H102 Lecture 12: The Policemen of the World

Stanley K. Schultz, Professor of History
William P. Tishler, Producer

Lecture 12

The Policeman of the World

In 1898, America, which was becoming an ever more important player in world affairs, entered into its first international conflict--the Spanish-American War. A series of wars and police actions followed in the twentieth century, from World War I to Afghanistan. Why did American leaders begin to believe that the United States had a right and a duty to police the world? This lecture examines trends of expansionism and imperialism in the period after the Civil War, trends which still influence American foreign policy today.

Some questions to keep in mind:

In the late-nineteenth century, was the United States essentially isolationist, essentially expansionist, or a combination of both?

What were the economic and political consequences of religious missionary work in the nineteenth century?

The following three general propositions form the foundation of our future discussions about war and foreign policy:

War is the extension of a nation's diplomacy by other than peaceful means.
For whatever reasons a nation enters a war, that war, itself, changes the relationship of its citizens with each other and with the national government.
The rhetoric that justifies or opposes a war reveals a great deal about the way a nation's citizens think about themselves.

Historians have opposing interpretations of America's involvement in world affairs in the years after the Civil War:

Before 1898, America was isolationist
After the Civil War, America was expansionist.
America was isolationist in theory, expansionist in practice.

To decide which of these interpretations is more accurate, we must examine three major trends of the time from the isolationist and the expansionist points of view:

Industrial expansion
Western settlement
Growth of the federal government

Those who believed that America was basically isolationist before 1898 contend that these three domestic concerns prevented the United States from becoming involved in foreign affairs. In their viewpoint, the United States could not devote much time or energy to foreign affairs.

Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) was President from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. In his inaugural address in 1885 he summed up America's isolationist doctrine:

"A policy of peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none."

Now let us examine

The Rest of the Story.

Those who argue that America was expansionist after the Civil War maintain that these same three domestic concerns actually led the United States to extend its global interests.

Industrial expansion

From 1865 to 1890, the industrial complex of the United States expanded rapidly and the nation became one of the world's two great industrial powers. American industrialists looked for new markets in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Four aspects of industrial expansions also affected imperialist tendencies:

Business cycles. Alternating cycles of prosperity and recession (and even economic depressions in 1873 and 1893) meant that production of American goods often exceeded consumption.
International investment capital. Between the late 1860s and the turn of the century, foreign concerns invested $3 billion in the nation's economy.
Desire to expand markets.
Shift in balance of trade. For example, Standard Oil had few petroleum exports in 1880, but controlled 70% of the world's oil market by 1890.

Kimberly-Clark paper mill in Wisconsin (in Appleton, Kimberly, Neenah, or Niagara)

Western settlement

Recall that farmers settled and tilled more and more land in the West, in part, because of the existence of seemingly boundless international markets. As European demand for United States agricultural surplus declined from 1880 on, farmers had to seek new markets in order to survive.

Growth of federal government

Increasingly, the federal government made policies on economic matters, such as import tariffs and currency reform, and helped pave the way for American commercial expansion abroad. Industrialists and farmers, alike, turned to the federal government for help in securing new markets.

William Evarts--United States. Secretary of State from 1877 to 1881. In his "Report upon the Commercial Relations of the United States" Evarts argued that the government should foster economic growth. He revitalized the consular service in foreign countries and appointed successful businessmen as consuls to represent America's interests in foreign countries.

Card from Singer Mfg. Co.'s series depicting life in countries importing Singer sewing machines

"Pork Diplomacy" of the 1880s demonstrates the growing correlation between business and government. In the 1870s American farmers "were turning out pigs like they were going out of style" (Prof. Schultz) and were exporting their surplus pork to Europe. In the 1880s, because of protest from French and German farmers, these governments passed restrictions on the importation of American pork. The nation's farmers and businessmen were outraged and the United States government brought economic reprisals against the German states and France.

Hog

Prize-winning hogs, 1884

The "Missionary Factor"

Missionaries of Peace

After the Civil War, the pace of American Christian missionary work around the globe, especially in Asia and Africa, increased dramatically.

