A nation’s desire to expand beyond its

borders and acquire more territory or

colonies

British Colonial

Control of India

Colonialism in Southeast Asia and the Pacific

Stronger nations create empires by dominating

nations that are economically, politically,

culturally or militarily weaker.

The most economically and militarily strong countries in the world.

By 1900, the U.S. had emerged as a world power.

Four Factors that Foster Imperialism

•Economy•Nationalism•Militarism•Humanitarianism

•Industrialized nations needed new sources of natural resources, such as rubber and petroleum.

•They also wanted new markets in which to sell their manufactured goods.

•Devotion to one’s own nation•A belief that one’s own people

and culture is superior to others

•Causes nations to compete with others for new territory as a matter of pride and power

•European and American military technology was much more advanced than Asia and Africa

•We needed naval bases around the world for fuel and supplies

•Western doctors and missionaries believed they had a duty to bring medicine and Christianity to “heathen” Africans and Asians.

People Who

Promoted Imperialis

m

Rudyard Kipling

British author of the poem,

“The White Man’s

Burden”

“The White Man’s Burden”

•Belief in the racial superiority of Germanic and Anglo-Saxon peoples

•The “white man” has the responsibility of improving the lives of less advanced cultures

Excerpt from “The White Man’s Burden”

Take up the White Man’s burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Go send your sons to exile To serve your captives' need To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child.

Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan

Alfred T. Mahan• Navy Captain (eventually

Admiral)• 1890 - Wrote The Influence of

Sea Power Upon History • Argued that the greatest nation

was the one with strongest navy• Pushed for expansion of the U.S.

Navy and the need for new territories

Mahan’s book influenced

Congress to appropriate

money to build up the

U.S. Navy

Henry Cabot Lodge

• Powerful U.S. Senator from Massachusetts

• Major supporter of imperialism

William Randolph

Hearst

William Randolph Hearst

• Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist• Newspaper publisher• Changed American journalism by

reporting sensational stories (crimes, murders, scandals, etc.)

• Stories not always totally factual• “Yellow Journalism”

William McKinley

• 1896 – 1901• Annexed Hawaii• Annexed Samoa• Took Cuba, Puerto Rico, and

the Philippines from Spain• Refused to grant

independence to the Philippines

JingoismAn intense desire for an

aggressive expansionist foreign policy in the 1890’s

Supporters of expansion were sometimes called “jingoes” by those who did not agree with them.

William McKinley = jingo

America Expands

Hawaii• 1887

– Trade treaty allowed Hawaii to export sugar to U.S. duty (tariff) free

– Pearl Harbor leased to the U.S. as a fueling station

• 1891 – King Kalakaua dies– Queen Liliuokalani takes throne

Hawaii• 1893

– U.S. Marines help pineapple planter Sanford B. Dole to remove Queen Liliuokalani from power

– Dole proclaims Hawaii to be a republic, and himself President

• 1898– Congress approves the annexation

of Hawaii against the protest of Liliuokalani

Hawaii“We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is Manifest Destiny.”

President William McKinley, 1898

Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii

Sanford Balland Dole

Pineapple Planter & President of Republic

of Hawaii

The Importance of Hawaii in U.S. Trade

Samoa

Pago Pago, Samoa

Pago Pago Harbor

Samoa• Pacific Island• Pago Pago Harbor• 1889 - Became a protectorate of

Germany, Britain, & U.S.• 1899 – annexed by the U.S. as a base

for trade with Asian countries

The Spanish-American War

1898A “splendid little war”

fought between Spain and America for territorial

control in the Caribbean and Pacific

Cuban Rebellion 1895• Small island 90 miles from Florida –

colony of Spain• Cubans rebelled against Spain• General Valeriano Weyler and 150,000

troops were sent to stop revolt• Weyler forced 100’s of thousands of

Cubans into “re-concentration” camps• Over 200,000 died of disease and

starvation

Cuba – 90 Miles from Florida Keys

Havana, Cuba Florida Keys

The “Butcher Weyler”

“Reconcentration” Victims in

Cuba

Caption: The duty of the hour . . . To save her not only from Spain but from a worse fate.

The de Lôme Letter, Feb.

