Imperialism Historiography

 

Americans were ambivalent about their new imperial role:

       Empire is incompatible with democracy

       Opposition to adding the racially “inferior” to America

       Crusading zeal to spread institutions was good

       Beneficial to add new economic markets for American business

 

Beard (Early 1900’s):

       economic issues led to our declaration of war against Spain in 1898

       threat to our Cuban economic interests was driving factor

       after the Spanish American war, an empire was created to benefit business

 

Samuel Flagg Bemis (1936):

        traditionally Americans were averse to imperialism

       this brief episode was a “great aberration”

       military victory fanned the desires of imperialism

       the decision to ask for the Philippines was unplanned and showed

            America’s “adolescent irresponsibility”

 

Julius Pratt (1936):

       intellectual and emotional factors fueled expansionism

       Social Darwinism (survival of the fittest nations was occurring)

              nations either grew and developed or stagnated and died

       Religious and Humanitarian motives (uplifting our “little brown brothers”)

       Alfred T. Mahan’s doctrine of sea power

 

scholars from 1936 to 1950’s focused on the causes of the first and second world wars and not on the imperial period

 

William Appleman Williams (1959):

       foreign policy is the function of the structure and organization of American

            society

       Need for markets to prevent business stagnation led the the Open Door

            Policy in  China (with the 1893 Panic fresh in their minds)

       This was NOT a debate over whether we should expand (this was a

            nationalistic  period) but rather over HOW should we expand

       Diplomacy and prosperity go hand in hand

       policy rests on ideas of moral and ideological superiority

       Economic imperialism led to an effort to create political hegemony to keep

            the native peoples in the same one-crop, integrated system

 

Walter LaFeber (1963):

       Adding foreign markets will solve problems of the Industrial Revolution

       Need to keep pace with European expansionism

       Ultimately policy was based NOT on idealism but on the desire to guard an

              international order that allowed for American economic supremacy

 

Ernest R. May:

        America didn’t seek greatness, foreign nations’ actions thrust greatness

            upon America

       Anxieties over immigration, industrialization and the Panic of 1893 got

            warped into a concern for Cubans

       War with Spain relieved the upset of America

       Americans were influenced by the British (the beginning of Atlantic

            civilization) by  briefly having a consensus for imperialism in 1898 and

            9; then refocused on anti-imperialism after British failures in Boer War

 

James A. Field

       rejected the Whig interpretation of history

       the American Navy was a defensive answer to European actions which

            shrunk our perimeter

       the search for bases was an answer to problems arising from the proposed

            canal route

       Americans wanted to do their thing and were sympathetic to the desire for

              independence by native peoples

       imperialism was the product of Dewey’s victory in the Philippines

 

Stanley Lebergott

       imperialism didn’t directly harm affected nations

       Yes, America did replace the native capitalists economy with one

            dominated by  American capitalists

       Competition between native and foreign capitalists over WHO should profit

       American actions in imperialized nations saw increased land prices and

            raised incomes so the nations also benefited