U.S. Imperialism and the Spanish-American War

Hello everyone and welcome to lecture for chapter 22, Age of Empire, American Foreign Policy, 1890 to 1914. This topic today, we're going to be primarily focusing on the Spanish-American War and Teddy Roosevelt. Those are kind of the big takeaways from this chapter here. Remember, these lectures are not... In lieu of your textbook reading, you do still are and you are expected to read chapter 22. This is supposed to give you some highlights, some other things to think about from that chapter. So Spanish-American War and Theodore Roosevelt are two pretty important things. You may have heard of the Spanish-American War, but primarily, most often, it's not heavily covered in a lot of classes as we're growing up in middle and high school. So I really want to make sure that we can drill down and really touch on that a little bit, because it's a very important war, much like the War of 1812, another war, and the French and Indian War. You'll hear about both of those if you take me with American History I. Those are all three very, very big, important wars that really create the landscape for our country into the modern era, not only geographically, but politically and economically. these wars are very important to the development of our country. So they're very important. I keep saying that. So I really want to make sure that we touch on them and have a good kind of understanding about how these really affect us. And then of course, Theodore Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, you may or may not have heard of him, you may have only had him in Night at the Museum. And that's okay. He's a pretty crazy character. But he has a pretty big important role throughout this time period as well. So we'll take a look at him. Whoops, went the wrong way. There we go. So let's get into the Spanish-American War. So there's a couple things to know about the Spanish-American War. The biggest thing is we are not 100% sure what starts it, meaning that even at the time when it's happening, people who are in support of the war and who are not in support of the war can't agree on what starts it. So we're going to take a look at some of the things that what exactly is the reason that the United States goes to war with Spain. Now, something to remember about Spain at this time is that they still had a controlling interest in a lot of their former colonies throughout South America and into the Caribbean. So the Spanish-American War is primarily going to be fought in Cuba, in and around Cuba, and in some of those islands there. Now- The reason, if you ask anyone, the first reason they'll probably tell you is the destruction of the USS Maine. This is a newspaper from the time period showing you it's blasting that that's the headline. A floating torpedo destroyed the Maine. Seen by a sailor on board, came from the shore and struck the warship, then was perpetuated the atrocious crime for which Spain will be held by America to a strict accounting. Right? So really heavy words. really specific language about this event that happened in Cuba that nobody is really sure what exactly happened. So let's get into that. That'll be kind of our, I did it again, I'm so sorry with this clicker, will be kind of our thread that we pull on through here. Now, some background knowledge to know about this is the United States, pretty much from its founding, is operating on multiple principles. They... take on different names. But it all surrounds and concerns the fact that the United States, and when I say the United States, I'm talking about people in charge, right? People in charge of the government at this time consistently believe that they are the ones who should have the most land, most land claim in the, in the new world. That's how it starts. And then it It continues to be that they should be the only person really directing any kind of control or directing policy, not only in their own country, but in the entire Western Hemisphere. And so what does that mean? Well, in our History 1 class, we'll talk about manifest destiny. This is that idea that kind of comes out of westward expansion for the United States, pushing west, making. the United States, the country that goes from sea to shining sea, right? It's this idea that the United States has a divine claim to the land. and to protect that land, to use the land however the United States sees fit. That does include ignoring and completely getting rid of any Native American civilizations that already previously had claim to that land for generations, for centuries. It's this idea that America was civilizing, not only civilizing the West, but taking ownership of what is rightfully America's to have. Now that initially starts off with the United States, once we break away from... Britain and really hold our own as a country, as a developing country, it starts off as a way to continue to push European power out of the continent, to get the last vestiges of Britain out of here, to get France out of here, and then ultimately to get Spain out of here. And for a little bit, we do have some tension between the two countries. the United States and Mexico after Mexico gets its independence from Spain. Remember, Spain and Mexico initially covered portions of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, up into Oklahoma, Utah, and California. So it was a very wide amount of territory that we just assume and think of as American today. It was not always so. And so we run into pretty quick tensions and conflict with... Mexico, which will eventually, at the end of the Mexican-American War, give us Texas and New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, California, Utah, all of those states and portions of states that previously were under Texas and under Mexican control will become ours after that. And that goes along with this Monroe Doctrine, which you see here in this left-hand cartoon. the Monroe Doctrine essentially is