Unit 14: Imperialism

• Imperialism


  The policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force
• Why did the United States take on imperialist ventures in the late nineteenth century?

  • Economic, political, social
• The philosophy of imperialism

  • How was imperialism beneficial?
• Many Americans saw the crisis of the 1890s as one of inadequate markets for American goods
• New markets abroad became increasingly popular as a solution
• The White Man's Burden


  The responsibility of the white, Western nations to civilize and christianize the non-Western world
• Beginning in the late 1860s, the United States began expanding overseas
• Secretary of State William Henry Seward launched the nation's Pacific empire by buying Alaska
• The U.S. paid $7 million for Alaska
• The U.S. policy emphasized economic control, particularly in Latin America
• During the 1880s and 1890s, the United States strengthened its navy and began playing an increased role throughout the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific
• Navy Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan became the leading advocate of expansion and naval power
• Missionary activity increased throughout the non-western world
• College campuses blazed with missionary excitement
• The YMCA and YWCA embarked on a worldwide crusade to reach non-Christians
• Missionaries helped generate public interest in foreign lands and laid the groundwork for economic expansion
• By the end of the nineteenth century, women represented 60 percent of the American missionary force in foreign lands
• William Jennings Bryan: Nebraska Congressman; Silver Democrats, galvanizing the nominating convention with the "Cross of Gold" speech
• Populists decided to run a fusion ticket of Bryan and Tom Watson
• Bryan and most Democrats rejected the Populist endorsement
• Bryan won 46% of the vote but failed to carry the Midwest, West Coast, and Upper South
• Traditional Democratic groups like Catholics were uncomfortable with Bryan and voted Republican
• The Populists disappeared
• American sugar planters and missionaries threatened Hawai'ian autonomy
• When Lili'uokalani became queen in 1891 she resisted American influence
• On January 17, 1893, the queen was deposed by an American diplomat
• Lili'uokalani protested to President Grover Cleveland and he reinstated her as queen and declared the independent republic of Hawaii
• When McKinley became president he immediately annexed Hawaii
• Hawaii was a steppingstone to Asian markets
• The path to empire made major changes in government and the party system
• Southerners pushed for annexation of Cuba
• A movement to gain independence from Spain began in the 1860s
• Americans sympathized with Cuban revolutionaries
• Spanish imposed harsh taxes
• Grisly horror stories of Spanish treatment of revolutionaries (Journalism)
• McKinley had held off intervention, but public clamor grew following an explosion on the USS Maine
• This song was rushed into print between the sinking of the Maine on February 16, 1898 and the declaration of war on April 25, 1898
• Causes of Spanish-American War


  • American sympathy for the Cuban people's fight for independence
  • American business interests
  • Effects of yellow journalism
  • Sinking of the Maine
  • DeLôme letter
  • American expansionist interests
  • Desire for naval bases
  • Eliminate Spain from western hemisphere
• The US smashed Spanish power in what John Hay called "a splendid little war"
• Theodore Roosevelt, war hero