#505 An American Empire

A Republican campaign poster from the election of 1900 links prosperity at home and benevolent imperialism abroad as achievements of William McKinley's first term in office. Caption from Foner, 540. Image source: Wikimedia.

“A lesson for anti-expansionists: showing how Uncle Sam has been an expansion first, last, and all the time,” Victor Gillam, Judge, 1899.

Preparation:

• See assignment #505.​

Brainstorm:

• With a partner, consider possible answers to the question: "In what ways might industrialization have contributed to U.S. empire-building abroad?"

Brief background:

• In some sense the American project had been “imperialist” since its inception.
  • Early on European colonization necessitated gradually removing previous occupants of the land
  • In 1780, Jefferson described the new nation as an “empire of liberty” that would stretch westward across the continent
  • Much of the period until battle at Wounded Knee in 1890 (when the U.S. Census Bureau declared the Western frontier officially “closed”) was dedicated to the continental or “internal” frontier
• But U.S. looked beyond abroad even earlier:
  • 1823 Monroe Doctrine asserted U.S. sphere of influence in Latin America against future European colonization
  • 1846-48 Mexican-American War transferred more than a third of Mexican territory to United States​

U.S. expansion to 1853.

U.S. expansion after 1853

"New imperialism" in Africa and Asia, 1900

Partner activity:

U.S. State Department published record of U.S. involvement abroad showing 103 interventions between the years 1798 and 1895. Consider the follow sampling of record from 1852-1894 and identify any patterns you can observe:

• 1852-53 – Argentina – Marines were landed and maintained in Buenos Aires to protect American interests during a revolution.
• 1853 – Nicaragua – to protect American lives and interests during political disturbances.
• 1853-54 – Japan – The "Opening of Japan" and the Perry Expedition. [The State Department does not give more details, but this involved the use of warships to force Japan to open its ports to the United States].
• 1853-54 – Ryukyu and Bonin Islands – Commodore Perry on three visits before going to Japan and while waiting for a reply from Japan made a naval demonstration, landing marines twice, and secured a coaling concession from the ruler of Naha on Okinawa. He also demonstrated in the Bonin Islands. All to secure facilities for commerce.
• 1854 – Nicaragua – San Juan del Norte [Greytown was destroyed to avenge an insult to the American Minister to Nicaragua.]
• 1855 – Uruguay – U.S. and European naval forces landed to protect American interests during an attempted revolution in Montevideo.
• 1859 – China – For the protection of American interests in Shanghai.
• 1860 – Angola, Portuguese West Africa – To protect American lives and property at Kissembo when the natives became troublesome.
• 1893 – Hawaii – Ostensibly to protect American lives and property; actually to promote a provisional government under Sanford B. Dole. This action was disavowed by the United States.
• 1894 – Nicaragua – To protect American interests at Bluefields following a revolution.

Next, consider the following two quotes from the period immediately afterward. Answer the discussion questions that follow.

Selection A: Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge (Massachusetts), “The Business World vs. the Politicians” (1895):

In the interests of our commerce . . . we should build the Nicaragua canal, and for the protection of that canal and for the sake of our commercial supremacy in the Pacific we should control the Hawaiian islands and maintain our influence in Samoa . . . and when the Nicaraguan canal is built, the island of Cuba . . . will become a necessity. . . . The great nations are rapidly absorbing for their future expansion and their present defense all the waste places of the earth. It is a movement which makes for civilization and the advancement of the race. As one of the great nations of the world the United States must not fall out of the line of march.

Selection B: The Washington Post editorial on the eve of the Spanish-American War (1898):

A new consciousness seems to have come upon us -- the consciousness of strength -- and with it a new appetite, the yearning to show our strength. . . . Ambition, interest, land hunger, pride, the mere joy of fighting, whatever it may be, we are animated by a new sensation. We are face to face with a strange destiny. The taste of Empire is in the mouth of the people even as the taste of blood in the jungle. . . .

Discussion Questions:

1. Identify the key goals of pro-expansionist voices.
2. Are these arguments consistent with what you have read in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution? Why or why not?