A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 3: Reconstruction and UrbanizationPart 10: The Beginnings of Imperialism

HAWAIIAN INDEPENDENCE

• Before Grover Cleveland returned to the Presidency, a group of American sugar planters overthrew the ruling monarchy of Hawaii.

• They set up a provisional government under the leadership of Sanford B. Dole and appealed to Benjamin Harrison to annex Hawaii and transform it into a state.

• When Cleveland took office in 1893, he withdrew the treaty of annexation and ordered an investigation of popular attitudes towards annexation.

HAWAIIAN INDEPENDENCE

• Cleveland’s investigation revealed that most Hawaiians were unhappy with the idea of joining the United States.

• Cleveland referred the matter to the Congress, which conducted its own investigation and found that most Hawaiians were in fact happy with annexation.

• In response, Cleveland stopped recognizing the legitimacy of the Hawaiian royalty and began to recognize the legitimacy of Dole’s republican government.

THE ELECTION OF 1896

• The Presidential election of 1896 pitted Republican candidate William McKinley against Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan.

• The main disagreement between the two candidates was over the issue of whether or not to adopt bimetallism as part of United States monetary policy. This would allow both silver and gold to be used as the standard currency, rather than simply gold alone.

• McKinley, a supporter of the gold standard, won the election.

THE ELECTION OF 1896

• McKinley ran a famously humble Presidential campaign. While Bryan spent millions of dollars campaigning across the country, McKinley stayed at his home in Ohio and ran a ‘front porch campaign’ — literally inviting members of the public to visit him on his front porch every day except Sunday.

• With McKinley as the pro-business candidate and Bryan as the pro-labor candidate, this election marked the end of the Third Party System and the beginning of the Fourth.

McKINLEY’S INAUGURATION

McKinley’s humility carried over into his first inaugural address.The United States “want[s] no wars of conquest,” he declared. “We must avoid the temptation of territorial aggression.” But his hopes would not be met...

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR

• In 1895, Cuban rebels began fighting a war of independence against Spain.

• Because the Spanish used particularly authoritarian and brutal tactics against the Cubans, including housing them in internment camps, American public opinion favored the rebels and favored Cuban independence — and so did William McKinley.

• In 1897, McKinley began negotiating with the Spanish for an end to the war.

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR

• It soon became clear that neither side in the conflict would compromise and, in January 1898, riots broke out in Havana.

• To protect American interests in Havana, McKinley sent the battleship USS Maine to Havana harbor.

• On February 15, the Maine exploded and sank. More than 250 men were killed.

• On March 20, an investigation into the explosion found that it had been caused by an underwater Spanish mine.

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR

• On April 20, the Congress declared war against Spain.

• The war was over very quickly and involved the United States targeting Spanish colonies around the world.

• In May 1898, the United States navy conquered the Philippines without the loss of any vessels.

• In June, McKinley began the establishment of a new provisional government there.

ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE WAR

• Many people opposed America’s involvement in Spanish affairs. Prime among the war’s opponents was the American Anti-Imperialist League, whose members included William Jennings Bryan and Grover Cleveland.

• The League saw the annexation of the Philippines as an example of American imperialism and a violation of the political principle that a republican government “derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.”

ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE WAR

• Very much profiting from the war were the newspaper moguls William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.

• Hearst and Pulitzer were engaged in a battle for dominance of national newspaper circulation. This led them to transform events during the war into sensational stories in order to attract new readers. They published what came to be known as yellow journalism: journalism designed to entertain or terrify readers rather than informing them.

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR

• In July 1898, the United States Army conquered Cuba after a victory in the decisive Battle of San Juan Hill.

• The victors of the battle were the men of the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, popularly known as the Rough Riders. Their commander was the historian and Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt.

• Later in July, the United States Army conquered Puerto Rico.

UNITED STATES TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS IN 1898

The Philippines

Guam

HawaiiPuerto Rico

Cuba

AMERICA EXPANDS

• In December 1898, the signing of the Treaty of Paris officially brought the Spanish-American War to an end.

• The United States acquired the territories of Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam, but also paid Spain $20 million.

• Cuba technically gained its independence from Spain, although American troops did not leave the island.

AMERICA EXPANDS

• At the same time, McKinley acted to annex Hawaii.

• He achieved the annexation not by way of a treaty, however, but by persuading both houses of Congress to pass a resolution of annexation.

• “We need Hawaii... a good deal more than we did California,” he is reported to have said. “It is Manifest Destiny.”

• And so the United States ended the nineteenth century as the emerging power of the world.

A SURVEY OF AMERICAN HISTORY

Unit 3: Reconstruction and UrbanizationPart 10: The Beginnings of Imperialism