Imperialism Reading
Ever since the 1790s, U.S. foreign policy had been centered on expanding westward, protecting U.S. interests abroad, and limiting foreign influences in the Americas. The period after the Civil War saw the development of a booming industrial economy, which created the basis for a major shift in U.S. relations with the rest of the world. Instead of a nation that—at least since the War of 1812—had been relatively isolated from European politics, the United States became a world power with territories extending across the Pacific to the Philippines. How and why did the United States acquire an overseas empire and intervene in the affairs of Cuba, Mexico, and other Latin American nations? For the origins of these developments, we must return briefly to the years just after the Civil War.
Seward, Alaska, and the French in Mexico
A leading Republican of the 1850s and 1860s, William H. Seward of New York served under both Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson as their secretary of state (1861–1869). Seward achieved more as secretary of state than anyone since the time of John Quincy Adams (who had helped formulate the Monroe Doctrine in 1823). During the Civil War, Seward helped Lincoln prevent Great Britain and France from entering the war on the side of the South. A strong expansionist, he was unsuccessful in his efforts to convince Congress to annex Hawaii and purchase the Danish West Indies, but he achieved the annexation of Midway Island in the Pacific and gained rights to build a canal in Nicaragua.
The French in Mexico
Napoleon III (nephew of the first Napoleon) had taken advantage of U.S. involvement in the Civil War by sending French troops to occupy Mexico. With the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, Seward immediately invoked the Monroe Doctrine and threatened U.S. military action unless the French withdrew. Napoleon III backed down, and the French troops left Mexico.
The Purchase of Alaska
For decades, the vast territory of Alaska had been the subject of dispute between two European powers that claimed it: Russia and Great Britain. Russia assumed control and established a small colony for seal hunting, but the territory soon became an economic burden always subject to the threat of a British takeover. Seeking buyers, Russia found Seward to be an enthusiastic champion of the idea of the United States acquiring Alaska by purchase. Due to Seward’s lobbying, and also in appreciation of Russian support during the Civil War, Congress in 1867 agreed to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million. It would take many years, however, for Americans to see the value in Alaska and stop referring to it derisively as “Seward’s Folly” and “Seward’s Icebox.”
The “New Imperialism”
As the United States industrialized in the late 19th century, it also intensified its foreign involvement partly because it needed (1) worldwide markets for its growing industrial and agricultural surpluses and (2) sources of raw materials for manufacturing. In addition, many conservatives hoped that over- seas territories and adventures might offer an outlet and safety valve for unhappiness at home. They were concerned about the growing violence of labor-management disputes and the unrest of farmers. For the most part, advocates of an expansionist policy hoped to achieve their ends by economic and diplomatic means, not by military action.
International Darwinism
Darwin’s concept of the survival of the fittest was applied not only to competition in the business world but also to competition among nations. According to this theory, only the strongest survived, and, depending on the interests of various groups, this meant that the U.S. had to be strong religiously, militarily, and politically. Therefore, in the international arena, the United States had to demonstrate its strength by acquiring territories overseas. Expansionists of the late 19th century extended the idea of manifest destiny so that the potential for U.S. territorial expansion applied not just to North America but to all parts of the world.
Imperialism. Americans were not alone in pursuing a policy of imperialism, which meant either acquiring territory or gaining control over the political or economic life of other countries. Many nations in Europe, led by Britain, France, Germany, and Russia, as well as Japan, were involved in gaining possessions and influence in weaker countries, especially in Africa and the Pacific Ocean. Some in the United States believed that the nation had to compete with the imperialistic nations for new territory or it would grow weak and fail to survive.
In the United States, advocates of American expansion included missionaries, politicians, naval strategists, and journalists.
Missionaries. In his book Our Country: Its Possible Future and Present Crisis (1885), the Reverend Josiah Strong wrote that people of Anglo-Saxon stock were “the fittest to survive” and that Protestant Americans had a Christian duty to colonize other lands for the purpose of spreading Christianity and Western civilization. Strong’s book expressed the thinking of many Protestant congregations, which believed that westerners of the Christian faith had a duty to bring the benefits of their “superior” civilization (medicine, science, and technology) to less fortunate peoples of the world. Many of the missionaries who traveled to Africa, Asia, and the Pacific islands also believed in the racial superiority and supremacy of whites. Mission activities of their churches encouraged many Americans to support active U.S. government involvement in foreign affairs.
Politicians. Many in the Republican party were closely allied with business leaders. Republican politicians therefore generally endorsed the use of foreign affairs to search for new markets. Congressional leaders such as Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and the Republican governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt, were eager to build U.S. power through global expansion.
Naval power. U.S. Navy Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote an important book, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890), in which he argued that a strong navy was crucial to a country’s ambitions of securing foreign markets and becoming a world power. Mahan’s book was widely read by prominent American citizens—and also by political leaders in Europe and Japan. Using arguments in Mahan’s book, U.S. naval strategists persuaded Congress to finance the construction of modern steel ships and encouraged the acquisition of overseas islands, such as Samoa, to be used as coaling and supply stations so that the new fleet would be a world power. By 1900, the United States had the third largest navy in the world.
Popular press. Newspaper and magazine editors found that they could increase circulation by printing adventure stories about distant and exotic places. Stories in the popular press increased public interest and stimulated demands for a larger U.S. role in world affairs.
Latin America
Beginning with the Monroe Doctrine in the 1820s, the United States had taken a special interest in problems of the Western Hemisphere and had assumed the role of protector of Latin America from European ambitions. Benjamin Harrison’s Secretary of State James G. Blaine of Maine played a principal role in extending this tradition.
Blaine and the Pan-American Conference (1889). Blaine’s repeated efforts to establish closer ties between the United States and its southern neighbors bore fruit in 1889 with the meeting of the first Pan-American Conference in Washington. Representatives from various nations of the Western Hemisphere decided to create a permanent organization for international cooperation on trade and other issues. Blaine had hoped to bring about reductions in tariff rates. Although this goal was not achieved, the foundation was established for the larger goal of hemispheric cooperation on both economic and political issues. The Pan-American Union continues today as part of the Organization of American States, which was established in 1948.
Cleveland, Olney, and the Monroe Doctrine. One of the most important uses of the Monroe Doctrine in the 19th century concerned a boundary dispute between Venezuela and a neighboring territory—the British colony of Guiana. In 1895 and 1896, President Cleveland and Secretary of State Richard Olney insisted that Great Britain agree to arbitrate the dispute. At first, the British said the matter was not the business of the United States. Cleveland and Olney, however, argued that the Monroe Doctrine applied to the situation, and if the British did not arbitrate, the United States stood ready to back up its argument with military force.
Deciding that U.S. friendship was more important to its long-term interests than winning a boundary dispute in South America, the British finally agreed to U.S. demands. As it turned out, the arbitrators ruled mainly in favor of Britain, not Venezuela. Even so, Latin American nations appreciated U.S. efforts to protect them from European domination. Most important, the Vene- zuela boundary dispute marked a turning point in U.S.–British relations. From 1895 on, Britain would cultivate U.S. friendship rather than continuing its former hostility. The friendship would prove vital for both nations throughout the coming century.