1898• Written by the Spanish Written by the Spanish

ambassador, de Lômeambassador, de Lôme• De Lôme insulted President De Lôme insulted President

McKinleyMcKinley• Intercepted by Cuban rebelsIntercepted by Cuban rebels• Published by W. R. HearstPublished by W. R. Hearst• Intensified anti-Spanish feelings Intensified anti-Spanish feelings

in U.S.in U.S.

Dupuy de Lôme

Spanish Ambassador

to Washington

The Ambassador had said

that McKinley was . . .

““weak and a bidder for the weak and a bidder for the admiration of the crowd, besides admiration of the crowd, besides being a would-be politician who being a would-be politician who tries to leave a door open behind tries to leave a door open behind himself while keeping on good himself while keeping on good terms with the jingoes of his terms with the jingoes of his party”party”

U.S.S. Maine• U.S. battleship• Jan. 1898 - President McKinley

sends it to Havana, the capital of Cuba, to protect American citizens and property during rioting

• Mysteriously explodes on Feb. 15• 260 American sailors killed

U.S.S. Maine

Painting of the Sinking of the U.S.S Maine

The U.S.S. Maine Sinks

Funeral for the Victims of the Maine

U.S.S. Maine Mast Monument

at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia

U.S.S. Maine Mast

Monument,

surrounded by

graves of those who died in the explosion

Graves of Unknown Sailors Who Died on the U.S.S. Maine

McKinley’s War Message• March 1898 – McKinley sends Spain a

list of 4 demands (including Cuban independence)

• Spain refuses to grant Cubans freedom• April 11 – McKinley asks Congress to

declare war against Spain• Americans demand war –

“Remember the Maine!” “To hell with Spain!”

Teddy Roosevel

t as Assistant Secretary

of the Navy

Battle of Manila Bay• In February, 1898 TR, Asst. Sec. of the

Navy, sent orders to Admiral Dewey to prepare the U.S. fleet at Hong Kong to launch an attack against Manila Bay if war broke out.

• May 1, 1898 - Admiral Dewey launches a surprise attack on Spanish ships anchored in Manila Bay

• Destroys Spain’s entire Pacific fleet (10 old ships)

• Battle takes 7 hours

The Philippines

A prime location for trade and

naval operations

Dewey’s Route to the Philippines

Dewey’s Route to Manila

Admiral Dewey’s Ship, The Olympia

Manila Bay, The Philippines

Admiral George Dewey,

Liberator of the

Philippines

Admiral Dewey

William McKinley

Meanwhile . . .

back in the

Caribbean

• TR resigns as Asst. Sec. of the Navy• Begins a volunteer regiment - the

First Volunteer Cavalry • A diverse group of firemen,

policemen, miners, cowboys and athletes recruited by TR

TR and the Rough Riders

Battle of San Juan Hill

• July 1, 1898• The Rough Riders led an

invasion of Cuba by charging up San Juan Hill and capturing it within minutes

Fredric Remington’s Rough Riders’ Charge up

San Juan Hill

Treaty of Paris• Signed in December 1898 • U.S. paid Spain $20 million• Spain recognized Cuban independence• Spain gave the U.S. the Philippines,

Puerto Rico, and Guam• These islands became “unincorporated”

territories of U.S. – not to become states• Acquisition of new territory was hotly

debated by anti-imperialists in the Senate

26

Territorial Acquisitions

from the Spanish- American War

The Pacific Ocean

The Caribbean Sea

Cuba

Cuba• Cuba became independent nation• McKinley installed a military

government for 3 years• Set up school system and

restored economic stability• 1900 – Cubans allowed to draft

their own constitution – modeled on U.S.

Cuba• U.S. required Cuba to include

provisions of the Platt Amendment– Cuban govt could not enter any

foreign agreements – U.S. was allowed to establish

naval bases in Cuba as needed– U.S. had right to intervene

when necessary

Puerto Rico• Did not become independent• U.S. Military government until 1900• 1917 – Puerto Ricans were granted

U.S. citizenship• They could elect their local

legislators, but could not send reps to U.S. Congress

• U.S. kept power to appoint key officials, such as the governor

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Philippines

Guam

Pacific Islands Acquired

Guam – Island in

the South Pacific –

east of the Philippines

The Philippines• January 1899 –

Rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo declared the Philippines to be a republic

• America ignores this• February 1899 – War

erupts between rebel forces and American soldiers

Native Filipinos

President McKinley justifies his policy toward the Philippines:

“We could not leave them to themselves – they were unfit for self-government, and they would soon have anarchy and misrule worse than Spain’s was . . . There was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them. . .”

