T2 International

Question 1

The Expansion of the US Navy (1877 - 1890)

Answer 1

• During Arthur’s administration politicians began to show a greater interest in foreign policy and called for an expanded navy to demonstrate American willingness to back it up with force if
  necessary.
• A nation without a navy, they argued, could make little headway in world affairs in an age of sea power.
• As early as 1882 the Secretary of the Navy, William H. Hunt, was advocating naval expansion after a review he commissioned found that, of 140 ships on the naval list, only 42 were operational.
• The US navy still mainly comprised wooden sailing vessels as opposed to more modern
  steamships. Of only seventeen steamships, fourteen dated from the Civil War period.
• Representative John D. Long of Massachusetts described it as ‘an alphabet of floating tubs’.

Question 2

Alfred Thayer Mahan’s The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890)

Answer 2

• The most famous advocate of naval expansion was Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan who wrote two hugely influential books, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History in 1890 and The Influence of Sea Power Upon the French Revolution and Empire two years later.
• Mahan argued that history proved that nations with powerful navies and overseas bases to
  maintain them would grow in strength.
• He advocated building a modern steam fleet, building coaling stations and bases in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean and cutting a canal across Latin America in order to facilitate communication
  and trade.

Question 3

Hawaii (1887)

Answer 3

• During the eighteenth century, the United States became interested in the Hawaiian Islands as a
  way station and provisioning point for shippers, sailors and whalers trading with Asian nations.
• Since 1875, the USA had imported Hawaiian sugar free of duty in return for the Hawaiian Government the importation of manufactured goods to other countries.
• This meant that Hawaii was effectively reliant on the USA economically.
• In 1887, the Senate agreed to the renewed and expanded form of the 1875 treaty of friendship
  with Hawaii negotiated by Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard. Bayard had secured a new concession, permission to establish a naval base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu.

Question 4

The Pan American Conference (1890)

Answer 4

• In the 1880s, American politicians expressed particular interest in Latin America.
• President Garfield’s Secretary of State, James Blaine, first advocated a Pan-American conference in 1881.
• He believed that the USA should act both as a leader across the continent to prevent future wars and conflicts, and that all countries would benefit from greater trade links.
• His proposal came to nothing due to Garfield’s short-lived presidency.
• However, it was resurrected when Blaine became Secretary of State under Benjamin Harrison.
• Delegates from eighteen countries met in Washington in October 1889 with two main aims – a
  customs union offering free trade across the continent and a system for international arbitration
  to avoid future wars.
• Delegates eventually settled for reciprocity agreements and a weak arbitration system which was
  signed by less than half of them and gave signatories an opt-out clause if they felt arbitration would threaten their right to independent action.
• However, they did agree to setting up an International Bureau of American Republics, also known as the Pan-American Union, to organise future conferences. The Conference and its agreements had, at least, set the precedent for future conferences and co-operation.