APush Imperialism and WWI
What was the significance of the De Lome letter?
Hearst also sensationally publicized a private letter from the Spanish minister in Washington, Dupuy de Lome. The indiscreet epistle, stolen from the mails, described President McKinley in decidedly unflattering terms. The resulting uproar forced Dupuy de Lome's resignation and further infuriated the American public.
Why did the U.S. become an imperialist power at the turn of the century?
1.) Both farmers and factory owners began to look for markets beyond American shores as agricultural and industrial production boomed. Many Americans believed that the United States had to expand or explode. Their country was bursting with a new sense of power, generated by the robust growth in population, wealth, and productive capacity-and it was trembling from the hammer blows of labor violence and agrarian unrest. Overseas markets might provide a safety valve to relieve those pressures. Other forces also whetted the popular appetite for overseas involvement. The lurid "yellow press" of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst described foreign exploits as manly adventures. American's new international interest manifested itself in several ways. The Big Sister policy was aimed at rallying the Latin American nations behind Uncle Sam's leadership and opening Latin American markets to Yankee traders.
Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act
Congress affirmed its support for women in their traditional role as mothers when it passed the Sheppard Towner Maternity Act, which provided federally financed instruction in maternal and infant health care. In doing so, it also expanded the responsibility of the federal government for family welfare.
What was the Anti-Imperialist League?
1.) The Anti-Imperialist League sprang into being to fight the McKinley administration's expansionist moves. The organization counted among its members some of the most prominent people in the United States, including the presidents of Stanford and Harvard Universities and the novelist Mark Twain. The anti-imperialist blanket even stretched over such strange bedfellows as the labor leader Samuel Gompers and the steel titan Andrew Carnegie. Anti-imperialists raised many objections. The Filipinos thirsted for freedom; to annex them would violate the "consent of the governed" philosophy in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Despotism abroad might well beget despotism at home. Imperialism was costly and unlikely ever to turn a profit. Finally, annexation would propel the United States into the political and military cauldron of East Asia. Yet the expansionists or imperialists could sing a seductive song. They appealed to patriotism, invokes America's "civilizing mission," and played up possible trade profits. Manila, they claimed might become another Hong Kong.
Describe the circumstances leading to the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine? What was the Doctrine?
3. Roosevelt feared that if the Germans or British got their foot in the door as bill collectors, they might remain in Latin America, in flagrant violation of the Monroe Doctrine. He therefore declared a brazen policy of "preventive intervention," better known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. He announced that in the event of future financial malfeasance by the Latin American nations, the United States itself would intervene, take over the customshouses, pay off the debts, and keep the troublesome Europeans on the other side of the Atlantic. In short, no outsiders could push around the Latin nations except Uncle Sam, Policeman of the Caribbean. This new brandishing of the big stick in the Caribbean became effective in 1905, when the United States took over the management of tariff collections in the Dominican Republic, an arrangement formalized in a treaty with the Dominicans two years later. TR's rewrite of the Monroe Doctrine probably did more than any other single step to promote the "Bad Neighbor" policy begun in these years. As the time wore on, the new corollary was used to justify wholesale interventions and repeated landings of the marines, all of which helped turn the Caribbean into a "Yankee lake." To Latin Americans it seemed as though the revised Monroe Doctrine, far from providing a shield, was a cloak behind which the United States sought to strangle them.
Why was the Russian revolution in terms of the U.S. decision to enter the war?
A revolution in Russia had toppled the cruel regime of the tsars. America could now fight foursquare for democracy on the side of the Allies, without the black sheep of Russian despotism in the Allied fold. Subdued and solemn, Wilson at last stood before a hushed joint session of Congress on the evening of April 2, 1917, and asked for a declaration of war. He had lost his gamble that America could pursue the profits of neutral trade without being sucked into the ghastly maelstrom.
Why do some believe that the war represented a "betrayal of expectations"?
3. Whether a strong international organization would have averted World War II in 1839 will always be a matter of dispute. But there can be no doubt that the orphaned League of Nations was undercut at the start by the refusal of the mightiest power on the globe to join it. The ultimate collapse of the Treaty of Versailles must be laid at America's doorstep. This complicated pact, tied in with the four other peace treaties through the League Covenant, was a top-heavy structure designed to rest on a four-legged table. When the United States, was never put into place, the rickety contraption teetered for over a decade before crashing into ruins. The senate's rejection of a Security Treaty with France pledging American support in the event of another German invasion likewise proved disastrous. That spurning compelled France to begin rearming aggressively-which drove the Germans, illegally, do the same. The U.S. hurt its own cause. Granted that the conduct of its Allies had been disillusioning, carrying through the Wilsonian program would have served its own interests.
Why did the U.S. become interested in possession of Hawaii? What almost led to its acquisition of Hawaii in 1893? What was President Cleveland's position?
4.) Hawaii served as a provisioning point for Yankee shippers, sailors, and whalers. In 1820, when New England missionaries arrived, preaching Protestant Christianity and protective calico, and did well as Hawaii became an increasingly important center for sugar production. Americans gradually came to regard the Hawaiian Islands as a virtual extension of their own coastline. The State Department, beginning in the 1840s, sternly warned other powers to keep their grasping hands off. America's grip was further tightened in 1887 by a treaty with the native government guaranteeing priceless naval-base rights at spacious Pearl Harbor. However, Old World pathogens had scythed the indigenous Hawaiian population down to one-sixth of its size at the time of the first contact with Europeans, leading the American sugar lords to import large numbers of Asian laborers to work the cane fields and sugar mills. By century's end, Chinese and Japanese immigrants outnumbered both whites and native Hawaiians, amid mounting worries that Tokyo might be tempted to intervene on behalf of its often-abused nationals. Then sugar markets went sour in 1890 when the McKinley tariff raised barriers against the Hawaiian product. White American planters thereupon renewed their efforts to secure the annexation of Hawaii to the United States. They were blocked by Queen Liliuokalani, who insisted that native Hawaiians should control the islands. Desperate whites, though only a tiny minority, organized a successful revolt early in 1893, openly assisted by American troops, who landed under the unauthorized orders of the expansionist American minister in Honolulu. A treaty of annexation was rushed to Washington, but before it could be railroaded through the Senate, republican president Harrison's term expired and Democratic president Cleveland came in. Suspecting that his powerful nation had been gravely wronged the deposed Queen Liliuokalani and her people, he withdrew the treaty. A subsequent investigation determined that a majority of the Hawaiian natives opposed annexation. Though the Queen could not be reinstated, the sugarcoated move for annexation had to be temporarily abandoned. The Hawaiian pear continued to ripen until the fateful year of 1898, when the United States acquired its overseas empire.
Describe the "Boxer Rebellion." What was its significance?