The Spanish-American War
A principal target of American imperialism was the nearby Caribbean area. Expansionists from the South had coveted Cuba as early as the 1850s. Now, in the 1890s, large American investments in Cuban sugar, Spanish misrule of Cuba, and the Monroe Doctrine all provided justification for U.S. intervention in the Caribbean’s largest island.
Causes of War
In the 1890s, American public opinion was being swept by a growing wave of jingoism—an intense form of nationalism calling for an aggressive foreign policy. Expansionists demanded that the United States take its place with the imperialist nations of Europe as a world power. Not everyone favored such a policy. Presidents Cleveland and McKinley were among many who thought military action abroad was both morally wrong and economically unsound. Nevertheless, specific events combined with background pressures led to overwhelming popular demand for war against Spain.
Cuban revolt. Bands of Cuban nationalists had been fighting for ten years to overthrow Spanish colonial rule. In 1895, they adopted the strategy of sabotaging and laying waste Cuban plantations in order either to force Spain’s withdrawal or involve the United States in their revolution. Spain responded by sending the autocratic General Valeriano Weyler and over 100,000 troops to suppress the revolt.
Yellow press. Actively promoting war fever in the United States were sensationalistic city newspapers with their bold and lurid headlines of crime, disaster, and scandal. “Yellow journalism,” as this type of newspaper reporting was called, went to new extremes as two New York newspapers—Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal—printed exaggerated and false accounts of Spanish atrocities in Cuba. Believing what they read daily in their newspapers, many Americans urged Congress and the president to intervene in Cuba to put a stop to the atrocities and suffering.
De Lome letter (1898). One story that caused a storm of outrage was a Spanish diplomat’s letter that was leaked to the press and printed on the front page of Hearst’s New York Journal. Written by the Spanish minister to the United States, Enrique Dupuy De Lome, the letter was highly critical of President McKinley. Many considered it an official Spanish insult against the U.S. national honor.
Sinking of the Maine. Less than one week after the de Loˆ me letter made headlines, a far more shocking event occurred. On February 15, 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine was at anchor in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, when it suddenly exploded, killing 260 Americans on board. The yellow press accused Spain of deliberately blowing up the ship, even though experts later concluded that the explosion was probably an accident.
McKinley’s war message. Following the sinking of the Maine, President McKinley issued an ultimatum to Spain demanding that it agree to a ceasefire in Cuba. Spain agreed to this demand, but U.S. newspapers and a majority in Congress kept clamoring for war. McKinley yielded to the public pressure in April by sending a war message to Congress. He offered four reasons for the United States to intervene in the Cuban revolution on behalf of the rebels:
Teller Amendment. Responding to the president’s message, Congress passed a joint resolution on April 20 authorizing war. Part of the resolution, the Teller Amendment, declared that the United States had no intention of taking political control of Cuba and that, once peace was restored to the island, the Cuban people would control their own government.
Fighting the War
The first shots of the Spanish-American War were fired in Manila Bay in the Philippines, thousands of miles from Cuba. The last shots were fired only a few months later in August. So swift was the U.S. victory that Secretary of State John Hay called it “a splendid little war.”
The Philippines. Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley’s assistant secretary of the navy, was an expansionist who was eager to show off the power of his country’s new, all-steel navy. Anticipating war and recognizing the strategic value of Spain’s territories in the Pacific, Roosevelt had ordered a fleet com- manded by Commodore George Dewey to the Philippines. This large group of islands had been under Spanish control ever since the 1500s.
On May 1, shortly after war was declared, Commodore Dewey’s fleet opened fire on Spanish ships in Manila Bay. The Spanish fleet was soon pounded into submission by U.S. naval guns. The fight on land took longer. Allied with Filipino rebels, U.S. troops captured the city of Manila on August 13.
Invasion of Cuba. More troublesome than the Philippines was the U.S. effort in Cuba. An ill-prepared, largely volunteer force landed in Cuba by the end of June. Here the most lethal enemy proved to be not Spanish bullets but tropical diseases. More than 5,000 American soldiers died of malaria, typhoid, and dysentery, while less than 500 died in battle.
Attacks by both American and Cuban forces succeeded in defeating the much larger but poorly led Spanish army. Next to Dewey’s victory in Manila Bay, the most celebrated event of the war was a cavalry charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba by the Rough Riders, a regiment of volunteers led by Theodore Roosevelt, who had resigned his Navy post to take part in the war. Roosevelt’s volunteers were aided in victory by veteran regiments of African Americans. Less heroic but more important than the taking of San Juan Hill was the success of the U.S. Navy in destroying the Spanish fleet at Santiago Bay on July 3.
Without a navy, Spain realized that it could not continue fighting, and in early August asked for U.S. terms of peace.
Annexation of Hawaii
For decades before the war, the Pacific islands of Hawaii had been settled by American missionaries and entrepreneurs. U.S. expansionists had long cov- eted the islands and, in 1893, American settlers had aided in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarch, Queen Liliuokalani. President Cleveland, however, had opposed Republican efforts to annex Hawaii. Then the outbreak of war and fight for the Philippines gave Congress and President McKinley the pretext to complete annexation in July 1898. The Hawaiian islands became a territory of the United States in 1900. Hawaii became the fiftieth state in the Union in August 1959.
Controversy Over the Treaty of Peace
Far more controversial than the war itself were the terms of the treaty of peace signed in Paris on December 10, 1898. It provided for (1) recognition of Cuban independence, (2) U.S. acquisition of two Spanish islands—Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and Guam in the Pacific, and (3) U.S. acquisition of the Philippines in return for payment to Spain of $20 million. Since the avowed purpose of the U.S. war effort was to liberate Cuba, Americans accepted this provision of the treaty. They were not prepared, however, for the idea of taking over a large Pacific island nation, the Philippines.
The Philippine question. Controversy over the Philippine question took many months longer to resolve than the brief war with Spain. Opinion both in Congress and the public at large became sharply divided between imperialists who favored annexing the Philippines and anti-imperialists who opposed it. In the Senate, where a two-thirds vote was required to ratify the Treaty of Paris, anti-imperialists were determined to defeat the treaty because of its provision for taking over the Philippines. They argued that, for the first time, the United States would be taking possession of a heavily populated area whose people were of a different race and culture. Such action, they thought, violated the principles of the Declaration of Independence by depriving Filipinos of the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and also would entangle the United States in the political conflicts of Asia.
On February 6, 1899, the imperialists prevailed and the Treaty of Paris (and Philippine annexation) was ratified by an extremely close vote of 57 to 27. The anti-imperialists fell just two votes short of defeating the treaty.
The people of the Philippines were outraged that their hopes for national independence from Spain were now being denied by the United States. Filipino nationalist leader Emilio Aguinaldo had fought alongside U.S. troops during the Spanish-American War. Now he led bands of guerrilla fighters in a war against U.S. control. It took U.S. troops three years and cost thousands of lives on both sides before the insurrection finally ended in 1902.
