mcgraw hill, chapter 20 summery

CHAPTER 20
The Imperial Republic

CHAPTER SUMMARY
By the end of the nineteenth century, the territorial expansion that had characterized much of the
history of the United States had dramatically slowed, a victim of its own rapid success. But the
desire to expand did not end with the “closing” of the western frontier. Now supported by the
ideas of Social Darwinism, a new Manifest Destiny turned national attention to events and
territory beyond American shores. The critical year was 1898. First Hawaii was annexed, and
then the country went to war against Spain in Cuba. This “splendid little war,” as Secretary of
State John Hay described the surprisingly quick and thorough American victory, electrified the
population and gave Washington direct control over the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. In
addition, Cuba now became a virtual American protectorate. In a matter of months, the United
States leaped into the ranks of the imperial powers. This American empire had been acquired for
several reasons: The need for new markets and a racist belief in the superiority of Western
civilization cannot be denied, but strategic considerations and a desire to compete on an equal
basis with the great powers of Europe were also factors. Key figures in this story in the 1890s
were ardent imperialists such as Theodore Roosevelt and William Randolph Hearst, anti-
imperialists such as William Jennings Bryan and Andrew Carnegie, and men torn in both
directions such as William McKinley. Public opinion was also divided, but swayed by both the
new “yellow press” and the actual taking of lands, it ultimately came down on the side of the
expansionists. By 1900 it was clear that the enlarged international position would require the
United States to have a better military system and more assertive diplomacy if the new American
empire was here to stay.

OBJECTIVES
A thorough study of Chapter 20 should enable the student to understand:

1. The Manifest Destiny of the 1890s and how it differed from the Manifest Destiny of the
1840s

2. American foreign policy objectives with respect to Europe, Latin America, and Asia at the
dawn of the twentieth century

3. The variety of factors that contributed to the ultimate American decision to become more
imperialistic

4. The relationship between American economic interests, especially tariff policy, and
developments in Hawaii and Cuba

5. The long- and short-term causes of the Spanish-American War

6. The technological and other reasons for the rise of the “yellow press” and its role in
influencing public opinion

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7. The military problems that Americans encountered in fighting both the Spanish in Cuba and
the Filipino insurrectionists in the Philippines

8. The problems involved in developing a colonial administration for America’s new empire

9. The limitations of the United States as a global force at the turn of the twentieth century

10. The motives behind the Open Door notes and the Boxer Rebellion

11. The nature of military reforms carried out by Elihu Root following the Spanish-American
War

MAIN THEMES
1. Why Americans turned from the old continental concept of Manifest Destiny to a new
worldwide drive for territory

2. How the Spanish-American War served as the catalyst for transforming vague imperialist
stirrings into a full-fledged American empire

3. How the nation had to make attitudinal, political, military, and ideological adjustments to its
new role as a major world power

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Compare and contrast the old and the new concepts of Manifest Destiny. Had the economic,
philosophical, and racial motives changed?

2. The United States has always been an expansionist nation. Do you agree or disagree with this
statement? Why or why not?

3. The United States did not turn to expansion immediately following the Civil War. Why the
delay? Why were Americans hesitant, even doubtful? How and why did the Spanish-
American War change that view?

4. Discuss the personalities, philosophies, and developments (at home and abroad) that stirred
American interest in territorial expansion off and on between the Civil War and 1900.

5. What impact did the “yellow press” have on American opinion on expansion in the 1890s?
How did new technology help the yellow press more strongly influence public opinion?
What criticisms might be leveled against that press?

6. Was the Spanish-American War in fact a “splendid little war”? What was splendid about it?
What was sordid, seamy, and ill-conceived about it?

7. Analyze the positions for and against ratification of the Treaty of Paris, 1899. Why were the
anti-imperialists opposed to the treaty? Why did they lose the debate?

8. Discuss the causes and consequences of the Filipino insurrection against the United States.
Why has this war been so little remembered by subsequent generations of Americans?