concrete, right? Manifest Destiny is an idea that takes hold with a lot of people when it comes out. And that is from the pretty much the founding of the country through westward expansion. Now westward expansion would be up into the Louisiana Purchase. Remember, because remember, the 13 colonies start off very thin, they don't have a lot of land all the way on the eastern seaboard on the Atlantic Ocean. So westward expansion to them is going to be. everything that we gain to the West, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi River, right? That's where our first idea of Manifest Destiny comes from. But it's written down, but by journalists, by people who are commenting on the time. It's not a word that's seen in the government. It's an idea that's seen in the government, but it's not a word that's like written down into a law or written down into a speech anywhere by an elected official. So it's kind of this like nebulous idea. That is the reason that we're all buying into pushing to the West, but it's not a concrete. It's not something actually physically written into the government. The Monroe Doctrine, however, is. The Monroe Doctrine is named after President Monroe, who continues that push through the Mexican-American War. He actually includes this idea in his speeches. It's not necessarily in any laws, but he's the one who really... brings it into and codifies it into a government space. The Monroe Doctrine essentially builds upon the manifest destiny and says, yes, it is the United States'divine right to have claim to this land, which that means that any European needs to get out of here, right? Anyone who is not a Western Hemisphere, a North American, a New World country cannot be on this continent, right? And so it's this idea that not only is that important, but that America here, because remember at this time, America is a very young country. America here is defending, at the time, Texas, the Texas Republic, right? From anybody else who might be coming out of it. And this representation of America initially standing in between people, right? To, to, uh... to make that distance between the Europeans and the New World. Which then leads us to the Spanish-American War, right? Where we have that even more prevalent and even pushed forward more with this tying into Cuba here, right? We're focusing on Cuba. Now, why do we take such a big stance on Cuba? Because Cuba is not the only country. that Spain still has control over. So what is it about Cuba? Well, Cuba is a very, at the time, a very economically advantageous place for the United States. What does that mean? We're making a lot of money off of that. And our businesses and our corporations are making a lot of money off of Cuba. We're getting money and pickbacks from not having to pay actual prices for the land. You know, like we're paying for the use of the land, but not what the market value is, not what it should be. We're able to exploit workers and so pay either nothing or almost nothing to people to work on our plantations and mills and other things that we're opening here. And we're saving on any import-export taxes because of our relationship with Cuba at this time. Business people are going to be very important for almost forever. But in this time period specifically, we're going to be very important. They're going to be the people who are really kind of in the background making those political decisions and pushing those things that are really good for them through the government. And so... What ends up happening is that that's not just in the American government. It's also in all these other countries'governments that we're taking advantage of, right? So we have a big presence in Cuba. We have a big economic footprint in Cuba. It's not necessarily benefiting the government directly, the United States government directly, but it's benefiting our people, right? Our businessmen, the wealthy people, right? And so... We have this happening and we have it on the heels of this independence movement that's kind of trickling throughout Latin America. Right. Trickling out throughout all of these places that want to get rid of Spain. They want their own independence. And in Cuba, we have this essentially a civil war that's brewing and kind of comes forward. And the United States and her interests lie with the current government there because. They're the ones who are letting us have these kickbacks and things. The rebels in the Civil War, the independence movement, we're very against it because it threatens the ability that we have to make the economic decisions that we're making in Cuba. And so what ends up happening is the Civil War breaks out. Now, Spain does come in and try to put an end to it. But then the United States kind of gets murky and they see an advantage here. They see an advantage to put in an independent person who will still work for them and work in their interests. So they kind of start working on this plan, but we don't have a reason to get into Spain. And so what ends up happening is the USS Maine is deployed and stationed in a bay off of Cuba. Now, it is done with the published idea. That it is there just to keep the peace, just to protect the American interests. It's not there to do anything. We're parking this giant warship for the time, one of our most advanced warships at the time, just to keep the peace, just to keep an eye on things, just to protect in case something happens, right? Well, not long after the main is sent there, it explodes. We still, to this day, don't know the exact reason for the main explosion. It could be... an error, a human error on the actual sailors on the ship because of the way that the gunpowder and explosives were stored on the ship. It could be a mechanical failure that led to something. Or like our newspapers of the time, it could have been a missile, a deliberate attempt to attack the United States. In any case, it's seized as an opportunity to Enter Cuba to say, hey, we need