Seizing an American Empire (Key Events That Continue Today)

Pink	China
Light Red	Hawaii/Pacific (including Alaska, Philippines, Guam, Samoa, Wake Island)
Light Grey	Latin America/Caribbean
Teal	Germany (the closest color to the one on the World Map)

Background in the United States and World Imperialism

1. Before the Civil War, the Pageant textbook explains that United States had the Monroe Doctrine:

· In 1823, a combination of verbal support for new republics (185) and the ”Self-Defense Doctrine” by avoiding an enemy “foothold” (187)

What is self-defense: “the act of defending oneself, one's property, or a close relative” or “an affirmative defense (as to a murder charge) alleging that the defendant used force necessarily to protect himself or herself because of a reasonable belief that the other party intended to inflict great bodily harm or death” (URL: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self-defense)

· In the 1840s, with Texas annexation because of feared British desires (272)

· In the 1840s, combined with “manifest destiny,” a term usually associated with newspaperman John Louis O’Sullivan

· In the 1840s, with the Mexican War and the subsequent Mexican territories gained to the West Coast, including the “golden prize” of California rumored to be a British desire (276)

· In the 1860s during the American Civil War, with the French taking over Mexico and US action limited until after the defeat of the South when Secretary of State Seward uses diplomacy and treats to get the French to leave.

(URL: https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/seward - covers both this event and the purchase of Alaska)

2. Before the Civil War and after it, the US had racism toward African Americans and had anti-immigrant (nativism) responses to the Irish and others.

3. Since the late 1400s, European nation-states created colonies in the Americas, the Caribbean, and the Far East—but not Africa.

4. In the late part of the 1800s, European nation (and Japan) made one last race for empire. (See the map of imperialism in 1900 in the course.) This imperialistic push included 2 late comers:

· Germany

· United States

Background: 1860s - Alaska – Seward’s “Folly” (but later gold and oil)

19	Date	Presidential Election	Beyond America
	1865-04	A. Johnson, President
	1867-02		Russia, Alaska as willing sale; bribes

Late 1880s and 1890s Events and People Who Have Ripple Effects

1885 Josiah Strong – – Letting Him Speak for Himself

· Background – Minister and popularizer

· Author of Our Country: Its Popular Future and Its Present Crisis Representative quotation.
“God with infinite wisdom and skill, is training the Anglo-Saxon race for an hour sure to come in the world's future. … And can anyone doubt that the result of this competition of races will be the "survival of the fittest?" [Bold added]
If you want to read the text where the … are click here (URL: http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~ppennock/doc-JStrong.htm )
Notice that racism and considering national origin a race and Herbert Spenser’s Social Darwinism is part of the world view

1890 US Demographics – Census Bureau declares the end of the frontier

Think what that means at least these 2 groups:

· For those not doing well and looking for a fresh start

· For manufactures and sellers of good

1890s Alfred Thayer Mahon (1840-1914) – Letting Him Speak for Himself

Background– naval officer; lecturer on naval history and what is called “tactics”
Author of Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783 in 1890-among other books, including one that goes to 1812
Who is the big sea power 1660-1812?

· Influential in the United States, on the US Secretaries of the Navy and particularly on Theodore Roosevelt, and on Germany

· Major arguments:

o Big navy is quantity and in size of ships (battleships) (Why?0

o Naval bases (Why?)

o Colonies (Why?)

· Representative quotations:

o “Whether they will or not, Americans must now begin to look outward. The growing production of the country demands it.”
The Interest of America in Sea Power (1897) Why?

o “War now not only occurs more rarely . . . [but is] an occasional excess, from which recovery is easy."
Not from my book collection but I had been looking for it and this—thus far—is the closest I can find. Click here for the source. (URL: Click http://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/remarkable_columbians/alfred_thayer_mahan.html)
Notice the date of his death. How did the years beginning in 1914 modify that view by Europe and the US?

1890s Rivalry -Yellow Journalism, Pulitzer, and Hearst – the New Journalism and New Goal

· Yellow Journalism – why the name?

· William Randolph Hearst – New York Journal

· Joseph Pulitzer – New York World - What else is Pulitzer known for?

