CM11: Imperialism, the Progressive era, and the rise to world power (1896–1920) Flashcards
American imperialism
• The Spanish-American War of 1898 = catapulted the U.S. into the arena of world politics
• Before 1890s: belief that America should remain aloof from European affairs; after: new currents of thought emerged
• The U.S = great economic power; should the U.S navy be reinforced?
• 1895 in Cuba: rebels began a violent revolution against Spanish rule
• Spanish government was repressive
• Cuban refugees in the U.S spread exaggerated tales of atrocities
• Feb 15, 1898: an explosion sank the USS Maine in Havana harbour
• Spain refused to withdraw from Cuba and recognise its independence
• U.S Congress authorised McKinley to send the army to Cuba to expel the Spanish
• The U.S army quickly overcame and then turned against Spain’s last island in the Caribbean = Puerto Rico
• May 1, 1898: the American commodore G.Dewey destroyed a decrepit Spanish flotilla in the harbour of Manila (Philippines)
• Aug 12: preliminary peace treaty between the U.S. and Spain in Washington ; then signed definitively in Paris in October
• Spain recognised the independence of Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam but the Philippines was a different matter
The Acquisition of the Philippines
• Business interests demanded the acquisition of the entire Philippine archipelago in the hope that Manila would become the entrepot for a great Far Eastern trade
• McKinley forced the Spanish to sell them the Philippines
• Strong reaction in the U.S. against it by anti-imperialists
• William Jennings Bryan = influential in the decision
The New American empire
• McKinley easily defeated Bryan in 1900
• Americans = the most reluctant imperialists in history
• Teller Amendment : the U.S. would not annex Cuba (1903: treaty was signed making it virtually a protectorate of the U.S.)
• July 7, 1898: the Hawaiian Islands were annexed but only for 2 years, till 1900 when they became an independent territory
• Puerto Rico : limited self-government in 1900; 1917 the Jones Act:
- conferred full territorial status on the island
- gave U.S. citizenship to its inhabitants
- limited its self-government only by the veto of a governor appointed by the president of the United States
• The Philippines: large resistance to American rule; 1902: Philippine government act = partial self-government; 1916: complete home rule
The Open Door in the Far East
• China = the promised land for American businessmen
• Other countries took over and gained influence in Asia (Britain, France, Russia & Japan)
• Sept 6, 1899: Secretary of State Hay: first Open Door note to those powers with interests in China = to guarantee equal trade and interests for everyone
• Everybody agreed except Russia
• July3, 1900: the Boxer Rebellion in China = an uprising against foreign influence
• Second Open Door Note
• 1922: Treaty of Washington : all nations with interest in China promised to respect the Open Door
Building the Panama Canal and American domination in the Caribbean
• Easy access to Pacific markets + strategic necessity motivated the building of an isthmian canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
• 1901: Hay-Pauncefote Treaty: the British government had given up its rights to joint construction with the U.S
• A French company was eager to sell its right-of-way
• Only obstacle: Colombia which owned Panama; Panamanian revolution supported by Roosevelt
• Treaty between the U.S. & the new Republic of Panama: construction began + canal was opened to shipping in 1914
What events slowed progress in the construction of the Panama canal?
• 1902-1903: Britain, Germany, and Italy blockaded Venezuela to force the payment of debts
• the Germans bombarded and destroyed a Venezuelan town; so agitated was American opinion that Roosevelt forced Germany to accept arbitration of the debt question by the Hague Court.