7.) In 1900 a superpatriotic group, known as the "Boxers" for their training in the martial arts, broke loose with the cry "kill foreign devils." In what became known as the Boxer Rebellion, they murdered more than two hundred foreigners and thousands of Chinese Christians and besieged the foreign diplomatic community in the capital, Beijing. A multinational rescue force arrived and quelled the rebellion. They included several thousand American troops dispatched from the Philippines to protect U.S. rights under the 1844 Treaty of Wanghia and to keep the Open Door propped open. The victorious allied invaders acted angrily and vindictively. They assessed prostrate China an excessive indemnity of $333 million, of which America's share was to be $24.5 million. Wjen Washington discovered that this sum was much more than enough to pay damages and expenses, it remitted about $18 million, to be used for the education of a selected group of Chinese students in the United states-a not so subtle way to further the westernization of Asia.
What problems did the American Army encounter during the war? What was the greatest naval accomplishment of the war?
8.) Shortly after the outbreak of war, the Spanish government ordered a fleet of decrepit warships to Cuba which caused a seize of panic in the eastern seaboard of the United States. American vacationers abandoned their seashore cottages, while nervous investors moved their securities to inland depositories. Their "armada" was easily blockaded by the much more powerful American fleet. Sound strategy seemed to dictate that an American army be sent in from the rear to drive out the Spanish Ships. Shafter's troops were woefully unprepared for war in the tropic as they had been amply provided with heavy woolen underwear and uniforms designed for subzero operations against Indians. The rough riders, a part of the invading army, was a colorful regiment of volunteers that consisted of western cowboys and other hardy characters, with a sprinkling of ex-polo players and ex-convicts. Commanded by Wood, the group was principally organized by TR, who resigned from the Navy department to serve as lieutenant colonel. Shafter's landing near Santiago, thanks to the divisionary tactics of Cuban insurrectos, met little opposition. Brisk fighting broke out and Roosevelt and the rough riders charged. The American army fast closing in on Santiago, spelled doom for the badly outgunned Spanish fleet. The Spaniards steamed out of the harbor into the waiting American warships. Shortly thereafter, Santiago surrendered. By the time America reached Puerto Rico, Spain had satisfied it honor and an armistice was signed.
What was the U.S. acquire as a result of the Spanish-American war?
9.) Cuba was freed from the Spanish overlords. Americans secured the remote Pacific island of Guam, which they had captured early in the war. Spain also ceded Puerto Rico to the United States as payment for war costs. Ironically, the last remnant of Spain's vast New World empire thus became the first territory ever annexed to the United States without the express promise of eventual statehood. In the decades to come, American investment in the island and Puerto Rican immigration to the United States would make this acquisition one of the weightier consequences of this somewhat, carefree war. Knottiest of all was the problem of the Philippines, a veritable apple of discord. These lush islands not only embraced an area larger than the British Isles but also contained an ethnically diverse population of some 7 million souls. He did not feel that America could honorably give the islands back to Spanish misrule, especially after it had fought a war to free Cuba. And America would be turning its back upon its responsibilities in a cowardly fashion, he believed, if it simply pulled up anchor and sailed away. To McKinley, the least of the evils consistent with national honor and safety was to acquire all the Philippines and then perhaps give the Filipinos their freedom later. McKinley decided upon taking all of the Philippines and Christianizing and civilizing all of them. Accordingly, he decided for outright annexation of the Islands. Manila remained a sticking point with the Spaniards. Americans broke the deadlock by agreeing to pay Spain $20 million for the Philippine Islands-the last great Spanish haul from the New World (pact of Paris).
What was the role of the government of Colombia in the building of the Panama canal?
Congress decided on the Panama route. The scene shifted to Colombia, of which Panama was a restive part. The Colombian senate rejected an American offer of $10 million and annual payment of $250,000 for a six-mile-wide zone across Panama. Roosevelt railed against "those dagoes" who were frustrating his ambitions.
What was the myth that developed years later with regard to the causes of U.S. entry into the war?
A myth developed in later years that America was dragged unwittingly into war by munitions makers and Wall Street bankers, desperate to protect their profits and loans. Yet the weapons merchants and financiers were already thriving, unhampered by wartime government restrictions and heavy taxation. Their slogan might well have been "Neutrality forever." The simple truth is that British harassment of American commerce had been galling but endurable; Germany had resorted to the mass killing of civilians. The difference was like that between a gang of thieves and gang of murderers. President Wilson had drawn a clear, if risky, line against the depredations of the submarine. The German high command, in a last desperate throw of the dice, chose to cross it. In a figurative sense, America's war declaration of April 6, 1917, bore the unambiguous trademark "Made in Germany."
How did the California Segregation Case and "Gentlemen's Agreement" affect Japanese-American relations?
A showdown on the influx came in 1906, when San Francisco's school board, coping with the aftermath of a frightful earthquake and fire, ordered the segregation of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean students in a special school to free more space for whites. Instantly the incident boiled into an international crisis. The people of Japan, understandably sensitive on question of race, regarded this discrimination as an insult to them and their beloved children. On both sides of the Pacific, irresponsible war talk sizzled in the yellow press-the real "yellow peril." Roosevelt, who as a Rough Rider had relished shooting, was less happy over the prospect that California might stir up a war that all the other states would have to wage. He therefore invited the entire San Francisco Board of Education, headed by a bassoon playing mayor under indictment for graft, to come to the White House. TR finally broke the deadlock. The Californians were induced to repeal the offensive school order to accept what came to be known as the "Gentlemen's Agreement." By this secret understanding, Tokyo agreed to stop the flow of laborers to the American mainland by withholding passports.
What problems did the U.S. had with Canada?
A simmering argument between the United States and Canada over seal hunting near the Pribilof Islands off the coast of Alaska was resolved by arbitration in 1893. The willingness of Americans to risk war over such distant and minor disputes demonstrated the aggressive new national mood.
Blacks in the military
African Americans also served in the AEF, though in strictly segregated units and usually under white officers. Military authorities hesitated to train black men for combat, and the majority of black soldiers were assigned to "construction battalions" or put to work unloading ships.
What were the circumstances leading up to the Open Door Policy? What was it?
After China's defeat by Japan, Russia and Germany moved in. A growing group of Americans viewed the vivisection of China with alarm. Churches worried their missionary strongholds. Merchants feared that Europeans would monopolize Chinese markets. An alarmed American public, openly prodded by the press and shyly nudged by certain free-trade Britons, demanded that Washington do something. Hay dispatched to all great powers a communication soon known as the Open Door note. He urged them to announce that in their leaseholds or spheres of influence they would respect certain Chinese rights and the ideal of fair competition. Tellingly, Hay had not bothered to consult the Chinese themselves. The phrase Open Door quickly caught the American public's fantasy. But Hay's proposal caused much squirming in the leading capitals of the world, though all the great powers gave Russia, with covetous designs on Manchuria, eventually agreed to it. Secretary Hay let fly another paper broadside in 1900, announcing that henceforth the Open Door would embrace the territorial integrity of China, in addition to its commercial integrity. Those priciples helped spare China from possible partition in those troubled years and were formally incorporated into the Nine Power Treaty of 1922, only to be callously violated by Japan's takeover of Manchuria a decade later.
