Week of February 7, Monday Lecture
I. Election of 1896
IMAGE: William
J. Bryan
IMAGE:
William McKinley
II. New Spirit of Nationalism
- Symbolism and Imperialism
III. Foreign Policy
- American Expansion in The 19th Century
- New Meaning for "Manifest Destiny"
Josiah Strong
on Missionary Expansionism
- Ideology of Imperialism Was Developing
- The New Navy
- Bellicose Mood
- Grover Cleveland
IMAGE:
Grover Cleveland
Queen Liliuokalani
Yields Power to US
- Republican Foreign Policy
- Cuba
IMAGE: Cuba
Under Spanish Misrule
IMAGE: The
Wreckage of the Maine
IV. Spanish-American War
IMAGE:
The World announces Dewey's victory
IMAGE: The
Rough Riders
IMAGE: Scenes
from the Battle of Santiago
IMAGE: Roosevelt
at the Panama Canal
IMAGE: The
Building of the Panama Canal
- Treaty of Peace Between the United States and Spain
V. American Imperialism in The Philippines
IMAGE:
Emilio Aguinaldo
McKinley: Decison
on the Philippines
Mark Twain on the
Philippines
VI. The Great Debate and the Election of 1900
VII. Sum up
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WHY DID IT HAPPEN??
- William Appleman Williams-Walter LeFeber school of thought
- "Economic Determinism" - the need for new markets
and the panic and
depression of the 1890s led US to look beyond its borders
- foreign trade up by a factor of 10 from 1865-1900
- Radical historians always see economic factors behind US
foreign policy
- Some evidence Many business interests did switch from anti-imperialism
to pro
in late 1890s... Senators did talk of Markets abroad..
- Many businesses made much money on war effort...supplies
- But can direct economic interests explain Foreign policy?
- 1. Total exports less than 10% of GNP...majority of exports
are
agricultural...80% of exports go to Canada and Europe
- 2. Firms that move abroad do not do so out of desperation...US
market
is still expanding...
- In particular times and places Business interests do dominate
foreign policy..
- Hawaii and to a large extent Cuba
- ---In these cases a few firms and interests were vitally
concerned and did push
successfully for US intervention
- Economic interests must be put in larger perspective however
- ---A National power perspective..."Nationalism"
- World-wide scramble for power-strategic, military, and commercial
- i.e., Strong countries need strong navies, and there must
be coaling and
watering stations and canals
- This Nationalism gets mixed up with American idealism
- "City on a Hill", "Manifest Destiny",
Kipling's "White Man's Burden"
- Same factors operate on our policy in world affairs throughout
20th c.
- ---NATIONAL POWER + IDEOLOGY OF MISSION + ECONOMIC
INTERESTS
- Only way to understand Vietnam, El Salvador, Kuwait
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created: February 10, 2000
last updated: February 23, 2000
Copyright 2000,
Mark Kornbluh