Other Results of the War
Imperialism remained a major issue in the United States even after ratification of the Treaty of Paris. An Anti-Imperialist League, led by William Jennings Bryan, rallied opposition to further acts of expansion in the Pacific.
Insular Cases. One question concerned the constitutional rights of the Philippine people: Did the Constitution follow the flag? In other words, did the provisions of the U.S. Constitution apply to whatever territories fell under U.S. control, including the Philippines and Puerto Rico? Bryan and other anti- imperialists argued in the affirmative, while leading imperialists argued in the negative. The issue was resolved in favor of the imperialists in a series of Supreme Court cases (1901–1903) known as the insular (island) cases. The Court ruled that constitutional rights were not automatically extended to territorial possessions and that the power to decide whether or not to grant such rights belonged to Congress.
Cuba and the Platt Amendment (1901). Previously, the Teller Amendment to the war resolution of 1898 had more or less guaranteed U.S. respect for Cuba’s sovereignty as an independent nation. Nevertheless, U.S. troops remained in Cuba from 1898 until 1901. In the latter year, Congress made the withdrawal of troops conditional upon Cuba’s acceptance of certain terms. These terms were included in an amendment to an army appropriations bill— the Platt Amendment of 1901. Bitterly resented by Cuban nationalists, the Platt Amendment required Cuba to agree:
Election of 1900. The Republicans renominated President McKinley, along with war hero and New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt for vice president. The Democrats, as they had in 1896, nominated William Jennings Bryan, who again argued for free silver. With most Americans accepting the recently enacted gold standard, Bryan vigorously attacked the growth of American territorial expansion, including the Philippines, acquired during the war as an accomplished fact. The deciding issue was the growing national economic prosperity, which convinced the majority to give McKinley a larger margin of victory than in 1896.
Recognition of U.S. power. One positive consequence of the Spanish- American War was its effect on the way both Americans and Europeans thought about U.S. power. The decisive U.S. victory in the war filled Americans with national pride. Southerners shared in this pride and became more attached to the Union after their bitter experience in the 1860s. At the same time, France, Great Britain, and other European nations came to recognize that the United States was a first-class power with a strong navy and a new willingness to take an active role in international affairs.
Open Door Policy in China
Europeans were further impressed by U.S. involvement in global politics as a result of John Hay’s policies toward China. As McKinley’s secretary of state, Hay was alarmed that the Chinese empire, weakened by political corrup- tion and failure to modernize, was falling under the control of various outside powers. In the 1890s, Russia, Japan, Great Britain, France, and Germany had all established spheres of influence in China, meaning that they could dominate trade and investment within their sphere (a particular port or region of China) and shut out competitors. To prevent the United States from losing access to the lucrative China trade, Hay dispatched a diplomatic note in 1899 to nations holding spheres of influence. He asked them to accept the concept of an Open Door, by which all nations would have equal trading privileges in China. The replies to Hay’s note were evasive, but because no nation rejected the concept, Hay declared that all had accepted the Open Door policy. The press hailed Hay’s initiative as a diplomatic triumph.
Boxer Rebellion (1900). As the 19th century ended, nationalism and xenophobia (hatred and fear of foreigners) were on the rise in China. In 1900, a secret society of Chinese nationalists—the Society of Harmonious Fists, or Boxers—attacked foreign settlements and murdered dozens of Christian missionaries. To protect American lives and property, U.S. troops participated in an international force that marched into Peking (Beijing) and quickly succeeded in crushing the rebellion of the Boxers. China was forced to pay a huge sum in indemnities, which further weakened the imperial regime.
Hay’s second round of notes. Hay feared that the expeditionary force in China might attempt to occupy the country and destroy its independence. In 1900, therefore, he wrote a second note to the imperialistic powers stating U.S. commitment to (1) preserve China’s territorial integrity as well as (2) safeguard “equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese empire.” Hay’s first and second notes set U.S. policy on China not only for the administrations of McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt but also for future presidents. In the 1930s, this Open Door policy for China would strongly influence U.S. relations with Japan.
Hay’s notes in themselves did not deter other nations from exploiting the situation in China. For the moment, European powers were kept from grabbing larger pieces of China by the political rivalries among themselves.
Theodore Roosevelt’s Big-Stick Policy
In 1901, only a few months after being inaugurated president for a second time, McKinley was fatally shot by an anarchist (person who opposed all government). Succeeding him in office was the Republican vice president— the young expansionist and hero of the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt. Describing his foreign policy, the new president had once said that it was his motto to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” The press therefore applied the label “big stick” to Roosevelt’s aggressive foreign policy. By acting boldly and decisively in a number of situations, Roosevelt attempted to build the reputation of the U.S. as a world power. Imperialists applauded his every move, but critics of the big-stick policy disliked breaking from the tradition of noninvolvement in global politics.
The Panama Canal
As a result of the Spanish-American War, the new American empire stretched from Puerto Rico in the Caribbean to the Philippines in the Pacific. As a strategic necessity for holding on to these far-flung islands, the United States needed a canal through Central America to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Revolution in Panama. Roosevelt was eager to begin the construction of a canal through the narrow but rugged terrain of the isthmus of Panama. He was frustrated, however, by the fact that Colombia controlled this isthmus and refused to agree to U.S. terms for digging the canal through its territory. Losing patience with Colombia, Roosevelt supported a revolt in Panama in 1903. With U.S. backing, the rebellion succeeded immediately and almost without bloodshed. The first act of the new government of independent Panama was to sign a treaty (the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903) granting the United States long-term control of a canal zone.
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (1901). One other obstacle to a canal built and operated by the United States had been removed earlier by the signing in 1901 of a treaty with Great Britain. The British had agreed to abrogate (cancel) an earlier treaty of 1850 in which any canal in Central America was to be under joint British-U.S. control. Now, as a result of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, the United States could begin to dig the canal without British involvement.
Hundreds of laborers lost their lives in the effort. The work was completed thanks in great measure to the skills of two Army colonels—George Goethals, the chief engineer of the canal, and Dr. William Gorgas, whose efforts eliminated the mosquitoes that spread deadly yellow fever.
Most Americans approved of Roosevelt’s determination to build the canal. Many, however, were unhappy with the high-handed tactics employed to secure the Canal Zone. Latin Americans were especially resentful. To compensate, Congress finally voted in 1921 to pay Colombia an indemnity of $25 million for its loss of Panama.
The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
Another application of Roosevelt’s big-stick diplomacy involved Latin American nations that were in deep financial trouble and could not pay their debts to European creditors. In 1902, for example, the British dispatched war- ships to Venezuela to force that country to pay its debts. In 1904, it appeared that European powers stood ready to intervene in Santo Domingo (the Dominican Republic) for the same reason. Rather than let Europeans intervene in Latin America—a blatant violation of the Monroe Doctrine—Roosevelt declared in December 1904 that the United States would intervene instead, whenever necessary. This policy became known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. It meant that the United States would send gunboats to a Latin American country that was delinquent in paying its debts. U.S. sailors and marines would then occupy the country’s major ports to manage the collection of customs taxes until European debts were satisfied.