What was the Sussex Pledge? What did Germany expect in return for making the pledge? Did it occur?
After another British liner, the Arabic, was sunk in August 1915, with the loss of sink unarmed and unresisting passenger ships without warning. This pledge appeared to be violated in March 1916, when the Germans torpedoed a French passenger steamer, the Sussex. The infuriated Wilson informed the Germans that unless they renounced the inhuman practice of sinking merchant ships without warning, he would break diplomatic relations-as almost certain prelude to war. Germany reluctantly knuckled under to President Wilson's Sussex ultimatum, agreeing not to sink passenger ships and merchant vessels without giving warning. But the Germans attached a long sting to their Sussex pledge: the United States would have to persuade the Allies to modify what Berlin regarded as their illegal blockade. This, obviously, was something that Washington could not do. Wilson promptly accepted the Germany pledge, without accepting the "string." He thus won a temporary but precarious diplomatic victory-precarious because Germany could pull the strong whenever it chose, and the president might suddenly find himself tugged over the cliff of war.
How did the Root-Takahira Agreement affect Japanese-American relations?
As events turned out, an overwhelming reception in Japan was the high point of the trip. Tens of thousands of kimonoed schoolchildren, trained to wave tiny American flags. In the war diplomatic atmosphere created by the visit of the fleet, the United signed the Root-Takahira agreement with Japan in 1908. It pledged both powers to respect each other's territorial possessions in the Pacific and to uphold the Open Door in China. For the moment, at least, the two rising rival powers had found a means to maintain the peace.
What problems did the U.S. had with Great Britain?
America's new belligerence combined with old time ant-British feeling to generate a serious crisis between the United States and Britain in 1895-1896. The jungle boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela had long been in dispute, but the discovery of gold in the contested area brought the conflict between Britain and Venezuela to a head. President Cleveland and his pugnacious secretary of state, Richard Olney, waded into the affair with a combative note to Britain invoking the Monroe Doctrine. Not content to stop there, Olney haughtily informed the world's number one naval power that the United States was now called the tune in the Western Hemisphere. Unimpressed British officials shrugged off Olney's salvo as just another twist of the lion's tail and replied that the affair was none of Uncle Sam's business. President Cleveland-"mad clear through," as he put it-sent a bristling special message to Congress. He urged an appropriation for a commission of experts, who would run the line where it ought to go. If the British would not accept this rightful boundary, he implied the United States would fight for it. The entire country was swept off its feet in an outburst of hysteria. War seemed inevitable. Fortunately, sober second thoughts prevailed on both sides of the Atlantic. A rising challenge from Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany, as well as a looming war with the Dutch-descended Boers in South Africa, left Britain in no mood for war with America. London backed off and consented to arbitration. The Great Rapprochement was met between the United States and Britain, the new Anglo-American cordiality became a cornerstone of both nations' foreign policies as the twentieth century opened.
What was the significance of American business?
American business had an investment stake of about $50 million in Cuba and an annual trade stake of about $100 million, all of it put at risk by revolutionary upheaval. Moreover, as Senator Lodge put it, Cuba lay "right athwart the line" that led to the much-anticipated Panama Canal. Whoever controlled Cuba, said Lodge, "controls the Gulf [of Mexico]." Much was riding on the outcome of events in troubled Cuba.
William Howard Taft and the National War Labor Board
An agency of the U.S. government established in 1918 to mediate labor disputes during WWI.
When and what was Wilson's Peace Without Victory Speech? Why did both sides ignore it? What did Germany hope to gain by breaking the Suzzex Pledge?
As the last days of 1916 slipped through the hourglass, the president made one final, futile attempt to mediate between the embattled belligerents. On January 22, 1917, he delivered one of his most moving addresses, restating America's commitment to neutral rights and declaring that only a negotiated "peace without victory" would prove durable. Germany's warlords responded with a blow of the mailed fist. On January 31, 1917, they announced to an astonished world their decision to wage unrestricted submarine warfare, sinking all ships, including America's in the war zone. Wilson, his bluff called, broke diplomatic relations with Germany but refused to move closer to war unless the Germans undertook "overt" acts against American lives. To defend American interests short of war, the president asked Congress for authority to arm American ships.
What was the significance of yellow journalism?
Atrocities in Cuba were red meat for the sensational new "yellow journalism" of William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Engaged in a titanic duel for circulation, each attempted to outdo the other with screeching headlines and hair-raising "scoops." Where atrocity stories did not exist, they were invented. Hearst sent the gifted artist Frederic Remington to Cuba to draw sketched, allegedly with the pointed admonition. Among other outrages, Remington depicted Spanish customs officials brutally disrobing and searching an American woman. Most readers of Heart's Journal, their indignation soaring, had no way of knowing that such tasks were performed by female attendants.
Under what conditions did Germany believe they were surrendering?
Berlin was now ready to hoist the white flag. In October of 1918, Germany sought Wilson for a peace based on the fourteen points, but the president made it clear that the Kaiser must be thrown overboard before any armistice could be negotiated. War-weary Germans took the hint and forced the Kaiser to flee to Holland.
Describe the candidates and issues involved in the 1916 presidential election
Both the bull moose Progressives uproariously renominated Theodore Roosevelt, but the Rough Rider, who loathed Wilson and all his works, had no stomach for splitting the Republicans again and ensuring the reelection of his hated rival. In refusing to run, he sounded the death knell of the Progressive party. The Republicans drafted Supreme Court justice Charles Evans Hughes. The Republican platform condemned the Democratic tariff, assaults on the trusts, and Wilson's wishy-washiness in dealing with Mexico and Germany. The president, nominated by acclamation at the Democratic convention in St. Louis, now built his next campaign on the slogan "He Kept Us Out of War." On election day Hughes swept the East and looked like a surefire winner. The rest of the country turned the tide. Midwesterners and westerners, attracted by Wilson's progressive reforms and antiwar policies, flocked to the polls for the president. The final result hinged on California. Wilson barely squeaked through with a final vote of 277 to 254 in the electoral college. The prolabor Wilson received strong support from the working class and from renegade bull moosers, whom Republicans failed to lure back into their camp. Wilson himself had not specifically promised to keep the country out of war, but probably enough voters relied on such implicit assurances to ensure his victory.
What was the Clayton-Bulwar treaty?
By the terms of the ancient Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, concluded with Britain in 1850, the United States could not secure exclusive control over an isthmian route. But by 1901 America's British cousins were willing to yield ground.
