what was our foreign policy for the first 100 years of our country’s existence?
TRANSCRIPT
We were isolationists starting with
Washington’s Neutrality Proclamation (1793).
This was due to the fact that we were weak militarily and were
separated from Europe by the Atlantic Ocean.
Imperialism is when a strong country
attempts to influence the economic and political affairs of a weaker country.
Economic imperialism is when the United States got involved
in another country for economic reasons. Examples include controlling a place for its raw materials or as a place to trade. This idea went along
with dollar diplomacy as presented by Teddy Roosevelt,
which called for the U.S. to have its businesses go into a
country to try to gain influence there.
Commodore Matthew Perry was sent with
several warships in 1853. In 1854 Japan gave the U.S. trading privileges
because they realized the United States was much
more advanced than they were.
Seward was the Secretary of State in the
1860’s. He bought Alaska for $7.2 million.
People ridiculed this calling it Seward’s Folly.
We later realized how great a purchase it was
because of the resources found in Alaska.
Expansion allowed the U.S. to increase trade. There was
also the desire to spread Christianity and democracy.
We had settled all of the land that is now the U.S. so
we now had to gain land elsewhere. There was also
competition with other countries. If we didn’t get
land then they would.
We initially wanted Hawaii to use as a
refueling base for ships sailing to Asia. Sugar
planters came to Hawaii and led a revolt
in which the King of Hawaii signed a new
Constitution.
Queen Liliuokalani led a last ditch effort to
remove U.S. control in Hawaii. It was
unsuccessful and Hawaii was annexed in 1898 and became the
50th state in 1959.
China, once a powerful nation, had failed to
industrialize and fell prey to more powerful nations.
Many European countries and Japan
established spheres of influence, which were
areas where the country had special trading
privileges.
The U.S. didn’t have a sphere of influence. As a way to get involved in the Chinese trade it proposed
the Open Door Policy. The Open Door Policy allowed a country to
trade in the sphere of influence of another
country.
They didn’t like the foreign intrusion. The
Righteous Fists of Harmony (Boxers) led an unsuccessful revolt
in which many Europeans were killed.
It was an agreement between Latin American countries and the United States to work together to solve problems. Latin Americans viewed this as an attempt by the U.S. to increase its trade in Latin
America.
Cuba was trying to throw off Spanish rule. Cuba was led by Jose Marti. The U.S. saw
Cuba as an important place for trade and saw their revolt as similar to ours from
Britain.
Yellow Journalists exaggerated the cruelty of the Spanish leader General Weyler. When the American warship the Maine was blown up they coined the phrase “Remember the Maine”
which got the U.S. citizens demanding war. The U.S. sent down troops to help the Cubans. The most famous
group involved were the Rough Riders, a mix of cowboys and college students
led by Teddy Roosevelt. The most famous victory was when the Rough Riders helped to take San Juan Hill.
We put down the revolution there just as the Spanish had been
doing. Emilio Aguinaldo was the Philippine leader who claimed they were doing the same the the
British Colonies had done 100 years earlier.
The U.S. offered Colombia $10 million
dollars plus $250,000 for the right to build the canal. When this was unsuccessful the U.S. backed up a revolt by
Panama and got permission from Panama
for the same deal.
The workers had to dig through lots of rocks
and hills but the biggest problem was
dealing with mosquitoes which
spread malaria and yellow fever.
This built upon the Monroe Doctrine(1823)
which told Europe to stay out of the Western Hemisphere. The
Corollary said the U.S. could intervene to
preserve peace in Latin America. (and protect our business interests)
This was based upon the statement “Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far.” What it meant was that the U.S. would say what was to
happen in South America and use force to back up
what we said if necessary.
Mexico was in the midst of a series of revolutions. The U.S.
business interests were threatened. Then Mexicans killed soldiers in the Mexican port of Vera Cruz and Pancho
Villa invaded the United States and burnt villages. John
Pershing led a raid into Mexico which guaranteed poor
relationships between Mexico and the U.S.