Over the next 20 years, U.S. presidents used the Roosevelt Corollary to justify sending U.S. forces into Haiti, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. The long-term result of such interventions was poor U.S. relations with the entire region of Latin America.
East Asia
As the 20th century began, Japan and the United States were both relatively new imperialist powers in East Asia. Their relationship during Theodore Roose- velt’s presidency, though at first friendly, grew increasingly competitive.
Russo-Japanese War. Imperialist rivalry between Russia and Japan led to a war between these nations (1904–1905), which Japan was winning. To end the war, Theodore Roosevelt arranged for a diplomatic conference between representatives of the two foes at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1905. Al- though both Japan and Russia agreed to the Treaty of Portsmouth, Japanese nationalists blamed the United States for not giving their country all that they wanted from Russia.
“Gentlemen’s Agreement.” A major cause of friction between Japan and the United States concerned the laws of California, which discriminated against Japanese Americans. San Francisco’s practice of requiring Japanese American children to attend segregated schools was considered a national insult in Japan. In 1908, President Roosevelt arranged a compromise by means of an informal understanding, or “gentlemen’s agreement.” The Japanese government secretly agreed to restrict the emigration of Japanese workers to the United States in return for Roosevelt persuading California to repeal its discriminatory laws.
Great White Fleet. To demonstrate U.S. naval power to Japan and other nations, Roosevelt sent a fleet of battleships on an around-the-world cruise (1907–1909). The great white ships made an impressive sight, and the Japanese government warmly welcomed their arrival in Tokyo Bay.
Root-Takahira Agreement (1908). An important executive agreement was concluded between the United States and Japan in 1908. Secretary of State Elihu Root and Japanese Ambassador Takahira exchanged notes pledging the following: (1) mutual respect for each nation’s Pacific possessions and (2) support for the Open Door policy in China.
Peace Efforts
The purpose of the great white fleet and all other applications of Roosevelt’s big-stick policy was to maintain the peace between rival nations. The president consistently promoted peaceful solutions to international disputes. For his work in settling the Russo-Japanese War, Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. In the same year, he helped arrange and direct the Algeciras Conference in Spain, which succeeded in settling a conflict between France and Germany over claims to Morocco. The president also directed U.S. participation at the Second International Peace Conference at the Hague in 1907, which discussed rules for limiting warfare.
William Howard Taft and Dollar Diplomacy
Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft (1909–1913), did not carry a big stick. He adopted a foreign policy that was mildly expansionist but depended more on investors’ dollars than on the navy’s battleships. His policy of trying to promote U.S. trade by supporting American enterprises abroad was given the name dollar diplomacy.
Dollar Diplomacy in East Asia and Latin America
Taft believed that private American financial investment in China and the nations of Central America would lead to greater stability there, while at the same time promoting U.S. business interests. His policy, however, was thwarted by one major obstacle: growing anti-imperialism both in the United States and overseas.
Railroads in China. Taft first tested his policy in China. Wanting U.S. bankers to be included in a British, French, and German plan to invest in railroads in China, Taft succeeded in securing American participation in an agreement signed in 1911. In the northern province of Manchuria, however, the United States was excluded from an agreement between Russia and Japan to build railroads there. In direct defiance of the U.S. Open Door policy, Russia and Japan agreed to treat Manchuria as a jointly held sphere of influence.
Intervention in Nicaragua. To protect American investments, the United States intervened in Nicaragua’s financial affairs in 1911, and sent in marines when a civil war broke out in 1912. The marines remained, except for a short period, until 1933.
The Lodge Corollary
Henry Cabot Lodge, a Republican senator from Massachusetts, was responsible for another action that alienated both Latin America and Japan. A group of Japanese investors wanted to buy a large part of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, extending south of California. Fearing that Japan’s government might be secretly scheming to acquire the land, Lodge introduced and the Senate in 1912 passed a resolution known as the Lodge Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The resolution stated that non-European powers (such as Japan) would be excluded from owning territory in the Western Hemisphere. President Taft opposed the corollary, which also offended Japan and angered Latin American countries.
Woodrow Wilson and Moral Diplomacy
In his campaign for president in 1912, the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson called for a New Freedom in government and promised a moral approach to foreign affairs. Wilson said he opposed imperialism and the big-stick and dollar-diplomacy policies of his Republican predecessors.
Moral Diplomacy
In his first term as president (1913–1917), Wilson had limited success applying a high moral standard to foreign relations. He and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan hoped to demonstrate that the United States respected other nations’ rights and would support the spread of democracy.
Righting past wrongs. Hoping to demonstrate that his presidency was opposed to self-interested imperialism, Wilson took steps to correct what he viewed as wrongful policies of the past.
Military Intervention in Latin America
Wilson’s commitment to democracy and anti-colonialism had a blind spot with respect to the countries of Central America and the Caribbean. He went far beyond both Roosevelt and Taft in his use of U.S. marines to straighten out financial and political troubles in the region. Throughout his presidency, he kept marines in Nicaragua and ordered U.S. troops into Haiti in 1915 and the Dominican Republic in 1916. He argued that such intervention was necessary to maintain stability in the region and protect the Panama Canal.
Conflict in Mexico
Wilson’s moral approach to foreign affairs was severely tested by a revolution and civil war in Mexico. Wanting democracy to triumph there, he refused to recognize the military dictatorship of General Victoriano Huerta, who had seized power in Mexico in 1913 by arranging to assassinate the democratically elected president.
Tampico incident. To aid a revolutionary faction that was fighting Huerta, Wilson asked for an arms embargo against the Mexican government and sent a fleet to blockade the port of Vera Cruz. In 1914, several American seamen went ashore at Tampico where they were arrested by Mexican authorities and soon released. Huerta refused to apologize, as demanded by a U.S. naval officer, and Wilson in retaliation ordered the U.S. Navy to occupy Vera Cruz. War between Mexico and the United States seemed imminent. It was averted, how- ever, when South America’s ABC powers—Argentina, Brazil, and Chile— offered to mediate the dispute. This was the first dispute in the Americas to be settled through joint mediation.
Pancho Villa and the U.S. expeditionary force. Huerta fell from power in late 1914 and was replaced by a more democratic regime led by Venustiano Carranza. Almost immediately, the new government was challenged by a band of revolutionaries loyal to Pancho Villa. Hoping to destabilize his opponent’s government, Villa led raids across the U.S.–Mexican border and murdered a number of people in Texas and New Mexico. In March 1916, President Wilson ordered General John J. Pershing to pursue Villa into Mexico. This expeditionary force, as it was called, was in northern Mexico for months without being able to capture Villa. President Carranza eventually protested the American presence in Mexico. In January 1917, the growing possibility of U.S. entry into World War I caused Wilson to withdraw Pershing’s troops.
Seward, Alaska, and the French in Mexico
A leading Republican of the 1850s and 1860s, William H. Seward of New York served under both Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson as their secretary of state (1861–1869). Seward achieved more as secretary of state than anyone since the time of John Quincy Adams (who had helped formulate the Monroe Doctrine in 1823). During the Civil War, Seward helped Lincoln prevent Great Britain and France from entering the war on the side of the South. A strong expansionist, he was unsuccessful in his efforts to convince Congress to annex Hawaii and purchase the Danish West Indies, but he achieved the annexation of Midway Island in the Pacific and gained rights to build a canal in Nicaragua.