Victory Loan Drives
Canada's involvement in the First World war began in 1914, with Canadian war bonds called "Victory Bonds" after 1917. The first domestic war loan was raised in November 1915, but not until the fourth campaign of November 1917 was the term Victory Loan applied.
What was the significance of Alfred T. Mahan's book The Influence of Sea Power upon History?
Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan's book of 1890, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1600-1783, argued that control of the sea was the key to world dominance. Mahan helped stimulate the naval race among the great powers that gained momentum around the turn of the century. Red-blooded Americans joined in the demands for a mightier navy and for an American built isthmian canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
What was the Hay Pauncefote Treaty?
Confronted with an unfriendly Europe and bogged down in the South African Boer War, they consented to the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty in 1901. It not only gave the United States a free hand to build the canal but conceded the right to fortify it as well
Reasons for Prohibition and the Volstead Act
Congress severely restricted the use of foodstuffs for manufacturing alcoholic beverages, and war spawned mood of self-denial helped accelerate the wave of prohibition that was sweeping the country. Many leading brewers were German descended, and this taint made the drive against alcohol all the more popular. The eighteenth amendment prohibited all alcoholic drinks.
Treatment of women in the workforce and in politics
Female workers flooded into factories and fields, taking up jobs vacated by men who left the assembly line for the front line. But the war split the women's movement deeply. Many progressive-era feminists were pacifists, inclined to oppose the participation both of America in the war and women in the war effort. This group found a voice in the National Women's party led by Alice Paul. But the larger part of the suffrage movement, represented by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, supported Wilson's war. Leaders echoed Wilson's justification for fighting by arguing that women must take part in the war effort to earn a role in shaping the peace. The fight for democracy abroad was women's best hope for winning true democracy at home. Impressed by women's work, Wilson endorsed woman suffrage as "a vitally necessary war measure." In 1920, the Nineteenth amendment was ratified.
What was the significance of "Butcher" Weyler?
Fuel was added to the Cuban conflagration in 1896 with the arrival of the Spanish general "Butcher" Weyler, He undertook to crush the rebellion by herding many civilians into barbed wire reconcentration camps where they could not give assistance to the armed inserrectos. Lacking proper sanitation, these enclosures turned into deadly pestholes; the victims died like dogs.
C.P.I or Creel Commission
George Creel created the Committee on Public Information. His job was to sell America on the war and sell the world on Wilsonian war aims. Creel's organization, employing some 150,000 workers at home and overseas, proved that words were indeed weapons. It send out an army of 75,000 "four-minute men" who delivered speeches containing "patriotic pep." Creel typified American war mobilization, which relied more on aroused passion and voluntary compliance than on formal laws. But he oversold the ideals of Wilson and led the world to expect too much. When the president proved to be a mortal and not a god, the resulting disillusionment at home and abroad was disastrous.
Herbert Hoover and the food administration
Herbert Hoover rejected issuing rations card like Europe. Instead he waged a propaganda campaign through posters, billboards, newspapers, pulpits and movies. To save food for export, Hoover proclaimed wheatless Wednesdays and meantless Tuesdays-all on a voluntary basis. The country soon broke out in a rash of vegetable "victory gardens." Hoover's approach worked. Farm production increased by one-fourth, and food exports to the Allies tripled in volume.
Bernard Baruch and the War Industries Board
In 1918, Bernard Baruch was appointed head of the War Industries Board. Although the board had only feeble formal powers and was disbanded just days after armistice, it set a precedent for the federal government to take a central role in economic planning in moments of crisis.
What actions supported the fact that Wilson hated imperialism? What actions opposed this?
In contrast to Roosevelt and even Taft, Wilson recoiled at first from an aggressive foreign policy. Hating imperialism, he was repelled by TR's big stickism. Suspicious of Wall Street, he detested the so-called dollar diplomacy. In only a week, Wilson declared war on dollar diplomacy. He proclaimed that the government would no longer offer special support to American investors in Latin America and China. American bankers pulled out of the Taft engineered six nation loan to China the next day. Wilson also persuaded Congress in early 1914 to repeal the Panama Canal Tolls Act of 1912, which had exempted American coastwise shipping from tools and thereby provoked sharp protests from injured Britain. The president further chimed in with the anti-imperial song of Bryan and other democrats when he signed the Jones Act, which granted the Philippines the boon of territorial status and promised Independence as soon as a "stable government" could be established. Political turmoil in Haiti soon forced Wilson to eat some of his anti-imperialist words. The climax of disorder came in 1914-1915, when an outraged populace literally tore to pieces the brutal Haitian president. In 1915 Wilson reluctantly dispatched marines to protect American lives and property. In the same year, he sent the leather necked marines to quell riots in the Dominican Republic, and that debt-cursed land came under the shadow of the American eagle's wings for the next eight hours. Increasingly, the Caribbean Sea, with its vital approaches to the now navigable Panama Canal, was becoming a Yankee moat.
What were the positive effects of the Spanish-American war for the U.S?
In essence, the Spanish-American war was a kind of colossal coming-out party. Dewey's thundering guns merely advertised the fact that the nation was already a world power. American prestige rose sharply, and the Europeans grudgingly accorded the Republic more respect. Britain, France, Russia and other great powers pointedly upgraded their legations in Washington, D.C., which had previously been regarded as a diplomatic backwater. A new martial spirit thrilled America. Captain Mahan's big-navyism seemed vindicated, energizing popular support for more and better battleships. Secretary of War Elihu Root established a general staff for the army and founded the War College in Washington. One of the most beneficial results was the further closing of the "bloody chasm" between North and South. Thousands of patriotic southerners had flocked to the Stars and Stripes, and General Joseph Wheeler (a confederate cavalry hero) was given command in Cuba.
Schnek v. U.S. 1919
In the Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court affirmed their legality, arguing that freedom of speech could be revoked when such speech posed a "clear and present danger" to the nation.
What problems did the U.S. had with Chile?
In the ugliest affair, American demands on Chile after the deaths of two American sailors in the port of Valparaiso in 1892 made hostilities between the two countries seem inevitable. The threat of attack by Chile's modern navy spread alarm on the Pacific Coast, until the Chileans finally agreed to pay an indemnity.
What was the significance of American jingoists?
Jingoism is nationalism in the form of aggressive foreign policy, such as a country's advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests.
What was the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty?
Just three days after the insurrection, Roosevelt hastily extended the right hand of recognition. Fifteen days later, Banua-Varilla, who was now the Panamanian minister despite his French citizenship, signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty in Washington. The price of the canal strip was left the same, but the zone was widened from six to ten miles. The French company gladly pocketed its $40 million from the U.S. Treasury.
