Turn-of the Century Empire and Imperial Debate

Wisconsin Workshop, Tues, 12:30-2:10Emily Rosenberg, U California, Irvine

Three eras of “imperial debate”

• I. Aftermath of War with Spain in 1898– Philippines and Puerto Rico became colonies; Cuba

and Panama became protectorates

Later this afternoon we will take up:

• II. Military occupations of the 1920s– In Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua

• III. Incursion into Iraq, 2003

War with Spain, 1898

TR at San Juan Hill

Forms of U.S. Empire in early 20th Century

• Colonies: War of 1898 brought annexation of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Philippines, Guam.

• Protectorates: Cuba (through Platt amendment to Cuban constitution in 1903); Panama (through treaty in 1904). By protectorate agreements, US gained rights to Guantanamo Naval base and Panana Canal Zone.)

Some Themes of Justification for Empire-Building, 1890-1910

• Advancing an inevitable transformation toward “civilization”

• Promoting freedom and democracy

• Showing manly duty and rescuing downtrodden women

• Bolstering U.S. strategic and economic position

• Bearing a “burden”

Senator Albert Beveridge, 1898

“Fate has written our policy for us. . . . American law, American order, American civilization, and the American flag will plant themselves on shores hitherto bloody and benighted but by those agencies of God henceforth to be made beautiful and bright.”

“The eyes of the worldare upon him”

John Bull: “It’s really mostextraordinary what training willdo. Why, only the other day I thought that man unable tosupport himself.”

Proclamation by U.S. Philippine Commission, 1899

“To the People of the Philippine Islands:

The United States, striving earnestly for the welfare and advancement of the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands, is solicitous to spread peace and happiness among the Philippine people; to guarantee them a rightful freedom; to accustom them to free self-government; and to encourage them in democratic aspirations, sentiments, and ideals.”

Helping children-nations

Rescuing women

Note: the dramagenerated by the press

The Story of Evangelina Cosio y Cisneros

Presented in a bestseller, published by William Randolph Hearst, with this introduction:

“a cruel war, waged by the minions of despotism against the spirit of patriotism and liberty; a beautiful maiden, risking all for her country, captured, insulted, persecuted, and cast into a loathsome dungeon. All is right and lovable on the one side, all ugly and hateful on the other. There is no uncertainty as to which way our sympathies should turn.”

Hearst newspaper headline after Evangelina’s rescue

“We have freed one Cuban girl

When shall we free Cuba?”

Theodore Roosevelt in Cuba, 1898

TR exemplifying“strenuous life”,and manly virtues

Charles Conant, “The Economic Basis of Imperialism,” North American Review, Sept. 1898:

“The United States today seems about ready to enter upon a path marked out for them as the children of the Anglo-Saxon race….Almost as if by magic, the importance of naval power as the advance agent of commercial supremacy has flashed upon the mind of the country. The irresistible tendency towards expansion seems again in operation, seeking new outlets for American capital…

This new movement . . .is the result of a natural law of economic and race development. The great civilized people of the world have today at their command the means of developing the decadent nations of the world.

TR visits Panama Canal inPanamanianprotectorate

1906

How does the canal building exemplify justifications stressingracial destiny, uplift, strategic position, economic gain, and manly duty?

Take up the White Man's burden--Send forth the best ye breed--Go bind your sons to exileTo serve your captives' need;To wait in heavy harness,On fluttered folk and wild--Your new-caught, sullen peoples,Half-devil and half-child. . . .

Take up the White Man's burden--The savage wars of peace--Fill full the mouth of FamineAnd bid the sickness cease;And when your goal is nearestThe end for others sought,Watch sloth and heathen FollyBring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden--Have done with childish days--The lightly proferred laurel,The easy, ungrudged praise.Comes now, to search your manhoodThrough all the thankless yearsCold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,The judgment of your peers!

Rudyard Kipling, “White Man’s Burden,” written in response toUS takeover of Philippines

Sum: Themes of Justification for Empire-Building, 1890-1910

• Advancing an inevitable transformation toward “civilization”

• Promoting freedom and democracy

• Showing manly duty, saving children, and rescuing downtrodden women

• Bolstering U.S. strategic and economic position

• Bearing a “burden”

Some Themes Advanced by “Anti-imperialists,” 1890-1910

• Advancing barbarism rather than civilization

• Betraying national values such as freedom and democracy

• Mocking rationales of manly duty and women’s rescue

• Undermining America’s strategic and economic position

• Costly and Back-breaking “Burden”

Issued by the “Anti-Imperialist League,” 1899

“The Anti-Imperialist League believes that it is due to the people of America that they should have all the information obtainable. The rigid censorship of all news from Manila—a censorship directed against our own people—makes it the more necessary.

The Anti-Imperialist League, therefore, publishes these letters of soldiers . . . .”

Issued by the “Anti-Imperialist League,” 1899, continued

From a Corporal in the California Regiment:

“We sleep all day here, as we do our duty all night, walking the streets. We make every one get into his house by 7 P.M., and we only tell a man once. If he refuses, we shoot him. We killed over three hundred men the first night. If they fire a shot from a house, we burn the house down, and every house near it, and shoot the natives; so they are pretty quiet in town now.”

Headline from NY Evening Journal

May 5, 1902

General Jacob H. Smith'sinfamous order was"KILL EVERY ONE OVER TEN"

Note: the vulture insteadof an eagle

Caption: "Criminals Because They Were Born Ten Years Before We Took the Philippines".

Charles Eliot Norton, “True Patriotism,” 1898

“My friends, America has been compelled against the will of her wisest and best to enter into a path of darkness and peril. Against their will she has been forced to turn back from the way of civilization to the way of barbarism, to renounce for the time her own ideals.”

Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth, 1901

“If we take the Philippines they will yield us

nothing, and probably be a source of annual

expense. Certainly they will be a grievous drain

upon revenue if we consider the

enormous army and navy which

we shall be forced to maintain

upon their account.”

“Hurrah forImperialism!

Raising children-nations

Description: In the back of the classroom are students representing California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Alaska are quietly reading. In the front row are boys representing the Philippines, Porto (sic) Rico, Cuba, and Hawai'i

Blackboard reads:

“The consent of the governed is a good thing in theory but very rare in fact.

England has governed her colonies whether they consented or not. By not waiting for their consent, she has greatly advanced civilization.

The US must govern its territories with or without their consent until they can govern themselves.”

Sign reads:“The Confederate States refused their consent to be

governed, but the union was preserved without their consent.”

The Burden

Sum: Themes Advanced by “Anti-imperialists,” 1890-1910

• Advancing barbarism rather than civilization

• Betraying national values such as freedom and democracy

• Mocking rationales of manly duty and women’s rescue

• Undermining America’s strategic and economic position

• Costly and Back-breaking “Burden”

Three eras of “imperial debate”

• I. Aftermath of War with Spain in 1898– Philippines and Puerto Rico became colonies; Cuba

and Panama became protectorates– Widespread “Imperial Debate” ensued

Later this afternoon we will take up:

• II. Military occupations of the 1920s– In Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua

• III. Incursion into Iraq