1882 1894 Reminders of the Chinese and the Beginning of What Happens to Hawaii

	Date	Presidential Election	Beyond America	Gov. Institutions		US Land		US Economy	Issue/Organization	Political Party
>	1882			Chinese Exclusion Act – 10 year
	1887-02		Hawaii-US treaty renewed & sugar			…
	1888-11	Benjamin Harrison v. Grover Cleveland
	1889-04					Oklahoma Land Rush			Hull House– Jane Addams
	1890			Sherman Anti-Trust		Wounded Knee, South Dakota		McKinley Tariff & sugar in Hawaii
>	1890		A.T. Mahan - The Influence of Sea Power upon History			Census Bureau: end of frontier
	1890		A.T. Mahan - The Influence of Sea Power upon History			Census Bureau: end of frontier		Sherman Silver Purchase Act
>	1892			Chinese – new 10 year extension
	Date	Presidential Election	Beyond America	Gov. Institutions		US Land		US Economy	Issue/Organization	Political Party
>	1892-01		Coup, Hawaii – Sanford B. Dole,^{^[i]} elected President; US minister to Hawaii declaration of US protectorate–	Ellis Island opens					Homer A. Plessy, case begins
>	1892-02		Hawaii annexation treaty proposed
	1892-11	Benjamin Harrison v. Grover Cleveland v. James B. Weaver					Panic of 1893
>	1893-03	Cleveland’s decision	Hawaii investigation
	1893-08	Cleveland, special session -Why?
	1893-11						Sherman Silver Purchase Act -repeal
>	1893-12	Cleveland’s decision	Hawaii annexation treaty not submitted
>	1894		Republic of Hawaii recognized				Pullman Strike – American Railway Union Strike – E.V. Debs		“Legal Tender” Jacob Coxey’s Army – petition for road building (jobs)
	1895				Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co.^{^[1]}		US Bond sale - handled by J.P. Morgan		Atlanta Exposition^{^[ii]} speech – Booker T. Washington

1895-1899 Cuba (The Teller Amendment), Puerto Rico, Guam (and 2 more Pacific Island), the Ending of Hawaii, and the Surprise That Is the Philippines

Caution about this Period: What’s guerrilla warfare? This is a different kind of world:

· Spain and the reconcentration camps (bad and deadly, but not the Nazi version in the 1940s) against groups wanting Cuba to be a nation (and the British version of this)

· United States and its methods in the Philippines

	Date	Presidential Election	Beyond America	Gov. Institutions	US Land	Issue/Organization	Political Party
	1895		Cuban rebellion	Knight case –Supreme Court
	1896		Cubans establish a PR branch in the US	Plessy V. Ferguson - decided
	1896-11	William McKinley vs. William Jennings Bryan					Populist support for Bryan - What are the Populists’ issues.
>	1898-01		Cuban riot
>	1898-028-01		Battleship Maine –US sends de Lôme letter			Reminder: Hearst and Pulitzer –
	1898-02		Maine explosion
	1908		War authorized - Teller Amendment
>	1898-05		Dewey in Manilla – Planned since 1895
>	1898-07				Hawaii annexation – by joint resolution (not treaty) *- Why? When before?*
>	1898-11					US -Anti-Imperialist League formed- key issue will be the Philippines
>	1899		Treaty ending war - Senate approval	Notice Cuba is not in this list >	Guam Philippines Puerto Rico
>			Filipino resistance - Emilio Aguinaldo			<Caution This unrest continues

1899-1901 Cuba (The Platt Amendment), China, and the Ending the Philippine Insurrection

	Date	Presidential Election	Beyond America	Gov. Institutions	US Land	Issue/Organization	Political Party
> >	1899		Open Door – China – trade –Secretary of State John Hay[iii]		Annexation - Wake Island - Eastern Samoa Islands- US splits Samoa with Germany
	1900-08		Boxer Rebellion and US troops
>	1901		Aquinaldo capture (resistance through 1902, 1906) – end military rule; Taft, governor.			<Caution This unrest continues
>	1901-03		Platt Amendment –Cuba - Guantanamo and our right to intervene	< Notice US indirectly took Cuba

Background: Terms on Spanish American War:

· “Smoked Yankees” – name for African Americans (not in the test, but a clue to the world)

· “splendid little war” – phrase by John Hay

· Rough Riders

WCJC Department:	History – Dr. Bibus
Contact Information:	281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu
Last Updated:	2019
WCJC Home:	http://www.wcjc.edu/

[1] It is the 1894 income tax that goes to the Supreme Court and the court declares this tax unconstitutional—thus the later amendment to the Constitution.