9. Discuss the background and results of the American Open Door policy in China. Was it little
more than a “theoretical victory” for the United States?

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10. What weaknesses in the U.S. military were exposed in the wars in Cuba and the Philippines?
How did the United States respond to these problems? What strengths were shown?

MAP EXERCISES
1. Locate Florida, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico and the major cities in
each.

2. Identify the sites of the most important U.S. victories in the Spanish-American War—
Western Hemisphere and the Pacific.

3. Locate the Philippines, Australia, Hawaii, Samoa, Guam, and Midway.

4. Which possessions were obtained by the United States in the treaty with Spain? Which
possessions were obtained by the United States shortly after the Spanish-American War, but
not directly as part of the treaty?

5. Locate the basic sea route toward the U.S. mainland from the South Pacific.

INTERPRETATIVE QUESTIONS BASED ON MAPS AND TEXT
1. Why could it be said that “the sun never sets on the British Empire”?

2. What European powers other than Great Britain had significant imperial holdings?

3. How did the American empire compare in size to those of major European powers by 1900?

4. Why were events in Cuba of such great interest to the United States?

5. How did the Philippines get involved in a war ostensibly about Cuba?

6. What developments made Santiago the key point in the Cuban theater of the war? What were
the results?

7. How did the results of the war change American attitudes toward future events in the
Caribbean?

8. Why was the acquisition of Pacific islands so important to American trading and naval
interests?

9. How were the annexation of the Philippines and the pronouncement of the Open Door
related?

10. What advantages did American imperialists hope to gain from American possession of the
Philippines?

11. How would annexation of the Philippines affect future U.S. relations with China, Japan, and
the European powers?

12. What geographic features of the Philippines made it so difficult for the United States, or any
central authority, to control the area?

13. How did the freeing of Cuba and the acquisition of Puerto Rico secure American hegemony
in the Caribbean Sea?

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ESSAY QUESTIONS
These questions are based on the preceding map exercises. They are designed to test students’
knowledge of the geography of the area discussed in this chapter and of its historical
development. Careful reading of the text will help students answer these questions.

1. Why did the United States fight the Spanish-American War in both the Caribbean and the
Pacific?

2. Why did the United States decide to acquire the Philippines, but not Cuba, following the
Spanish-American War?

3. In what ways would nineteenth-century colonial acquisitions help shape twentieth-century
American interests and concerns?

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Robert L. Beisner, Twelve Against Empire (1968)
H. W. Brands, Bound to Empire: The United States and the Philippines (1992)
Kenton Clymer, John Hay: Gentleman as Diplomat (1975)
Michael Hunt, The Making of a Special Relationship: The United States and China to 1914
(1983)
Matthew Frye Jacobson, Barbarian Virtues: The United States Encounters Foreign Peoples at
Home and Aboard, 1876-1917 (2000)
Stuart Creighton Miller, “Benevolent Assimilation”: The American Conquest of the Philippines,
1899-1903 (1982)
Joyce Milton, The Yellow Journalists (1989)
H. Wayne Morgan, America’s Road to Empire (1965)
Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979)
Ivan Musicant, Empire by Default: The Spanish-American War and the Dawn of the American
Century (1998)
Walter LaFeber, The Cambridge History of American Foreign Policy, Vol. 2: The Search for
Opportunity, 1865-1913 (1993)
David M. Pletcher, The Diplomacy of Trade and Investment: American Expansion in the
Hemisphere, 1865-1900 (1998)
Hyman Rickover, How the Battleship Maine Was Destroyed (1976)
Emily S. Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream: American Economic and Cultural
Expansion, 1890-1945 (1982)
Anders Stephanson, Manifest Destiny: American Expansionism and the Empire of Right (1995)
Merze Tate, The United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom (1965)

For Internet resources, practice questions, references to additional books and films, and more,
see this book’s Online Learning Center at www.mhhe.com/unfinishednation4.