Chapter 22: Seizing an American Empire

Missionaries

Some 18,000 of these were scattered around the world by 1900

El Caney

Spanish village taken by U.S. troops on July 1

Protectorate

Status of Cuba to the United States in 1898

Water Cure

an old technique developed in the Spanish Inquisition during the sixteenth century whereby a captured Filipino insurgent would be placed on his back on the ground. While soldiers stood on his out- stretched arms and feet, they pried his mouth open, holding it in place with a stick. They then poured salt water into the captive's mouth and nose until his stomach was bloated, whereupon the soldiers would stomp on the pris- oner's abdomen, forcing out of his mouth and nose all of the water, now mixed with gastric juices

British Columbia

A originally British-owned piece of land that Seward first sought to acquire but later moved to Alaska

The Maine

Name of the American battleship docked in Havana harbor that exploded on February 15, 1898 as a result of an accidental coal explosion

Lyman Abbott

A prominent Protestant clergyman and editor, said that America was a divine instrument of Christian imperialism. It was, he said, "the function of the Anglo-Saxon race to confer these gifts of civilization, through law, commerce, and education, on the uncivilized people of the world"

William H. Seward

1886 Secretary of State who predicted that the United States must inevitably exercise commercial domination "on the Pacific Ocean, and its islands and continents"

Marcus "Mark" Hanna

A senator from Ohio but still a powerful Republican strategist, had strenuously opposed Roosevelt's nomination at a party caucus: "Don't any of you realize that there's only one life between this madman and the White House?"

The Pacific Advocate

A Protestant magazine that announced that "the cross will follow the flag" as "righteous" American soldiers prepared to liberate Cuba from Spanish control

California Christian Advocate

A Protestant magazine that cheered the declaration of war with Catholic Spain in 1898: "The war is the Kingdom of God coming!"

George Frisbie Hoar

A Republican who was the most vocal of the anti- imperialists. He infuriated President Roosevelt when he claimed on the Senate floor that the war-loving president had "wasted $600 millions of treasure. You have sacrificed nearly 10,000 American lives—the flower of our youth. You have devastated provinces. You have slain uncounted thousands of the people you desire to benefit. Your practical statesmanship has succeeded in converting a people who three years ago were ready to kiss the hem of the garment of the American and to welcome him as liberator . . . into sullen and irreconcilable enemies, possessed of a hatred which centuries cannot eradicate."

John Fiske

A historian and popular lecturer on Darwinism who wrote "American Political Ideas Viewed from the Standpoint of Universal History"

Naval Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan

A leading advocate of sea power and Western imperialism who published "The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783" in 1890. He championed America's "destiny" to control the Caribbean, build an isthmian canal to connect the Pacific and the Caribbean, and spread Western civilization in the Pacific

The Herald

A newspaper that reported that Protestant ministers were the most rabid advocates of the new imperialism because it afforded them opportunities for "evangelization of the world"

Sherwood Anderson

A young writer who said fighting backward Spain was like "like robbing an old gypsy woman in a vacant lot at night after the fair"

Josiah Strong

Added religion to theories of racial and national superiority. Wrote "Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis". Said that Americans "are a race of unequaled energy" who represent "the largest liberty, the purest Christianity, the highest civilization" in the world. "Can anyone doubt that this race . . . is destined to dispossess many weaker races, assimilate others, and mold the remainder until . . . it has Anglo-Saxonized mankind?"

The Platt Amendment

Added to an army appropriations bill passed by Congress in 1901, it sharply restricted the new Cuban government's independence. It also required that Cuba never impair its independence by signing a treaty with a third power, that it keep its debt within the government's power to repay it out of ordinary revenues, and that it acknowledge the right of the United States to intervene in Cuba whenever it saw fit. Finally, Cuba had to sell or lease to the United States lands to be used for coaling or naval stations

Spanish Commanding General Valeriano Weyler

Adopted a controversial policy whereby his troops herded Cubans behind Spanish lines, housing them in detention (reconcentrado) centers so that no one could join the insurrections by night and appear peaceful by day

Jones Act

Affirmed America's intention to grant the Philippines independence on an unspecified date and granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship and made both houses of the legislature elective

Insurrectos

Aguinaldo's forces

Senator Albert J. Beveridge

An ardent imperialist senator who declared that "we are God's chosen people." The United States, he added, had a "sacred duty" to bring the blessings of American Christianity to the lands acquired from Spain. Also said "The Philippines are ours forever. And just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either. . . . The power that rules the Pacific is the power that rules the world."