The French in Mexico
Napoleon III (nephew of the first Napoleon) had taken advantage of U.S. involvement in the Civil War by sending French troops to occupy Mexico. With the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, Seward immediately invoked the Monroe Doctrine and threatened U.S. military action unless the French withdrew. Napoleon III backed down, and the French troops left Mexico.
The Purchase of Alaska
For decades, the vast territory of Alaska had been the subject of dispute between two European powers that claimed it: Russia and Great Britain. Russia assumed control and established a small colony for seal hunting, but the territory soon became an economic burden always subject to the threat of a British takeover. Seeking buyers, Russia found Seward to be an enthusiastic champion of the idea of the United States acquiring Alaska by purchase. Due to Seward’s lobbying, and also in appreciation of Russian support during the Civil War, Congress in 1867 agreed to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million. It would take many years, however, for Americans to see the value in Alaska and stop referring to it derisively as “Seward’s Folly” and “Seward’s Icebox.”
The “New Imperialism”
As the United States industrialized in the late 19th century, it also intensified its foreign involvement partly because it needed (1) worldwide markets for its growing industrial and agricultural surpluses and (2) sources of raw materials for manufacturing. In addition, many conservatives hoped that over- seas territories and adventures might offer an outlet and safety valve for unhappiness at home. They were concerned about the growing violence of labor-management disputes and the unrest of farmers. For the most part, advocates of an expansionist policy hoped to achieve their ends by economic and diplomatic means, not by military action.
International Darwinism
Darwin’s concept of the survival of the fittest was applied not only to competition in the business world but also to competition among nations. According to this theory, only the strongest survived, and, depending on the interests of various groups, this meant that the U.S. had to be strong religiously, militarily, and politically. Therefore, in the international arena, the United States had to demonstrate its strength by acquiring territories overseas. Expansionists of the late 19th century extended the idea of manifest destiny so that the potential for U.S. territorial expansion applied not just to North America but to all parts of the world.
Imperialism. Americans were not alone in pursuing a policy of imperialism, which meant either acquiring territory or gaining control over the political or economic life of other countries. Many nations in Europe, led by Britain, France, Germany, and Russia, as well as Japan, were involved in gaining possessions and influence in weaker countries, especially in Africa and the Pacific Ocean. Some in the United States believed that the nation had to compete with the imperialistic nations for new territory or it would grow weak and fail to survive.
In the United States, advocates of American expansion included missionaries, politicians, naval strategists, and journalists.
Missionaries. In his book Our Country: Its Possible Future and Present Crisis (1885), the Reverend Josiah Strong wrote that people of Anglo-Saxon stock were “the fittest to survive” and that Protestant Americans had a Christian duty to colonize other lands for the purpose of spreading Christianity and Western civilization. Strong’s book expressed the thinking of many Protestant congregations, which believed that westerners of the Christian faith had a duty to bring the benefits of their “superior” civilization (medicine, science, and technology) to less fortunate peoples of the world. Many of the missionaries who traveled to Africa, Asia, and the Pacific islands also believed in the racial superiority and supremacy of whites. Mission activities of their churches encouraged many Americans to support active U.S. government involvement in foreign affairs.
Politicians. Many in the Republican party were closely allied with business leaders. Republican politicians therefore generally endorsed the use of foreign affairs to search for new markets. Congressional leaders such as Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and the Republican governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt, were eager to build U.S. power through global expansion.
Naval power. U.S. Navy Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote an important book, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890), in which he argued that a strong navy was crucial to a country’s ambitions of securing foreign markets and becoming a world power. Mahan’s book was widely read by prominent American citizens—and also by political leaders in Europe and Japan. Using arguments in Mahan’s book, U.S. naval strategists persuaded Congress to finance the construction of modern steel ships and encouraged the acquisition of overseas islands, such as Samoa, to be used as coaling and supply stations so that the new fleet would be a world power. By 1900, the United States had the third largest navy in the world.
Popular press. Newspaper and magazine editors found that they could increase circulation by printing adventure stories about distant and exotic places. Stories in the popular press increased public interest and stimulated demands for a larger U.S. role in world affairs.
Latin America
Beginning with the Monroe Doctrine in the 1820s, the United States had taken a special interest in problems of the Western Hemisphere and had assumed the role of protector of Latin America from European ambitions. Benjamin Harrison’s Secretary of State James G. Blaine of Maine played a principal role in extending this tradition.
Blaine and the Pan-American Conference (1889). Blaine’s repeated efforts to establish closer ties between the United States and its southern neighbors bore fruit in 1889 with the meeting of the first Pan-American Conference in Washington. Representatives from various nations of the Western Hemisphere decided to create a permanent organization for international cooperation on trade and other issues. Blaine had hoped to bring about reductions in tariff rates. Although this goal was not achieved, the foundation was established for the larger goal of hemispheric cooperation on both economic and political issues. The Pan-American Union continues today as part of the Organization of American States, which was established in 1948.
Cleveland, Olney, and the Monroe Doctrine. One of the most important uses of the Monroe Doctrine in the 19th century concerned a boundary dispute between Venezuela and a neighboring territory—the British colony of Guiana. In 1895 and 1896, President Cleveland and Secretary of State Richard Olney insisted that Great Britain agree to arbitrate the dispute. At first, the British said the matter was not the business of the United States. Cleveland and Olney, however, argued that the Monroe Doctrine applied to the situation, and if the British did not arbitrate, the United States stood ready to back up its argument with military force.
Deciding that U.S. friendship was more important to its long-term interests than winning a boundary dispute in South America, the British finally agreed to U.S. demands. As it turned out, the arbitrators ruled mainly in favor of Britain, not Venezuela. Even so, Latin American nations appreciated U.S. efforts to protect them from European domination. Most important, the Vene- zuela boundary dispute marked a turning point in U.S.–British relations. From 1895 on, Britain would cultivate U.S. friendship rather than continuing its former hostility. The friendship would prove vital for both nations throughout the coming century.
The Spanish-American War
A principal target of American imperialism was the nearby Caribbean area. Expansionists from the South had coveted Cuba as early as the 1850s. Now, in the 1890s, large American investments in Cuban sugar, Spanish misrule of Cuba, and the Monroe Doctrine all provided justification for U.S. intervention in the Caribbean’s largest island.
Causes of War
In the 1890s, American public opinion was being swept by a growing wave of jingoism—an intense form of nationalism calling for an aggressive foreign policy. Expansionists demanded that the United States take its place with the imperialist nations of Europe as a world power. Not everyone favored such a policy. Presidents Cleveland and McKinley were among many who thought military action abroad was both morally wrong and economically unsound. Nevertheless, specific events combined with background pressures led to overwhelming popular demand for war against Spain.
