Changes in the Nature of British and American Expansion in the Late Nineteenth Century - Essay Example

Discuss the view that there were marked changes in the nature of British and American expansion in the late Nineteenth Century British and American expansion did start to take different courses than had previously been set earlier in the 1800's. The nature of American expansion was that it was, by the early 1890's first becoming interested in overseas matters after a long held belief (that stemmed from the times of the Revolutionary war) that the USA should remain aloof from the affairs of Europe an other countries. Britain, in turn, was also starting on a period of increased interest in expansion, particularly the vision of controlling the African continent "from the Cape to Cairo". The British Empire had existed for some time, but there was now renewed enthusiasm for it. In the USA, interest in expansion came essentially from a number of practical and ideological changes. First, by virtue of its massive economic growth after the Civil War:- spurred by an abundance of natural resources and rapid industrialization - the United States had become a "great power". Numerous publicists started to suggest that as the United States was now a great power, it should start to act like one. Practical changes also led to America turning its eye towards other countries. The American "frontier" had essentially disappeared by the last decade of the Nineteenth century; many started to state that the country would need new land and opportunities to serve a growing population. Militarist minds suggested that the US would need to become a great naval nation in order to protect its borders, and Social Darwinists suggested that "manifest destiny" could be extended to other countries. Thus, stated simply, they stated that the world was a jungle and that only the strong in a raw, physical sense could survive. Added to these arguments were those of idealists and religious leaders who argued that Americans should "take up the white man's burden" and carry their supposedly self-evidently superior culture (cultural, economic, political, religious) to the native peoples of the world. Thus a whole series of factors led to a situation in America that was ripe for expansionist policies, and the right situation occurred with the events of 1898 in Cuba. The energy for expansion already existed, all it now needed was the correct catalyst to put it into motion. In 1895 a violent revolution against Spanish rule in Cuba had occurred, set off by an economic depression that had resulted from a decline in American purchases of sugar form the island. Rebel violence was put down violently by the Spanish, and Cuban refugees in the USA started to spread exaggerated and eventually outright fabricated tales of Spanish atrocities. The power of the print press was partly responsible for the road to war that America now started on. William Randolph Hearst, the great American media baron, whose New York paper The American was in fierce competition with a rival, started to print these stories and to stoke up a jingoistic atmosphere of war. President Cleveland avoided the pressure for war, but his successor, President McKinley was essentially overtaken by events, namely the rather suspicious sinking of the USS Maine on February 15, 1898. The naval board of inquiry claimed that it had been sunk by a Spanish submarine mine, and the resultant loss of life led to war with Spain. Spain offered to make large concessions, but refused to admit what would essentially be defeat - complete withdrawal from Cuba, without a shot fired. In mid April Congress authorized the President to use force to expel the Spanish from Cuba. Thus started what Secretary of State John Hay expressed in a letter to Theodore Roosevelt was a "splendid little war" for America in which there would be little loss of life, but a massive transformation in international presence (Endicott, 2004). The American expeditionary force quickly routed the Spanish on Cuba and then turned against the last Spanish outpost in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico. In early May the Spanish fleet in Manila, the Philippines, was destroyed and all the fighting was essentially over by early August. On August 12 the United States and Spain signed a preliminary peace treaty that was finalized in October with the independence of Cuba and the ceding of Puerto Rico to the United States. The Spanish were then forced to "sell" the Philippines to the United States for the bargain sum of $20,000,000; a result of pressure from American industrialists who hoped to make the entire Philippine Archipelago a base for far Eastern trade. Thus was set into motion what appeared to be the beginnings of an American Empire: and indeed, Cuba and the Philippines remain bones of contention into the Twenty-First Century. However, the sudden and apparently unstoppable move towards expansion caused some pause within many parts of the American political spectrum. The Treaty of Paris was signed on December 10th, 1898, but already voices were being raised in America suggesting that the control of alien peoples