American Imperialism: Crash Course US History #28 episode transcript - U.S. History by Crash Course

View all full transcripts of U.S. History by Crash Course on the blog: view now

Do you like podcasts? Go to PodExtra AI homepage (podextra.ai) to play and view complete AI-processed content of podcasts: summaries, mindmaps, topics, takeaways, transcripts, keywords and highlights.

American Imperialism: Crash Course US History #28

From: U.S. History by Crash Course

In which John Green teaches you about Imperialism. The US saw that Spain's hold on its empire was weak, and like some kind of expansionist predator, it jumped into the Cuban War for Independence and turned it into the Spanish-Cuban-Phillipino-American War, which usually just gets called the Spanish-American War. John will tell you how America turned this war into colonial possessions like Puerto Rico, The Philippines, and almost even got to keep Cuba. The US was busy in the Pacific as well, wresting control of Hawaii from the Hawaiians. All this and more in a globe-trotting, oppressing episode of Crash Course US History.

Full Transcript

American Imperialism Crash Course US History 28

speaker01 00:00:00

Hi I'm John Green, this is Crash Course us history and today we're going to talk about a subject near and dear to my white male heart, imperialism. So here at Crash Course we occasionally try to point out that the us, much as we hate to admit it, is actually part of a larger world. Mr Green Mr Green, you mean like Alaska? Know me from the past for reasons that you will understand after your trip there before your senior year of college, I do not acknowledge the of Canada's tail. Now I'm referring to all of the green parts of North America and the period in the 19th century when we thought maybe we could make all those green parts like America, but, you know, without rights and stuff.

speaker01 00:40:00

So the late 19th and early 20th centuries were a period of expansion and colonization in Asia and Africa, mostly by European powers.

speaker01 00:47:00

As you'll know if you watch Crash Course world history, imperialism has a long, long history pretty much everywhere. Round of empire building is sometimes called rather confusingly new imperialism because the US acquired territory beyond its continental boundaries in this period, it's relatively easy to fit American history into this world history paradigm. But there's also an argument that the United States has always been an empire from very early on, the European settlers who became Americans were intent on pushing westward in conquering territory. The obvious victims of this expansion slash imperial-era were the Native Americans, but we can also include the Mexicans who lost their sovereignty after 1008 hundred and forty-eighth. If that doesn't sound like an empire to you, allow me to draw your attention to the Russian Empire. Russians were taking control of territory in Central Asia and Siberia and either absorbing or displacing the Native people who lived there, which was the exact same thing that we were doing. The empires of the late 19th and early 20th th centuries were different because they were colonial in their own special way, like Europeans and Americans would rule other places, but they wouldn't settle them and more or less completely displace the native people there. Well, except for you, Australian New Zealand, American historians used to try to excuse America's acquisitions of a territorial is something of an embarrassing mistake, but that's misleading.

speaker01 02:00:00

One of the primary causes of the phenomenon of American imperialism was economics. We needed places to sell our amazing new products, and at the time, China actually had all of the customers because apparently it was opposite day.

speaker01 02:12:00

It's also not an accident that the U began pursuing imperialism in earnest during the 1990 S, as this was in many ways a decade of crisis in America. The influx of immigrants in the crowded cities added to anxiety and concern over America's future. And then, to cap it all off, in 1093, a panic caused by the failure of a British bank led the us into a horrible economic depression. A great depression, but not the Great Depression. It did, however, feature 15000 business failures and 17% unemployment. So take that 2008, According to American diplomatic historian George Herring, imperialism was just what the doctor ordered to help America get out of its depression. Depression.

speaker01 02:49:00

Other historians, notably Kristen hoganson, imply that America embarked on imperial adventures partly so that American men could prove to themselves how manly they were by joining the Navy and setting sail.

speaker01 02:59:00

For in 1890 Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan published The Influence of Sea Power upon History and argued that to be a great power like Great Britain, the us needed to control the seas and dominate international commerce to this become a maritime power with the obsession with building a canal through Central America.

speaker01 03:18:00

And eventually the us decided that it should be built in Panama because, you know, how else are we going to get malaria In order to protect this canal? We would need a pan, a pan, a canal pan. I all sorry, I just wanted to get the palindrome in there somewhere. No, we would actually need much more than a man and a plan. We would need ships. And in order to have a functioning two ocean navy, we would need colonies, why? Because the steam ships at the time were powered by coal and in order to refuel they need to coal depots.

speaker01 03:43:00

I mean, I suppose we could have like rented harbor space, but why rent when you can conquer also nationalism and the accompanying pride in one's country was a worldwide phenomenon to which the US was not immune. I mean, it's no accident that the 1000 and 890 S saw Americans begin to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and celebrate Flag Day. And what better to instill national pride than by flying the Stars and Stripes over Guam? So prescient phrase.