Cuban revolt. Bands of Cuban nationalists had been fighting for ten years to overthrow Spanish colonial rule. In 1895, they adopted the strategy of sabotaging and laying waste Cuban plantations in order either to force Spain’s withdrawal or involve the United States in their revolution. Spain responded by sending the autocratic General Valeriano Weyler and over 100,000 troops to suppress the revolt.
Yellow press. Actively promoting war fever in the United States were sensationalistic city newspapers with their bold and lurid headlines of crime, disaster, and scandal. “Yellow journalism,” as this type of newspaper reporting was called, went to new extremes as two New York newspapers—Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal—printed exaggerated and false accounts of Spanish atrocities in Cuba. Believing what they read daily in their newspapers, many Americans urged Congress and the president to intervene in Cuba to put a stop to the atrocities and suffering.
De Lome letter (1898). One story that caused a storm of outrage was a Spanish diplomat’s letter that was leaked to the press and printed on the front page of Hearst’s New York Journal. Written by the Spanish minister to the United States, Enrique Dupuy De Lome, the letter was highly critical of President McKinley. Many considered it an official Spanish insult against the U.S. national honor.
Sinking of the Maine. Less than one week after the de Loˆ me letter made headlines, a far more shocking event occurred. On February 15, 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine was at anchor in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, when it suddenly exploded, killing 260 Americans on board. The yellow press accused Spain of deliberately blowing up the ship, even though experts later concluded that the explosion was probably an accident.
McKinley’s war message. Following the sinking of the Maine, President McKinley issued an ultimatum to Spain demanding that it agree to a ceasefire in Cuba. Spain agreed to this demand, but U.S. newspapers and a majority in Congress kept clamoring for war. McKinley yielded to the public pressure in April by sending a war message to Congress. He offered four reasons for the United States to intervene in the Cuban revolution on behalf of the rebels:
- “Put an end to the barbarities, bloodshed, starvation, and horrible miser- ies” in Cuba
- Protect the lives and property of U.S. citizens living in Cuba
- End “the very serious injury to the commerce, trade, and business of our people”
- End “the constant menace to our peace” arising from the disorders in Cuba
Teller Amendment. Responding to the president’s message, Congress passed a joint resolution on April 20 authorizing war. Part of the resolution, the Teller Amendment, declared that the United States had no intention of taking political control of Cuba and that, once peace was restored to the island, the Cuban people would control their own government.
Fighting the War
The first shots of the Spanish-American War were fired in Manila Bay in the Philippines, thousands of miles from Cuba. The last shots were fired only a few months later in August. So swift was the U.S. victory that Secretary of State John Hay called it “a splendid little war.”
The Philippines. Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley’s assistant secretary of the navy, was an expansionist who was eager to show off the power of his country’s new, all-steel navy. Anticipating war and recognizing the strategic value of Spain’s territories in the Pacific, Roosevelt had ordered a fleet com- manded by Commodore George Dewey to the Philippines. This large group of islands had been under Spanish control ever since the 1500s.
On May 1, shortly after war was declared, Commodore Dewey’s fleet opened fire on Spanish ships in Manila Bay. The Spanish fleet was soon pounded into submission by U.S. naval guns. The fight on land took longer. Allied with Filipino rebels, U.S. troops captured the city of Manila on August 13.
Invasion of Cuba. More troublesome than the Philippines was the U.S. effort in Cuba. An ill-prepared, largely volunteer force landed in Cuba by the end of June. Here the most lethal enemy proved to be not Spanish bullets but tropical diseases. More than 5,000 American soldiers died of malaria, typhoid, and dysentery, while less than 500 died in battle.
Attacks by both American and Cuban forces succeeded in defeating the much larger but poorly led Spanish army. Next to Dewey’s victory in Manila Bay, the most celebrated event of the war was a cavalry charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba by the Rough Riders, a regiment of volunteers led by Theodore Roosevelt, who had resigned his Navy post to take part in the war. Roosevelt’s volunteers were aided in victory by veteran regiments of African Americans. Less heroic but more important than the taking of San Juan Hill was the success of the U.S. Navy in destroying the Spanish fleet at Santiago Bay on July 3.
Without a navy, Spain realized that it could not continue fighting, and in early August asked for U.S. terms of peace.
Annexation of Hawaii
For decades before the war, the Pacific islands of Hawaii had been settled by American missionaries and entrepreneurs. U.S. expansionists had long cov- eted the islands and, in 1893, American settlers had aided in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarch, Queen Liliuokalani. President Cleveland, however, had opposed Republican efforts to annex Hawaii. Then the outbreak of war and fight for the Philippines gave Congress and President McKinley the pretext to complete annexation in July 1898. The Hawaiian islands became a territory of the United States in 1900. Hawaii became the fiftieth state in the Union in August 1959.
Controversy Over the Treaty of Peace
Far more controversial than the war itself were the terms of the treaty of peace signed in Paris on December 10, 1898. It provided for (1) recognition of Cuban independence, (2) U.S. acquisition of two Spanish islands—Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and Guam in the Pacific, and (3) U.S. acquisition of the Philippines in return for payment to Spain of $20 million. Since the avowed purpose of the U.S. war effort was to liberate Cuba, Americans accepted this provision of the treaty. They were not prepared, however, for the idea of taking over a large Pacific island nation, the Philippines.
The Philippine question. Controversy over the Philippine question took many months longer to resolve than the brief war with Spain. Opinion both in Congress and the public at large became sharply divided between imperialists who favored annexing the Philippines and anti-imperialists who opposed it. In the Senate, where a two-thirds vote was required to ratify the Treaty of Paris, anti-imperialists were determined to defeat the treaty because of its provision for taking over the Philippines. They argued that, for the first time, the United States would be taking possession of a heavily populated area whose people were of a different race and culture. Such action, they thought, violated the principles of the Declaration of Independence by depriving Filipinos of the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and also would entangle the United States in the political conflicts of Asia.
On February 6, 1899, the imperialists prevailed and the Treaty of Paris (and Philippine annexation) was ratified by an extremely close vote of 57 to 27. The anti-imperialists fell just two votes short of defeating the treaty.
The people of the Philippines were outraged that their hopes for national independence from Spain were now being denied by the United States. Filipino nationalist leader Emilio Aguinaldo had fought alongside U.S. troops during the Spanish-American War. Now he led bands of guerrilla fighters in a war against U.S. control. It took U.S. troops three years and cost thousands of lives on both sides before the insurrection finally ended in 1902.
Other Results of the War
Imperialism remained a major issue in the United States even after ratification of the Treaty of Paris. An Anti-Imperialist League, led by William Jennings Bryan, rallied opposition to further acts of expansion in the Pacific.
Insular Cases. One question concerned the constitutional rights of the Philippine people: Did the Constitution follow the flag? In other words, did the provisions of the U.S. Constitution apply to whatever territories fell under U.S. control, including the Philippines and Puerto Rico? Bryan and other anti- imperialists argued in the affirmative, while leading imperialists argued in the negative. The issue was resolved in favor of the imperialists in a series of Supreme Court cases (1901–1903) known as the insular (island) cases. The Court ruled that constitutional rights were not automatically extended to territorial possessions and that the power to decide whether or not to grant such rights belonged to Congress.
