and network of overseas ports as es- United States exercising control or
sential to the economic and political influence over islands in the Carib-
security of the nation . More general- bean Sea and the Pacific .
ly, the doctrine of “manifest destiny,”
By the 1890s, Cuba and Puer-
first used to justify America’s conti- to Rico were the only remnants of
nental expansion, was now revived Spain’s once vast empire in the New
to assert that the United States had World, and the Philippine Islands
a right and duty to extend its influ- comprised the core of Spanish power
ence and civilization in the Western in the Pacific . The outbreak of war
Hemisphere and the Caribbean, as had three principal sources: popular
well as across the Pacific .
hostility to autocratic Spanish rule
At the same time, voices of anti- in Cuba; U .S . sympathy with the Cu-
imperialism from diverse coalitions ban fight for independence; and a
of Northern Democrats and reform- new spirit of national assertiveness,
minded Republicans remained loud stimulated in part by a nationalistic
and constant . As a result, the acqui- and sensationalist press .
sition of a U .S . empire was piecemeal
By 1895 Cuba’s growing restive-
and ambivalent . Colonial-minded ness had become a guerrilla war
administrations were often more of independence . Most Americans
concerned with trade and economic were sympathetic with the Cubans,
issues than political control .
but President Cleveland was deter-
The United States’ first venture mined to preserve neutrality . Three
beyond its continental borders was years later, however, during the ad-
the purchase of Alaska — sparsely ministration of William McKinley,
populated by Inuit and other native the U .S . warship Maine, sent to Ha-peoples — from Russia in 1867 . Most vana on a “courtesy visit” designed
Americans were either indifferent to to remind the Spanish of American
or indignant at this action by Secre- concern over the rough handling of
tary of State William Seward, whose the insurrection, blew up in the har-
critics called Alaska “Seward’s Folly” bor . More than 250 men were killed .
and “Seward’s Icebox .” But 30 years The Maine was probably destroyed later, when gold was discovered on by an accidental internal explosion,
Alaska’s Klondike River, thousands but most Americans believed the
of Americans headed north, and Spanish were responsible . Indigna-
many of them settled in Alaska per- tion, intensified by sensationalized
manently . When Alaska became the press coverage, swept across the
49th state in 1959, it replaced Texas country . McKinley tried to preserve
as geographically the largest state in the peace, but within a few months,
the Union .
believing delay futile, he recom-
The Spanish-American War, mended armed intervention .
fought in 1898, marked a turn-
The war with Spain was swift and
ing point in U .S . history . It left the decisive . During the four months it 182
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
lasted, not a single American reverse democratic self-government, a po-
of any importance occurred . A week litical system with which none of
after the declaration of war, Com- them had any previous experience .
modore George Dewey, commander In fact, the United States found itself
of the six-warship Asiatic Squad- in a colonial role . It maintained for-
ron then at Hong Kong, steamed to mal administrative control in Puer-
the Philippines . Catching the entire to Rico and Guam, gave Cuba only
Spanish fleet at anchor in Manila nominal independence, and harshly
Bay, he destroyed it without losing suppressed an armed independence
an American life .
movement in the Philippines . (The
Meanwhile, in Cuba, troops land- Philippines gained the right to elect
ed near Santiago, where, after win- both houses of its legislature in
ning a rapid series of engagements, 1916 . In 1936 a largely autonomous
they fired on the port . Four armored Philippine Commonwealth was es-
Spanish cruisers steamed out of San- tablished . In 1946, after World War
tiago Bay to engage the American II, the islands finally attained full
navy and were reduced to ruined independence .)
hulks .
U .S . involvement in the Pacific
From Boston to San Francisco, area was not limited to the Philip-
whistles blew and flags waved when pines . The year of the Spanish-Amer-
word came that Santiago had fallen . ican War also saw the beginning of a
Newspapers dispatched correspon- new relationship with the Hawaiian
dents to Cuba and the Philippines, Islands . Earlier contact with Hawaii
who trumpeted the renown of the had been mainly through missionar-
nation’s new heroes . Chief among ies and traders . After 1865, however,
them were Commodore Dewey and American investors began to devel-
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, who op the islands’ resources — chiefly
had resigned as assistant secretary of sugarcane and pineapples .
the navy to lead his volunteer regi-
When the government of Queen
ment, the “Rough Riders,” to service Liliuokalani announced its inten-
in Cuba . Spain soon sued for an end tion to end foreign influence in 1893,
to the war . The peace treaty signed American businessmen joined with
on December 10, 1898, transferred influential Hawaiians to depose her .
Cuba to the United States for tem- Backed by the American ambassa-
porary occupation preliminary to dor to Hawaii and U .S . troops sta-
the island’s independence . In addi- tioned there, the new government
tion, Spain ceded Puerto Rico and then asked to be annexed to the
Guam in lieu of war indemnity, and United States . President Cleveland,
the Philippines for a U .S . payment of just beginning his second term, re-
$20 million .
jected annexation, leaving Hawaii
Officially, U .S . policy encouraged nominally independent until the
the new territories to move toward Spanish-American War, when, with
183