Soul saving and profit making go hand-in-hand. For example, the founder of the Dole pineapple fortunes was the son of a missionary to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Many other American businessmen learned about potential foreign markets from reports that missionaries brought back.
Government protection and international agreements. The federal government had a long-standing policy of protecting the needs of its citizens in foreign lands. More American missionaries around the world meant more American citizens to protect from discrimination and attack, so the government was drawn into "entangling alliances" with other countries.
A faith in the destiny of Christianity to conquer the world.

Political cartoon: "What the United States Has Fought For"

Robert E. Spear was the head of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. In one of his speeches, he claimed:

"The civilized nations are beginning to perceive that they have a duty, which is often contemptuously spoken of, to police the world. The recognition of this duty has been forced by trade."

Missionaries of War

By the 1880s, the once-respectable United States Navy was in shambles. Three factors allowed for its renewal and development:

The economic recovery from the Depression of 1873 meant that the federal government now had surplus money to build a modern navy.
William Hunt became the first truly effective Secretary of the Navy.
Many Americans realized that the United States was a 10th-rate naval power essentially unprepared if commercial rivalries turned into military conflict.

Even landlocked Populists in the Midwest campaigned for a larger navy. There was a widely-held belief that the nation needed ships, not to make war, but to protect its rights and prestige.

Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) was a naval strategist, historian, and leading advocate of a powerful American navy who influenced the thinking of Teddy Roosevelt and other government leaders. In his writings and speeches, Mahan stated:

Surplus production requires commercial colonies
Oceans should be highways, not barriers
A powerful navy is essential for commerce

Mahan believed in the power of a modern military to prevent war, and wrote:

"War now not only occurs more rarely, but is an occasional excess, from which recovery is easy."

Rhetorical Justification for Imperialism

Champions of expansionism often justified American imperialism in terms of American DESTINY and American DUTY.

Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932) wrote "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" (1893), which argued that the nation's western frontier had promoted American democracy. Some American intellectuals expanded on Turner's thesis and argued that expansion overseas was the next great frontier that would help reinvigorate the nation and its political system. Woodrow Wilson was a friend and advocate of Turner who tried to put Turner's writings into practice once he reached the White House.

The "Anglo-Saxon myth" was the dominant intellectual justification for American imperialism. This myth held that the Anglo-Saxons were the final result of cultural evolution. The United States, as the obvious seat of growing Anglo-Saxon power, had a duty to expand its influence throughout the world.

The two prevalent themes of American DESTINY and American DUTY are best summed up in the writings of Senator Albert J. Beveridge (1862-1927) of Indiana. A historian as well as a politician, Beveridge stated in his 1898 speech, "The March of the Flag:"

"Will you remember today, that we but do what our fathers did. We but pitch the tents of liberty further westward, further southward. We only continue the march of the flag. The question is not an American question but a world question. Shall free institutions broaden their blessed reign? The opposition to expansion tells us we ought not to govern a people without their consent. I answer that the rule of liberty applies only to those who are capable of self-government. Do we owe no duty to the world? Wonderfully has God guided us. It is ours to set the world its example of right and honor. We cannot fly from our world duties. It is ours to execute the purpose of a fate that has driven us to be greater than our small intentions. We cannot retreat from any soil where Providence has unfurled our banner. It is ours to save that soil for liberty and civilization. For liberty and civilization and God's promises fulfilled, the flag must henceforth be the symbol and the sign to all mankind."

This faith in destiny, duty and the morality of power would be played out in military expansion and war during the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. This, of course, is a very important and fascinating part of our story. So important, in fact, that we'll turn to it in Lecture 13: "The Morality of Power."

Lecture 12	*Related Web Links*
Content	Presentation	Audience	Link	Info
		College	Mark Twain on War and Imperialism
		College	Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935
		College	"Imperialism Is Easy," by John Dewey
		High School	America at the Turn of the Century: A Look at the Historical Context
		High School	A Splendid Little War
		College	The World of 1898: The Spanish American War

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