Cuba and the Platt Amendment (1901). Previously, the Teller Amendment to the war resolution of 1898 had more or less guaranteed U.S. respect for Cuba’s sovereignty as an independent nation. Nevertheless, U.S. troops remained in Cuba from 1898 until 1901. In the latter year, Congress made the withdrawal of troops conditional upon Cuba’s acceptance of certain terms. These terms were included in an amendment to an army appropriations bill— the Platt Amendment of 1901. Bitterly resented by Cuban nationalists, the Platt Amendment required Cuba to agree:
- never to sign a treaty with a foreign power that impaired its indepen- dence
- never to build up an excessive public debt
- to permit the United States to intervene in Cuba’s affairs to preserve its independence and maintain law and order
- to allow the U.S. to maintain naval bases in Cuba, including one at Guantanamo Bay
Election of 1900. The Republicans renominated President McKinley, along with war hero and New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt for vice president. The Democrats, as they had in 1896, nominated William Jennings Bryan, who again argued for free silver. With most Americans accepting the recently enacted gold standard, Bryan vigorously attacked the growth of American territorial expansion, including the Philippines, acquired during the war as an accomplished fact. The deciding issue was the growing national economic prosperity, which convinced the majority to give McKinley a larger margin of victory than in 1896.
Recognition of U.S. power. One positive consequence of the Spanish- American War was its effect on the way both Americans and Europeans thought about U.S. power. The decisive U.S. victory in the war filled Americans with national pride. Southerners shared in this pride and became more attached to the Union after their bitter experience in the 1860s. At the same time, France, Great Britain, and other European nations came to recognize that the United States was a first-class power with a strong navy and a new willingness to take an active role in international affairs.
Open Door Policy in China
Europeans were further impressed by U.S. involvement in global politics as a result of John Hay’s policies toward China. As McKinley’s secretary of state, Hay was alarmed that the Chinese empire, weakened by political corrup- tion and failure to modernize, was falling under the control of various outside powers. In the 1890s, Russia, Japan, Great Britain, France, and Germany had all established spheres of influence in China, meaning that they could dominate trade and investment within their sphere (a particular port or region of China) and shut out competitors. To prevent the United States from losing access to the lucrative China trade, Hay dispatched a diplomatic note in 1899 to nations holding spheres of influence. He asked them to accept the concept of an Open Door, by which all nations would have equal trading privileges in China. The replies to Hay’s note were evasive, but because no nation rejected the concept, Hay declared that all had accepted the Open Door policy. The press hailed Hay’s initiative as a diplomatic triumph.
Boxer Rebellion (1900). As the 19th century ended, nationalism and xenophobia (hatred and fear of foreigners) were on the rise in China. In 1900, a secret society of Chinese nationalists—the Society of Harmonious Fists, or Boxers—attacked foreign settlements and murdered dozens of Christian missionaries. To protect American lives and property, U.S. troops participated in an international force that marched into Peking (Beijing) and quickly succeeded in crushing the rebellion of the Boxers. China was forced to pay a huge sum in indemnities, which further weakened the imperial regime.
Hay’s second round of notes. Hay feared that the expeditionary force in China might attempt to occupy the country and destroy its independence. In 1900, therefore, he wrote a second note to the imperialistic powers stating U.S. commitment to (1) preserve China’s territorial integrity as well as (2) safeguard “equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese empire.” Hay’s first and second notes set U.S. policy on China not only for the administrations of McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt but also for future presidents. In the 1930s, this Open Door policy for China would strongly influence U.S. relations with Japan.
Hay’s notes in themselves did not deter other nations from exploiting the situation in China. For the moment, European powers were kept from grabbing larger pieces of China by the political rivalries among themselves.
Theodore Roosevelt’s Big-Stick Policy
In 1901, only a few months after being inaugurated president for a second time, McKinley was fatally shot by an anarchist (person who opposed all government). Succeeding him in office was the Republican vice president— the young expansionist and hero of the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt. Describing his foreign policy, the new president had once said that it was his motto to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” The press therefore applied the label “big stick” to Roosevelt’s aggressive foreign policy. By acting boldly and decisively in a number of situations, Roosevelt attempted to build the reputation of the U.S. as a world power. Imperialists applauded his every move, but critics of the big-stick policy disliked breaking from the tradition of noninvolvement in global politics.
The Panama Canal
As a result of the Spanish-American War, the new American empire stretched from Puerto Rico in the Caribbean to the Philippines in the Pacific. As a strategic necessity for holding on to these far-flung islands, the United States needed a canal through Central America to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Revolution in Panama. Roosevelt was eager to begin the construction of a canal through the narrow but rugged terrain of the isthmus of Panama. He was frustrated, however, by the fact that Colombia controlled this isthmus and refused to agree to U.S. terms for digging the canal through its territory. Losing patience with Colombia, Roosevelt supported a revolt in Panama in 1903. With U.S. backing, the rebellion succeeded immediately and almost without bloodshed. The first act of the new government of independent Panama was to sign a treaty (the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903) granting the United States long-term control of a canal zone.
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (1901). One other obstacle to a canal built and operated by the United States had been removed earlier by the signing in 1901 of a treaty with Great Britain. The British had agreed to abrogate (cancel) an earlier treaty of 1850 in which any canal in Central America was to be under joint British-U.S. control. Now, as a result of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, the United States could begin to dig the canal without British involvement.
Hundreds of laborers lost their lives in the effort. The work was completed thanks in great measure to the skills of two Army colonels—George Goethals, the chief engineer of the canal, and Dr. William Gorgas, whose efforts eliminated the mosquitoes that spread deadly yellow fever.
Most Americans approved of Roosevelt’s determination to build the canal. Many, however, were unhappy with the high-handed tactics employed to secure the Canal Zone. Latin Americans were especially resentful. To compensate, Congress finally voted in 1921 to pay Colombia an indemnity of $25 million for its loss of Panama.
The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
Another application of Roosevelt’s big-stick diplomacy involved Latin American nations that were in deep financial trouble and could not pay their debts to European creditors. In 1902, for example, the British dispatched war- ships to Venezuela to force that country to pay its debts. In 1904, it appeared that European powers stood ready to intervene in Santo Domingo (the Dominican Republic) for the same reason. Rather than let Europeans intervene in Latin America—a blatant violation of the Monroe Doctrine—Roosevelt declared in December 1904 that the United States would intervene instead, whenever necessary. This policy became known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. It meant that the United States would send gunboats to a Latin American country that was delinquent in paying its debts. U.S. sailors and marines would then occupy the country’s major ports to manage the collection of customs taxes until European debts were satisfied.
Over the next 20 years, U.S. presidents used the Roosevelt Corollary to justify sending U.S. forces into Haiti, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. The long-term result of such interventions was poor U.S. relations with the entire region of Latin America.
East Asia
As the 20th century began, Japan and the United States were both relatively new imperialist powers in East Asia. Their relationship during Theodore Roose- velt’s presidency, though at first friendly, grew increasingly competitive.