revenge. We need you have brought us into it. Right. We are now officially in this war. And you can see that here with Uncle Sam here. Free Cuba and remember the main. That's what we're here for. We're fighting for the Cuban independence, but not the real independence. Right. We don't like the one that's already working around. We got our own guy. And we want to remember the main. Right. These are our reasons for entering this war. So let's take a step back for a second and think about expansion, because. The United States is an empire, right? We're going to call a spade a spade here in this history class. The United States is an empire, but it's very, very good at hiding its empire. And how do we hide it? We don't really give statehood to any of our imperial possessions, and we don't really talk about it, right? We all have an idea that the United States, well, obviously, we all know about Puerto Rico, right? But we have an idea. We're like, oh, yeah. think the United States, we have something with Guam, we have something with American Samoa, we have something with the US Virgin Islands, but like, it's all real murky, right? Because we don't really talk about it. So this here is a map of significant United States expansion and imperialism since 1803 to 1925, which is about, it's a little bit further than we'll get in this lecture here, but all kind of within the same timeline. You see, we start off pretty modestly in 1803, all the way on the left with the Louisiana Purchase, which doubles the size of the country overnight. We get our Texas annexations and the rest of our Mexican cession, Oregon territory. All of that comes to us from the Mexican-American War. We purchase Alaska from Russia. And then we get to the late 1800s and the 1900s, which we are here today. Eventually, spoiler alert, at the end of the Spanish-American War, we're going to get and take the territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. as a result of Spanish-American war. We're going to take those away. That'll be our prize for winning the war and for coming to peace. We're going to take those places from Spain. They're now American citizens. They're now under American ownership. Out of these, the Philippines are the only ones that are officially independent. They are now their own country today. You'll see we continue on and take Hawaii. We do steal Hawaii from the the lawful Hawaiian monarchy there. It's a very hotly discussed and hotly debated issue and topic in Hawaii to this day. And that is something that you can absolutely look into. It's very interesting stuff, the way that that goes down. And you'll see eventually we take part of the possession of the Panama Canal in Panama, which that is something we'll also talk about in a second. We will purchase the Virgin Islands from Denmark and rename them the U.S. Virgin Islands. And then finally, at the end of 1925, we will take the Swains Island in the Southern Pacific. So we're really kind of spreading our footprint, but we're doing it in a way that it's not concentrated. It gives us kind of free range or free exclusive range and kind of the entire world and really pushes us into a world stage. Now looking specifically at the Spanish-American War here, it's all over in a matter of four years, at least from the American entry, right? So you see we have all the way on the left, USS Maine is sent to Cuba at the end of the 1800s, and it explodes. I'm sorry, the beginning of the, yes, end of the 1800s, the beginning of 1898, and it explodes just a few weeks, few days later, February 15, 1898. McKinley, President McKinley will eventually approve the declaration of war on Spain. You'll see those a few months in between that. That's because even after the main, we weren't really convinced to go to war. And so newspapers, like the one we saw at the beginning, really were pushing this idea of going to war for glory, for the common man, for the Monroe Doctrine, for all of these things, right? This is an era of yellow journalism. Yellow journalism is a term that's used to describe very heavily, overly embellished stories, and sometimes stories that are not even true. These were both tactics relied on by the newspaper publishers at the time, primarily to sell the most papers, to outsell their competitors. They wanted to have the most sensational story. But also it had the additional fact of increasing public support for the war. President McKinley and a lot of other elected officials will not necessarily want to go to war. They'll want to do something about the Maine, but they don't want to go to war over it. So it's really because of the mounting political, I'm sorry, the mounting popular pressure, pressure from the people, from the citizens to go to war, that they do eventually make that declaration of war. We'll really build up the Navy here. Theodore Roosevelt will really start to make his name on the national stage here. That being involved in the Navy, he'll be very, very high up in the Navy command. And then eventually he will he will resign from that post, join the Navy. I'm sorry, join the military. He'll go in and he'll lead a group of cavalry men up to the Battle of San Juan Hill, which we'll again talk about in a second. You'll see we have some battles in the Philippines, we have battles of Santiago, Spain, finally agrees to armistice, so a ceasefire later the same year, 1898. We sign the Treaty of Paris in the end of that year, the U.S. approves it in the beginning of February, and then we keep our troops in Cuba from the end of 1899, I'm sorry, from the beginning of 1899 through 1902. Why do we keep them in Cuba? to make sure that we are the people, we are the peacekeepers, we are the police officers at this time, right? This is really when we first see the idea of the United States as the World Cup on the national level, or international level, right? We have officially kicked out a European nation from this area, and we're taking over their spot, right? And we're