Conscription
Many assumed that the American naval power and material support would suffice but the European associates confessed that they were scraping the bottom not only of their money chests but, more ominously, of their manpower barrels. A huge American army would have to be raised, trained, and transported, or the whole Western front would collapse. Conscription was the only answer to the need for raising an immense force with all possible speed. Wilson disliked a draft, as did many other Americans with Civil War memories, but he eventually accepted conscription as a disagreeable and temporary necessity. The proposed draft bill immediately ran into a barrage of criticism in Congress. Six weeks after declaring war, Congress grudgingly passed conscription to supply the manpower for the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in Europe.
What and when was the Zimmerman Note?
Meanwhile, the sensational Zimmerman note was intercepted and published on March 1, 1917, infuriating Americans, especially westerners. German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman had secretly proposed a German-Mexican alliance, tempting anti-Yankee Mexico with veiled promises of recovering Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
What was the Teller Amendment?
National war fever burned ever higher, even though American diplomats had already gained Madrid's agreement to Washington's two basic demands: an end to the reconcentration camps and an armistice with Cuban rebels. The cautious McKinley found himself in a jam. He did not want hostilities, but neither did he want Spain to remain in possession of Cuba. Nor, for that matter, did he want a fully independent Cuba, over which the United States could exercise no control. More impetuous souls denounced the circumspect president as "Wobbly Willie" McKinley. Fight-hungry Theodore Roosevelt reportedly snarled that the "white livered" occupant of the White House did not have "the backbone of a chocolate éclair." The president, whose shaken nerves required sleeping peels, was even being hanged in effigy. McKinley, recognizing the inevitable, eventually yielded and gave the people what they wanted. But public pressure did not fully explain McKinley's course. He had little faith in Spain's oft-broken promises. He worried about Democratic reprisals in the upcoming presidential election of 1900 if he continued to appear indecisive in a time of crisis. He also acknowledged America's commercial and strategic interests in Cuba. On April 11, 1898, McKinley sent his war message to Congress, urging armed intervention to free the oppressed Cubans. The legislators responded uproariously with what was essentially a declaration of war. In a burst of self-righteousness, they likewise adopted the hand-tying Teller Amendment. This proviso proclaimed to the world that when the United States had overthrown Spanish misrule, it would give the Cubans their freedom-a declaration that caused imperialistic Europeans to smile skeptically.
What was the significance of Josia Strong's Our Country: Its Possible Future and its Present?
Pious missionaries, inspired by books like the Reverend Josiah Strong's Our Country: Its possible Future and Its Present Crisis, looked overseas for new souls of harvest. Strong trumpeted the superiority of Anglo-Saxon civilization and summoned Americans to spread their religion and their values to the "backward" people. He cast his seed on fertile ground. At the same time, Roosevelt and Congressman Cabot Lodge interpreted Darwinism to mean that the earth belonged to the strong and the fit-that is, to Uncle Sam. This view was strengthened as latecomers to the colonial scramble. Africa was partitioned by Europeans in the 1890s in a pell-mell rush of colonial conquest. In the 1890s Japan, Germany, and Russia all extorted concessions from the anemic Chinese Empire. If America was to survive in the competition of the modern nation-states, perhaps it, too, would have to become an imperial power. The development of a new steel navy also focused attention overseas.
How did the U.S. interpretation of neutrality end up benefiting Britain over Germany? What is meant by "unlimited submarine warfare"?
President Wilson issued the routine neutrality proclamation and called on Americans to be neutral in thought as well as deed. But such scrupulous evenhandedness proved difficult. Both sides wooed the great neutral in the West. The British enjoyed the boon of close cultural, linguistic, and economic ties with America and had the added advantage of controlling most of the transatlantic cables. Their censors sheared away war stories harmful to the Allies and drenched the United States with tales of German bestiality. The Germans and the Austro-Hungarians counted on the natural sympathies of their transplanted countrymen in America. Most were simply grateful to be so distant from the fray. The majority of Americans were anti-German from the outset. German and Austrian agents further tarnished the image of the Central Powers in American eyes when they resorted to violence in the American factories and ports. When a German operative left is briefcase in a New York car, its documents detailing plans for industrial sabotage were quickly discovered and publicized. The British began forcing American vessels off the high seas and into their ports. This harassment of American shipping proved highly effective, as trade between Germany and the United States virtually ceased. In retaliation for the British blockage, in February 1915 Berlin announced a submarine war area around the British isles. The submarine was a weapon so new that existing international law could not be made to fit it. Berlin officials declared they would try not to sink neutral ships but they warned that mistakes would probably occur. Wilson continued to claim profitable neutral trading rights and hoped no high seas incident would force his hand.
What was the Phillipe Banau-Varilla and the Panama Canal Co.?
Represented by a young, energetic, and unscrupulous engineer, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, the New Panama Canal Company suddenly dropped the price of its holdings from $109 million to the price of $40 million.
Explain what was Roosevelt's famous statement "Speak softly and carry a big stick"?
Roosevelt's statement "Speak softly and carry a big stick" was adopted due to his ardent champion of military and naval preparedness. In the political cartoon "Theodore Roosevelt and His Big Stick in the Caribbean," it shows Roosevelt's policies turning the Caribbean into a Yankee pond.
Treatment and actions of the I.W.W. and the A.F. of L
Samuel Gompers and his AF of L loyally supported the war and were rewarded for it. At war's end, the AF of L had more than doubled its membership, to over 3 million, and in the most heavily unionized sectors-coal mining, manufacturing, and transportation-real wages had risen more than 20 percent over prewar levels. The radical, antiwar Industrial Workers of the world, engineered some of the most damaging industrial sabotage, and not without reason. Transient laborers in such industries as fruit and lumber, were victims to the shabbiest working conditions in the country.
What was meant by Taft's "Dollar Diplomacy"?
Taft used the lever of American investments to boost American political interests abroad, an approach to foreign policy that his critics denounced as dollar diplomacy. Washington warmly encouraged Wall Street bankers to sluice their surplus dollars into foreign areas of strategic concern to the United States, especially in the Far East and in the regions critical to the security of the Panama Canal. By preempting investors from rival powers, such as Germany, New York bankers would thus strengthen American defenses and foreign policies, while bringing further prosperity to their homeland-and to themselves. The almighty dollar thereby supplanted the big stick. China's Manchuria was the object of Taft's most spectacular effort to inject the reluctant dollar into the Far Eastern theater. President Taft saw in the Manchurian railway monopoly a possible strangulation of Chinese economic interests and a consequent slamming of the Open Door in the faces of U.S. merchants. In 1909, Knox proposed that a group of American and foreign bankers buy the Manchurian railroads and then turn them over to China under a self-liquidating arrangement. Both Japan and Russia, unwilling to be jockeyed out of their dominant position, bluntly rejected Knox's overtures. Taft was showered with ridicule. Washington also urged Wall Street bankers to pump dollars into the financial vacuums in Honduras and Haiti to keep out foreign funds. The U.S. under the Monroe Doctrine would not permit foreign nations to intervene and felt obligated to put its money where its mouth was to prevent economic and political instability.
