History 1700 MacKay Spring 2010
The U.S. as World Power
Readings:
We will consider the following episodes in U.S. history:
Louisiana Purchase and Continental Expansion
Animated
image combining maps depicting U.S. territorial growth 1810-1920, as produced in
the 1970 National Atlas.
http://www.nationalatlas.gov/printable/territorialacquisition.html#list
In a some what overheated editorial on the matter of Texas
annexation in the July and August, 1845, number of the Democratic Review,
a journal which he co-founded in 1837, John L. O'Sullivan coined the potent
phrase "Manifest Destiny" to describe the ongoing
expansionistic activities of the United States of America in its almost 70
years of existence. This was a phrase which both well summed up already held
attitudes and opinions, and pointed to a vast potential which would be acted
out in, in a variety of forms and manners, to the present.
The concept of Manifest Destiny, in its most
fundamental meaning propounds the notion that the United States has a national
destiny determined by divine appointment, which it is the sacred duty of the
nation, through its leaders, to make manifest, to make real. It is shot
through with religious imagery, in particular as related to the historical
experience of the people Israel, and often expressed in terms of an
"advent" or coming, and an "epiphany" or showing forth.
Manifest Destiny thus became the historical stage directions for the
future of the United States.
In functional terms, the concept of Manifest Destiny,
in the first instance, explained and justified those decisions and actions
which had already taken place, and, in the second instance, provided an
ongoing impetus to continue and intensify such decisions in the future. As
such, it was an expression of what intellectual historians style the double
function of ideas in historical action. Because of its breadth, Manifest
Destiny was from the very beginning, a type of "omnibus idea" an
idea which could contain a wide variety of concepts without fear of
contradiction or confusion.
In more detail, Manifest Destiny is an idea
constructed on the premise that the United States is God's chosen nation and
people, chosen is a singular manner which separates it from any other nation
or people who might conceive such an idea. It is through this
construction that the United States becomes as historical paraphrase of the
people Israel, a new chosen people, a "last chance" for the entire
whole of humanity which is thus called upon to learn from and follow this
nation.
http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/dialogues/prelude/manifest/manifestdestiny.html
The United States is the largest overseas territorial power in the world today, with over four million subjects. It currently governs Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Marianas, and American Samoa, and has "special responsibilities" for the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau.
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the United States pursued an aggressive policy of expansionism, extending its political and economic influence around the globe. Consult this summary used in K12 classrooms: http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/toc.html
Chronology
-- U.S. Imperialism
1898 Spanish-American War. Treaty of
Paris gives U.S. control of Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico.
U.S. annexes Hawaii
1899-1902 American-Filipino War
1899-1900 U.S. pursues "Open Door" policy toward
China
1900 U.S. annexes Puerto Rico. U.S. and
other imperial powers put down Chinese Boxer Rebellion
1901 U.S. forces Cuba to adopt constitution favorable to U.S.
interests
1903 Hay--Bunau-Varillia Treaty signed, giving U.S. control of
Panama Canal Zone
1904 "Roosevelt Corollary" to Monroe Doctrine
proclaimed
1905 Roosevelt negotiates end to Russo-Japanese War
1906-1917 U.S. intervenes in Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican
Republic, and Mexico
1910 Mexican revolution
1914 Panama Canal Opens
1914 U.S. invades Mexico
In the Philippine War, over 16,000 Filipino soldiers died and it
is estimated that close to 200,000 Filipino civilians lost their lives as well.
Some 5,000 American soldiers died.
(National Museum of Health and Medicine)
(Source: http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/1907powr.htm)
In countless ways, World War I created the fundamental elements of 20th
century history. Genocide emerged as an act of war. So did the use of poison
gas on the battlefield. The international system was totally transformed. On
the political right fascism came out of the war; on the left a communist
movement emerged backed by the Soviet Union. America became a world
power. The British Empire reached its high point and started to unravel.
Britain never recovered from the shock of war, and started her decline to
the ranks of the second-class powers. At the peace conference of 1919, the
German, Turkish, and Austro-Hungarian empires were broken up. New boundaries
were drawn in Europe and the Middle East, boundaries -- as in Iraq and
Kuwait -- which were still intact at the end of the century.
Just as the war was ending, German Nationalists like Hitler gathered
millions who rejected the peace and blamed Jews and Communists for their
defeat. The road to the Second World War started there.
Chronology -- Clash of Empires
1914 World War One is triggered by the assassination of
Archduke Ferdinand
1915 Lusitanian sunk
1917 Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare. U.S.
declares war on Germany
1917 U.S. purchases Virgin Islands from Denmark
1917 Russian Revolution
11-11-1918 Treaty of Versailles, Wilson's 14 Points
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Cold_War_Map_1959.png
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Cold_War_Map_1980.png
The cold war began with mistrust between the Soviet Union and the western democracies as early as the Russian Revolution. The Soviet Union felt it had good cause to mistrust the West.
The West, for its part, never trusted the Soviet Union:
This mutual distrust was barely suppressed during World War II when for practical reasons (the common enemy of Hitler's Germany) the western allies and the Soviet Union became uneasy allies. Stalin believed that the western allies were dragging their feet in opening up the "second front" in Europe, so necessary to take the pressure off the struggling Soviet forces in the east. Stalin was open about wanting "friendly governments" in Eastern Europe to protect his country's western frontier from another invasion like the invasion by Germany.
(Source: The Cold War Museum: http://www.historywiz.com/coldwarexhibit.htm)
Chronology
1946 Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech
1947 Truman Doctrine
1948 Marshall Plan; Berlin airlift
1949 NATO;; first USSSR atomic bomb; Communist victory in
China
1950 Joseph McCarthy's first charges; outbreak of Korean War
1953 Armistice in Korea
1954 Vietnamese victory over French in Dien Bien Phu; McCarthy
hearings
1947: The Truman Doctrine.
1949: NATO Treaty signed.
1949: Communists take power in China; Nationalists retreat to Taiwan
1950: Korean War begins.
1953: Armistice ends fighting in the Korean War.
1955: Warsaw Pact is formed
1961: Bay of Pigs invasion.
Toward Peaceful Coexistence
1962: Cuban Missile Crisis.
1964: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
1965: President Johnson begins escalation of US role in Vietnamese Civil War.
1972: US withdraws from Vietnam.
1972: SALT Treaty signed
1972: Nixon visits China
1973: U.S. begins pull out of troops in Vietnam
1979: The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan
1985: Gorbachev begins policy of "Perestroika"
1989: The Fall of the Berlin Wall; The Cold War ends.
1989: Tiananmen Square Massacre in China
Chronology of United States-Vietnam Relations