The Phillipine-American War

An armed conflict between the First Philippine Republic and the United States in 1899

Asia

An especially alluring target for American imperialism

Hawaii

Annexed by the United States in the summer of 1959

House of Delegates

Appointed by the president to Puerto Rico, along with a governor and eleven members of an executive council

Cuba

Area in the Caribbean sought for and eventually won by the United States. Up until its revolution, it was owned by Spain

Anti-Imperialists

Argued that acquisition of the Philippines would corrupt the American principle, dating back to the Revolution, that people should be self-governing rather than colonial subjects

Dr. Walter Reed

Head of the Army Yellow Fever Commission in 1900, he proved that mosquitoes carried yellow fever. The commission's experiments led the way to effective control of the disease worldwide

American Anti-Imperialist League

Attracted members representing many shades of opinion. Had members such as former presidents Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison. Andrew Carnegie footed the bills Presidents Charles Eliot of Harvard and David Starr Jordan of Stanford University supported the group, along with the social reformer Jane Addams

Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisi

Book written by Josiah Strong that asserted that the "Anglo-Saxon" embodied two great ideas: civil liberty and "a pure spiritual Christianity" and that Anglo-Saxon was "divinely commis- sioned to be, in a peculiar sense, his brother's keeper"

The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783

Book written by Naval Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan that argued that national greatness and prosperity flowed from maritime power

American Political Ideas Viewed from the Standpoint of Universal History

Book written by historian John Fiske that stressed the superior character of "Anglo-Saxon" institutions and peoples

Alaska

Bought by Secretary of State John Seward in 1867 for $7.2 million

Clayton-Bulwer Treaty

British agreed to acquire no more Central American territory, and the United States joined them in agreeing to build or fortify a canal only by mutual consent

J. A. Hobson

British economist who said imperialism was "the most powerful factor in the current politics of the Western world"

President Grover Cleveland

Called the Hawaiian Islands "the stepping-stone to the growing trade of the Pacific"

Spanish-American War

Called the War of 1898, it was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, which was the result of U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence

Commodore George Dewey

Commander of the small U.S. fleet in Asia that won the battle at Manila Bay

Republic of Hawaii

Created on July 4, 1894 and included in its constitution a standing provision for American annexation

William Jennings Bryan

Democrat who argued ending the war would open the way for the future independence of the Philippines

McKinley Tariff

Destroyed Hawaii's favored position in the sugar trade by putting the sugar of all countries on the duty-free list and granting growers in the continental United States a 2¢ subsidy per pound of sugar in 1890

The Teller Amendment

Disclaimed any intention of the U.S. eventually taking control of Cuba

Foraker Act

Established a government on the Puerto Rico

Samoa

Gained by the U.S. with a treaty in 1878 that granted a naval base at Pago Pago and extraterritoriality for Americans, exchanged trade concessions, and called for the United States to help resolve any disputes with other nations

Baker Island

Gained by the United States in 1857

Howland Island

Gained by the United States in 1857

Johnston Atoll

Gained by the United States in 1858

Kingman Reef

Gained by the United States in 1858

Midway Islands

Gained by the United States in 1867

Aleutian Islands

Gained by the United States in 1889

Palmyra Atoll

Gained by the United States in 1898

Pribilor Island

Gained by the United States in 1910

Bidlack Treaty

Guaranteed both Colombia's sovereignty over Panama and the neutrality of the isthmus

Pearl Harbor

Major harbor of Hawaii

Pago Pago

Major harbor of Samoa

Alice

Name of Theodore Roosevelt's wife, who died of kidney failure

First Sino-Japanese War

Japan defeated China

Boxers

Known as the Fists of Righteous Harmony, they rebelled against foreign encroachments on China, especially Christian missionary efforts, and laid siege to foreign embassies in Peking, known as Boxer Rebellion

Wake Island

Land claimed by the U.S. in 1898, located between Guam and the Hawaiian Islands

De Lôme Letter

Letter from the Spanish ambassador Depuy de Lôme to a friend in Havana, who called President McKinley "weak and a bidder for the admiration of the crowd, besides being a would-be politician who tries to leave a door open behind himself while keeping on good terms with the jingoes of his party"

