Topic 12 - Imperialism and World War I (1853-1919)

Lesson 1 - Expansion in the Pacific

In his Farewell Address in 1796, George Washington had advised the nation to have little to do with the political affairs of other nations. He was concerned about forming dangerous alliances with other nations. He preferred that the United States stay out of international affairs except to protect its economic interests

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Start up

Examine the painting of the American fleet on its way to Japan. Then preview other images in the lesson. Write two predictions of how you think America’s role in the world will change.

Guiding Questions

How did the United States gain control of territories in the Pacific?
What is the meaning of imperialism, and why did nations pursue it?
How did the United States protect its trade with China?

Vocabulary

isolationism
Treaty of Kanagawa
imperialism
Great White Fleet
Open Door Policy

Academic Vocabulary

divest
sustain

How Did Expansion Lead to Trade With Japan?

Washington’s beliefs influenced the policy of later Presidents. For over a hundred years, U.S. Presidents professed a policy of isolationism, or staying out of world affairs. Americans had no wish to be dragged into Europe’s frequent wars.

Expansion and Trade

Yet Americans had goals beyond isolationism. From the beginning, the United States had also followed a policy of expansionism, or extending its national boundaries. Americans were constantly pressing westward across the continent until the country stretched from sea to shining sea.

At the same time, Americans were also engaged in a lively foreign trade. Merchant ships carried American goods to Europe, as well as to Asian nations such as China. The success of many U.S. industries depended on exports. The island nation of Japan, however, refused to open its doors to American trade.

Foreign Trade With Japan

Fearing outsiders, Japanese rulers had cut themselves off from the world in the 1600s and expelled all westerners. Only a few Dutch merchants were permitted to trade once a year at the port of Nagasaki. Any foreign sailors who were shipwrecked on the shores of Japan were not allowed to leave.

Americans wanted Japan to open its ports to trade and to help shipwrecked sailors. To achieve these goals, President Millard Fillmore sent Commodore Matthew Perry to Japan. Perry entered Tokyo Bay with four warships in July 1853.

The Japanese had never before seen steam-powered ships. Japanese rulers ordered the Americans to leave. Perry complied, but before departing, he presented Japanese officials with a letter from President Fillmore. It asked the Japanese to open trading relations with the United States. Perry said he would return the following year for an answer.

Perry returned in February 1854, this time with nine warships. Impressed by this show of strength, the Japanese emperor signed the Treaty of Kanagawa. In the treaty, Japan accepted demands to help shipwrecked sailors, and it opened two ports to American trade.

Perry’s visit launched trade between Japan and the West. It also made the Japanese aware of the power of the western industrial nations. Japan soon set out to become a modern industrial nation itself, with the United States as one of its models.

Analyze Charts

Commodore Perry’s visits to Japan proved to be a turning point in American relations with Asia.

Infer Why did the Japanese refuse to see Perry on his first visit?

READING CHECK

Understand Effects How did U.S. expansion and economic growth impact Japan?

U.S. Interest in the Pacific

American interest in Asia and the Pacific continued. In the 1860s, Secretary of State William Seward wanted the United States to dominate trade in the Pacific. In 1867, he persuaded Congress to annex, or take over, Midway Island, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The island became part of the United States. Seward also made a bold deal to buy the vast territory of Alaska from Russia.

A Late-Night Land Deal

Seward saw Alaska as an important stepping stone for increasing U.S. trade in Asia and the Pacific. For their part, the Russians were eager to divest themselves of the territory, which was too far away to be governed effectively.

One night in 1867, Seward was playing cards when he was interrupted by a message from the Russian ambassador. The czar, or emperor, of Russia was willing to sell Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million. Seward agreed to buy the land then and there.

“But your Department is closed,” said the ambassador.

“Never mind that,” Seward replied. “Before midnight you will find me at the Department, which will be open and ready for business.”

Next morning, Seward completed the deal. The cost came to 2 cents an acre. The purchase of Alaska increased the area of the United States by almost one fifth.

