The Merriam-Webster dictionary (2010) defines imperialism as: The policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas. During the time period of 1890-1920, the United States faced difficult times. The nation was facing a decline in consumer demand while politicians and businesspeople joined forces to expand American markets and American influences abroad. A prominent Republican, Theodore Roosevelt, was a primary instigator of using military force to expand the United States’ territorial reach.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
1890 Donna C.
The Age of Imperialism---1890’s
In 1875 the Treaty of Reciprocity between the U.S. of America and the Hawaiian kingdom allowed sugar to be shipped from Hawaii to the U.S. duty free. This treaty allowed over 300,000 tons of sugar to be shipped duty free. At this time Queen Liliuokalani governed the islands. She was determined to eliminate American influence in the government even though it appeared American influence was everywhere. The workers who worked on the plantations were immigrants from many different countries. They were contract workers who were ruled by an iron fist. The McKinley Tariff came along and raised duties on ALL imports; this was in violation of the treaty of 1875.
This angered and upset the plantation owners greatly. They turned to the Queen for support. They thought the only way to avoid an economic crisis was to seek annexation to the U.S. The Queen strongly disagreed. She did not want foreigners running her country. In 1893 the owners planned a revolt which was supported by American troops. They successfully dethroned the Queen. They quickly asked for the U.S. to annex the island as a territory. President Cleveland refused saying that the native Hawaiians did not support this move. In 1898 the republicans gathered enough votes to annex Hawaii claiming the U.S. needed the Pacific Islands for a fueling station.
mstartzman.pbworks.com
1890 Letitia J.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt was a man with many attributes. He was governor of New York, Vice-President of the United States becoming President when President McKinley was assassinated. He was the 26th President of the United States (1901-1909). He was a strong advocate of imperialism. He used the federal government and his presidency to gain many things during this time. He used them to intervene in labor disputes and break up monopolies. He advocated that discrimination against immigrants harmed democracy. He was an asthmatic and home schooled as a child. He became a great historian by studying natural history. He was a naval officer and used the navy to his advantage during the Spanish-American War. He advocated for a strong American military and commercialism both at home and abroad. He managed to get the Panama Canal built creating a water way that prevented ships having to sail around Latin America which made for speedy transportation of goods being shipped to and from America. He allowed the United States to intervene in the affairs of other nations, creating the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 which simply meant that wrongdoing in other nations may need intervention by a more civilized nation. The Roosevelt Corollary was justified in later disputes with the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Philippines. Because he was a great hunter and avid outdoorsman, he was a conservationist and used the government to create many natural parks and wildlife refuges.
The History of the Teddy Bear
In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt was on a hunting trip in Mississippi. As reported in the Washington Post, the presidential hunting party tracked and captured a lean, black bear, tying it to a tree. The president was summoned, but when he arrived on the scene, he refused to shoot the tied and exhausted bear, considering it unsportsmanlike.
The following day, November 16, Clifford Barryman, Washington Post editorial cartoonist, immortalized the incident as part of a front-page cartoon montage. Barryman pictured Roosevelt, his gun before him with the butt resting on the ground and his back to the animal, gesturing his refusal to take the trophy shot. Written across the lower part of the cartoon were the words "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," which coupled the hunting incident to a political dispute.
The cartoon drew immediate attention. In Brooklyn, NY, shopkeeper Morris Michtom displayed two toy bears in the window of his Stationary and novelty store. His wife, Rose, had made the bears from plush stuffed excelsior and finished with black shoe button eyes. Michtom recognized the immediate popularity of the new toy, requested and received permission from Roosevelt himself to call them "Teddy's Bears."
The little stuffed bears were a success. As demand for them increased, Michtom moved his business to a loft, under the name of the Ideal Novelty and Toy Corporation.
At the same time as it was born in The United States, the Teddy Bear was also born in Germany. The Steiff Company of Giengen produced it's first jointed stuffed bears during the same 1902-1903 period. The company had made toys for a number of years and had produced small wool-felt pincushion type animals of many varieties. The animals were the creation of Margaret Steiff. Steiff bears were first introduced at the 1903 Leipzig Fair, where an American buyer saw them and ordered several thousand for shipment to the US. While other stories have been told regarding the birth of this wonderful toy, the simultaneous births in Brooklyn and Giengen are the best substantiated.
The cartoon at the top of this page is a later version of the Barryman cartoon as it appeared in The Washington Star.
Imperialism acted upon less developed countries in order to make them successful and able to thrive. It benefited both countries in that free trade became possible. Just as Americans saw profits to be made in removing the Indians from land in the United States, they saw the possibilities in the sugar trade from Hawaii. They also foresaw needing more land for more immigrants. Hawaii became U.S. territory in 1900 to prevent the French or British from taking the land. With the help of the United States their economy flourished and the population grew. Hawaii was considered a highly valuable economic resource.