Treatment of African Americans in the workforce
Tens of thousands of southern blacks were drawn to the North by the magnet of war-industry employment. These migrants made up the small-scale beginnings of the Great Migration, a northward trek that would eventually grow to massive proportions. Their sudden appearance in previously all-white areas sometimes sparked interracial violence.
What problems did the U.S. had with Germany?
The American and German navies nearly came to blows in 1889 over the faraway Samoan Islands in the South Pacific, which were formally divided between the two nations in 1899. (German Samoa eventually became an independent republic; American Samoa remains an American possession.)
Espionage and Sedition Act of 1918
The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 reflected current fears about Germans and antiwar Americans. As rumormongers were quick to spread tales of spying and sabotage by German Americans. Prosecuted under this were members of the radical Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Any criticism of the government could be censored and published.
Foraker Act
The Foraker Act of 1900 accorded the Puerto Ricans a limited degree of popular government (and outlawed cockfighting, a favorite island pastime). Congress granted U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans in 1917 but withheld self rule. Although the American regime worked wonderous improvements in education, sanitation, and transportation, many of the inhabitants still aspired to independence. Great numbers of Puerto Ricans ultimately moved to New York City, where they added to the complexity of the melting pot.
What were the terms of the Platt Amendment?
The United States, honoring its self-denying Teller Amendment of 1898, withdrew from Cuba in 1902. Old world imperialists could scarcely believe their eyes. But the Washington government could not turn this rich and strategic island completely loose on the international sea; a grasping power like Germany might secure dangerous lodgment near America's soft underbelly. The Cubans were therefore forced to write into their own constitution of 1901 the so-called Platt Amendment. The Cubans loathed the amendment, which served McKinley's ultimate purpose of bringing Cuba under American control. The newly "liberated" Cubans were forced to agree not to conclude treaties that might compromise their independence and not to take on debt beyond their resources. They further agreed that the United States might intervene with troops to restore order when it saw fit. Finally, the Cuban promised to sell or lease needed coaling or naval station, ultimately two and then only one, to their powerful "benefactor." The United States finally abrogated the amendment in 1934, although Uncle Sam still occupies a twenty-eight-thousand-acre Cuban beachhead at Guantanamo under an agreement that can be revoked only by the consent of both parties.
Insular Cases
The annexation of Puerto Rico posed a thorny legal problem: Did the Constitution follow the flag? Did American laws, including tariff laws and the Bill of Rights, apply with full force to the newly acquired possessions? Beginning in 1901 with the Insular Case, a badly divided Supreme Court decreed, in effect, that the flag did outrun the Constitution, and that the outdistanced document did not necessarily extend with full force to the new windfall. Puerto Ricans (and Filipinos) might be subject to American rule, but they did not enjoy all American rights.
What happens to Russia by 1917? How does this affect the course of the war?
The communistic Bolsheviks, after seizing power in 1917, ultimately withdrew their beaten country from the "capitalistic" war early in 1918. This sudden defection released hundreds of thousands of battle-tested Germans from the Eastern front facing Russia to the western front in France, where they were developing a dangerous superiority in manpower. The German drive on the western front exploded in the spring of 1918. Spearheaded by about half a million troops, the enemy rolled forward with terrifying momentum. The Germans approached on France.
What was the significance of the insurrectos?
The desperate insurgents now sought to drive out their Spanish overlords by adopting a scorched-earth policy. The insurrectos torched cane fields and sugar mills and dynamited passenger trains. Their destructive tactics also menaced American interests on the island.
Describe U.S. participation in the war in Europe. What were the goals of Pershing's Army? What were their problems?
The first trainees to reach the Front were used as replacements in the Allied armies and were generally deployed in quiet sectors with the British and French. Newly arrived American troops were thrown into the breach at Chateau-Thierry, right in the middle of the German advance. This was a historic moment, being the first significant engagement of American troops in a European war. It was clear that a new American giant had arisen in the West to replace the dying Russian titan in the East. By July, the German drive had spent its force, and the AEF joined a Foch counteroffensive in the Second Battle of the Marne. This engagement marked the beginning of a German withdrawal that was never effectively reversed. In September 1918, nine American divisions joined four French divisions to push the Germans from the St. Mihiel salient. The Americans demanded and got a separate army under their own command of John J. Pershing. As part of the last mighty allied assault, Pershing's army undertook the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Victory was in sight, fortunately. The slowly advancing armies in France were eating up their supplies they were in danger of running short. The German allies deserting them, the British Blockade was causing critical food shortages, and the sledgehammer blows of the Allies pummeled them relentlessly. The United States' main contribution to the victory was foodstuffs, munitions, credits, oil for this first mechanized war, and manpower. The AEF fought only two major battles, at St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne, both in the last two months of the war. It was the prospect of endless U.S. troop reserves, rather than America's actual military performance, that eventually demoralized the Germans. General Pershing's army itself purchased more of its supplies in Europe than it shipped from the United states.
Why was the Pueblo Speech a turning point for the League? What was meant by the "Solemn Referendum of 1920"? Why did Wilson ultimately instruct his fellow Democrats in the Senate to vote against the treaty?
The high point and the breaking point of the presidential tour was in Pueblo, Colorado. With tears coursing down is cheeks, Wilson pleaded for the League of Nations as the only real hope of preventing future wars. That night he collapsed from physical and nervous exhaustion. A "funeral train" whisked him back to Washington, where several days later a stroke paralyzed one side of his body. During the next few weeks, he law in a darkened room in the White House. For more than seven months, he did not meet with his cabinet. Senator Lodge was now at the helm. After failing to amend the treaty outright, he finally came up with fourteen formal reservations to it-a sardonic slap at Wilson's Fourteen Points. These safeguards reserved the rights of the United States under the Monroe Doctrine and the Constitution and otherwise sought to protect American sovereignty. Wilson, hating Lodge, saw red at the mere suggestions of the Lodge reservations. Too feeble to lead, Wilson remained strong enough to obstruct. When the day finally came for the Senate vote, he sent word to all the Democrats to vote against the treaty with the odious Lodge reservations attached. Wilson hoped that when these were cleared away, the path would be open for ratification without reservations or with only some mild Democratic ones. When presented to the Senate, Wilson told loyal democrats to again vote down the treaty with the reservations tacked on. Wilson proposed to settle the treaty issue in the forthcoming presidential campaign of 1920 by appealing to the people for a "solemn referendum." This was sheer folly, for a true mandate on the League in the noisy arena of politics was clearly possible. Democratic attempts to make the campaign a referendum on the League were thwarted by Senator Harding, who offered muddled and contradictory statements on the issue from his front porch. Republican isolationists successfully turned Harding's presidential victory into a death sentence for the league.