taking over their sphere of influence. Let's talk about Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt. um walk quietly and carry a big stick right that boy did he um he's got a lot of things that he does primarily he really builds up our navy um he really gets people to invest in it and and starts it off pretty strong he does fight in the spanish-american war um this battle of san juan hill um but it's really controversial how much he actually fought in that war And how much leading he actually did of the Rough Riders who were made up of a bunch of volunteer and volunteer people of color was his regiment there. So it comes across, he sends back sort of like Napoleon in Napoleon's time. He sends back his own updates to newspapers to kind of talk about his battles and how good he is and how much his men love him and how much the people he's saving. And so it's a little controversial, a little bit sus, if you will, about how much and how well he actually fought in this war. But nonetheless, he gets a very big reputation for his war effort back home, which will eventually catapult him into the presidency. It's something that really gets his name out there. He will come up with something called the Roosevelt Corollary, which is kind of an addendum to the Monroe Doctrine. that really officially on paper says that European nations are not allowed to have any kind of contact with anyone in the Western Hemisphere, North or South America, without letting the United States know and without the U.S. approval. They are really hammering home here. Roosevelt's really hammering home here that Europe's just not allowed. America is the country, is the power that the... civilizations of North and South America have to rely on. Now, part of this is to quote unquote national security, right? It's not a very good idea if you have these other foreign powers helping, aiding, coordinating these lesser countries, these smaller countries that won't necessarily have the resources to stand up to you. It's not... going to end well for you if they keep getting this support. So part of it's wanting to just stop that support and make sure that these countries that rely on you have to continue to rely on you. We really frown upon other countries doing what we do in other countries, right? We don't want Spain to be involved in Cuba, but we will and have no problem and see no irony in it, right? So Roosevelt's really going to focus his foreign policy efforts onto Latin America. He's going to take advantage of things where he can exploit political issues and political weaknesses in Latin America while he can. The biggest one that he'll probably be associated with is the construction of the Panama Canal, which is right here. And it is a canal that connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and cuts the time. making that trip drastically down. It increases economics and it increases trade dramatically during this time. And of course, the U.S. is going to pay for it and also take control of it. So that'll be a direct benefit of the United States, even though it directly impacts Panama at this time. And you'll see here we have financial crisis prompts for issues for Roosevelt. corollary will have a financial crisis in the Dominican Republic and Haiti that allows or gives an excuse to the United States to really step in and make good use of that Roosevelt corollary in the Monroe Doctrine here. This is a picture of Teddy Roosevelt. I'm not sure when this picture was taken, obviously during his lifetime, but I mean like at what event, before or after the war. Teddy was a very people's president. He really said it like it was. He did not hold back. He made it known where he stood on a lot of issues. And he was a president that really used Congress to get what he wanted done. Whether that was good or bad or right or wrong, he was effective at it. He was a really, he was a person who was easy to get people to do. what he wanted them to do. So with that, he will have some corruption allegations. None of those will ever really come through, but none of them will ever really be investigated. So Peter Roosevelt is a very tame but controversial character. He's got some cloudiness in his past. We're not really 100% sure about him, but he does lead the United States through a pretty good and peaceful time, despite the war. The other problem... problems and troubles that come along with this Latin America. He really expands American foreign policy during this time to include countries that are not well established and that are not European. So to parlay with them one on one and really build up those relationships and get those those things that you may want or need out of those countries. He will expand the US's reach into the Latin American countries and really put a foothold for the United States in those countries as well. So he is kind of makes the biggest strides, the biggest impact into foreign policy with regard to people on our own hemisphere and in our own continent. Presidents prior to him really only focused on European foreign policy. and satisfying those European powers. And he kind of will say, I don't want to do anything with Europe. I don't care about their problems. I don't want to talk about them. I don't want to talk to them. I don't want them talking to my friends. I don't want to talk to my people. And he'll really carry that with him throughout his whole presidency. And that will be something that lasts a little bit in surprising ways, as we'll see as we move through the rest of these chapters. With that, that brings us to the end of the lecture for chapter 22. So this will be it for me today. Make sure that you read those chapters, read chapter 22 for this week. If you have any questions or any problems that you want to talk about or ask about, just let me know. Send me an email or post in the questions forum. Other than that, I will see you guys next year or next time. See you guys here next time for chapter 23.

