The Gilded Age to Empire

HIST 12: Week 4

Explaining Inequality

• Social Darwinism: the fittest survive, so blame the poor; blame immigrants

• “Scientific” racism - Northern Europeans are racially superior to all other people

• evolution shows the distinctiveness of the races

• racial hierarchy - science defines who is white (of Aryan stock) and who is not

William Graham Sumner

Pictures like the one on the right compare Irish to monkeys.

The one on the top explains why Irish people are poor by explaining

they are racially inferior. Both are offensive images not based

in actual science.

image source: http://www.understandingrace.org/history/science/measuring_race.html

This picture portrays a different kind of offensive racial logic. It suggests that black people are lower on the evolutionary chain than white people. This is absolutely false. However, these theories had many believers in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In the cities: Nativism

• New industrial workers are largely immigrants from southern and eastern Europe

• Immigration Restriction League (1894) - rallies to prohibit immigration of illiterate people; vote restricted to literate

Chinese Immigrants

• 1882: Congress excludes Chinese immigrants

• 105,000 persons of Chinese descent in U.S.

• Mobs and assault

• Legal battles for public schools: Tape v. Hurley (1885)

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb9n39p05s/

https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/chinese/

31.html

Segregation• Segregation extended beyond

black/white:

• In MS, different schools for blacks, whites, and Chinese

• In CA, same schools for everyone but Chinese

• Mexicans legally white, but barred from many public places in CA and TX

Outside the Law: Lynching

• Public violence - sometimes advertised

• Torture as well as murder

• Grisly souvenirs

• Ida B. Wells - anti-lynching crusader

http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/omalley/race/two.html

These horrifying images were sold as postcards - souvenirs of brutal violence. See the next slide for the back of this postcard.

Black Responses• Female activism: National

Association of Colored Women (founded 1896)

• Exodus: 40,000-60,000 African Americans to Kansas, 1879-1880

• Booker T. Washington: self-help and economic uplift, do not confront racism

Source:http://blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu/his1005fall2010/2010/09/28/ho-for-kansas/

The Gilded Age/1890s

• How did people respond to the economic inequalities that grew up in the Second Industrial Revolution?

• What is Social Darwinism?

• What are some examples of discrimination in the U.S. in this time period?

An American Empire• The racial thinking that led to indifference to poverty and

to horrifying racial violence at home helped Americans to justify

• the conquest of other countries

• denying the residents of those countries access to American democracy

• American Empire was not merely - or even mostly - an expression of American racism, though. It was a way for the U.S. to express growing power and importance. What other reasons do you see in the slides?

American Expansionism• Why?

• For their own good

• To be a world power (everybody’s doing it!)

• To foster American unity

• To expand trade

Source: http://www.teachingushistory.org/

Power• Navy and

trade go hand-in-hand

• Need strategic naval bases: Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba

Source: http://www.teachingushistory.org/

Trade

• Strategic naval bases would also protect trade routes:

• Hawaii (and later, Philippines) - access to Asia

• Puerto Rico and Cuba - access to Latin America

Hawaii

• Close ties to U.S. in 1890s

• 1893: American planters organize coup to overthrow Queen Liluokalani

• 1898: U.S. annexes Hawaii

Source: http://www.library.southernct.edu/americanimperialism.htm

• Consciousness of ethnic diversity - nativism

• Increased fear of division with 1893 economic depression

• Patriotism: Pledge of Allegiance; standing for “Star-Spangled Banner”

• Nationalist newspapers - the “yellow press” sensationalism and aggressive patriotism

Unity

Spanish-American War, 1898

Cuba and the Spanish-American

War• Cubans fought an

insurgency against Spain: 1868-1878; 1895-1898

• José Martí: “This is not the century of struggle of races but rather the century of the affirmation of rights.” (Quoted in Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba,195)

• Cuban revolution explicitly antiracist; U.S. intervention marked by racism

The Spanish- American War• Yellow journalism and the Maine: 270 people died

• McKinley to war: business and public pressure

• Teller Amendment - Cuban Independence following Spanish defeat (did not stick)

• A “splendid little war” - 4 mos, less than 4,000 American combat deaths Images: utdallas.edu; http://wps.pearsoncustom.com/

Theodore Roosevelt• becomes a hero after

fighting in Spanish-American War

• thinks war is good for American manhood

• immediately after war, elected governor of New York - 2 years later, Vice President

• (African American soldiers were first in the charge on San Juan Hill)

Images: http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/

American Empire

• Cubans and Filipinos “unprepared” for independence

• U.S. must “uplift and civilize”

Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/

http://hti.osu.edu/

After Spanish-American War

• New colonies: Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam

• Cuba: independent, but Platt Amendment:

• U.S. military can come whenever

• establishes a naval base at Guantánamo Bay

Philippine War

• Filipinos happy to have U.S. help in struggle for independence (fighting since 1896)

• Not so happy about U.S. imperialism

• Filipinos fought against U.S., 1899 to 1903 - 100,000 Filipinos and 4,200 Americans died

• McKinley: obligation to “little brown brothers”

Emilio Aguinaldo - Independence Leader

Limiting Colonies’ Rights

• Puerto Ricans not U.S. citizens (Foraker Act of 1900)

• Neither are Filipinos

• Hawaii becomes “territory” and residents (except Asian immigrants) are citizens

• Racial logic in assigning rights

http://www.princeton.edu/

American Imperialism Continues

• 1901-1920: U.S. marines to Caribbean more than 20 times

• Protect American business - access to raw materials

• Protect American banks - loan repayment

• Roosevelt: “speak softly and carry a big stick”

The Panama Canal• 1903: Roosevelt helps

Panama to break away from Colombia

• Independent Panama gives U.S. rights to build canal, operate it, and have sovereignty over Canal Zone

• 2000, U.S. finally turned over control to Panama

• Roosevelt: U.S. as “police power” in Western Hemisphere

• Taft: “Dollar Diplomacy” - U.S. investment in the hemisphere

• Wilson: moral imperialism - in theory, not an interventionist; but wants to teach others the blessings of democracy

Progressive Imperialism

Moral Imperialism

• 1915: Marines to Haiti; U.S. banks to oversee financial dealings - stay until 1934

• 1916: military govt. in Dominican Republic - stay until 1924

• Wilson in Mexico - 1913 invasion of Veracruz; 1916

Conclusions

• U.S. imperialism begins for multiple reasons, but economics is a major factor.

• Racial logic that affected domestic affairs gives the U.S. a sense of superiority over neighbors.

• Once begun, U.S. interventionism continues, even if presidents say it won’t.