International History 1871–1945

The emergence of the USA

as a world power
The USA before 1871
In 1871, events in Africa, Asia and the associated rivalries between the
European powers were of little concern to the USA. Preoccupied with
domestic issues – such as increasing US territory through westward expansion
on the North American continent, as well as the American Civil War
(1861–65) – people in the USA had little interest in wider international affairs.
isolationism Throughout the 19th century, the USA followed a policy of isolationism
The policy of isolating and looked inwards, seeking to develop in its own way without outside
one’s country from the interference or involvement in foreign issues.
affairs of other nations
by avoiding alliances However, the USA could not completely ignore events in the wider world.
and international There was a risk that ambitious European nations would renew their interest
commitments. in gaining colonies in the New World: North and South America. By the
early 19th century, virtually all the Latin American colonies of the once-
great Spanish and Portuguese empires had gained independence. Only Cuba
and Puerto Rico remained under Spanish rule. Concerns that Spain would
try to win back control of its former possessions in South America – and
that this would encourage other European powers to extend
their empires into the Americas – led the USA to approve
the Monroe Doctrine in 1823. This stated that the USA
Note: would not interfere in European affairs, and that any attempt
Lacking a credible navy and army,
by European powers to intervene in the Americas would
in reality the USA was in no position
be viewed by the USA as an act of aggression, and would be
to enforce the Monroe Doctrine.
dealt with accordingly.
However, Britain was willing to use
its navy to ensure that no European
country sought new possessions in
the Americas. This offer was made Economic growth and the need
largely to protect British trading for trade
interests, which would have been
threatened if South American states Throughout the last 30 years of the 19th century, the USA
had become colonies of Britain’s emerged as an increasingly influential world power. During
European rivals. this time, the country experienced enormous industrial
growth, made possible by rich supplies of raw materials (coal,
iron ore and oil) and the expansion of railways. A rapidly
increasing population, enhanced by large-scale immigration, provided both
a workforce and a market. Import duties protected US products from foreign
competition, and by the end of the century the USA was outstripping its
main European rivals in the production of coal, pig iron, steel and cotton
(see Table 1.1).

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 1 International relations in an age of imperialism 1871–1918

USA Closest rival

Coal output (tonnes) 238 million 199 million (Britain)
Value of exports (£) 311 million 390 million (Britain)
Pig iron (tonnes) 14.5 million 7.3 million (Britain)
Steel (tonnes) 12 million 5.4 million (Germany)
Railways (km) 294,500 45,000 (Germany)
Cotton production (bales) 10.6 million 3 million (India)
Wheat (bushels) 638 million 552 million (Russia)

Table 1.1 Industrial output of the USA and its main European rivals, 1900.
(Adapted from Nichol, J. and Lang, S. Work Out Modern World History. Basingstoke, UK.
Macmillan. 1990.)

A sudden economic downturn in 1893 alerted industrialists to the

dangers of over-reliance on the domestic market, and they argued that the
remedy was to sell more goods abroad. Since European nations practised
protectionism throughout their empires, access to the Chinese market was protectionism
increasingly viewed as vital for the USA’s future prosperity. This would The policy of placing
require investment in a strong navy to protect merchant ships. It would high tariffs (taxes)
also require the acquisition of overseas bases to protect US interests. While on imports in order
many politicians in the USA supported this expansionist view, some argued to protect domestic
that maintaining the traditional policy of isolationism, and avoiding foreign industries from
foreign competition.
entanglements and responsibilities, was the best way to protect US interests.
Protectionism is the
In many ways, the debate was settled by events in Cuba, where Spain was opposite of free trade.
struggling to maintain control of its long-standing possession in a war against
Cuban independence fighters. The USA remained neutral in the conflict until
an explosion aboard the US battleship Maine in Havana harbour. Although
the US government seemed to think that this was an accident, the American
press believed that Spain was responsible, and it was heavily critical of the
government’s weak response to the incident.

To five hundred thousand Cubans starved or otherwise murdered have been added an American battleship and
three hundred American sailors lost as the direct result of the weak policy of our government toward Spain.
If we had stopped the war in Cuba when duty and policy alike urged us to do, the Maine would have been afloat
today, and three hundred homes, now desolate, would have been unscathed.