You may have heard of the Spanish-American War, but primarily, most often, it's not heavily covered in a lot of classes as we're growing up in middle and high school. So I really want to make sure that we can drill down and really touch on that a little bit, because it's a very important war, much like the War of 1812, another war, and the French and Indian War. You'll hear about both of those if you take me with American History I. Those are all three very, very big, important wars that really create the landscape for our country into the modern era, not only geographically, but politically and economically. these wars are very important to the development of our country. So they're very important.

I keep saying that. So I really want to make sure that we touch on them and have a good kind of understanding about how these really affect us. And then of course, Theodore Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, you may or may not have heard of him, you may have only had him in Night at the Museum.

And that's okay. He's a pretty crazy character. But he has a pretty big important role throughout this time period as well.

So we'll take a look at him. Whoops, went the wrong way. There we go. So let's get into the Spanish-American War. So there's a couple things to know about the Spanish-American War.

The biggest thing is we are not 100% sure what starts it, meaning that even at the time when it's happening, people who are in support of the war and who are not in support of the war can't agree on what starts it. So we're going to take a look at some of the things that what exactly is the reason that the United States goes to war with Spain. Now, something to remember about Spain at this time is that they still had a controlling interest in a lot of their former colonies throughout South America and into the Caribbean.

So the Spanish-American War is primarily going to be fought in Cuba, in and around Cuba, and in some of those islands there. Now- The reason, if you ask anyone, the first reason they'll probably tell you is the destruction of the USS Maine. This is a newspaper from the time period showing you it's blasting that that's the headline. A floating torpedo destroyed the Maine.

Seen by a sailor on board, came from the shore and struck the warship, then was perpetuated the atrocious crime for which Spain will be held by America to a strict accounting. Right? So really heavy words. really specific language about this event that happened in Cuba that nobody is really sure what exactly happened.

So let's get into that. That'll be kind of our, I did it again, I'm so sorry with this clicker, will be kind of our thread that we pull on through here. Now, some background knowledge to know about this is the United States, pretty much from its founding, is operating on multiple principles.

They... take on different names. But it all surrounds and concerns the fact that the United States, and when I say the United States, I'm talking about people in charge, right? People in charge of the government at this time consistently believe that they are the ones who should have the most land, most land claim in the, in the new world. That's how it starts.

And then it It continues to be that they should be the only person really directing any kind of control or directing policy, not only in their own country, but in the entire Western Hemisphere. And so what does that mean? Well, in our History 1 class, we'll talk about manifest destiny.

This is that idea that kind of comes out of westward expansion for the United States, pushing west, making. the United States, the country that goes from sea to shining sea, right? It's this idea that the United States has a divine claim to the land.

and to protect that land, to use the land however the United States sees fit. That does include ignoring and completely getting rid of any Native American civilizations that already previously had claim to that land for generations, for centuries. It's this idea that America was civilizing, not only civilizing the West, but taking ownership of what is rightfully America's to have.

Now that initially starts off with the United States, once we break away from... Britain and really hold our own as a country, as a developing country, it starts off as a way to continue to push European power out of the continent, to get the last vestiges of Britain out of here, to get France out of here, and then ultimately to get Spain out of here. And for a little bit, we do have some tension between the two countries. the United States and Mexico after Mexico gets its independence from Spain. Remember, Spain and Mexico initially covered portions of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, up into Oklahoma, Utah, and California.

So it was a very wide amount of territory that we just assume and think of as American today. It was not always so. And so we run into pretty quick tensions and conflict with... Mexico, which will eventually, at the end of the Mexican-American War, give us Texas and New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, California, Utah, all of those states and portions of states that previously were under Texas and under Mexican control will become ours after that. And that goes along with this Monroe Doctrine, which you see here in this left-hand cartoon.

the Monroe Doctrine essentially is concrete, right? Manifest Destiny is an idea that takes hold with a lot of people when it comes out. And that is from the pretty much the founding of the country through westward expansion.

Now westward expansion would be up into the Louisiana Purchase. Remember, because remember, the 13 colonies start off very thin, they don't have a lot of land all the way on the eastern seaboard on the Atlantic Ocean. So westward expansion to them is going to be.

everything that we gain to the West, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi River, right? That's where our first idea of Manifest Destiny comes from. But it's written down, but by journalists, by people who are commenting on the time.