Jones, Created Equal, Brief Third Edition, Volume 2
http://www.cr.nps.gov/logcabin/html/tr.html
1890 Letitia J.
Among many people that opposed imperialism were Mark Hanna (New York financier), Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, and John Muir, to name only a few that formed the Anti-Imperialist League (1889) to fight the annexation of the Philippines. From this league more national and federal leagues were formed.
John Muir and many others wanted uninhabited regions to be preserved in their “natural state” without dams, mines, or logging operations being built. In 1892, he founded the Sierra Club, who were devoted to preserving the wilderness. In 1899, he and the Northern Pacific Railroad lobbied (successfully) for two national parks. William Jennings Bryan openly condemned the American presence in the Philippines in readying for the presidential election in 1901.
Teddy Roosevelt was a both a preservationist and a conservationist. He allowed dams and reservoirs to be built providing many regions with water and electricity. John Muir had been his scout in the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. Muir and the Sierra Club campaigned to protect this piece of land, but the Raker Act in 1913 passed, allowing the city of San Francisco to build a dam and flood the valley.
Some critics wanted the United States to mind its own business and felt we had no business in other countries disputes. One such American was Mark Twain. Others such as Social Darwinists used racial hierarchies to oppose expansion (Jones et al. 2011.)
Jones, Created Equal, Brief Third Edition, Volume 2
CSMH History Class/1900-Hawaii becomes US territory (2010). Retrieved from http://csmh/
Pbworks.com/w/page/7309543/1900%20-%20Hawaii%20becomes%US%territory.
1898 Joanna B.
Spanish-American War
The Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War of 1898 began with Cuban nationalists uprising against Spanish authorities in 1895. This was concerning to the US because businesspeople were losing money in their investments in the Cuban sugar industry. Throughout the uprisings, Cuban nationalists, called insurrectos, burned crops of sugar cane. Humanitarians were also outraged by the brutal concentration camps set up by the Spanish military officials. In response to published newspaper articles criticizing the inaction of President McKinley by William R. Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, the battleship Maine was sent to Cuba to evacuate Americans. In an explosion caused by coal bins igniting a powder magazine, 260 US men aboard the ship were killed. However, William R. Hearst neglected to leave out the cause of the explosion and implied that the Spanish were responsible. Thus was the beginning of yellow journalism, which included both fact and fiction to play up the war in order to sell papers. On April 11, 1898, the US declared war against Spain to protect the sugar investment in Cuba, maintain trade with Cuba, and to establish and maintain American power in the Western Hemisphere. In the anonymous writing "Reasons For War (1898)," the author claims that the US went to battle because of "higher obligations" to address the inefficiency and indirection of the Spanish rule of Cuba. Because of the previously listed reasons, we were willing to be driven to war to finally resolve once and for all the cruel and inefficiencies that have arisen with Spanish rule not because of conquest.
One condition that Congress included in the war declaration was the Teller Amendment. The amendment had four points, the first being that the people of Cuba should be free and independent. Second, that Spain should relinquish all authority in Cuba and move the land and naval forces. Third, the US could use force to make sure the demands are carried out. Lastly, that Cuba should be left to govern and control their island.In an attempt to catch Spain of guard, President McKinley launched an attack and destroyed the Spanish naval forces in the Philippines. With the help of Filipino nationalists, the US took control of the Philippines by securing Manila. Hawaii was annexed to secure a refueling station for the US naval forces in the Philippines on July 7, 1898 and was officially a US territory in 1900. The Rough Riders, led by Theodore Roosevelt and backed up by two African American regimens, defeated the Spanish in Cuba. On August 12, 1898, Spain admitted defeat and relinquished control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Cuba agreed to include the Platt Amendment (1901) into its new constitution agreeing to not make an agreement with a foreign power that would jeopardize their independence, not accumulate debt that they could not back up, allow the US to intervene to preserve their independence, sanitize the cities, and sell or lease land to the US for coaling and naval station s which led to the US military base Guantanamo Bay.
