-Imperialist League
Represented moral conscience of U.S.

Composed of diverse members…Andrew Carnegie, Jane

Addams, labor leaders (Samuel Gompers) and Mark Twain.

Believed it was unconstitutional to rule territories without the

“consent of the governed.”
Empire was incompatible with democracy.

500,000 members
 Mark Twain
“I have read carefully the Treaty of Paris, and I
have seen that we do not intend to free, but to
subjugate the peoples of the Philippines. We have
gone there to conquer not to redeem. It should, it
seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those
people free, and let them deal with their own
domestic issues in their own way. And so I am an
anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle
put his talons on any other land.”
Philippine American War
(1899-1902)
Result of Spanish-American War (1898)
Filipino people led by Emilio Aguinaldo
 American Influence Abroad:

Panama (1903) Canal built by 1914.

China (1899) Open Door Note
 An Analysis of American Imperialism

By the time of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, the U.S. had been expanding its
involvement in world affairs for half a century. Several themes had emerged
from this activity.

Increasing American domination of the Caribbean…continuing economic

interest in East Asia….the creation of an overseas Empire…the evolution of the
U.S. into a major world power.

Underlying these developments was an uneasy mixture of ideas and objectives.

American involvement in the world reflected a traditional, if often misguided,
sense of national rectitude and mission.

Generous humanitarian impulses vied with ugly racist prejudices as Americans

sought to both help other peoples and to direct them towards U.S. concepts of
religion, sanitation, capitalist developments, and public institutions.
 An Analysis of American
Imperialism
American motives ranged from ensuring national security and
competing with European colonial powers to the conviction that
the U.S. had to expand its economic interests abroad.

Imperialism brought Americans greater wealth and power.

However, it also increased tensions in Asia and contributed to

anti-American hostility…in Latin America. It also entangled
the U.S. in the great power rivalries of the day that would
ultimately result in 2 world wars.