It's not a word that's seen in the government. It's an idea that's seen in the government, but it's not a word that's like written down into a law or written down into a speech anywhere by an elected official. So it's kind of this like nebulous idea. That is the reason that we're all buying into pushing to the West, but it's not a concrete.

It's not something actually physically written into the government. The Monroe Doctrine, however, is. The Monroe Doctrine is named after President Monroe, who continues that push through the Mexican-American War. He actually includes this idea in his speeches.

It's not necessarily in any laws, but he's the one who really... brings it into and codifies it into a government space. The Monroe Doctrine essentially builds upon the manifest destiny and says, yes, it is the United States'divine right to have claim to this land, which that means that any European needs to get out of here, right?

Anyone who is not a Western Hemisphere, a North American, a New World country cannot be on this continent, right? And so it's this idea that not only is that important, but that America here, because remember at this time, America is a very young country. America here is defending, at the time, Texas, the Texas Republic, right?

From anybody else who might be coming out of it. And this representation of America initially standing in between people, right? To, to, uh...

to make that distance between the Europeans and the New World. Which then leads us to the Spanish-American War, right? Where we have that even more prevalent and even pushed forward more with this tying into Cuba here, right?

We're focusing on Cuba. Now, why do we take such a big stance on Cuba? Because Cuba is not the only country.

that Spain still has control over. So what is it about Cuba? Well, Cuba is a very, at the time, a very economically advantageous place for the United States. What does that mean?

We're making a lot of money off of that. And our businesses and our corporations are making a lot of money off of Cuba. We're getting money and pickbacks from not having to pay actual prices for the land. You know, like we're paying for the use of the land, but not what the market value is, not what it should be.

We're able to exploit workers and so pay either nothing or almost nothing to people to work on our plantations and mills and other things that we're opening here. And we're saving on any import-export taxes because of our relationship with Cuba at this time. Business people are going to be very important for almost forever.

But in this time period specifically, we're going to be very important. They're going to be the people who are really kind of in the background making those political decisions and pushing those things that are really good for them through the government. And so... What ends up happening is that that's not just in the American government. It's also in all these other countries'governments that we're taking advantage of, right?

So we have a big presence in Cuba. We have a big economic footprint in Cuba. It's not necessarily benefiting the government directly, the United States government directly, but it's benefiting our people, right? Our businessmen, the wealthy people, right?

And so... We have this happening and we have it on the heels of this independence movement that's kind of trickling throughout Latin America. Right. Trickling out throughout all of these places that want to get rid of Spain. They want their own independence.

And in Cuba, we have this essentially a civil war that's brewing and kind of comes forward. And the United States and her interests lie with the current government there because. They're the ones who are letting us have these kickbacks and things. The rebels in the Civil War, the independence movement, we're very against it because it threatens the ability that we have to make the economic decisions that we're making in Cuba.

And so what ends up happening is the Civil War breaks out. Now, Spain does come in and try to put an end to it. But then the United States kind of gets murky and they see an advantage here.

They see an advantage to put in an independent person who will still work for them and work in their interests. So they kind of start working on this plan, but we don't have a reason to get into Spain. And so what ends up happening is the USS Maine is deployed and stationed in a bay off of Cuba.

Now, it is done with the published idea. That it is there just to keep the peace, just to protect the American interests. It's not there to do anything. We're parking this giant warship for the time, one of our most advanced warships at the time, just to keep the peace, just to keep an eye on things, just to protect in case something happens, right? Well, not long after the main is sent there, it explodes.

We still, to this day, don't know the exact reason for the main explosion. It could be... an error, a human error on the actual sailors on the ship because of the way that the gunpowder and explosives were stored on the ship. It could be a mechanical failure that led to something. Or like our newspapers of the time, it could have been a missile, a deliberate attempt to attack the United States.

In any case, it's seized as an opportunity to Enter Cuba to say, hey, we need revenge. We need you have brought us into it. Right. We are now officially in this war.

And you can see that here with Uncle Sam here. Free Cuba and remember the main. That's what we're here for.

We're fighting for the Cuban independence, but not the real independence. Right. We don't like the one that's already working around.

We got our own guy. And we want to remember the main. Right. These are our reasons for entering this war.

So let's take a step back for a second and think about expansion, because. The United States is an empire, right? We're going to call a spade a spade here in this history class.

