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The end of the nineteenth century was a turning point in United States foreign policy. The paper analyses what motivated United States to move from isolationism to expansionism. The paper discusses how the U. S. saw its position in the world by the early 20 th century. Outline Introduction Discussion Late 19 th century politics Isolationist and expansionist views Economic and geographical causes for expansionism Political causes Conclusion The U.
S. History Powerful and productive in the world of things, and capable of sustaining and strengthening the oligarchies that created them, the large corporations dominated American history from 1896 until past the middle of the 20 th century. In its industrial and financial forms, the corporation transformed the fears of men like Madison and Jefferson, and the expectations of others like Seward, into a reality that crossed every economic, political, and social boundary, affected every branch of government, and permeated every aspect of the individual citizens life. This paper will discuss what motivated United States to move from isolationism to expansionism based on the U. S. positing in the world by the early 20 th century.
The paper analysis what factors influenced the emergence of the United States as a world power. A basic assumption in past foreign policy, for instance, at least since 1898 when we began to accept the responsibilities of a great power in world affairs, has been that the United States had an immense potential for war, a potential it could mobilize after diplomacy had faded. America pushed its way into the struggle for economic empire between 1895 and 1898. This involvement was dramatized and extended by the war with Spain, and in 1899 and 1900 culminated in the famous Open Door Notes which demanded equal opportunity for Americas tremendous economic power, a weapon that the nations leaders felt confident would produce world economic supremacy without the limitations and dangers of old-fashioned colonialism. Likewise, even as the nation emerged from the bloody strife and suffering of the depression of the 1890 s, the inclusive nature and extensive power of the corporation was clearly revealed at home. Its triumph established a new political economy, a system of organized and controlled interrelationships and influence that was developed and put in operation during the presidential campaign of 1896.
Whereas laissez faire had required at least two elections to establish its primacy under Jackson, the leaders of the age of the corporation scored an impressive victory in their first test. Organized and managed by Mark Hanna, one of the new order more perceptive and effective spokesmen, this victory established the modern pattern of politics as an expensive, extensive, and centrally coordinated, high pressure effort. Up to 1861 U. S.
foreign policy was governed by the absorption of neighboring territories. In contrast, Washington and his successors warned against the security risks of becoming involved overseas, in European affairs, not against the material ambitions and beliefs of an expanding settler society in Manifest Destiny. Toward the end of the nineteenth century the United States attained the demonstrably impressive resources and potential capacities of a major power: a quasi-continental territory, a large population, abundant natural resources, extensive commercial wealth, great industrial capabilities, and advanced military technology. It began to act like a major power with the building of a world-class navy, war with the decrepit Spanish empire over Cuba, followed by the annexations of the Philippines, Hawaii, and a few small Pacific islands.
According to the advocates of these first internationalist ventures, an America that did not actively seek to protect its interests would only encourage and enable other states -- a newly powerful Germany and Japan in particular -- to put them at risk. Although the putative British threat before 1898 was supplanted by good relations after then, Britain was losing its outright naval predominance, and the United States was no longer anything like an infant country dependent on others. The acquisition of defensive outposts in the Pacific was necessary to protect trade routes, insure the open door to China, and maintain the countrys freedom of action. As Theodore Roosevelt told Congress, The increasing interdependence and complexity of international political and economic relations render it incumbent on all civilized and orderly powers to insist on the proper policing of the world. (Dallek) The isolationist critique was forcefully presented by an impeccably respectable coalition featuring William James, Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Samuel Gompers, William Graham Sumner, Andrew Carnegie, William Jennings Bryan, and former president Grover Cleveland. It was organized into the Anti-Imperialist League, formed in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War as the countrys first organized interest group devoted exclusively to foreign affairs. The isolationists maintained that expansionist ventures in the Far East would not promote the countrys security, but rather embroil it in a military competition for empire with the European powers.
Given Americas favored geographic position, annexations would break the countrys ocean belt of security. Placing the flag at a great distance from its shores would make America vulnerable to intimidation or attack. By the beginning of the twentieth century a rapidly contracting world, impending shifts in the European balance of power, and the growth of American economic and industrial strength created a situation that made impossible a continued aloofness from international affairs. (Dulles) According to Selig Adler, the historian who drew the most detailed and unflattering portrait of the isolationists, it was not at all accidental that the first wave of internationalism appeared circa 1900. It was a response to the power shift toward America, the German challenge to Britains preeminent position in Europe and on the oceans that had previously provided for Americas safety, and Japans victory over Russia, which marked the beginning of the end of European dominance in Asia. By the end of 19 th century Britain lost its unchallenged naval dominance, which thereby cut back on our free security in the Western Hemisphere. Yet if this gap was precarious, it was already filled by Roosevelt's great white fleet, which if necessary, could have been further expanded.
In fact, the changing technology of warfare made a challenge to the Western Hemisphere yet more difficult. Steam powered battleships with their fueling and service requirements reduced naval cruising ranges and imparted a defensive advantage to the U. S. fleet, as did the complexities of moving mechanized armies. Germany and Japan had become major military powers, and their trade with China was expanding. But the China trade never had more than minor commercial significance for the United States, and by 1900 the economy was actually far less dependent upon trade than during the golden age of isolationism.
The United States certainly acquired the geographic, demographic, industrial, and technological resources of a major power. Great power endows nations with great potential status in their own eyes and those of others. According to convention, its full realization requires an internationalist strategy. Widespread vital and lesser interests, order-maintaining responsibilities, and forceful policing ventures are necessary demonstrations of high standing, of well-deserved accreditation. Before 1900 there were American traders in foreign countries, and American prospectors and industrialists had penetrated Mexico, Cuba, Hawaii, Canada, and other neighboring territory. No considerable amount of capital had been exported, however, as the domestic demand for capital more than covered the available amount of the investment surplus.
The war with Spain, 1898, had given the United States the Philippines, Porto Rico, and a temporary protectorate over Cuba; Hawaii had been annexed during the war, hence the political basis for economic expansion had been laid at the same time that the economic developments of the United States provided a large fund of surplus that could be invested. The United States was still a net debtor to the outside world in 1913, but the total of United States investments in foreign countries was increasing far more rapidly than the total of foreign investments in the United States. There is, of course, a very strong association between great power and widespread external involvements. But apropos of America during the early part of the twentieth century, the connections probably had relatively little to do with the realities of national security. They were largely cultural connections -- cultural insofar as power resources were translated into activist power relations via the unquestioned application of international norms and foreign policy conventions. Contributing factor to U.
S. entry into the World War I along with emergence of the U. S. as a new superpower was a growing conviction among Americas intellectuals and leaders that America could not, and should not, continue to avoid a major role in international affairs.
Convinced of the superiority of their economic, political, and ethical culture, many Americans had long believed that the United States was destined to save the world and that it was high time to abandon selfish isolationism and assume an active world role. Bibliography: Dallek, Robert. The American Style of Foreign Policy: Cultural Politics and Foreign Affairs, New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. De Conde, Alexander. A History of American Foreign Policy, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1963.
Dulles, Foster Rhea. Americas Rise to World Power: 18981954. New York: Harper and Row, 1954.
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