speaker01 04:05:00

War attempts to expand beyond what we now know as the continental United States included our efforts to annex Canada, which were sadly unsuccessful, and also filibustering, which before it meant a senator talking until he or she had to stop to pee, was a thing where we tried to take over Central America to spread slavery. But the idea of taking Cuba persisted into the late 19th century because it is close, and also the grant administration wanted to annex it and the Dominican Republic, but Congress demurred, but we didn't in purchasing Canada's tail. You can see how I feel about that to be fair discovery of gold in the Yukon made Seward's ice box seem like less of a sewards folly and did provide coaling stations in the Pacific. But we could have had rum and Caribbean beaches.

speaker01 04:46:00

Stan, all this talk about how much I hate Alaska me over here, and I got to take off my shirt. My life so hard to take off your shirt dramatically. I'm angry. Anyway, in the Pacific were important because in $1000 and 54, we opened Japan to American trade by sending a flotilla of threatening black ships under Matthew Perry. No stand, not that Matthew Perry, you know better by far America's best piece of imperial business Before 18890 two-eight was, ha, I like oil and gold as much as the next guy, but Hawaii has pineapples and also sugar, which were grown on American owned plantations by Chinese, Japanese Filipino and native workers. Treaties between the US and Hawaiian governments exempted this sugar from tariffs in America, also had established a naval base at Pearl Harbor, which seemed like a really good idea. Then we eventually annexed Hawaii in 1008 hundred and ninety-eighth. This meant that it could eventually become a state, which it did in 1000 and 950 sine two years before Barack Obama was born in Kenya.

speaker01 05:42:00

And this leads us nicely to the high tide of American imperialism, the Spanish American, Cuban Filipino War. The war started out because native Cubans were revolting against Spain, which was holding on to Cuba for dear life as the remnant of a once great empire was brutal. 95000 Cubans died from disease, malnutrition after Spanish general valeriano weyler herded Cubans into concentration camp for this, wler was called butcher in the American Yellow Press, which sold a lot of newspapers on the backs of stories about his atrocities. And at last we come to President William McKinley, who responded cautiously with the demand that Spain get out of Cuba or face war. Now, Spain knew that it couldn't win a war with the us, but as George Herring put it, they preferred the honor of war to the nominee of surrender. Let that be a lesson to you. Always choose ignominy.

speaker01 06:29:00

Oh, it's time for the mystery document. The rules here are simple, I guess. The author of the mystery document. I'm either right or I get shocked all.

speaker01 06:38:00

Let's see what we got today. With such a conflict waged for years in an island so near us and with which our people have such trade and business relations, when the lives and liberty of our own citizens are in constant danger and their property destroyed and themselves ruined, where our trading vessels are liable to seizure and are seized at our very doorstep by warships of a foreign nation, the conditions of filibustering that we are powerless to prevent all, all these and others that I need not mention with the resulting strained relations, are a constant menace to our peace, and compel us to keep on a semi war footing with a nation with which we are you.

speaker01 07:14:00

Stan, this is obviously President William McKinley's war message to Congress. You can tell it's a war message because it includes the word peace more than the word war by the way it's commonly thought that President McKinley asked Congress for a declaration of war. He didn't. He let Congress take the lead. The only time that's ever happened in all of American history, which would be more impressive if we had declared war more than five times. So the document shows us that, at least according to McKinley, we officially went to war for American peace of mind and to end economic uncertainty to gain territory, at least not in Cuba.

speaker01 07:44:00

How do we know? Because Congress also passed the Teller Amendment, which forswore any us annexation of Cuba, perhaps because representatives of the us sugar industry, like Colorado's Henry Taylor, feared competition from sugar produced in an American Cuba, or maybe not, but probably so also not cause of the war was the sinking of the USS Maine the battleship which had been in Havana's harbor to protect American interest, sank after an explosion on February 15, 1008 hundred and ninety-eighth of 260 S 6 sailors. Now most historians chalk up the sinking to an internal explosion and not to Spanish sabotage, but that didn't stop Americans from blaming the Spanish with their memorable meme remember the main to hell with Spain?

speaker01 08:23:00

Let's go to the Thought Bubble.

speaker01 08:24:00

The actual war was one of the most successful in us history, especially if you measure success by brevity and relative paucity of death. Secretary of State John Hay called it a splendid little war, and in many ways it was fighting lasted about four months and fewer than 400 Americans were killed in combat, although 5000 died of, wait for it, disease, stooping disease, always ruining everything. There weren't a ton of battles, but those that happened got an inordinate amount of press coverage, like the July attack on San Juan Hill at the Cuban city of Santiago, led by future President Theodore Roosevelt, while it was a successful battle, the real significance is that it furthered Roosevelt's career. He returned a hero, promptly became governor of New York, and by 1900 with McKinley's vice president, which was a good job to have because McKinley would eventually be assassinated.