The United States is an empire, but it's very, very good at hiding its empire. And how do we hide it? We don't really give statehood to any of our imperial possessions, and we don't really talk about it, right?

We all have an idea that the United States, well, obviously, we all know about Puerto Rico, right? But we have an idea. We're like, oh, yeah.

think the United States, we have something with Guam, we have something with American Samoa, we have something with the US Virgin Islands, but like, it's all real murky, right? Because we don't really talk about it. So this here is a map of significant United States expansion and imperialism since 1803 to 1925, which is about, it's a little bit further than we'll get in this lecture here, but all kind of within the same timeline.

You see, we start off pretty modestly in 1803, all the way on the left with the Louisiana Purchase, which doubles the size of the country overnight. We get our Texas annexations and the rest of our Mexican cession, Oregon territory. All of that comes to us from the Mexican-American War.

We purchase Alaska from Russia. And then we get to the late 1800s and the 1900s, which we are here today. Eventually, spoiler alert, at the end of the Spanish-American War, we're going to get and take the territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. as a result of Spanish-American war. We're going to take those away.

That'll be our prize for winning the war and for coming to peace. We're going to take those places from Spain. They're now American citizens. They're now under American ownership. Out of these, the Philippines are the only ones that are officially independent.

They are now their own country today. You'll see we continue on and take Hawaii. We do steal Hawaii from the the lawful Hawaiian monarchy there.

It's a very hotly discussed and hotly debated issue and topic in Hawaii to this day. And that is something that you can absolutely look into. It's very interesting stuff, the way that that goes down. And you'll see eventually we take part of the possession of the Panama Canal in Panama, which that is something we'll also talk about in a second.

We will purchase the Virgin Islands from Denmark and rename them the U.S. Virgin Islands. And then finally, at the end of 1925, we will take the Swains Island in the Southern Pacific. So we're really kind of spreading our footprint, but we're doing it in a way that it's not concentrated. It gives us kind of free range or free exclusive range and kind of the entire world and really pushes us into a world stage.

Now looking specifically at the Spanish-American War here, it's all over in a matter of four years, at least from the American entry, right? So you see we have all the way on the left, USS Maine is sent to Cuba at the end of the 1800s, and it explodes. I'm sorry, the beginning of the, yes, end of the 1800s, the beginning of 1898, and it explodes just a few weeks, few days later, February 15, 1898. McKinley, President McKinley will eventually approve the declaration of war on Spain.

You'll see those a few months in between that. That's because even after the main, we weren't really convinced to go to war. And so newspapers, like the one we saw at the beginning, really were pushing this idea of going to war for glory, for the common man, for the Monroe Doctrine, for all of these things, right? This is an era of yellow journalism.

Yellow journalism is a term that's used to describe very heavily, overly embellished stories, and sometimes stories that are not even true. These were both tactics relied on by the newspaper publishers at the time, primarily to sell the most papers, to outsell their competitors. They wanted to have the most sensational story.

But also it had the additional fact of increasing public support for the war. President McKinley and a lot of other elected officials will not necessarily want to go to war. They'll want to do something about the Maine, but they don't want to go to war over it.

So it's really because of the mounting political, I'm sorry, the mounting popular pressure, pressure from the people, from the citizens to go to war, that they do eventually make that declaration of war. We'll really build up the Navy here. Theodore Roosevelt will really start to make his name on the national stage here. That being involved in the Navy, he'll be very, very high up in the Navy command.

And then eventually he will he will resign from that post, join the Navy. I'm sorry, join the military. He'll go in and he'll lead a group of cavalry men up to the Battle of San Juan Hill, which we'll again talk about in a second.

You'll see we have some battles in the Philippines, we have battles of Santiago, Spain, finally agrees to armistice, so a ceasefire later the same year, 1898. We sign the Treaty of Paris in the end of that year, the U.S. approves it in the beginning of February, and then we keep our troops in Cuba from the end of 1899, I'm sorry, from the beginning of 1899 through 1902. Why do we keep them in Cuba? to make sure that we are the people, we are the peacekeepers, we are the police officers at this time, right? This is really when we first see the idea of the United States as the World Cup on the national level, or international level, right?

We have officially kicked out a European nation from this area, and we're taking over their spot, right? And we're taking over their sphere of influence. Let's talk about Teddy Roosevelt.