in distant lands was essentially counter to the American principle of self-government, and that it might actually threaten the long-term existence of the Republic. Simply put, a country founded upon the overthrow of an Imperial Power (Britain) would become a Power itself at its peril. While the Treaty was ratified by the Senate (even though there were easily enough votes to defeat it, domestic politics enabled it to pass), it soon became clear that "the American people were perhaps the most reluctant imperialists in history" (Hastedt, 2005). For no sooner had the beginnings of an empire been created that America set about dismantling it: thus Cuban independence was both granted and adhered to, despite the fact that it was open to direct control from America. Puerto Rico was also given limited self-government, and by 1902 Philippine self-government was in the process of being set up. However, the USA was now a force within the world, and would never return completely to its isolationist days in the early Nineteenth Century. It is true that the forces for a closed, insular America would never entirely disappear, but American influence was now established in the Caribbean and in Asia. American eyes were now turned towards the Panama region, where a canal had long been envisioned that would link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and which would supposedly ensure American prosperity. The events of the 1890's, culminating in the Spanish-American war of 1898, would set the precedence for the growing dominance of the United States during the Twentieth Century. British expansionism was not, as in America, a new idea. The British Empire was at its height by the 1890's. British Imperial power was based upon an idea of a belief in natural superiority, economic exigency and inertia (Armitage, 2000). By the end of the Nineteenth Century England had become the acknowledged power in Egypt since the naval bombardment of Alexandria in 1882. Following this came a great period of enthusiasm for both the idea of the British Empire and its practical expansion into new lands. Thus Queen Victoria's two jubilees, colonial conferences and the re-establishment of chartered companies to seek out new areas of opportunity led to an invigoration of the idea of Empire (James, 1997). At the same time, and somewhat paradoxically, the movement towards the growth of self-government in both the colonies and the dominions was gaining energy during the same period. So while expansion into new territories, marked most formally by the Boer War which started in the last year of the century, was occurring, older colonies were moving towards a degree of autonomy. Thus the Cape Colony gained "responsible government" in 1872, and Natal in 1893 (Porter, 2001). Canada was moving towards a more independent dominion and the Australian colonies were to form a federation in 1901. So a view of the change in expansionism that occurred within America and Britain as the Nineteenth Century drew to a close illustrates that the USA was starting to flex the international muscle that would lead to its dominance in the next century while the British Empire, superficially at its height, was already setting the stage for its dissolution. The age of Empires that were proudly identified as such by those that ran them was drawing to a close as the British Empire was to come to a standstill and then collapse during and after the two World Wars. While some might argue that the Twentieth Century saw the rise of the American Empire (one that is perhaps being expanded at this very moment), the fact that it was not called such is of paramount importance. For the idea that expansionist policies were somehow morally or practically justified because of the innate superiority of one particular race, economic system or set of religious beliefs was becoming intolerable to increasing numbers of people. America had the opportunity to start an Imperialistic enterprise at the end of the Nineteenth century, but it drew back, resisting he temptation. Forty-five years later it had won the Second World War and could, through its military power in general and the atomic bomb in particular, have held the world to ransom and established an Empire that would have made any previous one seem insignificant. Again, it chose not to. So the events of the end of the Nineteenth Century accurately foreshadowed what was to happen in the Twentieth Century: the gradual breakup of Empire and the tortuous, bloody but steady establishment of increasing numbers of independent, autonomous states. ____________________________________________ Works Cited Armitage, David. The Ideological Origins of the British Empire. Cambridge UP, London: 2000. Endicott, Daniel. et al. American Foreign Policy: History, Politics and Policy. Longman, London: 2004. Hastedt, Glen. American Foreign Policy: Past, Present, Future. Prentice-Hall, New York: 2005. James, Lawrence. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. St Martin's, New York: 1997. Porter, Andrew. The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume III, The Nineteenth Century. Oxford UP, New York: 2001. Read More