Chapter 18

What reasons could a country have for wanting control over other nations? Discuss with your tables and be prepared to answer.

Define imperialism.

Analyze the reasons that a country would engage in the policy of imperialism.

Describe early American imperialism.

Five of the motives for imperialism are hanging up around the room. You should go to each station to fill out the first three columns of your Motives for Imperialism sheet. Then you will return to your desk and answer the question in the last column for each motive.

You have 15 minutes to complete this task.

Policy by which strong nations extend their political, military, and economic control over weaker territories

Extractive – remove raw materials & ship to the home country

Economic – Raw materials, markets for finished products, fuel industrial revolution

Political – Strengthened your country’s power/prestige in the world

Military – Needed stronger military to protect growing interests and trade; provided bases

Social – Belief in racial, national and cultural superiority ◦ Social Darwinism – only the fittest survive ◦ Humanitarian – spread Christianity and western ideals ◦ Turner – west was a “safety valve” but now closed; needed

outlets (Manifest Destiny)

America keeps to itself ◦ George Washington ◦ Monroe Doctrine

Didn’t need resources but needed markets

Alfred T. Mahan urges a strong navy & acquisition of foreign bases

Matthew Perry enters Tokyo Bay & opens up trade with Japan

Set precedent for further expansion

William Seward purchases Alaska for $7.2 million ◦ Seward’s Folly (Icebox) ◦ Rich in timber, ore, oil

Increased trade with Latin America ◦ Pan American Highway

U.S. acquires Hawaii

Planters had large investments – sugar cane, pineapple (Dole)

Overthrew Hawaiian Queen – Liliuokalani (strong Hawaiian nationalist) ◦ She had resisted American control

◦ Eventually annexed

If you had been President in 1894, would you have supported or opposed the annexation of Hawaii? Give reasons for your answer.

Cubans rebel against Spanish rule ◦ Jose Marti – rebel ◦ Thousands put into

concentration camps; starved, died of disease

◦ Guerillas often rely on locals ◦ Many Americans sympathized

with rebels

Yellow Press ◦ Hearst & Pulitzer printed

sensational and inflammatory stories to sell papers

◦ Led to widespread anti-Spanish feeling; jingoism – strong U.S. nationalism

McKinley sends the USS Maine to protect Americans in Cuba ◦ Ship blows up – Spain blamed but no proof;

enraged

◦ 266 Americans died

◦ http://www.history.com/videos/mckinley-faces-war-assassination

George Dewey sends U.S. navy into Manila Bay (Philippines)

Crushes navy easily Emilio Aguinaldo – Filipino

nationalist also fighting Spanish

U.S. forces win in Cuba Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough

Riders” storm San Juan Hill http://www.history.com/videos/roosev

elt-fights-in-spanish-american-war

War is over – “splendid little war”

3,000 casualties but most from malaria, yellow fever

Americans debate our role in Cuba & Philippines

Do we remain as an imperialist nation or let them govern themselves?

Treaty of Paris debated

Election of 1900 – McKinley runs with war hero Teddy Roosevelt

Wins election

Establishes America’s role

Would govern new countries

Turning point for U.S. as a world power

The Philippines ◦ “Unfit for self-

government”

◦ U.S.- Filipino War

◦ Filipinos fought fiercely Guerilla war

200,000 died

5,000 Americans

Brutal treatment of Filipino people

Interests in China

“Spheres of Influence” – GB, France, Russia, Germany

John Jay opens door to U.S. trade

Boxer Rebellion – Chinese resistance to foreigners ◦ Uprising killed foreigners ◦ Eventually put down by

international force

Open Door Policy

Stated we didn’t want Chinese territory, just trade

Roosevelt negotiates end to Russo Japanese War & gains prestige (Nobel Prize)

Sends out the “Great White Fleet” – U.S. navy to showcase our navy (intimidate?)

Puerto Rico – could enjoy some citizenship rights

Cuba – Platt Amendment ◦ U.S. could intervene in

Cuba

◦ Trade only with U.S.

◦ Upset many Cubans

Roosevelt’s Big Stick Diplomacy

“Speak softly but carry a big stick”

Imperialistic view of the world

Moral responsibility to “civilize” or protect weak nations

“White Man’s Burden”

http://www.history.com/videos/theodore-roosevelts-acts-and-legacy

Building a Canal

◦ France attempts/fails

◦ Panama controlled by Columbia

◦ Roosevelt sends ships to support “Liberation” of Panama

◦ Independence from Columbia; now could build a canal

◦ http://www.history.com/videos/guts--bolts-panama-canal---locks

◦ http://www.history.com/videos/guts--bolts-panama-canal---locomotives

◦ Roosevelt Corollary (to Monroe Doctrine) – U.S. would be police power to protect Latin America

“Substituting dollars for bullets”

Rely less on big stick diplomacy

Investments in Latin America

Intervened in DR, Haiti, Mexico, to prop up friendly govts.

Many Latin Americans disliked U.S. involvement

Wilson’s “moral diplomacy” ◦ Pursue foreign relations

without aggression ◦ Did send troops to several

areas though

Puerto Rico ◦ U.S. citizens

◦ No voting rights

◦ Subject to military service & federal laws

◦ No federal income tax

◦ Have voted in favor of status w/U.S. but there is an independence movement

Guam ◦ U.S. citizens

◦ Representatives in U.S. Congress but they are nonvoting

◦ No voting in presidential elections

◦ U.S. navy occupies 1/3 of the island

U.S. Virgin Islands

American Samoa

Mariana Islands

Midway Islands

Wake Island

Johnston Atoll

Baker, Howland, Jarvis Islands

Kingman Reef

Navassa Island

Palmyra Atoll – Great book And the Sea Will Tell, by Vincent Bugliosi (Manson writer); double murder on the island