U.S. Expansion in the Late Gilded Age--Arguments For & Against

The link below has an interesting discussion regarding the "philosophical underpinnings" of US imperialism. Keep in mind that many of these "rationalizations" for empire were voiced and embraced not only in Washington, D.C. and New York City, but also in London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, and even Brussels.
US Expansion
View these brief clips (from a very good History Channel documentary on the war's centennial) in order from top to bottom after reading the essay above.




Note that the majority of Americans who do oppose expansion do so not out of the sense that empire and democracy don't mix, but out of racialized fears of integrating dark-skinned natives into America's body politic.

Study Terms for the Empire & Expansion Chapters

Empire in Africa and Elsewhere
(Chapter 24--pgs. 738-752)
The Scramble for Africa
Berlin Conference of 1884
Great Britain
“From Cairo to Capetown”
Cecil Rhodes
South Africa
France
French West Africa
Germany
South West Africa (Namibia) General Lothar von Trotha/Herero Extermination
Belgium
King Leopold
Henry Stanley (David Livingston-Missionary)
Belgian Congo (latex)/Joseph Conrad/Heart of Darkness

Imperialism in Asia: India, the Philippines, China, and Japan
(Chapter 25)
India Mughal Rule/East India Company
Sepoy Rebellion
United States
William McKinley
Spanish-American War/Philippine Insurrection/War of 1898
Cuba/Puerto Rico/Guam/The Philippines—Spanish Colonies
China Qing Dynasty/Manzhou
Xenophobia
The Myth of the China Market /New Markets for New Products
Opium Wars/“Spheres of Influence” (leases)/Hong Kong
Taiping Rebellion
Cixi (Tu-shi)
Sino-Japanese War
Boxer Rebellion
New China Movement
Sun Yat-sen/Chiang Kai-shek /Nationalists
Chinese Communism/Mao Zedong
Japan Tokugawa/Shogun/Samurai
Matthew Perry
Meiji Restoration:
Military
Constitutional
Industrial (Zaibatsu)
Imperialism
Nationalism
Sino-Japanese War & Russo-Japanese War
Manchuria (1931)/“The Rape of Nanjing”
Social Darwinism—Race and the “Struggle” for Survival among Nations
Racism & Empire—Rudyard Kipling: “The White Man’s Burden”
U.S. and the Japanese Pacific Empire

Joseph Conrad, the Congo, and the "Heart of Darkness"

The explorer and journalist Henry Stanley played a significant role in the founding of Leopold's Congo. He figures here in this advertisement as an endorser of "Congo Soap."


For many the Congo came to represent the epitome of the violence and brutality that lay at the true "heart of darkness" of the imperial project.

Joseph Conrad's first language was Polish. Yet as a young man he learned English and went on to become one of the great stylists in the language. It was Conrad's experiences a river steamboat captain in the Congo that would inspire him to write one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century--"Heart of Darkness."


Conrad's exploration of the cruelty and violence that man can release on his fellow man inspired the filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola to bring those same issues forward to America's experiences in the jungles of Vietnam in his classic, "Apocalypse Now."

Leopold II, "King of the Belgians" and his Congo

Leopold's humanitarian image was undermined by the unusually brutal methods used on natives in the Congo.


Leopold's imperial ambitions benefitted from a significant upturn in the demand for (natural) rubber at the turn of the last century. Rubber hoses, wire insulation and (especially) bicycle tires drove the demand-side of the economic equation. Unfortunately for natives of the Congo, Leopold soon saw competition on the horizon from domesticated rubber plantations in southeast Asia and South America. The competition drove Leopold's agents to more and more brutal means of extraction--means which included severed hands and feet.

Unique in the imperial world, the "Congo Free State" was the personal property of Leopold himself, not the government or the people. This style of ownership allowed Leopold and his operatives in Africa a remarkably free hand in the extraction of latex.

The Scramble for Africa

U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor, 1898

In late January 1898, President William McKinley ordered the armored cruiser USS Maine to Havana Harbor to protect US economic interests and "show the flag" after some street demonstrations threatened to spread.

Soon after "Taps" finished on Wednesday evening February 15th, the Maine exploded violently, destroying herself with the loss of almost 270 American lives.

The remains of the Maine remained in Havana Harbor until after the war. Deemed a threat to navigation, she was eventually raised, repaired, and towed out to deeper waters, where she was sunk and remains a memorial to sailors and officers who lost their lives in one of the key events in the lead up to the Spanish-American War (or the War of 1898).

McKinley, Cuba, and the Philippines

The idea of whiteness and purity--and the "White Man's Burden""--are remarkably and ironically crystal clear in this Gilded Age soap advertisement.



The remarkable swiftness and completeness of Dewey's victory over the Spanish Pacific fleet on May 1st (with loss of only one American life) gave some Americans the impression that expansion was America's (Manifest) destiny.

Yet others worried that a land grab for the Philippines would put McKinley (and by extension the US) in the same imperialist league as Napoleon and Julius Caesar.

The Philippines' location just off the coast of Asia--and the lure & "myth" of the China market--made the island chain particularly attractive to supporters of expansion.

Child Labor in the Industrial Revolution

Although clearly with a political intent, the video clip below is indicative (at least at a visual level) of the experiences of some people during the early years of the Industrial Revolution.

Note the lyrics to the song "Poverty Knock" that accompanies this slideshow:

The Open Field System, the Enclosure Movement, Jethro Tull's "Seed Drill" and the Agricultural Revolution

One of the significant precursors to the Industrial Revolution was the end of the so-called "open field system" during the Enclosure Movement in Englad during the 18th Century. Many families lost their traditional holdings and ultimately drifted into the growing industrial cities in search of work. What one historian has described as a "tragedy for the few, and a boon for the majority" resulted in increased yields and enough nutrition to support a "mini-population boom." Although the above is a map of a village in Sweeden, it indicates the land ownership patterns of England before the Enclosure Movement. The illustration indicates an artist's construction of the confrontation between traditional landowners and the new rural bourgeoisie, the "gentry."


The clip below is general but offers a good introduction to the reasons why the Industrial Revolution began in England.