Empire and Foreign Policy, 1893–1914

This is Unit Seven, part one, on the turn outward, from Turner's frontier to the Treaty of Paris. Unit Six closed by asking who Progressivism was for, and pointed to the nation's reach beyond its borders. This unit is that reach. Carry one question through it: what method did the United States use abroad? Watch the difference between owning territory and controlling it. At the Teller and Platt Amendments, the course names the method directly. By the end you will be able to explain what Turner and Mahan suggested to expansionists. To explain why foreign markets began to matter. To describe how Hawaii was taken. To state both verdicts on the Maine. And to explain how the Teller and Platt Amendments fit together.

Three entries on reasons to look abroad: a historian's argument, a strategist's programme, and an earlier purchase that was widely mocked.

Turner's frontier thesis.

USH2 0901 Turner's Frontier Thesis

At the Columbian Exposition of eighteen ninety-three, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner argued that western expansion had shaped American democracy, and that for nearly three centuries expansion had been the dominant fact in American life. Teach it as an argument, not a verdict. Its importance here is what it suggested to expansionists: with the frontier gone, look abroad.

The strategist who told them how.

USH2 0902 Mahan and Sea Power

Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History, published in eighteen ninety, argued that national power depended on control of the sea, with a three-part programme: a stronger navy, overseas naval bases, and a canal across Central America. Those three planks are the outline of this unit: bases come with the war of eighteen ninety-eight, the canal with Panama.

An earlier purchase that was widely mocked.

USH2 0903 Seward's Folly

In eighteen sixty-seven Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska from Russia, about six hundred thousand square miles, for seven point two million dollars; the Treasury's cancelled check is held by the National Archives. Newspaper editors mocked it as Seward's Folly, doubting it could be settled or governed. The anchor calls it a strategic boon.

Three entries on why business, faith and the fleet all looked outward.

Why foreign markets began to matter.

USH2 0904 Markets Abroad

American exports grew from two hundred thirty-four million dollars in eighteen sixty-five to six hundred five million in eighteen seventy-five, and reached one point three billion dollars a year by eighteen ninety-eight. Imports grew far more slowly, from two hundred thirty-eight million to six hundred sixteen million over the same years. Digital History adds that a quarter of the nation's farm products and half its petroleum were sold overseas. Read the two lines together. A country selling twice what it bought depended on customers abroad, and securing them became a question of policy. That dependence, more than any one idea, is why business leaders took a new interest in foreign affairs.

The missionaries who went abroad with them.

USH2 0905 Missionaries

The Reverend Josiah Strong's book Our Country of eighteen eighty-five helped inspire missionaries to carry American Protestantism abroad, especially to Asia, under societies such as the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Women made up more than sixty percent of the missionary force by eighteen seventy, the anchor says. Faith and commerce travelled together.

The navy built to protect both.

USH2 0906 A Modern Navy

Heeding Mahan, Congress passed the Naval Act of eighteen ninety, setting production levels for a new, modern fleet. By eighteen ninety-eight the navy had one hundred sixty vessels, one hundred fourteen of them newly built of steel, and six battleships where it had none before, ranking among the world's top five naval powers by century's end.

Two entries on Hawaii: a queen overthrown, and islands annexed during a war fought elsewhere.

The islands the navy's planners wanted.

USH2 0907 Hawaii's Queen Overthrown

In January eighteen ninety-three, American businessmen worked with the United States minister to Hawaii, John Stevens, to stage an armed revolt against Queen Liliuokalani, and Digital History describes armed American soldiers and marines backing the conspirators as the queen yielded her sovereignty. The queen had challenged American sugar interests. The conspirators wanted an American protectorate.

How Hawaii was annexed.

USH2 0908 Hawaii Annexed

Congress annexed the Hawaiian Islands by joint resolution on July seventh, eighteen ninety-eight, during the Spanish-American War, and Digital History says one point seven five million acres of crown land were seized. Hawaii became a territory in nineteen hundred, its residents granted citizenship. A war elsewhere made the annexation possible.

Four entries on Cuba: a revolt, the newspapers that inflamed opinion, an explosion, and the road to war.

The war's cause in Cuba.

USH2 0909 Cuba's Revolt

In eighteen ninety-five Cubans rose against Spanish rule, and General Valeriano Weyler answered with a policy of reconcentration, forcing Cubans out of their towns into military camps, where many died. The Yawp says reconcentration had run for about two years by the winter of eighteen ninety-eight. American sympathy for the rebels grew.