It was an accident, they say. Perhaps it was, but accident or not, it would never have happened if there had
been peace in Cuba, as there would have been if we had done our duty. And it was an accident of a remarkably
convenient kind for Spain. Two days ago we had five battleships in the Atlantic. Today we have four. A few more
such accidents will leave us at the mercy of a Spanish fleet.

An extract from an article published in the New York Journal, 17 February 1898.

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International History 1871–1945

Such reports did much to turn public opinion in favour of battle with Spain,
and in April 1898 the US government formally declared war. Victory in
the Spanish–American War left the USA in effective control of a nominally
independent Cuba. In addition, the USA gained other former Spanish
possessions including the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam. Almost
immediately the Filipinos rebelled, and in order to retain control the USA
was forced to fight a far longer and more costly war (1899–1902) than the
one against Spain. Anti-imperialists, such as the Democratic presidential
candidate William Jennings Bryan, protested against the acquisition of
foreign territories, arguing that it was a betrayal of the USA’s isolationist
Key figure traditions. However, Bryan’s defeat to the sitting president, William McKinley,
in the 1900 presidential elections suggests that the majority of the US public
Theodore supported the imperialist lobby.
Roosevelt
(1858–1919)
Roosevelt became
The development of the USA as a
president of the USA world power
when William McKinley
was assassinated in Less than a year into his second term, McKinley was assassinated and his
1901, and was elected vice-president Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in. Roosevelt fully supported
by a landslide in the the new imperialistic direction of US foreign policy. Believing that it was
1904 presidential ‘incumbent on all civilized and orderly powers to insist on the proper
election. He believed policing of the world’, he followed policies designed to extend his country’s
that the USA should influence globally:
play a major role in
world affairs, and he • He ensured that the USA gained control of the building and operation
supported the move of the Panama Canal (which opened in 1914). This allowed ships to pass
towards US imperialism. between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans without the long and hazardous
Roosevelt organised voyage around Cape Horn at the tip of South America. In both strategic
the USA’s ownership of and commercial terms, this added to the USA’s global influence.
the Panama Canal and
• He guaranteed that Cuba would effectively remain under US control
negotiated the Treaty of
by drawing up the Platt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution (1903).
Portsmouth at the end
of the Russo–Japanese
Under its terms, the USA
War in 1905, for which he was able to dictate Cuba’s
was awarded the Nobel foreign policy and all its Note:
Peace Prize. commercial activities. The The Platt Amendment and the
USA was also granted rights Roosevelt Corollary combined to
over key land on the island, strengthen the USA’s influence in the
including the naval base at Caribbean significantly. The Corollary
Guantanamo Bay. gave the USA the right to intervene
• The Roosevelt Corollary in the region whenever it considered
to the Monroe Doctrine, its interests (particularly economic) to
introduced in 1904, stated be at risk, and US influence in Cuba
that the USA would intervene especially remained strong well into
if any Caribbean state was the 20th century. The Amendment
threatened by internal or remained in force until 1934.
external factors.

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 1 International relations in an age of imperialism 1871–1918

All that this country desires is to see the neighboring countries stable, orderly, and
prosperous. Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count upon our
hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows how to act with reasonable efficiency
and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it
need fear no interference from the United States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence
which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as
elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western
Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the
United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence,
to the exercise of an international police power.

President Theodore Roosevelt, in a speech to the US Congress,

December 1904.

The USA in 1914

The USA’s attempts to enhance its power-base in the Pacific region and,
in particular, to gain trading rights in China, were less successful. Here it
met stern opposition from well-established imperial nations such as Britain,
Germany, France and Russia, as well as from the newly emerging power
of Japan. Nevertheless, by 1914 the USA had emerged as a prosperous and
strong regional power, with a growing influence over world financial markets
and a new-found commitment to its own form of imperialistic expansion.

Source A
Questions
A cartoon publ
1 Why did the USA move away from ished in
the American m
its traditional isolationist foreign agazine
Puck in 1906.
policy in the period 1871–1914?

2 How far was President Theodore

Roosevelt responsible for the
USA’s move towards a more
expansionist foreign policy?

3 Look at the cartoon in Source A

opposite. What does it suggest
about the emergence of the
USA as a world power by the
time it was published in 1906?

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