HIST 2620 1st Edition Lecture 3 Outline of Last Lecture I The Gilded Age 1870s Early 1900s II Labor Activism Civil Unrest III Economic Transformations Populist Party Government and Wealth Accumulation The GAR and Republican Party Increase in Labor Activism Rural Unrest Farmers Alliance Indian Policy in the American West Allotment Act The Dawes General Allotment Act 1887 Outline of Current Lecture I Imperial America II The Frontier Thesis III Intro to Imperial America Indian Wars 1860 1890 Grants Peace Policy 1868 1882 Turner and The Frontier Thesis 1893 Frontier thesis and the census of 1890 Fears of Losing the Frontier Theodore Roosevelt s take on the Frontier Markets and New Imperialism New Imperialism Open Door Policy 1899 The Boxer Rebellion 1900 Naval Power The Spanish American War 1890 Philippine War 1890 1913 The Anti Imperialistic League The Reign of Roosevelt 1901 1908 Current Lecture I Imperial America These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute II The Frontier Thesis III Introduction By the 1880s American foreign policy evolved from western expansion and frontier politics into a larger ambition for a global empire as seen through a series of goals such as 1 The pursuit of new frontiers beyond the American west especially markets for American goods 2 Growing self awareness of US role in global imperial politics 3 Popular sense of Americas democratic mission Indian Wars 1860 1890 Over the course of US western expansion the carving of Indian lands caused several problems for Indian tribes that turned into conflict over hunting grounds and territory These altercations were very violent and once they turned on American settlers the US government decided to enact policies to resolve Indian conflict Grants Peace Policy 1868 1882 President Grant attempted to resolve the altercations between Indian tribes as well as with American settlers by passing his Peace Policy which attempted to stop Indians from fighting each other and settlers by confining them on reservations to set restrictions on when Indians could leave reservations attempt to force Indians to farm o raise livestock instead of hunting due to the dwindling source of game to set up boarding schools for many Indian children and ultimately assimilation of Native Americans Overall Grants policy was a huge failure because it led to some of the bloodiest indigenous conflicts of the 19th century as well as the inability to control insubordinate land and labor Battle of Little Bighorn 1876 The Marias Massacre 1870 Wounded Knee 1890 Turner and The Frontier Thesis 1893 Turner believed that the US frontier was central to American greatness being that it was what made them different from every other country Europeans cast of their effete civilization and re invigorated democratic society in the American wilderness In other words Turner and many Americans believed that the frontier was what made a boy into a man Frontier and the Census of 1890 This was a fear that Americans national character would be transformed by the closing of the western frontier Due to western expansion more and more of the frontier was becoming used land This lack of space to grow or discover is a leading idea to what may have caused America to seek imperialistic opportunities even further west Fears of Losing the Frontier Losing the frontier would means to Americans losing what made them masculine and the growing fear that America would become more like Britain exacerbated neurasthenia and the crisis of masculinity Neurasthenia was an overwhelming type of anxiety a man would get from finding himself to not be masculine enough During this time it was treated as a real diagnosis and the cure would be to find yourself in the wilderness These fears touched off a national nostalgia for a sense of adventure for the primal energy of the frontier experience A major example of this nostalgia was Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Roosevelt cast a new spin on the frontier these male virility was central to the proper functioning of the American democracy and was best sustained under frontier conditions or The Strenuous Life Markets and New Imperialism New Imperialism The new Imperialism was an emphasis on trade rather than resource extraction Imperialism was understood as a solution to America s major economic problems like agriculture overproduction industrial overproduction and the resurgence of mercantilist trade policies of other major world powers i e Britain and India Open Door Policy 1899 The open door policy was America s way of combating mercantilist trade tendencies of other world powers in China This proposal stated that china was not to be colonized and would remain open for trade with the US Britain Germany Russia Italy and Japan Officially only Britain agreed to the proposal but no other country protested This policy served as the US s first real step in the direction for global standing The Boxer Rebellion 1900 The boxer rebellion was a US led coalition to defeat Chinese nationalistic uprising The Boxer Rebellion served as another important step for America in the dealings of global politics This rebellion also introduced the importance of a naval fleet that America would have to invest in if they wished to deal in foreign affairs overseas Naval Power Admiral Alfred Mahan stated that sea power was necessary to protect US trade interests and that the US needed new naval passes around the world In 1907 the Great White Fleet sailed around the globe Pacific islands were eventually used as fueling stations for these massive steam dependent vessels that hence led to the annexation of Hawaii and the first step towards their new imperialistic ideals The Spanish American War 1898 The Spanish American war or the splendid war was significant for making lasting contradictions of US foreign policy in which they had at first seemed anti imperialistic America fought with Spain for the independence of Cuba as well as the Philippines which had thus been sold to the American public as a good will mission of anti imperialistic means However once the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1898 America insisted on keeping hold of the Philippines and Cuba for market interests War with The Philippines 1899 1913 One of the longest wars in American history conflicts with the Philippines escalated very quickly in which the US refused to grant the Philippines the