2. American Empire
● Manifest Destiny
○ By Late 1880s,
completed.
○ The “Wild West” no
longer existed
○ What’s next
■ Expansion
● European
Colonialism
○ Berlin Conference
1884
■ Carving up Africa
○ US Late to the game
3. How to build an empire?
● The Influence of Sea Power Upon History,
1660-1783 by Alfred Thayer Mahan
○ Discusses how Great Britain was able to build an
empire based on its Naval Power
○ U.S. policy makers thought this would work for U.S.
interests as well
○ http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13529/13529h/13529-h.htm
● In order to make the U.S. a world naval
power they needed an empire
○ Why?
○ Coaling stations to resupply their ships
4. Building the Empire
● Hawaii
○ 1875: Reciprocity
agreement with the
United States
■
Binded Hawaii to the U.
S. Economy
○ 1893: American sugar
growers on the island
overthrew the Hawaiian
Monarchy under Queen
Liluokalani, put a republic
in its place and asked for
annexation from the U.S.
○ 1898: U.S. annexes
Hawaii
5. Building an Empire
● Samoa
○ 1872: U.S. acquired the harbor of Pago Pago
○ 1899: the Samoan islands were divided between the
United States and Germany
7. The War
Main Causes
1. The Desire for the Spanish Naval Bases in the
Pacific
2. Yellow Journalism
a.
Many historians have judged this to be the most important cause
3. Anger caused by the Spanish Concentration Camps
of the Cubans
4. The de Lome letter
a.
b.
A letter written by a Spanish minister to a friend in Washington
Called McKinley a “Spineless Politician”
5. The Explosion of the Maine
8. The Ground War
● Rough Riders
○
Roosevelt’s Cavalry unit
● Battle of San Juan Hill
○
Major military action, led to
Roosevelt being declared a
hero
● 5,000 Americans died,
400 of which were in
battle
○
the rest were because of
poor food and sanitary
conditions and malaria
9. Consequences of the War
1. The war marked the end of the Spanish
empire in the Americas started by Columbus
2. The acquisition of possessions in the Pacific
immediately made the United States active
in the affairs of the Pacific region
3. The United States was recognized as a
world power
4. The war brought together the North and
South for the first time since the Civil War,
healing some of the mental wounds