speaker01 09:08:00

A more important battle was that of Manila Bay, in which Commodore George Dewey destroyed a tiny Spanish fleet and took the Philippines. This battle took place in May 1898, well before the attack on Cuba, which strongly suggest that a war that was supposedly about porting Cuban independence was really about something else. And what was that something else? Oh, right, a territorial empire.

speaker01 09:29:00

As a result of the war, the US got a bunch of new territories, notably the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam. We also use the war as an opportunity to annex Hawaii to protect our ships that would be steaming toward the Philippines. We didn't annex Cuba, but we didn't let it become completely independent either. The Platte Amendment in the Cuban constitution authorized American military intervention whenever it saw fit and gave us a permanent lease for a naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

speaker01 09:53:00

Thanks, global. So Cuba and Puerto Rico were gateways to Latin American markets. Puerto Rico was particularly useful as a naval station. Hawaii, Guam, and especially the Philippines opened up access to China. American presence in China was bolstered by our contribution of about 3000 troops to the multinational force that helped put down the Boxer Rebellion in 19 900. But in the Philippines, where Americans had initially been, well, opinions soon changed after it became clear that Americans were there to stay and exercise control. Emiliano Aguinaldo, leader of the Filipino rebellion against Spain, quickly turned against the us because his real goal was in independence and it appeared the U would not provide. The resulting.

speaker01 10:29:00

Philippine war lasted four years, from 18 and 99 to 19903 and 4200 Americans were killed, as well as over 100000 Filipinos. The Americans committed atrocities, including putting Filipinos in concentration camps, torturing prisoners, rape, and executing civilians. And much of this was racially motivated, and news of these atrocities helped to spur anti aimer inist sentiment at home, with Mark Twain being one of the most outspoken critics. Now, there was some investment in modernization in the Philippines in railroad school and public health, but the interests of the local people were usually subordinated to those of the wealthy.

speaker01 11:01:00

So American imperialism, in short, look like most other imperialism, so Constitution nerds will remember that the US constitution has no provision for colonies, only territory that will eventually be incorporated as states to deal with this issue. By passing the four-acre act in 19 900, this law declared that Puerto Rico would be an insular territory. Its inhabitants would be citizens of Puerto Rico, not the United States, and there would be no path to statehood, and this wasn't terribly constitutional. Congress did extend us citizenship to Puerto Ricans in 1917. Now it's a commonwealth with its own government that has no voice in the us Congress or presidential elections and no control over its own defense or environmental policy.

speaker01 11:39:00

The Philippines were treated similarly to Puerto Rico in a series of cases between 19 oh 1 and 19 oh 4, collectively called the insular cases. But Hawaii was treated differently because it had a sizable population of American settlers who happened to be white. It became a traditional territory with a path to statehood because white people and also pineapple. Now let's briefly talk about anti-semite andism there were lots of people who have been to imperialism on racial grounds, arguing that it might lead to diversity, but they were also non-sexist anti-eam perialas who argued that empire itself, with its political domination of conquered people, was incompatible with democracy, which to be fair Democratic Party, which had supported intervention in Cuba in 19 900, opposed the Philippine war in its platform. Some progressives opposed imperialism, too, because they believe that America should focus on its domestic problems, yet those who supported imperialism were just as forceful among the vocal was Indiana Senator Albert Beveridge, who argued that imperialism was benevolent and would bring a new day of freedom.

speaker01 12:34:00

But make no mistake, underneath it all, imperialism was all about trade. According to beverage. America's commerce must be with Asia. The Pacific is our ocean, Where shall we turn for consumers of our surplus? Geography answers the question China is our natural customer. In the end, imperialism was really driven by economic necessity.

speaker01 12:55:00

In 19 oh 2 Brooks Adams predicted in his book The New Empire that the us would soon outweigh any single empire, if not all empires combined. Within 20 years, America would be the world's leading economic power. We didn't have the most overseas territory, but ultimately that didn't matter. Now the reasons for imperialism, above all, the quest for markets for American goods, would persist long after imperialism became recognized as antithetical to freedom and democracy. And we would continue to struggle to reconcile our imperialistic urges with our ideals about democracy.

speaker01 13:27:00

Until now, thanks for watching. I'll see you next week.

speaker01 13:31:00

Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Mueller. Our script supervisor is Medi at the Dan. The associate producer is Danica Johnson. The show is written by my high school history teacher Raul Meyer, rosiana Rojas S, and myself. And our graphics team is Thought Cafe. Every week there's a new caption for the liberto, which you can suggest captions and comments where you can also ask questions about today's video that will be answered by our team of historians. Thanks for watching Crash Course. And as we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome. This is the part where Stan gets nervous, like, is he gonna go this or this? I'm going this way.