APUSH Chapter 27 Empire and Expansion

● US desires expansion
○ reasons
■ markets; starting to overproduce
■ “yellow press” - foreign exploits = great adventure
■ missionary targets
● following Josiah Strong’s Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its
Present Crisis
■ social Darwinism: US is fit, it should conquer (TR, Con/Sen Henry Lodge)
● Africa and China
○ desire fueled by the new steel navy
■ Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan’s The Influence of Sea Power upon History,
1660-1783 (1890)
● helped inspire worldwide naval race
■ control of sea = word dominance
● Latin America
○ Sec of State James G. Blaine pushed “Big Sister” Policy
■ unite LA under US
■ open all LA markets to US
○ 1889: Blaine lead first Pan-American Conference in DC
■ first of many assemblages
○ see Cuba
● US foreign crises
○ many such problems in late 1880s and early 1890s
○ 1889 - US vs Germany for South Pacific Samoan Islands
■ almost came to navies fighting
■ 1899 - land divided between two countries
● German Samoa later became republic
● US Samoa is in US possession
○ 1891 - 11 Italians lynched in New Orleans
■ US and Italy at brink of war
■ US agreed to pay compensation
○ 1892 - two US sailors dead in port of Valparaiso if Chile
■ US made many demands
■ hostility seemingly inevitable
■ Chileans paid indemnity
○ 1893 - US vs Canada over seal hunting
■ in Pribilof Islands off Alaska
■ solved with arbitration
○ US showed aggressiveness (war over small matters)
● Britain changes its treatment of US
○ 1895-1896: long time boundary conflict of British Guiana and Venezuela
 ■ gold discovered: conflict intensified
○ Pres. Cleveland + Sec of State Richard Olney invoked Monroe Doctrine
■ Olney said US was “boss” of the West
■ ignored by the British; not the business of the US
○ Cleveland asked Congress for commission of experts to determine boundary
■ US would fight for this line
○ all citizens united for this issue
■ no parties, ready for war
○ US and British consented to arbitration
■ problems in Europe: Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, Boers of S. Africa
○ Great Rapprochement (reconciliation)
■ British sought US friendship
■ foreign policies later influenced by this
● Hawaii
○ 1820s: first New England missionaries arrived
■ did well, made Hawaii known for sugar production
○ 1840s: State Department warn other countries
■ Hawaii was the US’s
○ 1887: treaty with Hawaii - got Pearl Harbor
○ natives killed off through diseases
■ 1 / 6 times population compared to at first European contact
■ US bosses hired Asians
● by 1900, Asians outnumbered both whites and natives
○ 1890: McKinley Tariff made Hawaiian products expensive
■ planters wanted to annex Hawaii
○ Queen Liliuokalani against annexation
● for: self-rule
● wrote many songs (“Aloha Oe”)
● 1893: whites successfully revolted, dethroned queen
○ annexation treaty rushed to DC
■ Rep. Harrison out, Dem. Cleveland in
■ Cleveland felt sorry for Liliuokalani
● could not restore her, withdrew treaty
■ fact: majority of natives against annexation
○ Hawaii annexed on July 7, 1898, full status in 1900
■ feared Japan taking islands
■ needed coaling/provisioning station
● US had taken Philippines from Spain
● Cuba
○ Cuba fed up with Spanish rule, revolted in 1895
■ misgoverned
■ sugar industry crippled by US tariff of 1894
○ pre-US war
■ insurrectos used scorched-earth policy
 ● burned down sugar mills, dynamited passenger trains, etc.
● helped by Cuban citizens
■ Spain sent General “Butcher” Weyler
● moved civilians to reconcentration camps
○ no more help to insurgents
● camps had no sanitation
○ pestholes, many deaths
○ US rationale to join war
■ US business invested $50 million in Cuba
● $100 million annually
■ lay next to upcoming Panama Canal
● Sen. Lodge: control Cuba, control Gulf of Mexico
■ yellow journalism
● interesting news, not always true
○ written for a certain response
● by William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer
○ Hearst hired Frederic Remington to sketch Cuban images
○ manipulated facts
○ published letter from Spanish minister in US
■ Dupuy de Lome letter
■ harshly criticized McKinley
● infuriated public, wanted to help Cubans
■ Maine explosion
● early 1898, battleship sent to protect Americans
● Feb. 15, 1898, mysteriously blew up
○ 260 sailors killed
● Spain said accident, US said sabotage
○ still no real answer
● US wanted revenge: war
■ McKinley conflicted
● Madrid already agreed to end camps + armistice
● McKinley did not want conflict
○ did not want Cuba independent or with Spain
● TR wanted action; believed McKinley weak
● Apr. 11, 1898 - asked Congress for war (“free Cubans”)
○ added Teller Amendment
■ leave Cuba after overthrowing Spanish
○ The War
■ Spain sent substandard warships to Cuba
● frightened US vacationers
● moved to Santiago Harbor
○ blockaded by US fleet
■ US decided to go in the rear to drive out Spanish ships
● under General William R. Shafter
 ● troops unequipped, unready
● included Rough Riders
○ volunteers from convicts to cowboys
○ under Colonel Leonard Wood, formed by TR
■ mid-June: 17,000 US men went from Tampa, FL
● distraction by Cuban insurrectos
● Shafter’s troops landed near Santiago, little opposition
■ July 1: fighting started at El Caney + Kettle Hill
● heavy casualties
■ US closed in on Santiago
● July 3: Spanish came out harbor, meeting US fleet
■ US rushed to capture Puerto Rico
■ armistice signed Aug. 12, 1898
○ Looking Back
■ US suffered: malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, yellow fever
● would have lost in months
■ unhealthy canned meat
■ 400 dead from bullets, 5,000+ dead to other reasons