Teddy Roosevelt. um walk quietly and carry a big stick right that boy did he um he's got a lot of things that he does primarily he really builds up our navy um he really gets people to invest in it and and starts it off pretty strong he does fight in the spanish-american war um this battle of san juan hill um but it's really controversial how much he actually fought in that war And how much leading he actually did of the Rough Riders who were made up of a bunch of volunteer and volunteer people of color was his regiment there. So it comes across, he sends back sort of like Napoleon in Napoleon's time.

He sends back his own updates to newspapers to kind of talk about his battles and how good he is and how much his men love him and how much the people he's saving. And so it's a little controversial, a little bit sus, if you will, about how much and how well he actually fought in this war. But nonetheless, he gets a very big reputation for his war effort back home, which will eventually catapult him into the presidency.

It's something that really gets his name out there. He will come up with something called the Roosevelt Corollary, which is kind of an addendum to the Monroe Doctrine. that really officially on paper says that European nations are not allowed to have any kind of contact with anyone in the Western Hemisphere, North or South America, without letting the United States know and without the U.S. approval.

They are really hammering home here. Roosevelt's really hammering home here that Europe's just not allowed. America is the country, is the power that the... civilizations of North and South America have to rely on. Now, part of this is to quote unquote national security, right?

It's not a very good idea if you have these other foreign powers helping, aiding, coordinating these lesser countries, these smaller countries that won't necessarily have the resources to stand up to you. It's not... going to end well for you if they keep getting this support. So part of it's wanting to just stop that support and make sure that these countries that rely on you have to continue to rely on you. We really frown upon other countries doing what we do in other countries, right?

We don't want Spain to be involved in Cuba, but we will and have no problem and see no irony in it, right? So Roosevelt's really going to focus his foreign policy efforts onto Latin America. He's going to take advantage of things where he can exploit political issues and political weaknesses in Latin America while he can.

The biggest one that he'll probably be associated with is the construction of the Panama Canal, which is right here. And it is a canal that connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and cuts the time. making that trip drastically down.

It increases economics and it increases trade dramatically during this time. And of course, the U.S. is going to pay for it and also take control of it. So that'll be a direct benefit of the United States, even though it directly impacts Panama at this time.

And you'll see here we have financial crisis prompts for issues for Roosevelt. corollary will have a financial crisis in the Dominican Republic and Haiti that allows or gives an excuse to the United States to really step in and make good use of that Roosevelt corollary in the Monroe Doctrine here. This is a picture of Teddy Roosevelt. I'm not sure when this picture was taken, obviously during his lifetime, but I mean like at what event, before or after the war.

Teddy was a very people's president. He really said it like it was. He did not hold back.

He made it known where he stood on a lot of issues. And he was a president that really used Congress to get what he wanted done. Whether that was good or bad or right or wrong, he was effective at it.

He was a really, he was a person who was easy to get people to do. what he wanted them to do. So with that, he will have some corruption allegations.

None of those will ever really come through, but none of them will ever really be investigated. So Peter Roosevelt is a very tame but controversial character. He's got some cloudiness in his past.

We're not really 100% sure about him, but he does lead the United States through a pretty good and peaceful time, despite the war. The other problem... problems and troubles that come along with this Latin America. He really expands American foreign policy during this time to include countries that are not well established and that are not European. So to parlay with them one on one and really build up those relationships and get those those things that you may want or need out of those countries.

He will expand the US's reach into the Latin American countries and really put a foothold for the United States in those countries as well. So he is kind of makes the biggest strides, the biggest impact into foreign policy with regard to people on our own hemisphere and in our own continent. Presidents prior to him really only focused on European foreign policy.

and satisfying those European powers. And he kind of will say, I don't want to do anything with Europe. I don't care about their problems. I don't want to talk about them. I don't want to talk to them.

I don't want them talking to my friends. I don't want to talk to my people. And he'll really carry that with him throughout his whole presidency.

And that will be something that lasts a little bit in surprising ways, as we'll see as we move through the rest of these chapters. With that, that brings us to the end of the lecture for chapter 22. So this will be it for me today. Make sure that you read those chapters, read chapter 22 for this week.

If you have any questions or any problems that you want to talk about or ask about, just let me know. Send me an email or post in the questions forum. Other than that, I will see you guys next year or next time.

See you guys here next time for chapter 23.

Transcript for:U.S. Imperialism and the Spanish-American War

Transcript for:
U.S. Imperialism and the Spanish-American War