The University of Chicago Circuits of Empire: The
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO CIRCUITS OF EMPIRE: THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA’S PACIFIC A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY MINYONG LEE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS JUNE 2018 To My Loving Parents, Lee Jae Eun and Yim You Kyoung TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................ v Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................. vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................................................... ix Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1. Colonizing the Pacific: Indigenous Labor and the Settler Colonial Societies in California and Hawaii After 1848 .................................................................................................................................... 27 1.1. California before 1848: Indians, Kanakas, and Settlers .................................................................. 31 1.2. Anglo-American Settler Colonialism and the Freedom to Move in California........................... 38 1.3. The California Gold Rush and (Settler) Colonialism in Hawaii .................................................... 50 1.4. Indians, Native Hawaiians, and Anglo-American Settlers in California after 1850 .................... 61 Chapter 2. Coasting along the Golden Shore: Anglos, Chileans, and the Ideas of Race and Development on the Pacific Coast ................................................................................................................ 73 2.1. Around-the-Horn Voyages: American Travelers in South America............................................. 75 2.2. Unexpected Development: American Observers in Chilean Seaports ......................................... 82 2.3. Chilean Response to American Maritime Traffic and California Gold ........................................ 88 2.4. Claiming the Future of California: Chilean Miners in California .................................................. 95 2.5. A Paradox of Development: A Chilean Understanding of Race and Civilization ................... 104 Chapter 3. Imagining Conquest, Engineering Empire: Gold-Rush Transit and U.S. Empire-building on the Isthmus .............................................................................................................................................. 121 3.1. Visualizing the Isthmus: American Travelers’ Narratives of the Transit .................................. 126 3.2. Traffic and Transportation as the Civilizing Influence ................................................................ 139 3.3. Imagining Wars of Conquest and the Blurred Boundaries of Empire ...................................... 145 3.4. Seeing and Being Seen: Local Understandings of the Gold-Rush Transit ............................... 151 iii Chapter 4. From the Ruins of El Dorado: Filibusters, Fortune Seekers, and Popular Circuits of Empire ............................................................................................................................................................ 163 4.1. Dreaming of a Grander California: A Localized Debate on Territorial Expansion ................ 169 4.2. Filibusters, Rumors, and Settler-Driven Expansionism .............................................................. 173 4.3. Searching for a “Second California”: Californians in William Walker’s Nicaragua ................. 183 4.4. Ho! For the Fraser River: Californian Transmigration and the Specter of Filibusters .................. 191 Chapter 5. The World Steamships Made: Pacific Crossings and California at the Onset of the American Empire, c.1860-1898 .................................................................................................................. 208 5.1. Establishing Transpacific Steamship Connections ....................................................................... 212 5.2. Steamship Company, U.S. Navy, and the Colonization of the Pacific Islands ........................ 221 5.3. The Economics of the Transpacific Steam Transport ................................................................. 228 5.4. California and the Steamship Connections across the Pacific .................................................... 233 5.5. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company and Chinese Immigration .............................................. 236 5.6. At the Turn of the Century: Steamships and California’s Pacific Connections ....................... 250 Epilogue ......................................................................................................................................................... 257 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 263 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When I first heard the proverbial joke among academics that a good dissertation is a done dissertation, it was not entirely comforting, for there were times that I was not sure my dissertation would ever be done. This dissertation is now done and I hope it contains slightly more than just the quality of being done. As I am finally writing this, perhaps the most fun part of the dissertation, I must risk repeating another cliché and say this dissertation is a co-creation of many individuals who guided, mentored, and encouraged me along the way. First I want to thank my chair, Ramón A. Gutiérrez, who sustained my whole research and writing process through his unyielding support and firm conviction in my abilities. He spent many thankless hours meticulously reading my drafts and gave both far-reaching and detailed advices on how to improve them. Ramón has been a role model not only for historical research and writing but also for how to organize life and manage time. My readers, Matthew Briones and Amy Lippert, offered crucial guidance and mentorship far beyond the capacity of a dissertation committee. Training I received from Julie Saville and Jim Sparrow in U.S. history seminars also proved indispensable throughout my scholarly pursuits. My mentors in college, Professors Bae Youngsoo and Jou Kyung-Chul at Seoul National University, deserve special recognition for teaching me the joys and challenges of being a historian. I would have been a very different scholar without the inspiration and insights I drew from all of them. Graduate school friends at the University of Chicago were a huge part of my growth as a person and as a scholar. Many of them read various portions of my work and gave thoughtful and constructive comments, and I regret I cannot thank them all individually. I thank all my colleagues in the U.S. History Workshop (née Social History Workshop) for helping me write not only by reading and commenting on my own work but also by sharing theirs and facilitating lively conversations v about a wide range of topics in American history. I particularly appreciate the camaraderie and companionship of Ashley Finigan, Sonia Gomez, Kai Parker, Guy Mount, and Christopher Kindell during our summer writing group. I would also like to express my gratitude for the enduring friendship of So Hye Kim, without whom my eight years in Hyde Park would have been much lonelier and far less entertaining. I will dearly miss our pointless outings and long late-night chats. My doctoral studies received generous financial support from the Korea Foundation of Advanced Studies. The University of Chicago History Department, Social Sciences Division, and Graduate Council funded my research trips at various points of my dissertation research, as did the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. The Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture provided not only financial support but also a welcoming community and a safe haven during my last years of dissertation writing. I am also grateful to have received help from numerous archivists and librarians at the Bancroft Library; the California Historical Society, San Francisco, California; the Huntington Library, San Marino, California; the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; the Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois; and the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. My family in Korea has been a constant source of love, confidence, and hope during my years in Chicago, regardless of the distance and time difference. My brother Juyong and sister-in-law Jingyung regularly reminded me about the life outside of grad school, while my young niece Howon frequently afforded me welcome distractions from work. The final acknowledgment and the biggest thanks should go to my parents as their due. I would not have chosen the path of a career scholar without unconditional support and encouragement I received from them since a young age. Their love and faith still humbles me. I hope they enjoy this small fruit of their labor. Chicago, May 2018 vi ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the maritime transportation networks of California and their impacts on U.S. imperialism in the decades between the U.S.-Mexican War and the Spanish- American War,