Imperialism: Debates in two minutes
- Alfred Thayer Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890) argued that sea power made nations great; Americans read it as a case for a modern navy and overseas bases.
- Imperialists cited markets for surplus goods, the closed frontier, rivalry with European empires, and racial and religious ideas, such as Josiah Strong's belief that Anglo-Saxons were destined to spread their civilization.
- In 1895 Secretary of State Richard Olney told Britain to accept arbitration in its Venezuela border dispute, claiming the United States was practically sovereign on the continent.
- In January 1893, with U.S. troops ashore, white businessmen tied to the sugar trade, which the McKinley Tariff had hurt, overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani; President Cleveland then withdrew the annexation treaty.
- Hawaiian petitions with 21,269 signatures helped keep an 1897 annexation treaty short of the Senate's two-thirds vote, but Congress annexed Hawaiʻi by joint resolution in July 1898, during the Spanish–American War.
- Anti-imperialists, organized in the Anti-Imperialist League in 1898, argued that ruling people without their consent betrayed American principles and the tradition of avoiding foreign entanglements, and some opposed adding nonwhite peoples.
- On the exam: Topic 7.2 asks you to compare imperialist and anti-imperialist views of America's role in the world, often by sourcing Mahan, Strong or Twain; connect them to Manifest Destiny.
Topic 7.2 key terms
- Sea power (Mahan)
Alfred Thayer Mahan's argument in The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890): a nation grows rich and strong through overseas trade, a merchant fleet, a battle fleet to guard it and overseas bases for refueling. It pushed the United States toward a modern navy and colonies.
- Social Darwinism
The idea that Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' applies to human societies and races. Late-1800s writers used it to defend inequality, empire and racial hierarchy.
- Anglo-Saxonism
The belief that English-speaking Protestant peoples were racially and religiously superior and meant to lead the world. Strong wrote that the Anglo-Saxon race would 'spread itself over the earth.'
- Monroe Doctrine
President Monroe's 1823 warning that European powers must not colonize or interfere in the Americas. In 1895 the United States used it to demand a say in a border dispute between Britain and Venezuela.
- Venezuela boundary dispute
The 1895 crisis over the border between Venezuela and British Guiana. The United States demanded arbitration; Britain agreed, and a Paris tribunal in 1899 gave Britain most of the disputed land.
- McKinley Tariff (1890)
A law that raised many import duties but let foreign raw sugar in free and paid U.S. growers a bounty. It erased Hawaiʻi's tariff advantage and gave its planters a new reason to want annexation.
- Bayonet Constitution (1887)
A constitution forced on King Kalākaua by an armed militia. It stripped most of the king's power, barred Asian residents from voting, and set property tests that shut many Native Hawaiians out of the upper-house vote.
- Committee of Safety (1893)
A group of white businessmen and lawyers in Honolulu who organized the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani. They asked the U.S. minister for troops, then asked the United States to annex Hawaiʻi.
- Republic of Hawaiʻi (1894)
The government proclaimed on July 4, 1894 by the men who had overthrown the queen. Sanford Dole was its president. It sought annexation to the United States, and Cleveland had refused to restore the monarchy.
- Kūʻē Petitions (1897)
Petitions against annexation, organized by two Hawaiian patriotic leagues, the Hui Aloha ʻĀina for men and for women. They carried 21,269 signatures, roughly half the Native Hawaiian population, and Senator George Hoar presented them in Washington.
Transcript
Quotes are from the historical record and name their source. Lines marked Dramatized are reconstructions.
Land Birds
1890–1899
Key terms: Sea power (Mahan), Social Darwinism, Anglo-Saxonism, Monroe Doctrine, Venezuela boundary dispute
Oceans need ships. In 1890, ships needed coal.
The Navy's war college met in a former poorhouse in Newport. Its star lecturer was Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan.
His 1890 book made one argument. Nations that command the sea command trade, and grow great. Its subject was Britain. Its readers took it as advice.
Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan
Having therefore no foreign establishments, either colonial or military, the ships of war of the United States, in war,
Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan
will be like land birds, unable to fly far from their own shores.
Back home, Congress approved the Navy's first three modern battleships: Indiana, Massachusetts and Oregon.
But a warship could only steam so far on a load of coal. No coaling stations, no navy.
Mahan gave the Navy its reasons. A minister, Josiah Strong, gave many Protestant Americans theirs.
Rev. Josiah Strong
Then will the world enter upon a new stage of its history—the final competition of races, for which the Anglo-Saxon is being schooled.
Racism dressed as science and scripture.
In 1895, Washington told Britain, the world's greatest naval power, to settle its border quarrel with Venezuela.
Richard Olney
To-day the United States is practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition.
Britain said no, then agreed to arbitration. The judges were two Americans, two Britons and a Russian. None was Venezuelan.
The Pear
1887–1898
Key terms: McKinley Tariff (1890), Bayonet Constitution (1887), Committee of Safety (1893), Republic of Hawaiʻi (1894), Kūʻē Petitions (1897)
Hawaiʻi's biggest business was sugar, sold tax-free in the United States under a treaty.
The McKinley Tariff of 1890 let foreign raw sugar in free and paid American growers a bounty. Hawaiʻi's edge was gone.
Three years before, an armed militia had forced King Kalākaua to sign the “Bayonet Constitution.”
His sister, Liliʻuokalani, became queen in 1891. In January 1893 she moved to proclaim a constitution restoring royal power.
A Committee of Safety of white businessmen called that a revolution, and made one.
On February 1, the American flag rose over the Government Building. The U.S. minister, John Stevens, had declared a protectorate.
That day he wrote to Washington.
John L. Stevens
The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe, and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it.
The new government ordered the Royal Hawaiian Band to swear loyalty. Nearly all its musicians refused.
President Cleveland withdrew the annexation treaty and sent James Blount to investigate.
On Blount's orders, the flag came down on April 1.
Grover Cleveland
By an act of war, committed with the participation of a diplomatic representative of the United States and without authority of Congress,
Grover Cleveland
the Government of a feeble but friendly and confiding people has been overthrown.
The new government refused to step aside, and Cleveland wouldn't use force. On July 4, 1894, it declared a republic.
In 1895 royalists rose and failed, and the republic arrested the queen. She abdicated to save her supporters from execution, and spent about eight months a prisoner in her own palace.
In 1897 annexation came back. Hawaiian patriotic leagues gathered 21,269 signatures against it and carried them to Washington.
Queen Liliʻuokalani
I declare such a treaty to be an act of wrong toward the native and part native people of Hawaii.
The treaty stalled in the Senate, short of two-thirds. The protests worked, until a war.