The Origins of the American Empire

I. Timing of an expansionist foreign policy – Why now?

-- Industrial expansion convinces some U.S. politicians and businessmen to pay more attention to countries abroad as possible markets for American products. The European market offers tangible gains. Elsewhere, there is only “potential” for gains. Much of this “potential” is overstated – especially the so-called China market.

-- The Depression of 1893 gives a sense of urgency – “We must gain foreign markets before the next depression hits.”

-- The other Great Powers – France, England, Germany, Japan, and Russia – appear to be expanding their influence into the non-industrialized world and the Americans fear they are being “shut out.”

Even if we don’t yet have markets to exploit, we need to expand our influence in the developing world before other nations get ahead of us.

-- Political turmoil also leads some officials to focus on an expansionist foreign policy so as to distract attention from problems at home. Anti-British sentiment always excites the people, so politicians take shots at England just to win votes.

-- Crisis in VENEZUALA involving the British allegedly “encroaching” in the U.S. sphere of influence perceived as demanding a U.S. response. If there is no response, then other nations will see the Americans as weak. America’s success in mediating the crisis led many to conclude the nation could get what it wanted with threats and bluster – since it’s real power, at least military power, was rather limited.

-- A broader cultural trend also leads to public support for a more expansionist and assertive foreign policy

GENDERED LANGUAGE EMERGES à late 19^th Century “crisis of masculinity”

New generation of men have no military experience, no “war stories” to tell and/or exaggerate. Tired of hearing their fathers and uncles tell Civil War stories.

Also, with the closing of the frontier, rapid urbanization, and the emergence a of industrialized and bureaucratized economy, men are no longer “rugged individualists” but white collar drones working in a “feminized” office setting. This further stokes the desires of many middle-class men for the “manly” experience of combat.

Given these various factors, it isn’t that surprising the when war clouds gather in Cuba, many Americans are itching to get involved.

II. The Spanish-American War

A. ORIGINS

1868. CUBA LIBRE! Movement begins. Spanish imperial government is corrupt and authoritarian. Small clique of Spanish landowners exploit the labor of native workers and treat them terribly. The Spanish military backs them up with guns.

U.S. government defends Cubans and protests Spain’s policies. Spain promises reform. None forthcoming.

But the U.S. is preoccupied with Reconstruction and does not take any active interest in the Cuban crisis.

1895. Cuban rebels take up a new strategy. To get rid of the Spanish, cut their source of revenue. BURN the sugar cane fields.

“Work is a crime against the Revolution! Blessed be the Torch!” – Maximo Gomez

SPAIN RESPONDS – sends in General Weyler to crack down. Known as “Butcher” Weyler, he institutes a CONCENTRATION policy à

Put people in camps to keep them away from sabotaging the fields and to keep them away from the influence of the revolutionaries. If people leave the camps, they get shot.

Pent up in overcrowded cities, BETWEEN 100.000 and 400.000 civilians die of hunger or disease as a result of this policy.

Why is it a STUPID POLICY?

1. Alienates professional middle class that would have been satisfied with home rule rather than independence.

2. Deprives Spanish planters of their labor and diverts military protection that they were given from the fields to the cities.

3. Spurs outrage in the United States. Demands for Cuban independence increase. The Spaniards, who may have been ready to back off anyway (hanging on to Cuba was costing the government more money than the planters were making in profits), now find they must stand their ground or lose face. If the Spanish government loses face, its own people could vote it out of power. On the other hand, if Spain keeps Cuba, the Spanish people will have to pay higher taxes to sustain the military. Spanish government is in a difficult position.

The situation deteriorates quickly in Cuba:

By the end of 1897 even the Spanish loyalists in Cuba want Weyler out.

B. What is the U.S. Position?

President McKinley condemns Spanish for breaking earlier promises of reform. New Spanish government removes Weyler and promises to heed U.S. warnings.

Penny press seizes on the sensational aspects of the story. Hearst and Pulitzer vie for most outrageous atrocity stories.

Hearst sends artist FREDERIC REMINGTON to “draw” the war.

R à “All is peaceful. No war to draw.”

H à “You supply the pictures. I’ll supply the war.”

BUT, CONTRARY TO LATER MYTHOLOGY, THE YELLOW PRESS DID NOT DRAG THE US INTO WAR.

No one in the heartland reads the Hearst papers, but people are still angry at the Spanish treatment of Cubans. Americans were very idealistic, had supported popular revolutions in Greece (1820s) and Hungary (1849). Not surprising that they would support a popular revolution so close to home.

