Assessing the Legitimacy of US Imperialism in the Late 19th/Early 20th Centuries

Directions for the Midterm Exam essay question

Directions: The Midterm Exam essay question is based on the accompanying documents (1—7) and pertinent information from your textbook. As you analyze the documents, I suggest that you consider both the source of each document and the author's point of view. Textbook (describes America in the industrialized era, progressive era, how we became involved in world war 1, what happened during and after world war 1):

1. Carefully re-read pertinent information from your textbook. Play media comment.

2. Read each document carefully, (documents are located at the end of the exam directions) noting key phrases and words that address the document-based question.

3. Based upon your own knowledge of the topic and on the evidence found in the documents and the required online textbook for the course, formulate a thesis statement that directly answers the Midterm Exam essay question.

4. Citing a minimum of THREE out of the seven documents is mandatory. DO NOT OVER QUOTE. Please cite the document following the quote or reference parenthetically, for example: “The position of the United States, between the two Old Worlds and the two great oceans, makes the same claim” (Document 2).

Citations from the Openstax text should indicate the section number, for example: ‘Religious leaders and Progressive reformers joined businesses in their growing interest in American expansion, as both sought to increase the democratic and Christian influences of the United States abroad” (22.1). 5. After you have finished composing your essay exam response on your computer, please save it as a standard word document or PDF file, Times New Roman, 12 point font, single spaced. Please upload your exam response by clicking on “Assignments” which is located to the left of your screen on the course website. From the list of Assignments, click on “Midterm Exam”. You will then see a red box labeled “Submit Assignment” –click on that. You will then be prompted to choose your Midterm Exam file –click on “choose file”, select your saved Midterm Exam file, and then upload it by clicking on “Submit Assignment.” 6.

Your 1200-1700 word response to the Midterm Essay Exam is due Saturday evening, November 6, 2021 by 11:59 PM, Pacific Time. Standard essay form (i.e., an introduction containing the thesis statement as the last sentence of this first paragraph, at least three body paragraphs with solid analysis of the supporting evidence, and a fully developed conclusion paragraph) is required. DO NOT exceed the word limit. Only course materials may be used in answering the Midterm essay question; citing/quoting outside sources is prohibited. Strive for clarity, depth, and precision in your essay response; substantial points will be deducted for overly general essays. Citation from the required documents is mandatory; your Midterm Exam will be submitted to turnitin.com plagiarism checker via Canvas “Assignments”. MIDTERM EXAM ESSAY QUESTION: Assess the degree to which imperialism was a legitimate policy for the United States to follow during the late 19th/early 20th centuries.

Documents 1-7 and how they support or oppose US imperialism

Document 1: More than a decade before the Spanish-American War, Rev. Josiah Strong, a prominent Protestant clergyman, wrote Our Country, a book that became both popular and influential. This passage, taken from Strong's book, advocates imperialism as a policy of the United States. “It seems to me that God, with infinite wisdom and skill, is training the Anglo-Saxon race [Strong meant Americans of British and German descent] for an hour sure to come in the world's future--this race of unequaled energy, with all the majesty of numbers and the might of wealth behind it—the representatives . . . of the largest liberty, the purest Christianity, the highest civilization . . . will spread itself over the earth this powerful race will move down upon Mexico, down upon Central and South America, out upon the islands of the sea, over upon Africa and beyond. And can anyone doubt that the result of this competition of races will be the ‘survival of the fittest?’”

Document 2: Another American proponent of imperialism was a top U.S. Navy officer, Alfred T. Mahan. Mahan's views were well known and popular with many. This excerpt comes from a book he wrote shortly before the Spanish-American War, titled The Interest of America in Sea Power (1897). “Americans must begin to look outward. The growing production of the country demands it. An increasing volume of public sentiment demands it. The position of the United States, between the two Old Worlds and the two great oceans, makes the same claim. “ Document 3: The initial decision whether or not to annex the Philippines was made by President McKinley. In the following excerpt, he explains why he recommended annexation to the U.S. Senate. He was speaking to a group of religious leaders when he made this statement. “I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance. . . . 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 or Germany—our commercial rivals in the Orient—that would be bad business and discreditable;

3. that we could not leave them to themselves—they were unfit for self-government—and they would soon have anarchy and misrule there worse than Spain's was; and

The author's point of view and its relevance to the Midterm Exam essay question

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, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellowmen for whom Christ also died.” Document 4: U.S. Senator George F. Hoar represented Massachusetts in Congress from 1869 until his death in 1904, and was a major opponent of imperialism. The following excerpt comes from a speech Hoar made in January 1899, in opposition to the treaty annexing the Philippines. . . .” the question with which we now have to deal is whether Congress may conquer and may govern, without their consent and against their will, a foreign nation, a separate, distinct, and numerous people, a territory not hereafter to be populated by Americans under the Declaration of Independence you cannot govern a foreign territory, a foreign people, another people than your own . . . you cannot subjugate them and govern them against their will, because you think it is for their good, when they do not; because you think you are going to give them the blessings of liberty.

You have no right at the cannon's mouth to impose on an unwilling people your Declaration of Independence and your Constitution and your notions of freedom and notions of what is good.” Document 5: Albert Beveridge, a Republican senator from Indiana, supported imperialism. How did he justify this policy in the following excerpt from a speech he made in the U.S. Senate in 1900? “The Philippines are ours forever. . . . We will not retreat. . . . We will not repudiate [renounce] our duty. . . . We will not abandon our opportunity in the Orient. We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world.

And we will move forward to our work . . . with gratitude . . . to Almighty God that He has marked us as His chosen people, henceforth to lead in the regeneration of the world the Pacific is the ocean of the commerce of the future The power that rules the Pacific . . . is the power that rules the world.” Document 6: Henry Cabot Lodge, a Republican senator from Massachusetts, also supported imperialism. How did Lodge defend imperialism in this statement from a Senate speech made in 1900? “. . . we are in the Philippines as righteously [honorably] as we are there rightly and legally.

The taking of the Philippines does not violate the principles of the Declaration of Independence, but will spread them among a people who have never known liberty, and who in a few years will be as unwilling to leave the shelter of the American flag as those of any other territory we ever brought beneath its folds.” Document 7: The prospect of the United States becoming an imperialistic nation galvanized a strong opposition, and many opponents rallied around the newly created American Anti-Imperialist League. Here are some excerpts from the Anti-Imperialist League's platform which was adopted during the 1900 presidential campaign.

“We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been our glory to be free. We regret that it has become necessary in the land of Washington and Lincoln to reaffirm that all men, of whatever race or color, are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We maintain that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. We insist that the subjugation of any people is ‘criminal aggression.’ We hold, with Abraham Lincoln, that ‘no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.’”