Uncle Sam's War of 1898 and the Origins of Globalization
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Military History History 11-28-2003 Uncle Sam's War of 1898 and the Origins of Globalization Thomas D. Schoonover Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Schoonover, Thomas D., "Uncle Sam's War of 1898 and the Origins of Globalization" (2003). Military History. 35. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_military_history/35 Uncle Sam's War of 1898 and the Origins of Globalization Uncle SaIll'S " ,,,I' '1.'" A un. \f • ." War of 1898 and the Origins of Globalization ili Thomas Schoonover Foreword by Walter LaFeber THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright © 2003 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 04 05 06 07 5 4 3 2 Frontispiece: "A Fair Field and No Favor." Uncle Sam restrains aggressive, militaristic European treatment of China in order to promote an open door to commercial and investment opportunity (China holds a train). (Harper's Weekly, November 18, 1899) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schoonover, Thomas David, 1936- Uncle Sam's War of 1898 and the origins of globalization I Thomas Schoonover; foreword by Walter LaFeber p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8131-2282-1 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Spanish-American War, 1898. 2. United States-Territorial expansion. 3. World politics-19th century. 4. Globalization Political aspects-United States. I. Title. E715.S36 2003 973.9'91-dc21 2003011379 This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America ~.".'I~ Member of the Association of 'I~ _ American University Presses Dedicated to my son, Paco, who died on 23 July 2000. He knew about this project. He read an article containing many of its themes, and we discussed the project. My heart and soul are heavy and sad because he will not be able to read the final form. Contents List of Illustrations Vlll Foreword by Walter LaFeber IX Preface xiii Introduction 1 1. Exploration and New Territories, 1780s-1850s 9 2. The Great Powers in the Caribbean Basin, 1800-1890s 18 3. The Great Powers in East Asia and the Pacific, 1840s-1890s 35 4. U.S. Domestic Developments and Social Imperialism, 1850s-1890s 53 5. Three Crises: The 1893 Depression, China, and Cuba 65 6. The War of 1898 in the Pacific Basin 88 7. The Legacy of the Crises of the 1890s 102 Notes 123 Selected Bibliography 153 Index 165 List of Illustrations Maps Inside front cover: Gulf-Caribbean Basin Inside back cover: Pacific Ocean and East Asia Figures 1. "Le Gateau Chinois" 71 2. "Gateau des Rois et des Empereurs," Le petit journal 72 3. "Uncle Sam to the European Powers," Boston Globe 77 4. "Knocking at the Door," Chicago Tribune 78 5. "Uncle Sam and Liberty Enjoy Their Good Deed," St. Louis Globe-Democrat 80 6. "Ha! Ha!" Los Angeles Times 81 7. "Shelling the Enemy," Judy, London 82 8. "John Bull," postcard, 1900 89 9. "Off to War Parade, Denver" 90 10. "Hospital in the Philippines" 93 11. "Chinesische Spottkarte. Chinese verjagt Europa" 107 12. "Chinese Boxer Troops" 108 13. "War in China," postcard, 1900 109 14. "Entrance of Chinese Empress Dowager, Cixi," postcard 110 Foreword Walter LaF eber ~ In 1904, Halford Mackinder arose to present a paper before the Royal Geographical Society in London. Extraordinarily learned, lengthy, and dry, the paper turned out to be one of those few documents that helped unlock the dynamics of twentieth- and twenty-first-century international relations. "The Geographical Pivot of History," as Mackinder immodestly but accurately titled his paper, argued that Central Asia held the key to the control of global events. Whoever held that region, stretching roughly from the oil-rich Caspian Sea through Mghanistan to western China, would be able to control the entire Eurasian landmass, he concluded. It was thus necessary for British interests, Mackinder warned, to ensure that Russia could never consolidate a hold on that region. Later, during World War II, Soviet, British, and U.S. policy aimed to deny this region to Hitler's forces, an objective the Russians barely but historically achieved in 1941-42, thereby helping to fix the course of the Nazis' destruction. Between 1999 and 2003, the U.S. superpower for the first time established military bases in Central Asia so it could secure an area that, in Washington's eyes, continued to be a "pivot" of world affairs. Thomas Schoonover's book redefines Mackinder's epochal approach by placing it in a different, but equally important, framework of historical move ment. The American scholar differs from his British counterpart by locating the "pivot of history" not in Europe but in the Caribbean-Central American region that for over four centuries linked European and then U.S. expansion ism to the quest for control of Asia, especially Asian markets-"the chief the atre of events in the world's great hereafter," as Asia was termed by William Seward, Lincoln's secretary of state and one of American history's more accu rate prophets. To rephrase, while Mackinder saw history's "pivot" as land-based, Schoonover emphasizes that the key to centuries of European and now U.S. x Walter LaFeber power can be found in the control of the sea, especially the Panamanian route between two great oceans. With its sweep and extraordinary research, Schoonover's argument brings together succinct stories of European and then U.S. expansionism, explains why the United States became an overseas imperialist power in the 1890s, demonstrates how it and other imperialist nations viewed and fought over the Caribbean-Central American region, then traces the effects of this imperial competition on the evolution of not only Central America, but the vast Pacific Ocean-East Asian area. By using the Caribbean-Central American region in this way, this book presents a fresh, highly important perspective on the West's expansionism and its several centuries of effects on Seward's "chief theatre of events." The bookends of this story, Schoonover neatly suggests, are Christopher Columbus and Mao Zedong. Schoonover's is a perspective that, while focusing on the critical question of how the United States made the historic leap in the 1890s to become a great power, moves beyond the American scene to examine the dynamics of Western Europe, Central America, and East Asia. Schoonover is superbly (it is tempting to say uniquely) qualified to tell this story. For nearly forty years he has exploited diplomatic and other archival materials in Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain, and Central America, as well in the United States. He has mastered the West European as well as the American secondary literature. His own books and articles on how, and why, Europeans and Americans competed in the Western Hemisphere have been critical in shaping the perspectives from which scholars and journalists have viewed that centuries-long imperial competition and its effects on the global arena. Trans-national and trans-cultural histories are now popular approaches, especially among some historians who understand much about culture but little about either power or the archives of the most powerful nations. Schoonover not only utilizes those archives, and he not only appreciates the importance of an approach that takes in the many important players, but he knows that the events that climaxed in the 1890s and whose results shaped the next century have to focus especially on dominant U.S. power. As Henry Adams once phrased it, the central question of 1901, as in 1801, was how, and whether, Washington (that is, the government representing the American people's interests) could control New York City (that is, the hub of U.S. economic power). Schoonover understands what Adams was saying, and his analysis is as important for the early twenty-first century as it is for the late nineteenth. It is especially worth reflection when he notes some of the Foreword xi components of this U.S. power, not least its incredible technology and its often destructive religious-missionary motivations. On 11 March 2003, China's official newspaper, People's Daily, published a remarkable overview of four hundred years ofAmerican history. The analysis not only revealed how a new Chinese leadership viewed the centuries-long motivations of U.S. foreign policy, but how, from Beijing's perspective, that history would now shape the future of Chinese-U.S. relations. The authors broke the era down into four eras: continental expansion that stretched from the first settlements to the 1890s; overseas expansion lasting from the 1890s to about 1945; a struggle for global hegemony during the late 1940s through 1991; and, finally, a post-1991 move toward world domination. The origins and effects of the last two - post-1940s - eras will long be argued over.