Analyze Political Cartoons

In this cartoon making fun of Seward’s purchase of Alaska, the man on the right, representing the Russian ruler, carries a chunk of ice labeled “Russian America.”

Draw Conclusions What opinion of Alaska does the cartoon express?

“Seward’s Folly”

At the time, the purchase seemed foolish to many Americans. They thought Alaska was a barren land of icy mountains and frozen fish. They mockingly called the new territory “Seward’s Ice Box” and referred to the purchase as “Seward’s Folly.”

Minds changed in the 1890s, after prospectors found gold in Alaska. Miners rushed to the new territory as they had once rushed to California. Since then, Seward’s vision of Alaska as a valuable territory has proved correct. The lowlands of southern Alaska are well suited to farming. The land is also rich in timber, copper, petroleum, and natural gas. In 1959, Alaska became the forty-ninth state.

READING CHECK

Identify Main Ideas Why did Seward buy Alaska?

How Did the Age of Imperialism Begin?

The period between 1870 and 1914 has often been called the Age of Imperialism. Imperialism is the policy of powerful countries seeking to control the economic and political affairs of weaker countries or regions. Between 1870 and 1914, European nations, such as the United Kingdom (Britain), Germany, and France, seized control of almost the entire continent of Africa and much of southern Asia. During this period, the United States and Japan also became imperial powers.

GEOGRAPHY SKILLS

The map shows how the world’s imperialist nations divided up the world.

Location Based on the map, which nations held the greatest worldwide influence through their colonies?
Synthesize Visual Information Which nation’s colonies were most widely spread around the world?

Reasons for Imperialism

There were several reasons for the growth of imperialism. First, the industrial nations of Europe needed raw materials and new markets. European factories used raw materials from Africa and Asia to manufacture goods. Some of these goods were then sold in Africa and Asia.

A second factor that shaped imperialism was racism, or the belief that one race is superior to another. Many Europeans felt that they had a duty to spread their religion and culture to people whom they considered to be less civilized. British writer Rudyard Kipling called this responsibility “the white man’s burden.” Such thinking ignored that Africans and Asians already had rich cultures of their own.

A third cause was competition. When a European country colonized an area, it often closed those markets to other countries. A European nation might take over an area just to keep rival nations out.

Analyze Graphs

This graph shows how American foreign trade increased between the years 1865 and 1915.

Identify Cause and Effect. Based on what you have read, list at least two causes for the increase in foreign trade.

American Expansionists Make Their Case

Americans could not ignore Europe’s race for colonies. By the 1890s, the United States was a world leader in industry and agriculture. American factories turned out huge amounts of steel, and American farms grew surpluses of corn, wheat, and cotton. The nation was growing rapidly, and arguments in favor of expansion were popular.

Many people believed that the American economy would collapse unless the United States gained new foreign markets.

Primary Source

“Today we are raising more than we can consume. Today we are making more than we can use. Today our industrial society is congested; there are more workers than there is work. . . . Therefore we must find new markets for our produce, new occupations for our capital, new work for our labor.”

—Albert Beveridge, quoted in Bowers, Beveridge and the Progressive Era

Expansionists also argued that Americans had a right and a duty to spread western culture. Josiah Strong, a Congregational minister, declared that Americans were “divinely commissioned” to bring democracy and Christianity “down upon Mexico, down upon Central and South America, out upon the islands of the sea.”

Other expansionists stressed the need to replace the vanishing frontier. For 100 years, the economy had boomed as Americans settled the West. The 1890 census declared, however, that the frontier was gone. People in crowded eastern cities had no new land to settle. The solution, said some, was to take new land overseas.

Naval Power

One leading advocate of American imperialism was naval captain Alfred Mahan. In an influential 1890 book, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, Mahan argued that the prosperity of the United States depended on foreign trade. Furthermore, he said, a bigger navy was needed to protect American merchant ships. “When a question arises of control over distant regions,” Mahan wrote, “it must ultimately be decided by naval power.”