CUBAN CAUSE APPEALS TO U.S. SENSE OF MISSION

Those disgusted with the increasingly commercial nature of the US – focus only on the bottom line and making money – and politics as usual see support of Cuban cause as an opportunity for a new MORAL RENEWAL – to recapture some of the idealism that had given birth to the United States.

Many conclude: It’s time to take up our DUTY as MEN – just as the Civil War generation had done.

WAS INTERVENTION A BIG BUSINESS CONSPIRACY?

Again, contrary to later mythology, NO. Most corporate leaders who have the President’s ear adamantly opposed the war. They fear instability will jeopardize recovery from 1893 depression.

Many publicists and some struggling small businessmen talked about the need for markets, but there isn’t much evidence they had any influence on the decision making processes of those in power.

Ironically, big business opposition to any U.S. intervention in the crisis fuels the idealism of the CUBA LIBRE! Movement.

Many reason, if business opposes U.S. involvement, it must be a good and righteous cause. So many anti-business Americans join in the chorus for war.

C. WAR BREAKS OUT

McKinley strongly opposed intervention. As a Civil War vet, he had “SEEN THE BODIES STACKED UP LIKE CORDS OF LUMBER.” He also knows the army is in shambles; generals are relics; there is no logistical infrastructure to launch an amphibious invasion of Cuba.

Pro-war JINGOES – i.e. Theodore Roosevelt – bait McKinley using gendered language that questions his manliness. Are you “yellow”?

According to Roosevelt, McKinley has the “backbone of a chocolate éclair.”

BY 1898…

Spanish oppression has resumed, despite McKinley’s continued written protests to the Spanish government.

DeLome letter ridiculing McKinley is leaked and printed in a Hearst paper. The letter is a challenge to the nation as well as McKinley’s manhood.

McKinley doesn’t want war, but must do something, so he

sends the USS Maine on a “good will” mission. Parked off the coast of Cuba, the Maine was a way of projecting American power without having to make any real commitments to war.

FEBRUARY 15 – MAINE EXPLODES.

IMMEDIATE CALLS FOR WAR IN AMERICAN PAPERS

McKinley doesn’t want war. STALL FOR TIME. APPOINT A COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE. McKinley stack the committee and tells it to conclude that the explosion was internal, and not the fault of the Spanish. Nonetheless, the committee concludes the Maine was destroyed by a mine.

Press cries: “REMEMBER THE MAINE!”

TIME STEP BACK and ASSESS the situation from each point of view….

CUBAN rebels think they’re on the brink of winning. They won’t back down, negotiate a cease fire, or compromise. They increase their demands on Spain.

SPANISH realize they can’t put down the rebellion, but can probably maintain the status quo, so they doesn’t have to yield and won’t yield for fear that the Spanish government will fall. Spanish public opinion won’t accept surrender. Yet Spain doesn’t really want to stay in Cuba – too expensive.

The Spanish conclude they need an honorable way out – much better to lose a war to the Americans than have the Cubans kick them out.

UNITED STATES McKinley under great pressure to intervene, even from Democrats who had previously opposed intervention. Midterm elections are coming up and the Democrats see they can make political hay by painting the President as weak.

MORE GENDERED TALK à are you a man or not?

McKinley sits up nights contemplating his next move. Finally, under pressure from fellow Republicans who fear his weak response will cost them seats in the midterm election, McKinley decides he will ask Congress for the authority to used the armed forces.

BACK TO THE STORY….

Spanish for call a unilateral cease fire. They know this won’t satisfy the Cubans or the Americans. Defeat in war seems the best way out for Spanish politicians, so they almost welcome war.

WAR FOR CUBA BEGINS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Admiral Dewey had been told to be ready to leave Hong Kong to attack the Spanish in the Philippines.

1 MAY – DEWEY STEAMS INTO MANILLA BAY

Harbor mined with mines… without fuses.

Battle begins: “You may fire when ready, Gridley!”

Spanish fleet wiped out in 5 hours. Eight US sailors wounded from flying wood splinters of exploding Spanish ships.

Dewey become the first hero of the war

OH DEWEY WAS THE MORNING

UPON THE FIRST OF MAY

AND DEWEY WAS THE ADMIRAL

DOWN IN MAILLA BAY

AND DEWEY WERE THE KING OF SPAIN’S EYES

THOSE ORBS OF ROYAL BLUE

AND DO WE FEEL DISCOURAGED?

I DO NOT THINK WE DO!

Babies named after him; GUM- Dewey’s Chewies; laxative; had his wife not been a Catholic, he might have been nominated for president.

ACROSS THE WORLD, A SECOND FRONT OPENS IN CUBA

Logistical nightmare. How to move 17,000 men from Florida to Cuba?