Describe the events which led to the defeat of the treaty. Who were the Irreconciables? The Reservationists? Why were they alarmed at Article X of the League Covenant?
The opposition's hard core was composed of a dozen or so militants led by Senators William Borah of Idaho and Hiram Johnson of California, known as irreconcilables. Invoking the revered advice of Washington and Jefferson, they wanted no part of any "entangling alliance." Nor were the isolationists Wilson's only problem. Critics showered the Treaty of Versailles with abuse from all sides. Rabin Hun-haters regarded the pact as not harsh enough. Principled liberals thought it too punitive. Germen Americans, Italian Americans, and others whom Wilson had termed "hyphenated Americans" were aroused because the peace settlement was not sufficiently favorable to their native lands. A strong majority of people remained favorable to the treaty. At this time-early July 1919- Senator Lodge had no real hope of defeating the Treaty of Versailles. His strategy was to amend it in such a way as to "Americanize," "Republicanize," or "senatorialize" it. The bulky pact was bogged down in the Senate, while the nation was drifting into confusion and apathy. Wilson want on a spectacular speech making tour.
Describe the Lusitania incident. What was Wilson's response?
The submarine issue became acute when the British passenger liner Lusitania was torpedoed and sank off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915, with loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 Americans. The Lusitania was carrying forty-two hundred cases of small-arms ammunition, a fact the Germans used to justify the sinking. But Americans were swept by a wave of shock and anger at this act of "mass murder" and "piracy." The eastern United States, closer to the war, seethed with talk of fighting, but the rest of the country showed a strong distaste for hostilities. The peace-loving Wilson had no stomach for leading a disunited nation into war. Instead, by a series of increasingly strong condemnations, Wilson attempted to take the German warlords sharply to task.
What policy did McKinley take toward Hawaii as a result of the Spanish-American War? Why?
The thrilling events in the Philippines had focused attention on Hawaii. An impression spread that America needed the archipelago as a coaling and provisioning way station, in order to send supplies and reinforcements to Dewey. McKinley also worried that Japan might grab the Hawaiian Islands while America was distracted elsewhere. A joint resolution of annexation was rushed through Congress and approved by McKinley in 1898. It granted Hawaiian residents U.S. citizenship; Hawaii received full territorial status in 1900.
What was the significance of the tariff?
The toots of the Cuban's results against their Spanish oppressors took partly economic roots. Sugar production-the backbone of the island's prosperity- was crippled when the American tariff of 1894 restored high duties on the toothsome product.
What was the significance of the Maine Incident?
Then early in 1898, Washington sent the battleship Maine to Cuba, ostensibly for a "friendly visit" but actually to protect and evacuate Americans if a dangerous flare-up should occur and to demonstrate Washington's concern for the island's stability. Tragedy struck when the Maine mysteriously blew up in Havana harbor, with a loss of 260 sailors. Two investigations ensued, one by U.S. naval officers and the other by Spanish officials. The Spaniards concluded that the explosion had been internal and presumably accidental; the Americans argued that the blast had been caused by a submarine mine. Not until U.S. Navy admiral H. G. Rickover confirm the original Spanish finding with overwhelming initial explosion had resulted from spontaneous combustion in one of the coal bunkers adjacent to a powder magazine. But Americans, blindly embraced the less likely explanation. Lashed to fury by the yellow press, they leapt to the inaccurate conclusion that the Spanish government had been guilty of intolerable treachery.
Describe the Fourteen Points.
Though one of Wilson's of his primary purposes was to keep reeling Russia in the war, Wilson's vision inspired all the drooping Allies to make mightier efforts and demoralized the enemy governments by holding out alluring promises to their dissatisfied minorities. The first five of the Fourteen points were broad in scope. (1) A proposal to abolish secret treaties pleased liberals of all countries. (2) Freedom of the seas appealed to the German, as well as to Americans who distrusted British sea power. (3) A removal of economic barriers among nations had long been the goal of liberal internationalists everywhere. (4) A reduction of armament burdens was gratifying taxpayers in all countries. (5) An adjustment of colonial claims in the interests of both native peoples and the colonizers was reassuring to the anti-imperialists. Indeed Wilson's pronouncement about colonies was potentially revolutionary. It helped to delegitimize the old empires and opened the road to eventual national independence for millions of "subject peoples." Other points among the fourteen proved to be no less seductive. They held out the hope of independence to oppressed minority groups. The capstone point, number fourteen, foreshadowed the League of Nations-an international organization that Wilson dreamed would provide a system of collective security. Yet Wilson's appealing points, though raising hopes the world over, were not everywhere applauded. Certain leaders of the Allied nations were less enthusiastic.
Describe how Wilsonian idealism played a part in the American war effort. What were the advantages and disadvantages of such idealism?
To galvanize the country, Wilson would have to proclaim more glorified aims. Radiating the spiritual fervor of his Presbyterian ancestors, he declared the supremely ambitious goal of a crusade "to make the world safe for democracy." Brandishing the sword of righteousness, Wilson virtually hypnotized the nation with his lofty ideals. He contrasted the selfish war aims of the other belligerents, Allied and enemy alike, with America's shining altruism. America, he preached, did not fight like other belligerents for the sake of riches or territorial conquest. The Republic sought only to shape an international order in which democracy could flourish without fear of power crazed autocrats and militarists. In Wilsonian idealism the personality of the president and the necessities of history were perfectly matched. The high minded Wilson genuinely believed in the principles he so eloquently intoned-especially his prophetic insight that the modern world could not afford the kind of hyper destructive war that advanced industrial states were now capable of waging. In any case, probably no other argument could have successfully converted the American people from their historic hostility to involvement in European squabbles. Americans, it seemed, could be either isolationists or crusaders, but nothing in between. Wilson's appeal worked-perhaps too well. Holding aloft the torch of idealism, the president fired up the public mind to a fever pitch.
How did the Portsmouth Conference affect Japanese-American relations?
Tokyo officials approached Roosevelt in the deepest secrecy and asked him to help sponsor peace negotiations. Roosevelt was happy to oblige, as he wanted to avoid a complete Russian collapse so that the tsar's empire could remain a counterweight to Japan's growing power. At Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1905, TR guided the warring parties to a settlement that satisfied neither side and left the Japanese, who felt they had won the war, especially resentful. Japan was forced to drop its demands for a cash indemnity and Russian evacuation of Sakhalin Island, though it received some compensation in the form of effective control over Korea, which it formally annexed in 1910. The price of TR's diplomatic glory was high for U.S. relations. Two historic friendships withered on the windswept plains of Manchuria. U.S. relations with Russia, once friendly, soured as the Russians implausibly accused Roosevelt about savage massacres of Russian Jews further poisoned American feeling against Russia. Japan felt cheated out of its due compensation. Both newly powerful, Japan and America now became rivals in Asia, as fear and jealousy between them grew.