In Mahan’s view, the United States could not sustain a world-class navy unless it controlled naval bases throughout the world. Mahan was especially interested in acquiring harbors in the Caribbean and the Pacific as links to Latin America and Asia.

Even before Mahan’s appeal, Congress had begun to enlarge and modernize the navy. By 1900, a powerful American navy was ready for action. Its steam-powered ships were called the Great White Fleet because their steel hulls were all painted white.

Analyze Images

The Great White Fleet, shown here departing Virginia in 1907, was sent around the globe to impress the world with U.S. naval power.

Infer Why do you think President Roosevelt wanted to demonstrate U.S. naval power around the world?

READING CHECK

Summarize What reasons account for the increase in American expansionism?

The United States Expands in the Pacific

As its naval power grew, the United States showed increasing interest in Samoa, a chain of islands in the South Pacific. Samoa had a fine harbor that could serve as a naval base and commercial port.

Competition for Samoa

Germany and the United Kingdom also realized the value of the harbor. As the three nations competed for control, a military clash seemed likely. In 1889, German ships fired upon Samoan villages that were friendly to the Americans. For months, German and American sailors eyed each other nervously from their warships. Then, with tensions at their highest, a powerful storm sank ships of both countries. The disaster helped ease the crisis.

Later, the three nations reached a peaceful settlement. The United States and Germany divided Samoa, while the United Kingdom received territories elsewhere in the Pacific. The United States had demonstrated that it would assert its power in the Pacific Ocean.

Interest in Hawaii

Another Pacific territory that had long interested the United States was Hawaii. Hawaii is a chain of eight large islands and more than 100 smaller islands. Hawaii’s rich soil, warm climate, and plentiful rainfall allow farmers to grow crops all year round.

Westerners first learned about Hawaii in 1778. In that year, James Cook, a British sea captain, dropped anchor in the islands on his way to China. In the early 1800s, American ships bound for China began stopping in Hawaii, and a few American sailors and traders settled there.

Missions and Plantations

In 1820, American missionaries began going to Hawaii to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity. The missionaries and other Americans became valued advisers to the rulers of Hawaii. Americans helped write Hawaii’s first constitution in 1840.

By the mid-1800s, Americans had set up large sugar plantations in Hawaii. Needing cheap labor, the planters imported thousands of workers from China, Korea, the Philippines, and Japan. By 1900, one fourth of Hawaii’s population had been born in Japan.

As the sugar industry grew, so did the wealth and political power of American planters. In 1887, they forced the Hawaiian king, Kalakaua, to accept a new constitution. It reduced royal power and increased the planters’ influence.

Analyze Images

These men were probably brought to Hawaii by a wealthy planter to work on this pineapple plantation.

Draw Conclusions How did American planters change the culture of Hawaii?

American Involvement Changes Hawaii

American influence in Hawaii significantly changed the social structure and cultural traditions of the native Hawaiians. New rules outlawed Hawaiian traditions. They prohibited teaching the Hawaiian language in schools and banned dances such as the Hula.

Imperialism also changed the relationship between the environment and Hawaii’s people. Traditionally, the lands of Hawaii had been divided among the Hawaiian crown, the government, and the ruling elite. As American influence increased, control of much of Hawaii’s land was given to American plantation owners instead.

American businesses cleared native forests and diverted water for agricultural use. Foreigners further altered the environment by clearing native species and bringing in new animals and plants.

American Plantation Owners Seek Power

Kalakaua died in 1891. The new queen, Liliuokalani (lih lee oo oh kah lah nee), cherished Hawaiian independence. Rejecting the new constitution, she sought to reduce the influence and privileges of planters and foreign merchants.

In 1893, the American planters rebelled against the queen’s attempt to limit their power. The American ambassador called for U.S. marines to land on Hawaii and protect American lives. In fact, the marines helped topple the queen. Faced with American guns, Liliuokalani gave up her throne:

Primary Source

“I yield to the superior force of the United States of America. . . . To avoid any collision of armed forces and perhaps the loss of life, I do this under protest, and impelled by said force, yield my authority.”

