7.2

• After the 1790s the U.S. was interested in:

  • U.S. foreign policy focused on expanding westward.
  • Protecting U.S. interests abroad.
  • Limiting foreign influences in the Americas.
• After the Civil War, the U.S. was interested in:

  • U.S. shifted focus to establishing bases and territories in the Caribbean Sea and across the Pacific Ocean.
• After 1890, U.S. interests were:

  • Debates over whether to join the competition for overseas territories with imperialist nations or remain true to anti-colonial traditions.
• William H. Seward was the most influential secretary of state (1861-1869)
• Willian H. Seward’s most significant actions were helping prevent GB and France from entering the war on the side of the Confederacy, leading the drive to annex Midway Island in the Pacific, gaining rights to build a canal in Nicaragua, purchasing the vast territory of Alaska, but he failed to convince Congress to annex Hawaii and to purchase the Danish West Indies.
• Russia was open to selling Alaska to the U.S. because it became an economic burden due to the threat of a British takeover.
• Americans saw no value in the purchase of Alaska and called it “Seward’s Folly” and “Seward’s Icebox.”
• Americans wanted Hawaii for their sugar.
• Cleveland blocked Republican efforts to annex Hawaii because he opposed imperialism.
• The conquest and division of many parts of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands by more industrialized nations marked a renewed interest in imperialism.
• Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan, and other nations like Belgium, were involved in economic imperialism.
• American expansion changed by taking land overseas.
• The US had interest in foreign nations because they offered valuable raw materials and provided markets for products.
• In the mid - 1800s American missionaries and entrepreneurs settled in the Pacific islands in Hawaii. A U.S. commission explored the use of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
• In 1870, Grant sought control of Pearl Harbor on Oahu and new trade treaties with the native kingdom. Hawaiians agreed to a treaty which gave the U.S. exclusive rights to Hawaiian sugar.
• In 1893, American settlers overthrew the Hawaiian monarch, Queen Liliuokalani and petitioned for annexation by the U.S. Cleveland opposed imperialism and blocked efforts to annex Hawaii.
• Republicans supported imperialism because they were closely allied with business leaders and endorsed an imperialist foreign policy.
• Farmers supported imperialism because they were eager to sell overseas.
• The Influence of Sea Power Upon History (1890) was written by Alfred Thayer Mahan. He argued that a strong Navy was crucial to the country's ambitions of securing foreign markets and becoming a world power.
• US naval strategist persuaded Congress to finance the construction of modern steel ships and encourage the acquisition of overseas islands including Samoa and other others in the Pacific Ocean.
• By 1900, the US Navy was the third largest in the world.