Benevolent Assimilation

McKinley's named "act" of taking the islands in the Phillipines

A Holy Cause

McKinley's reasoning for annexing the Phillipines

Rough Riders

Name given to the First Volunteer Calvary in Tampa Bay, Florida made up of former Ivy League athletes, ex-convicts, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Pawnee, and Creek Indians, and southwestern sharpshooters, with Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt leading. The first American troops ever sent overseas

Weary Walkers

Name given to the Rough Riders after their horses and mules were sent elsewhere

"Seward's Folly"

Name given to the purchase of the Alaskan "icebox" by Seward by critics

Little Texas

Name of Theodore Roosevelt's horse

Mittie

Name of Theodore Roosevelt's mother

Theodore Roosevelt

Nicknamed "Mr. Imperialism". Said he "would give anything if President McKinley would order the fleet to Havana tomorrow" and that the sinking was "an act of dirty treachery on the part of the Spaniards". Also said "We will have this war for the freedom of Cuba,in spite of the timidity of the commercial interests" and that McKinley "has no more backbone than a chocolate éclair."

Catholic Americans

Objected to Protestant plans to evangelize the Catholic Cubans

Autonomy

Offered by Spain to the Cubans in return for ending the rebellion

Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934

Offered independence after ten more years

Open Door Policy

Proposed to keep China open to trade with all countries on an equal basis. More specifically, it called upon foreign powers, within their spheres of influence, (1) to refrain from interfering with any treaty port (a port open to all by treaty) or any vested interest, (2) to permit Chinese authorities to collect tariffs on an equal basis, and (3) to show no favors to their own nationals in the matter of harbor dues or rail- road charges

John Hay's Open Door Note

Outlined the Open Door Policy

Joseph Pulitzer

Owner of "New York World"

William Randolph Hearst

Owner of the "New York Journal". Called the Spanish Commander the "Butcher Weyler"

The Philippine Government Act

Passed by Congress in 1902, declared the Philippine Islands an "unorganized territory" and made the inhabitants citizens of the Philippines

William James

Philosopher that said the drive for imperialism caused the nation to "puke up its ancient soul"

Yellow Journalism

Practice created by competing newspapers "New York Journal"and "New York World" where the newspapers employed sensationalism as well as intentional efforts to manipulate public opinion

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge

President McKinley's closest friend who eroded his neutrality. Described Jennings efforts to gain approval of the treaty as "the closest, hardest fight" he had witnessed in the Senate. He also admitted that if U.S. troops had not provoked a clash with Filipino insurgents the weekend before, the treaty would have been rejected and the Philippines would have been set free

Commonwealth

Puerto Rico became this in 1952

Woodrow Wilson

Roosevelt's main political opponent. Said that the former "Rough Rider" was "a great big boy" at heart. "You can't resist the man." Roosevelt's glittering spectacles, glistening teeth, and overflowing gusto were a godsend to the cartoonists, who added another trademark when he pronounced the adage "Speak softly, and carry a big stick."

William McKinley

Said "We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is manifest destiny"

The Sandwich Islands

Samoa and Hawaii

Kettle Hill

Seized by the Rough Riders while a larger force took San Juan Hill

Reciprocal Trade Agreement

Signed by the U.S. and Hawaii in 1875 that resulted in a boom in sugar production

Armistance

Signed on August 12 and specified that Spain should give up Cuba and that the United States should annex Puerto Rico and occupy Manila pending the transfer of power in the Philippines

Treaty of Paris

Signed on December 10, 1898, ending the war between the two nations. It granted Cuba its independence, but the status of the Philippines remained unresolved

Manila Bay

Site of a U.S. victory led by Commodore George Dewey

Isolationist Mood

Swept across the United States as the country basked in its geographic advantages

Puerto Rico

Taken by the U.S. on July 25

Santiago

Taken by the U.S. on July 7

Backward Peoples

Term used to describe those outside of the U.S. that didn't follow the "norm"

Judge William Howard Taft

The Civil Governor

Liliuokalani

The king's sister, who ascended the throne and tried to eliminate the political power exercised by American planter

Emilio Aguinaldo

The leader of the Filipino nationalist movement, who declared the Philippines independent on June 12

John Hay

The soon to be secretary of state, who wrote in a letter to Theodore Roosevelt that the Spanish-American War was "a splendid little war, begun with the highest motives, carried on with magnificent intelligence and spirit, favored by that fortune that loves the brave."

Leon Czolgosz

Unemployed anarchist that killed McKinley

Congressional medal of Honor

Unsuccessfully (until 2001) awarded to Roosevelt by Congress