Spain also agreed to sell the Philippines to the US for $20 million which was met with resistance by Filipino rebels resulting in a two year battle to repress the uprisings by burning villages and crops and by torturing rebel leaders. The acquisition of the Philippines was met with resistance by anti-imperialists who claimed that the US was acting out of vanity and was "unjust, ineffective and unnecessary." They also claimed that the attitude of "we know what is good for you better than you know yourself and we are going to make you do it" is a wrong and a violation of liberty which we are supposed to stand for as a nation. For the US to accept sovereignty over and unwilling people would be to destroy the fundamental principles and most noble ideas of a culture according to anti-imperialists such as Mark Twain and others in the America Anti-Imperialist League. President McKinley stated that we could not give the Philippines back to Spain because it would be cowardly and dishonorable. We also could not give them to another world power such as France or Germany because it would be bad for our businesses. Nor did President McKinley believe that they could govern themselves because they were unfit, which therefore only left the US to govern, civilize, and educate the Filipinos. His thoughts were also reflected by other supporters such as Theodore Roosevelt, who, in his essay "The Strenuous Life" (1900), who agreed that if we did not intervene, the government would be replaced by "savage anarchy." The acquisition of the Philippines proved to be an important doorway for the US into the Asian countries.
Americans Guard Filipino Prisoners. Pearson Education. Web. 5 Mar. 2011
Maine Explosion. 1898. Pearson Education. Web. 5 Mar. 2011
Filipino Guerillas. Pearson Education. Web. 5 Mar. 2011
Filipino Guerillas. Pearson Education. Web. 5 Mar. 2011
Atlas Map: The Spanish-American War, 1898-1899. Pearson Education. Web. 5 Mar. 2011
1900-1911 Angelina M.
Imperialism is defined as extending a nations’ authority by territorial acquisition through negotiation or conquest or by the establishment of political or economic control over other nations. A strong advocate of imperialism was Teddy Roosevelt. Imperialism greatly benefited the United States in the 1900’s. Roosevelt expanded the power of the federal government abroad and at home. He used the “bully pulpit” of the presidency to exert moral leadership.
Roosevelt believed a strong country needed large, powerful industries, and he hoped to regulate them to keep business strong. During Roosevelt’s presidency he managed timberlands and other natural resources to prevent their depletion. Roosevelt sent troops to China during the Boxer Uprising in 1900, proposed the construction of the Panama Canal, and implemented the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The Roosevelt Corollary justified interventions in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Nicaragua,, Mexico and Haiti.
Jones, Created Equal, Brief Third Edition, Volume 2
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/1900/filmmore/reference/primary/imperialism.html
Jones, Created Equal, Brief Third Edition, Volume 2
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/1900/filmmore/reference/primary/imperialism.html
Website for this image
en.wikipedia.org
us.history.wisc.edu
1900-1911 Mevina O.
The Spanish-American war is often referred to as the first “media war”. During the 1890s, journalism that sensationalized and sometimes even manufactured-dramatic events was a powerful force that helped propel the United State into war with Spain. Led by newspaper owners William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, journalism of the 1890s used melodrama, romance, and hyperbole to sell millions of newspaper-a style that became known as “Yellow Journalism”
The term Yellow Journalism came from a popular New York World comic called “Hogan’s Alley” which featured a yellow-dressed character named the “the yellow kid”. Determined to compete with Pulitzer’s World in every way, rival New York Journal owner William Randolph Hearst copied Pulitzer’s sensationalist style and even hired “Hogan’s Alley” artist R.F. Outcault away from the world. In response, Pulitzer commissioned another cartoonist to create a second Yellow kid. Soon, the sensationalist press of the 1890s became a competition between the “Yellow Kids” and the journalistic style was coined “Yellow Journalism”Yellow journals like the New York Journal and the New York World relied on sensationalist headlines to sell newspapers. William Randolph Heart understood that a war with Cuba would not only sell his papers, but also move him into a position of national prominence. From Cuba, Hearst’s star reporters wrote stories designed to tug at the heart strings of Americans. Horrific tales described the situation in Cuba-female prisoners, executions, women and children fighting, and many of the stories that filled the newspaper. But it was the sinking of battleship Maine in Havana Harbor that gave Hearst his big story-war. After the sinking of the Maine, the Hearst newspaper, with no evidence unequivocally blamed the Spanish and soon U.S. public opinion demanded intervention.
Today, historians point to the Spanish-American war as the first press-driven war. Although it may be an exaggeration to claim that Hearst and the other Yellow journalists stared the war, it is fair to say that the press fueled the public’s passion for war. Without sensational headlines and stories about Cuban affairs, the mood for Cuban intervention may have been different. At the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States emerged as a world power, and the U.S press proved its influence.
Dramatic newspaper headlines symbolize Yellow Journalism during the Spanish-American war. For newspaper like the New York World and New York Journal, the headlines was the most important aspect of the story the bigger and more sensational, the better. Newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst understood the importance of headlines and used large, dramatic, and sometimes misleading phrases, to sell millions of newspapers. Below are examples of some of the Newspapers
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