us foreign policy up to wwi early imperial moves – mexico / japan growth of naval power –...

US Foreign Policy Up to WWI

• Early Imperial Moves – Mexico / Japan

• Growth of Naval Power – Pacific Interests

• Spanish American War and its Outcomes

• New American Nationalism and Empire

• Theodore Roosevelt shapes American Foreign Policy

• US on eve of WWI

Mid 19th Century• Manifest Destiny =

Imperialism• Mexican American

War• Japan

Foreign Policy Milestones for US prior to WWI

• Hawaii• Spanish American

War • Open Door Notes /

China and the Boxer Rebellion

• Russo Japanese War• Panama + Caribbean

Interventions• Mexican Expedition

William McKinley

• "I have already transmitted to Congress the report of the naval court of inquiry on the destruction of the battleship Maine in the harbor of Havana during the night of the fifteenth of February. The destruction of that noble vessel has filled the national heart with inexpressible horror. Two hundred and fifty-eight brave sailors and marines and two officers of our Navy, reposing in the fancied security of a friendly harbor, have been hurled to death, grief and want brought to their homes and sorrow to the nation."

The Spanish American War

• Cuban Revolt • Hearst / Pulitzer /

Jingoism• USS Maine• Reluctant Prez /

Enthusiastic Public• Dewey – Phillipines• Hawaii - • Cuba – Rough Riders

– Theodore Roosevelt

So you’ve got an empire… now what?

• Controversy of empire• When I next realized that the Philippines had dropped

into our laps I confess I did not know what to do with them. . . And one night late it came to me this way. . .1) That we could not give them back to Spain- that would be cowardly and dishonorable; 2) that we could not turn them over to France and Germany-our commercial rivals in the Orient-that would be bad business and discreditable; 3) that we not leave them to themselves-they are unfit for self-government-and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's wars; and 4) that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, --- McKinley

Foreign Policy for the post Civil War Generation

• “Role of Naval Power”• European Imperialism • Authentic Experiences• Yellow Press • End of the Frontier • Does US need

periodic bloodletting?– Does each generation

need its own war?

Start of WWI

• Europe and –isms • Causes v. Sparks• Alliances• Franz Ferdinand• Mobilization• Schlieffen Plan • Stalemate• Attrition and Trenches • US seeks to stay neutral

… why?

•Trench Warfare

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwone/launch_pan_trench_life.shtml

US Foreign Involvement Before WWI

Submarine Warfare

• Goal – Cut off England to knock them out of the war

• Danger – Might bring US into the war

• Sussex Pledge

US Joins the War• US Neutrality – (trade,

immigrants)• Germany as aggressor • English ties• Submarine Warfare• Lusitania• Russian Revolution –

Impact • Zimmerman Note• What does the US bring

to the war?• Convoys, no trenches,

new leadership

US entry to WWI

• Refuse to fight under allied command

• Refuse to dig trenches• Break the stalemate• Battles 2nd Marne, Argonne,

Belleau Wood, Chateau Thierry

• Total War Mobilization at Home – Job openings for Women, African Americans

• Rationing, Propaganda, Draft etc.

• Real impact of US on war is fresh infusion of men / supplies

US and the Treaty of Versailles

• 14 Points • Our war• Make the world free

… what about at home

• Isolationism• High Casualties • Wilson stroke and

rejection of treaty…