1. Chapter 7 section 4 Reaching for Empire
Imperialism
Chapter 7 section 4
Reaching for Empire

2. Section Objectives
Explain how the United States opened new avenues for trade in foreign lands.
Explain how the United States acquired Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippines.
Understand how the idea of Manifest Destiny related to the expansion of the country’s boundaries.

3. The Monroe Doctrine
President James Monroe’s address to Congress in 1823.
Message to the European powers was loud and clear: no more European colonies in the Western Hemisphere.
Any military expeditions sent would be seen as a threat to the U.S.
20 years later, President James K. Polk implemented the so-called Monroe Doctrine and laid a cornerstone for American foreign policy.

4. Sea to shining sea
Expansionism- increase territory (take over the of Oregon and Southwest)
Manifest Destiny- the notion that the United States was a superior country and had a right to invade, conquer, and occupy the North American continent and beyond.
1845, Polk declared no European colony could occupy the North American continent.

5. Gaining Oregon and Southwest
Oregon—Britain controlled, but reached a compromise with the U.S. in Britain claimed the land above the 49th parallel. The U.S. gets what is Oregon and Washington.
Mexico not happy with the U.S. when we annexed Texas in 1845.
U.S. attempted to buy land from Mexico for $30 million, but war erupted and the two countries fought for 2 years. The treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo gave the U.S. lands in the Southwest for $15 million.

6. Worldwide Ambitions After Civil War, Americans felt patriotic
United States a model country and felt a moral obligation to expand.
Spread ideals of democracy and Protestant Christian values to people in other lands.
Missionaries- convert natives to Christianity
U.S. a world power through trade, diplomacy, and conquest.
Expansion due to the need of new markets

7. Opening Closed Doors Asia trade market—China in 1844
Exchange cloth, iron, fur for tea, silk, porcelain, and jade
Japan had closed doors for 250 years
Reports of Japans coal deposits were enticing
Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854 opened Japan
Korea trade opened in 1880s
Growth of Asian markets increased U.S. desire to become a world power.

8. Alaska
Secretary of State William Seward had an aggressive foreign policy after the Civil War
In 1867, tried to purchase Danish Islands in Caribbean for $7.5 million
1867, the U.S. seized the Midway Islands
Purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million
“Seward’s folly”—but Alaska was rich in resources. Gold, copper, and oil resources.

9. Moving into the Pacific
1878 the U.S. acquired rights to a naval station in Samoa, which was strategic for trade in Australia and New Zealand. Britain and Germany also had claims to Samoa, so they split the islands in 1889.
Hawaiian Islands became important for sugar growers and missionaries.
1881, “essentially a part of the American system”

10. Hawaii takeover
1887, King Kalakaua granted U.S. rights to build a naval base at Pearl Harbor
1893, American sugar planters in Hawaii staged a rebellion, to take control of Hawaii from Queen Liliuokalani.
U.S. Marines surrounded the palace, and carried out a coup, leaving American sugar planters and missionaries in political control of the islands—5 years later annexed by Congress

11. War with Spain 1898- Spanish-American War
Outcome—added significant new territory to growing American overseas empire
Origins of War lay in troubled island of Cuba, which struggles for independence from Spain since 1868.
Some Americans identified Cuban struggle as U.S.-Britain relations, others view Cuba as a natural part of the U.S.

12. War with Spain
1895, Cuban rebels led by Jose Marti renewed fighting for independence.
William McKinley campaigned to gain Hawaii and Virgin Islands and support for Cuban independence, but had no desire to fight a war with Spain.
February 1898, an explosion blew up the battleship Maine, killing 260 officers and men.

13. Remember the Maine! To Hell with Spain!
Many Americans claimed Spain blew up the ship and a naval investigation claimed a Spanish mine caused the explosions.
Declaration of war against Spain, And Spain declared war on the U.S.
Critics believed that the Headlines in the papers caused the war to escalate.
78 years later, an accident, not a mine.

14. Philippines Philippines under Spanish rule as well
U.S. protect Asian business connections
T. Roosevelt ordered C. George Dewey to attack Spanish fleet in Philippines
Demolished fleet in Manila Bay, 1898
July 7, American fleet secured Cuba
By the end of the war, death toll exceeded 5,400, fewer than 400 died in combat

15. Spoils to the Victor
Spain granted independence to Cuba and ceded Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to the U.S. for $20 million
American gov’t refused to grant Philippines independent
Business interests outweighed all other considerations to control the islands
1899, the U.S. expanded its dominion to include Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Pacific islands including the Philippines.