Russo-Japanese War. Imperialist rivalry between Russia and Japan led to a war between these nations (1904–1905), which Japan was winning. To end the war, Theodore Roosevelt arranged for a diplomatic conference between representatives of the two foes at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1905. Al- though both Japan and Russia agreed to the Treaty of Portsmouth, Japanese nationalists blamed the United States for not giving their country all that they wanted from Russia.
“Gentlemen’s Agreement.” A major cause of friction between Japan and the United States concerned the laws of California, which discriminated against Japanese Americans. San Francisco’s practice of requiring Japanese American children to attend segregated schools was considered a national insult in Japan. In 1908, President Roosevelt arranged a compromise by means of an informal understanding, or “gentlemen’s agreement.” The Japanese government secretly agreed to restrict the emigration of Japanese workers to the United States in return for Roosevelt persuading California to repeal its discriminatory laws.
Great White Fleet. To demonstrate U.S. naval power to Japan and other nations, Roosevelt sent a fleet of battleships on an around-the-world cruise (1907–1909). The great white ships made an impressive sight, and the Japanese government warmly welcomed their arrival in Tokyo Bay.
Root-Takahira Agreement (1908). An important executive agreement was concluded between the United States and Japan in 1908. Secretary of State Elihu Root and Japanese Ambassador Takahira exchanged notes pledging the following: (1) mutual respect for each nation’s Pacific possessions and (2) support for the Open Door policy in China.
Peace Efforts
The purpose of the great white fleet and all other applications of Roosevelt’s big-stick policy was to maintain the peace between rival nations. The president consistently promoted peaceful solutions to international disputes. For his work in settling the Russo-Japanese War, Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. In the same year, he helped arrange and direct the Algeciras Conference in Spain, which succeeded in settling a conflict between France and Germany over claims to Morocco. The president also directed U.S. participation at the Second International Peace Conference at the Hague in 1907, which discussed rules for limiting warfare.
William Howard Taft and Dollar Diplomacy
Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft (1909–1913), did not carry a big stick. He adopted a foreign policy that was mildly expansionist but depended more on investors’ dollars than on the navy’s battleships. His policy of trying to promote U.S. trade by supporting American enterprises abroad was given the name dollar diplomacy.
Dollar Diplomacy in East Asia and Latin America
Taft believed that private American financial investment in China and the nations of Central America would lead to greater stability there, while at the same time promoting U.S. business interests. His policy, however, was thwarted by one major obstacle: growing anti-imperialism both in the United States and overseas.
Railroads in China. Taft first tested his policy in China. Wanting U.S. bankers to be included in a British, French, and German plan to invest in railroads in China, Taft succeeded in securing American participation in an agreement signed in 1911. In the northern province of Manchuria, however, the United States was excluded from an agreement between Russia and Japan to build railroads there. In direct defiance of the U.S. Open Door policy, Russia and Japan agreed to treat Manchuria as a jointly held sphere of influence.
Intervention in Nicaragua. To protect American investments, the United States intervened in Nicaragua’s financial affairs in 1911, and sent in marines when a civil war broke out in 1912. The marines remained, except for a short period, until 1933.
The Lodge Corollary
Henry Cabot Lodge, a Republican senator from Massachusetts, was responsible for another action that alienated both Latin America and Japan. A group of Japanese investors wanted to buy a large part of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, extending south of California. Fearing that Japan’s government might be secretly scheming to acquire the land, Lodge introduced and the Senate in 1912 passed a resolution known as the Lodge Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The resolution stated that non-European powers (such as Japan) would be excluded from owning territory in the Western Hemisphere. President Taft opposed the corollary, which also offended Japan and angered Latin American countries.
Woodrow Wilson and Moral Diplomacy
In his campaign for president in 1912, the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson called for a New Freedom in government and promised a moral approach to foreign affairs. Wilson said he opposed imperialism and the big-stick and dollar-diplomacy policies of his Republican predecessors.
Moral Diplomacy
In his first term as president (1913–1917), Wilson had limited success applying a high moral standard to foreign relations. He and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan hoped to demonstrate that the United States respected other nations’ rights and would support the spread of democracy.
Righting past wrongs. Hoping to demonstrate that his presidency was opposed to self-interested imperialism, Wilson took steps to correct what he viewed as wrongful policies of the past.
- The Philippines. Wilson won passage of the Jones Act of 1916, which (1) granted full territorial status to that country, (2) guaranteed a bill of rights and universal male suffrage to Filipino citizens, and (3) promised Philippine independence as soon as a stable government was established.
- Puerto Rico. An act of Congress in 1917 granted U.S. citizenship to all the inhabitants and also provided for limited self-government.
- The Panama Canal. Wilson persuaded Congress in 1914 to repeal an act that had granted U.S. ships an exemption from paying the standard canal tolls charged other nations. Wilson’s policy on Panama Canal tolls angered American nationalists like Roosevelt and Lodge but pleased the British, who had strongly objected to the U.S. exemption.
Military Intervention in Latin America
Wilson’s commitment to democracy and anti-colonialism had a blind spot with respect to the countries of Central America and the Caribbean. He went far beyond both Roosevelt and Taft in his use of U.S. marines to straighten out financial and political troubles in the region. Throughout his presidency, he kept marines in Nicaragua and ordered U.S. troops into Haiti in 1915 and the Dominican Republic in 1916. He argued that such intervention was necessary to maintain stability in the region and protect the Panama Canal.
Conflict in Mexico
Wilson’s moral approach to foreign affairs was severely tested by a revolution and civil war in Mexico. Wanting democracy to triumph there, he refused to recognize the military dictatorship of General Victoriano Huerta, who had seized power in Mexico in 1913 by arranging to assassinate the democratically elected president.
Tampico incident. To aid a revolutionary faction that was fighting Huerta, Wilson asked for an arms embargo against the Mexican government and sent a fleet to blockade the port of Vera Cruz. In 1914, several American seamen went ashore at Tampico where they were arrested by Mexican authorities and soon released. Huerta refused to apologize, as demanded by a U.S. naval officer, and Wilson in retaliation ordered the U.S. Navy to occupy Vera Cruz. War between Mexico and the United States seemed imminent. It was averted, how- ever, when South America’s ABC powers—Argentina, Brazil, and Chile— offered to mediate the dispute. This was the first dispute in the Americas to be settled through joint mediation.
Pancho Villa and the U.S. expeditionary force. Huerta fell from power in late 1914 and was replaced by a more democratic regime led by Venustiano Carranza. Almost immediately, the new government was challenged by a band of revolutionaries loyal to Pancho Villa. Hoping to destabilize his opponent’s government, Villa led raids across the U.S.–Mexican border and murdered a number of people in Texas and New Mexico. In March 1916, President Wilson ordered General John J. Pershing to pursue Villa into Mexico. This expeditionary force, as it was called, was in northern Mexico for months without being able to capture Villa. President Carranza eventually protested the American presence in Mexico. In January 1917, the growing possibility of U.S. entry into World War I caused Wilson to withdraw Pershing’s troops.