The Fuel Administration
WWI era agency of the Federal government of the U.S. established by Executive order 2690 of 1917 pursuant to the Food and Fuel Control Act, managed use of coal and oil.
Describe the events that led to the beginning of WWI in Europe in 1914. Who was on each side?
War in Europe erupted when a Serb patriot killed the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary in Sarajevo. An outraged Vienna government, backed by Germany, forthwith presented a stern ultimatum to neighboring Serbia. An explosive chain reaction followed. Tiny Serbia, backed by its powerful Slav neighbor Russia, refused to bend the knee sufficiently. The Russian tsar began to mobilize his ponderous war machine, menacing Germany on the East, even as his ally, France, confronted Germany on the West. In alarm, the Germans struck suddenly at France through unoffending Belgium; their objective was to knock their ancient enemy out of action so that they would have two free hands to repel Russia. Great Britain, its coastline jeopardized by the assault on Belgium, was sucked into the conflagration on the side of France. Almost overnight most of Europe was locked in a fight to the death. On one side were arrayed the Central Powers: Germany and Austria-Hungary, and later Turkey and Bulgaria. On the other side were the Allies: principally France, Britain, and Russia, and later Japan and Italy. Americans thanked God for the ocean moats and self-righteously congratulated themselves on having ancestors wise enough to have abandoned the hell pits of Europe. America felt strong, smug, snug, and secure-but not for long.
Handling of Railroads
With an increase in supplies needed by the Allies, the nation's railways were feeling the strain. As the flow of traffic was mostly eastward, serious congestion was experienced in the yard. A car shortage developed as a result. By the time war was actually declared by the United States, in April of that year, the situation had grown intolerable. Yet the American spirit of individualism prevailed, and an executive committee called the Railroads' War Board was formed by Industry leaders. This body succeeded in lessening car shortages and other problems. Unfortunately, the winter of 1917-1918 struck with a vengeance. That, plus a series of conflicting "priority shipment" orders from the federal government's own war agencies, finally brought things to a standstill.
Describe the problems associated with the taking of the Philippines. Who was Emilio Aguinaldo? How did the situation alternately turn out?
Washington excluded the Filipinos from the peace negotiations with Spain and made clear its intention to stay in the Philippines indefinitely. Bitterness towards the occupying American troops erupted into open insurrection in 1899 under Emilio Aguinaldo. Having plunged into war with Spain to free Cuba, the United States was forced to deploy some 126,000 troops ten thousand miles away to rivet shackles onto people who asked for nothing but freedom-in the American tradition. The poorly equipped Filipino rebels soon melted into the jungle to wage vicious guerilla warfare. Now Americans viewed the Filipinos as dangerous enemies of the United States. This shift contributed to a mounting "race war" in which both sides perpetrated sordid atrocities. Uncle Sam's soldiers adopted the "water cure"-forcing water down victim's throats until they yielded information or dies. American built reconcentration camps rivaled those of Weyler's in Cuba. Having begun the Spanish war with noble ideals, America now dirtied its hands. The Americans broke the back of the Filipino insurrection 1901, when they cleverly infiltrated a guerrilla camp and capture Aguinaldo. But sporadic fighting dragged on for many dreary months. Washington poured millions of dollars into the islands to improve roads, sanitation, and public health. Important economic ties, including trade in sugar, developed between the two peoples. American teachers set up an unusually good school system and helped make English a second language. But all this vast expenditure, which profited American little, was ill-received. The Filipinos hated compulsory Americanization and pined for liberty.
Why was Wilson's decision to attend the peace conference in Versailles controversial in the U.S? What problems did Wilson face with the other Allies? Which of his fourteen points were included in the Versailles treaty?
Wilson personally appealed for a Democratic victory in the congressional elections of November 1918. But the maneuver backfired when voters instead returned a narrow Republican majority to Congress. Having staked his reputation on the outcome, Wilson went to Paris as a diminished leader. Unlike all the parliamentary statesmen at the table, he did command a legislative majority at home. Wilson's decision infuriated Republicans. At that time, no President had traveled to Europe. He then snubbed the Senate in assembling his peace delegation by refusing to select Republican. The allies formed an inner clique, known as the Big Four, between Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George, Vittorio Orlando, and Georges Clemenceau. Wilson tried to force through a compromise between naked imperialism and idealism. The victors would not take possession of the conquered territory outright but would receive it as trustees of the League of Nations. In practice, this half-loaf solution was little more than the old prewar colonialism, thinly disguised, although in the decades to come, anticolonial independence movements would wield the Wilsonian ideal of self-determination against their imperial occupiers. To Wilson's great satisfaction, his fellow treaty makers agreed to make the League Covenant. The hardheaded Clemenceau pressed French demands for the German inhabited Rhineland and the Saar Valley. Faced with fierce Wilsonian opposition to this violation of self-determination, France settled for a compromise whereby the Saar basin would remain under the League of Nations for fifteen years, and then a popular votes would determine its fate. Wilson's next battle was with Italy over Fiume, a valuable seaport inhabited by both Italians and Yugoslavs. When Italy demanded Fiume, Wilson insisted that the seaport go to Yugoslavia. Another crucial struggle was with japan over China's Shandong Peninsula and the German Islands in the Pacific. Japan received the Pacific islands under the League of nations mandate, but Wilson opposed Japanese control over the Shandong as a violation of self-determinism. When Japanese threatened to walk out, Wilson reluctantly accepted a compromise whereby Japan kept Germany's economic holdings on China's peninsula and pledge to return it at a later date. This Treaty of Versailles was presented to the Germans. They had capitulated in the hope that it would be granted a piece based on the Fourteen points. A careful analysis of the treaty shows that only about four of the twenty three of the original Wilsonian points and principles were fully honored. Vengeance was the treaty's tone. Wilson was forced to abandon some of his less cherish Fourteen Points in order to salvage the more precious League of Nations.
What was the role of the U.S. navy in the building of the Panama canal?
Working hand in glove with the revolutionists, Philippe Bunau-Varilla helped incite a rebellion. U.S. naval forces prevented Colombian troops from crossing the isthmus to quell the uprising.
How did the sailing of "The Great White Fleet" affect Japanese-American relations?
Worried that his intercession might be interpreted in Tokyo as prompted by fear, Roosevelt hit upon a dramatic scheme to impress the Japanese with the heft of his big stick. He daringly decided to send the entire battleship fleet on a highly visible voyage around the world. Late in 1907 sixteen white, smoke belching battleships started from the Virginia waters. Their commander pointedly declared that he was ready for "a feast, a frolic, or a fight." The Great White Fleet-saluted by cannonading champagne corks-received tumultuous welcomes in Latin America, Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia.