The newspapers that inflamed it.

USH2 0910 Yellow Journalism

Hearst's New York Journal and Pulitzer's New York World competed with sensational stories that, the Yawp says, came at the cost of accuracy. On February ninth, eighteen ninety-eight, the Journal published the Spanish minister's private letter criticising McKinley as weak, a letter the National Archives now holds. Six days later the press had a far larger story.

The explosion in Havana harbour.

USH2 0911 The Maine

McKinley sent the battleship Maine to Havana harbour in January eighteen ninety-eight to observe the crisis and protect Americans. On February fifteenth an explosion destroyed it, killing more than two hundred fifty sailors. The yellow press blamed Spain, and a naval court of inquiry, Digital History says, blamed a mine. The anchor reports that many historians now conclude the explosion was likely an accident, caused by gunpowder stored close to hot boilers. In eighteen ninety-eight, the anchor says, newspapers ran with the charge of a Spanish attack without ready evidence, and the country followed. The course states both verdicts together, because a war began on a cause now thought to be an accident.

How the country went to war.

USH2 0912 The Road to War

McKinley asked Congress for forcible intervention on April eleventh, eighteen ninety-eight; Congress recognised Cuban independence and authorised force, and declared war on April twenty-fifth. Three dates, three acts: the war message, the resolution, the declaration. The Teller Amendment promised the United States would not annex Cuba, which appeased those who opposed expansion.

Three entries on the war itself, which began far from Cuba and killed more by disease than in combat.

The first battle, fought far from Cuba.

USH2 0913 Manila Bay

Theodore Roosevelt, then assistant secretary of the navy, had ordered the attack, and on May first Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila with no significant American loss. The war over Cuba began in the Philippines. Mahan's bases were already in view.

The most famous charge of the war.

USH2 0914 Kettle Hill

Seventeen thousand American troops landed in Cuba in June, and in early July Roosevelt's Rough Riders charged Kettle Hill, next to San Juan Hill, near Santiago; the victory surrounded Santiago, and the Spanish fleet was destroyed as it fled. Popular memory places the charge on San Juan Hill. The anchor adds that several veteran African American regiments were instrumental to the victory.

What the war cost.

USH2 0915 Disease and Combat

The war lasted about ten weeks, and fewer than three hundred fifty American soldiers died in combat, with about sixteen hundred wounded and almost three thousand dead of disease. Disease killed roughly eight times as many as combat. Americans, the anchor says, hailed the victory as a sign that North and South were reconciled.

Three entries on the peace: the treaty, the terms imposed on Cuba, and how two amendments fit together.

The peace treaty.

USH2 0916 The Treaty of Paris

The Treaty of Paris of December tenth, eighteen ninety-eight, recognised Cuban independence and ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States, and McKinley insisted on the Philippines, for which the United States paid twenty million dollars. The Senate ratified the treaty on February sixth, eighteen ninety-nine. The Philippines were the prize the Teller Amendment never covered.

The terms imposed on Cuba.

USH2 0917 The Platt Amendment

The Platt Amendment, enacted in nineteen oh one and embodied in a treaty with Cuba of May twenty-second, nineteen oh three, gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs, a naval and coaling station at Guantanamo Bay, and a bar on Cuban treaties with other powers. Cuba was independent in name and restricted in fact.

How the two amendments fit together.

USH2 0918 Teller and Platt

The Teller Amendment of eighteen ninety-eight promised that the United States would not annex Cuba after the war. The Platt Amendment, enacted three years later, gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuba, a base at Guantanamo Bay, and a veto over Cuba's treaties. Both are true, and neither cancelled the other: the United States never annexed Cuba, and it made Cuba a protectorate without annexing it. Teller alone suggests restraint; Platt alone suggests conquest. Together they show a new method, control without formal ownership, which the rest of this unit repeats in China, Panama and Nicaragua. That is the method this part asked you to watch for.

Look at what you can now do. You can explain what Turner and Mahan suggested to expansionists: with the frontier gone, look abroad, and build a navy, bases and a canal. You can explain why foreign markets mattered. By eighteen ninety-eight the country sold abroad twice what it bought, and securing customers became a question of policy. You can describe how Hawaii was taken: a revolt staged with the American minister and backed by marines, then annexation by joint resolution during the war. You can state both verdicts on the Maine: a mine, in eighteen ninety-eight, and likely an accident on board, in the view of many historians now. And you can explain how Teller and Platt fit together: no annexation, and control without formal ownership.