Roosevelt, eager to be the first one to Cuba, insists his Rough Riders land first.

TR’s horse pushed off the ship and instead of heading toward land promptly swims off to sea. Luckily, he brought a spare.

Meanwhile, Army uniforms stuck in a railroad depot for weeks -- Wool uniforms; embalmed beef “DISGUSTING IN TASTE EXCEPT TO THE MAGGOTS WHO GOT TO IT BEFORE THE SOLDIERS DID”

Bad sanitary conditions; 5400 DEAD 345 of them in battle

Army leadership was poor – ex-Civil War generals, some Confederate.

One charges up San Juan Hill yelling, “WE’VE GOT THE DAMN YANKEES ON THE RUN!”

No shortage of spirit though

Everyone volunteered – blacks, Indians, Wild West performers, Harvard types out to prove their manhood, Southerners out to prove their loyalty to the union.

This martial spirit was demonstrated during the charge up Kettle Hill

TR charges into a hail of bullets, sword drawn. “Come on, boys! Are you afraid to stand up while I am on horseback?”

Spanish troops, many of them barefoot teenagers who don’t want to be there anyway, can’t figure out these Americans.

The Americans charge into rifle fire coming at them from higher ground, and having reached the top of the hill,

Spanish POWs à “THEY TRIED TO CATCH US WITH THEIR HANDS!”

Within five months, the Spanish surrender. A SPLENDID LITTLE WAR, declared the US Secretary of State.

As a result of its wartime victory, US TAKES CONTROL OF CUBA, PUERTO RICE, GUAM, PHILIPPINES

III. Aftermath of the War – What now?

What to do with new territories?

Platt Amendment forbids US from keeping CUBA as a colony

US DECIDES IT MUST PURSUE AN IMPERIAL POLICY AND TAKE CONTROL OF THESE TERRITORIES, BUT IT DOES SO VERY RELUCTANTLY…

US buys Philippines for $20 million from Spain

WHY keep the Empire? – MOTIVATIONS

1. DOLLARS

Big Business wants captive/sheltered markets and raw materials – not really a persuasive explanation

Sugar Trust doesn’t want access to more sugar – Colonies would glut the market; good for consumers, but not for the Sugar Trust.

Maintaining empire costs money; HIGH TAXES

Filipinos hardly seemed a good market for US steel, woolens, and cotton.

Europe remains primary market.

2. DEFENSE

Better argument. US feels it must retain a presence in Philippines or other nations will move into the power vacuum and keep us from having coaling stations.

This is an argument discussed in Washington, but the average person does not think in such sophisticated ways. A small group of elites think in strategic terms, but the “defense” argument doesn’t sell well to the people.

3. DUTY

Spiritual UPLIFT and MISSION.

Bring American “know-how” to those less fortunate (our “little brown brothers”)

To an extent, this is what the Americans did in Cuba and the Philippines.

OPEN SCHOOLS, IMPROVE HEALTH FACILITIES, PAVE ROADS, INTRODUCE BANKING, MODERNIZE FARMING, INTRODUCE EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SERVICES

4. DESTINY

Had it stopped at DUTY, perhaps things would have been ok. But racism was tied closely to notions of DESTINY. Americans had no interest in input from the native people, many of whom saw how the Americans could help them, but wanted a voice in their own country.

When the Americans ran into resistance, they justified their attacks on the natives as “God’s will” and appealed to social Darwinism to justify atrocities.

THE PHILIPPINE INSURRECTION

1899 Filipinos want their independence. One faction is led by Emelio Aguinaldo, who thought he had a deal with Dewey for independence when his soldiers helped the Americans capture the capital, Manilla.

Aguinaldo launches a guerilla war; 7000 Americans die in battle, more than had died during the Spanish-American War. Costs US $400 million

US retaliates with a reconcentration policy (similar, ironically, to Weyler’s under the Spanish in Cuba). 200,000 Filipino civilians die.

Ultimately, US triumphs since Aguinaldo had never won the support of a majority of Filipinos, many of whom joined with the US to fight against him. He was upper class and most Filipinos believed his rule would be no less oppressive than the Spanish or the Americans. Also, he had no support from the Muslim population. Muslim-Christian tensions remain in the Philippines to this day.

The disaster in the Philippines spurs debate at home

Soldiers supposedly sent out to show their manliness were being turned into savages in the jungle – atrocities evidence this.

Racism surfaces. Imperialists claim natives are incapable of self-government and must be supervised. Many anti-imperialists want nothing to do with the “low” races and argue that the U.S. should pull out altogether.

The debate over imperialism remains unfinished. Americans turn away from their support for empire, but the nation is still left in control of imperial possessions.