Rise_of_Imperialism_at_Turn_of_Century

The Rise of Imperialism There were many reasons the United States pushed to “build and empire” at the end of the 19th century into the beginning of the 20th century. Many ideologies were embraced in an effort to rationalize the expansion of American possession and control of nations around the world. During this time period the United States participated in wars all around the globe to increase trade and spheres of influence. This strategic attempt to place controlling colonies around the world established the United States as a huge world power in an extremely short period of time. There were many supporters of the movement to push American exceptionalism across the globe. The ideology of Manifest Destiny that was used in the expansion of our own country was embraced and pushed even further. Another Ideology was “white man’s burden,” which basically stated that since we were so superior and advanced that it was our moral obligation to teach the heathens of the world to be like us and basically bow to our Anglo-Saxon ways. Alfred Mahan stated that the country that controlled the seas, controlled the world and believed in pre-emptive war in an effort to catch potential enemies off guard. In his work, The Influence of Sea Power on History, 1660-1783, he called the navy’s wooden ships “floating washtubs,” and convinced the government to build impressive steam-powered battleships to show the world how powerful the navy was. In 1907 Theodore Roosevelt sent sixteen battleships and four destroyers on a two year global tour to prove this point to the world. Roosevelt believed in the idea of “walk softly, but carry a big stick and used this display to his advantage when conducting peace talks throughout his stay in office. Darwinists embraced these ideologies and pushed for expansion under the notion of “survival of the fittest.” They believed that Americans were the superior race and had the right to go forth and take whatever we wanted because it was our destiny. In 1898, the accidental explosion of the USS Maine off the coast of Cuba was used as an excuse to wage an all out war on Spain to seize control of Cuba as a waypoint for overseas trade and protection from any future invading nations. This war was caused largely by “yellow press” of the time writing extravagant stories and embellishing stories of Spanish brutality and the accident that occurred on the USS Maine. The US won against Spain after only 4 months of fighting. The Teller Amendment was passed promising autonomy to the Cuban government, but later taken back in Platt Amendment in 1901 requiring Cuba to allow the US to maintain a naval base there and seek permission from our government before entering into any treaties with other nations. After this win, the US also took control of Alaska, Hawaii, and other small islands. But why stop there' The “Map of the China Seas… Under the National Flags, 1898” published in Harper’s Weekly represented ideas to build an empire in the Philippines to control and expand trade with China. President McKinley adopted a strong paternal view on this subject in order to justify actions against the Philippines. He argued that “We could not leave them to themselves--- they were unfit for self-government, and they would soon have anarchy and misrule worse than Spain’s was.” In the 1900-1904 Insular Cases, the Supreme Court granted authority to govern Philippines, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico as official colonies. These acquisitions and granting Alaska and Hawaii American citizenship outraged anti-imperialists that believed we should spend time worrying about problems in our own country rather than sending all of our resources around the world to incorporate more inferior people into our country. On the floor of the Senate, Senator Ben Tillman asked, “Why do we as people want to incorporate into our citizenship ten millions more of different or of differing race'” On February 4, 1899, war broke out between the U.S. and the Philippines on the outskirts of Manila. This war was not quick like with Spain over Cuba, it lasted two and a half years and claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands due to the war and disease. Over 4,000 Americans and 220,000 Filipino soldiers and civilians died in this “unholy war of conquest.” The Filipinos practiced “amigo warfare” in which they acted as harmless civilians during the day, but slaughtered troops at night. The U.S. committed many war crimes such as torturing captured and punishing and killing civilians suspected of housing or not divulging the locations of rebel groups. In July of 1902, the war was officially declared over after a captured messenger gave up the location of the rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo. U.S. troops remained in the Philippines for 11 years to subdue all other revolts and rebel groups. Next, was the Boxer Rebellion in China due to the citizens tiring of other nations spheres of influence throughout their country and attempts to control trade by U.S. and European nations. An open door policy was created within each nation’s sphere of influence within China granting free trade there for the U.S. and allowing Chinese officials to collect customs fees. This Humiliating foreign domination of China sparked the creation of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists, who roamed around attacking foreigners at will. McKinley sent 2,500 soldiers to join the multinational army against the “Boxers” and successfully crushed the rebellion. In 1905 President Roosevelt successfully negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese war which worked out very well for his interests. This ensured wanted trade between the U.S. and Japan and also Russia. Shorty thereafter though, California legislators launched a campaign to halt immigration of Japanese people. Japanese and Chinese people started being lumped together as “the yellow peril” which outraged Japan. In 1907-1908 the Gentlemen’s Agreement was signed in which Japan agreed to deny passports to Japanese workers. Professionals and relatives of current immigrants were still allowed which sparked outrage again as “paper brides” and “paper sons” falsely came over posing as wives and relatives of current immigrated citizens. Angel Island was used as a waypoint to hold immigrants for long periods of time and quiz them denying any that failed to prove their relation. In 1921 Japan finally agreed to stop issuing passports to picture brides and Congress banned all Asian immigration in 1924. Yet another strategic location Roosevelt went after was the Panama Canal for obvious reasons. Cutting the canal through Panama would cut shipping times in half in many circumstances and increase revenues by millions. In 1902 bought the area for 40 million dollars from the Bunau-Varilla. The Columbian government did not agree to allow U.S. control indefinitely though. In 1903 Panama revolted against Columbia and Roosevelt acted quickly to side with the Panamanians knowing that this would ensure his desires would be satisfied. He overstepped his bounds denying entry by sea to Columbian troops claiming the 1846 agreement with Columbia gave him right to police the waters. Nonetheless, the revolution succeeded and the U.S. was granted a 10 mile wide strip that included the canal area for the price of 10 million and a recurring annual rent of $250,000. There are pretty obvious reasons for this Imperialistic expansion and overtaking of many locations around the world. The problem is the reasons the U.S. had do not make them morally right in any way. The U.S. did make out really well despite the fact that it should have never happened. In just a few short years, this push propelled the U.S. into the league of major world powers. We became just as powerful as nations that had been running the world for most of history, but accomplished this being the youngest of all major nations. It was a pretty dramatic accomplishment through victories won through lies completely racist thinking used to justify the causes. Not only did we grow as a powerful war machine, but we won trade with virtually every nation across the globe that really mattered in the trade world. Our economy was booming because of our racial injustices. I think this is the true “white man’s burden,” to live with ourselves knowing all the horrible things we did in the name of money.