• 1904: the Dominican Republic defaulted on its foreign debt to several European countries; Roosevelt made sure the country’s debts were paid off by customs duties
Diplomacy between the U.S & Latin America
• 1904: annual message to Congress: the Roosevelt Corallary to the Monroe Doctrine
• Policy of William Howard Taft: the Dollar Diplomacy
• = persuade American private bankers to replace European creditors in the Caribbean area
• Total failure (prompted a civil war in Nicaragua)
• 1913: accession of Woodrow Wilson = new era in Latin-American relations
Wilson’s efforts to maintain peace in Latin America/ the Caribbean
• Negotiated a treaty with Colombia to make reparation for U.S. complicity in the Panamanian revolution = defeated by Senate
• Tried to promote a Pan-American nonaggression pact
• Imposed a protectorate and a puppet government upon Haiti in 1915 and a military occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1916
• Treaty with Nicaragua making it a protectorate
• 1916: purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark
The Progressive Era
• Progressivism = response of various groups to problems raised by the rapid industrialization and urbanization that followed the Civil War:
- Spread of slums and poverty
- Exploitation of labour
- Breakdown of democratic government
- Financial and industrial concentration
• Influenced by:
- the Grangers, the Populists and the Democrats under Bryan
- A new generation of economists, sociologists and political scientists
- A growing body of ministers, priests and rabbis
- Journalists ‘muckrakers’
• 2 events set off the Progressive movement:
- The agrarian depression of 1890s & the financial and industrial depression in 1893
- Widespread suffering in the cities (breakdown of social services; inefficiency of most municipal governments)
Urban reforms
• 1894: The National Municipal League united various city reform groups throughout the country
• Same objectives:
- More equitable taxation of railroad and corporate property
- Better schools
- Expanded social services for the poor
• 2 new forms of city government:
- The commission form
- The city-manager form
Reform in state governments
• Opposition between:
- Very professional political organizations (financed by officeholders and businessmen)
- A rising generation of young and idealistic antiorganization leaders
• Most successful in the Midwest but also in New York or California
• Effective in implementing institutional changes (direct election of senators)
• Achieved their economic and social objectives:
- Strict regulation of intrastate railroads
- Legislation to prevent child labor & to protect women workers
- Penal reform
- More charitable services to the poor
- Accident insurance systems
Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive movement
• Sept 1901: McKinley was assassinated
• His vice-Pdt Theodore Roosevelt, aged 42 = youngest man to enter the White House
• Former police commissioner of NYC & governor of NY state
• Won the presidential election by a landslide in 1904
• By 1906 = undisputed spokesman of national progressivism
• Reactivated the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (to dissolve a railroad monopoly, the Beef Trust & oil & tobacco monopolies)
• Established a Bureau of Corporations
• Intervened in the arbitration of a strike between miners & coal operators
More aggressive policy after his 1904 election
• 1906: the Hepburn Act = greatly enlarged the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission)’s jurisdiction and forbade railroads to increase rates without his approval
• Meat Inspection Act & a Pure Food & Drug Act
• Crusade to conserve the nation’s fast-dwindling natural resources & to make them available for exploitation under rigorous national supervision
• Started an ambitious program of irrigation and hydroelectric development in the West
Republican troubles under William Howard Taft
• Roosevelt’s secretary of war easily defeated Bryan in 1908
• Faced a large group of Republican progressives called ‘insurgents’ who sat in both houses of Congress
• The Republican insurgents demanded:
- Tariff reductions
- An income tax
- The direct election of senators
- Stricter railroad and corporation regulations
• Taft who had strongly supported Roosevelt’s policies thought of himself as a progressive but was temperamentally and philosophically a conservative ; he lacked the qualities of a dynamic popular leader
• He called Congress into special session in 1909 to take up tariff reform
• The measure actually increased rates, which outraged a majority of Americans
• By 1910 conflict was clear between Taft Republicans & the insurgents
The 1912 election
- Republicans insurgents found their leader in Roosevelt vs Taft and Conservative Republicans
- Democrats had won previous congressional elections
- Woodrow Wilson, former president of Princeton University = nominated
- Real contest for control of the Progressive majority: between Roosevelt & Wilson
- Roosevelt campaigned on a platform that he called the New Nationalism
- Wilson’s program was called the New Freedom (more conservative)
- Wilson won by a huge majority of electoral votes