—Liliuokalani, letter to the United States government, 1893

Analyze Images

This statue of Queen Liliuokalani stands in front of her former palace in Honolulu.

Infer Why do you think Liliuokalani was opposed to foreign influence in Hawaii?

The United States Annexes Hawaii

With Liliuokalani no longer in power, the planters quickly set up a republic and asked the United States to annex Hawaii. A debate raged in Congress for months. President Grover Cleveland blocked moves to take over the islands. “Our interference in the Hawaiian Revolution of 1893 was disgraceful,” he later said.

Congress finally annexed Hawaii in 1898, after Cleveland left office. Two years later, Hawaii was made a United States territory. In 1959, Hawaii became the fiftieth state.

GEOGRAPHY SKILLS

During the second half of the 1800s, the United States expanded its territories across the Pacific, all the way to the Philippines.

Location Which of the islands are closest to the U.S. mainland? About how far away are they?
Understand Effects Why would possession of the islands shown on the map be important to American trade with China and Japan?

READING CHECK

Identify Cause and Effect What were one social, one economic, and one political impact of America’s interest in Hawaii?

A Worldwide Rivalry for Chinese Trade

Despite its new footholds in the Pacific, the United States was a latecomer to the race for Pacific and Asian territory. The United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and other industrial nations were already competing for colonies in Asia. The rivalry was especially fierce in China.

Once the most advanced empire in the world, China had been weakened by years of civil war. In addition, China had refused to industrialize in the 1800s. It was unable to fight off industrialized nations seeking profits from its vast resources and markets.

The Open Door Policy

In the late 1800s, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan carved spheres of influence in China. A sphere of influence was an area, usually around a seaport, where a nation had special trading privileges. Each nation made laws for its own citizens in its own sphere.

The United States was eager to gain a share of the China trade. However, Secretary of State John Hay feared that the imperial powers would cut off China to American merchants. To prevent this, Hay sent a letter in 1899 to all the nations that had spheres of influence in China. He urged them to keep an “open door” in China permitting any nation to trade in the spheres of others. Reluctantly, the imperialist powers accepted the Open Door Policy.

The Boxer Rebellion

Many Chinese resented foreign influence. Some formed a secret society called the Righteous Fists of Harmony, or Boxers. Encouraged by the Chinese government, in 1900, the Boxers attacked westerners, whom they called “foreign devils.” During the Boxer Rebellion more than 200 foreigners were killed. Hundreds of others were trapped in Beijing, the Chinese capital.

Foreign governments quickly sent an international army to China that included 2,500 Americans. Armed with modern weapons, they fought their way into Beijing. They freed the trapped foreigners and crushed the uprising.

Several nations saw the Boxer Rebellion as an excuse to seize more land in China. Secretary of State Hay sent another Open Door letter, urging all nations to respect China’s independence. Britain, France, and Germany officially accepted Hay’s letter. Fearing war, Japan and Russia quietly observed Hay’s policy, too.

Hay’s Open Door letters were effective because they were backed by U.S. military power. In the next lesson you will read how the United States proved its military strength on the world stage.

Analyze Political Cartoons

The Open Door Policy among imperial powers in China continued into the twentieth century.

Identify Implied Main Ideas How does this cartoon represent Chinese feelings about the Open Door Policy?

READING CHECK

Identify Main Ideas Why did the United States want an “open door” policy with China?

Lesson Check

How was the Treaty of Kanagawa an example of America’s expansionism?
Why and how did the United States advance the Open Door Policy?
How did the Great White Fleet support American imperialism?
Evaluate Explanations How did racism shape imperialism, and how was the racist logic of imperialism flawed?
Identify Cause and Effect What economic factors influenced territorial expansion during the Age of Imperialism?
Writing Workshop: Consider Your Purpose You will be writing an essay describing U.S. expansion and intervention during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Write a thoughtful statement of what you must do to meet the requirements of this writing task.

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