Caption reads:

“The Filipino’s

First Bath”

Why do you shed all this blood; why do you spend all this energy, all these millions of dollars? Is it for our good or for your own? Sixto Lopez, Filipino leader, in letter to U.S. General Wheeler

A Filipino viewpoint of the war:

How some saw the new U.S. role in

the Philippines

Filipino Soldiers

Filipino-American War

• Lasted 3 years• 4,000 Americans killed• 3,000 Americans wounded• Cost U.S. $160 million• 16,000 Filipino soldiers killed• 200,000 Filipino civilians died

Gregorio del Pilar

Filipino Rebel

Promoted to General at age

22

Dead at age 24

Filipino Casualties

Caption reads:

The American Artillery did wonderful execution in the battles with the Insurgents. In a trench at Santa Ana the Tagal dead lay in piles. The group shown in the picture consisted of thirty-eight bodies.

Skeletal remains of Filipino insurgents

Surrender of Filipino Insurgents - 1902

One More Imperialistic Gain:

The Panama Canal

The Isthmus of Panama

Panama Canal• Panama – a province of Colombia• 1879 – a French company buys a 25

year land concession from Colombia to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama

• 1889 - Project fails

Panama Canal• French company offers to sell its

rights to U.S. $100 million• 1902 – price lowered to $40 million• U.S. tries to work out a treaty with

Colombia• Colombia stalls, hoping for a higher

offer on the land

Panama Canal• 1902 – TR secretly promises American

support of a Panamanian revolt against Colombia

• 1903 – TR sends U.S. warships to wait offshore

• Revolution lasts ONE day• U.S. immediately recognizes Panama’s

independence

Panama Canal• U.S. signed a treaty with Panama

giving us a 10-mile wide canal zone• U.S. would have complete

sovereignty over area • U.S. paid Panama $10 million and

Columbia $20 million

Panama Canal• 100,000 workers worked 7 days a

week for 10 years• Malaria and yellow fever spread by

mosquitoes killed 6,000 workers • Canal was completed in 1914 ahead

of schedule and under budget

TR Visits the Canal

Zone

Why Important?

The Panama Canal provides a faster route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean

The Panama Canal

System of locks at the canal

Imperialistic Foreign Policyand American Presidents

1890 -1915

(an overview)

Spheres of

Influence

Spheres of Influence

• Areas of economic and political control in a region

• The Pacific and Caribbean had become spheres of influence for the U.S.

• European and Asian countries had exclusive control and trading rights in different areas of China

America’s Spheres of Influence

Pacific and Caribbean

Spheres of Influence in

China

Open Door Policy

• McKinley wanted an “open door” to China

• All countries, including the U.S., would be allowed to trade freely with China

How Europeans Saw the “Open Door”

Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” Diplomacy

• TR - “Speak softly, and carry a big stick; you will go far.”

• The big stick = U.S. Navy • The threat of American military force

and intervention in other nations’ problems would strengthen our position as a world power

The Great White Fleet

• December 1907• Roosevelt sends part of the

U.S. Navy fleet on a cruise around the world

• Purpose was to demonstrate our impressive naval power

Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet Sails Around the Globe

Big Stick Diplomacy

Roosevelt Corollary• 1904 - An informal addition to the

Monroe Doctrine• The U.S. would not intervene in

other countries’ affairs, unless they negatively affected U.S. interests

• The U.S. would not allow Europeans to intervene in the western hemisphere

When Santo Domingo goes bankrupt, Roosevelt Corollary is used to protect the island from European nations

Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy

• Taft wanted to “substitute dollars for bullets”

• U.S. investment in foreign nations would help to maintain orderly societies

• Creates enemies in the Caribbean who hated U.S. influence

U.S. Interventions in Latin America

Wilson’s Moral Diplomacy

• The U. S. shouldThe U. S. should– be the consciencebe the conscience

of the worldof the world– spread democracyspread democracy– promote peacepromote peace– condemn condemn

colonialismcolonialism

Wilson Teaches a Lesson in

Moral Diplomacy