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.
-- Politics: Anti-British rhetoric (“Twisting
the lion’s tail”) always plays well with voters.
GENDERED
LANGUAGE EMERGES à
late 19th Century
-- Broader crisis of masculinity brought
on by the closing of the frontier and urbanization and industrialization
Men
no longer “tame the West” or fight wars, they have seditary
office jobs and are “going soft.”
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. Backed up by the Spanish
military.
U.S.
government defends Cubans and protests Spain’s policies. Spain promises reform.
None forthcoming.
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
Latest
American TARIFF (1894) helps the rebels’ cause, since it too undermines the
sugar industry – Spanish planters have less of a market in the U.S. because of
the high tariff (40% duty).
SPAIN
RESPONDS – sends in General Weyler to crack down.
Known as “Butcher” Weyler, he institutes
CONCENTRATION policy. Put people in camps to keep them away from sabotaging the
fields and to keep them away from the influence of the revolutionaries. Leave
the camp and get shot. Pent up in overcrowded cities, BETWEEN 100,000 and 400,000
civilians die of hunger or disease.
STUPID
POLICY
1.
Alienates professional middle class that would have been satisfied with home
rule rather than independence. Middle class now sides with the rebels.
2.
Deprives Spanish planters of their labor and diverts military protection from
the field to the cities
3.
Spurs outrage in the United States. Demands for Cuban independence that will
lose face for the Spainards who may have been ready
to back off anyway.
By
the end of 1897 even the Spanish loyalists in Cuba want Weyler
out.
B.
US RESPONSE
US
condemns Spanish for breaking earlier promises of
reform. New Spanish government removes Weyler and promises to stand down.
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
THE PRESS HARDLY DRAGS 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 Hungary (1849) and
Greece (1820s). Not surprising that they would support one 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.
Time
to take up our DUTY as MEN just as the Civil War generation had done.
WAS
INTERVENTION A BIG BUSINESS CONSPIRACY?
In a word, NO.
Most corporate leaders who have the President’s ear adamantly opposed
the war. They fear instability will jeopardize recovery from 1893
depression.
Ironically,
big business opposition fuels the idealism of the CUBA LIBRE! Movement. If business opposes, 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; no logistical infrastructure to launch an amphibious
invasion
Baited by interventionists or JINGOES
– Theodore Roosevelt: McKinley has the backbone of a chocolate éclair.
Gendered language – are you a man or not? Are you “yellow”?
BY 1898…
Spanish
oppression has resumed.
DeLome letter ridiculing McKinley is leaked
and printed in a Hearst paper. Challenge to the nation as well as McKinley’s
manhood.
McKinley
doesn’t want war, but must do something.
Sends
the USS Maine on a “good will” mission
FEBRUARY
15 MAINE EXPLODES. CALL FOR WAR IN AMERICAN PAPERS
McKinley
doesn’t want war. STALL FOR TIME. APPOINT A COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE. Committee concludes the Maine was destroyed
by a mine.
Press
cries: “REMEMBER THE MAINE!”
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 it doesn’t have to yield and it won’t yield for fear that its own
government will fall. Public opinion won’t accept surrender. Yet it doesn’t
want to stay. Needs 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, even from Democrats who had previously opposed
intervention. Midterm elections are coming up and they see they can make
political hay by painting the president as weak. MORE GENDERED TALK: are you a
man or not?
McKinley
sits up nights contemplating his next move. He will ask for authority to used
the armed forces
BACK TO THE STORY….
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.
“Fire
when ready, Gridley!”
Spanish
fleet wiped out in 5 hours. Eight US sailors wounded from flying wood splinters
of exploding Spanish ships.
US
has 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, THE FIGHT BEGINS IN CUBA
Logistical nightmare. How to move 17,000 men from Florida
to Cuba?
Teddy
Roosevelt’s horse pushed off the ship and instead of heading toward land
promptly swims off to sea. Luckily, he
brought a spare.
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 US soldiers DEAD -- only 345 of them in battle. The
rest die from disease.
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.
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 recall: “THEY TRIED TO CATCH US WITH THEIR HANDS!”
NO
COLOR LINE
“HAD
IT NOT BEEN FOR THAT NEGRO CAVALRY, THE ROUGH RIDERS WOULD HAVE BEEN
EXTERMINATED.” Says one of TR’s men.
Within
five months, the Spanish surrender. A SPLENDID LITTLE WAR, declared the US
Secretary of State.
US
TAKES CONTROL OF CUBA, PUERTO RICE, GUAM, PHILIPPINES
IV. 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.
DUTY
Spiritual
UPLIFT and MISSION.
Bring
American “know-how” to those less fortunate.
This the Americans did.
OPEN
SCHOOLS, IMPROVE HEALTH FACILITIES, PAVE ROADS, INTRODUCE BANKING, MODERNIZE
FARMING, INTRODUCE EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC
SERVICES.
2.
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. Anyone who opposed the US impeded “progress.”
First
two “D”s are IDEALISTIC motivations
Second
two “D”s are REALISTIC motivations
3.
DEFENSE
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
and read Alfred Thayer Mahan’s theories about projecting naval power, but the
“defense” argument doesn’t sell well with the people. They prefer the “uplifting”
and idealistic arguments.
4.
DOLLARS
Some
claim “Big Business” wants captive/sheltered markets and raw materials – not
really
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
Business
doesn’t like high taxes
Filipinos
hardly seemed a good market for US steel, woolens, and cotton. China market
more a myth than an immediate reality
Europe
remains primary market and competing with European powers for colonial markets
could result in retaliation – Europeans cut off their markets to US goods.
CODA
THE PHILIPPINE INSURRECTION
1899 Filipinos want their independence. One faction led by Emelio
Aguinaldo, who thought had a deal with Dewey for independence when his soldiers
helped the Americans capture the capitol, 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 re-concentration policy. 200,000
Filipino civilians die. Looks suspiciously like the Spanish policy the US had
condemned.
Ultimately,
US triumphs since Aguinaldo had never won the support of a majority of
Filipinos, many of whom joined with the US. He was upper class and most
Filipinos believed his rule would be no less oppressive than the Spanish or the
Americans.
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
US doesn’t retreat into isolation, but imperial adventures in Asia are put on
hold.