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Crash Course 28 on New Imperialism

Added Feb 16, 2017 •

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America's foray into Imperialism during the late 1800s and early 1900s

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hi I'm John Green this is Crash Course u.s. history and today we're going to talk about a subject near and dear to my white male heart imperialism what is the US much as we hate to admit it is actually part of a larger screen from the past that you will understand after your trip there before your senior year of college why do not acknowledge the existence of Canada's tale of the green parts of not America in the 19th century  like America but you without rights and stuff too late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a period of expansion and colonization in Asia and Africa mostly by European powers Hey listen has a long long history pretty much everywhere so this round of Empire Building is sometimes called rather confusingly new imperialism because the US acquired Beyond its Continental boundaries in this. It's relatively easy to fit American history into this world history Paradigm but there's also an argument that the United States has always been an Empire calendar European settlers who became Americans were intent on pushing Westward and conquering territory the obvious victims of this expansion / imperialism where the Native Americans make it also include the Mexicans who lost their sovereignty after 1848 that doesn't sound like an Empire to you allow me to draw your attention to the Russian Empire territory in Central Asia and Siberia and either absorbing or displacing the native people who live there which was the exact same thing that we were doing early 20th century different Colonial in their own special way Europeans and Americans would other places but they wouldn't settle them in more less completely displace the native people there play except for you Australian New Zealand Acquisitions of a territorial Empire is something of an embarrassing mistake was one of the primary causes of the phenomenon of American imperialism with economics we needed places to sell or amazing new product and at the time China actually had what's the customers because apparently it was opposite during the 1890s as this was in many ways a decade in America the influx of immigrants in the crowded cities added to anxiety and concern over America's future and then to Capital off in 1893 a panic caused by the failure of British Bank what do us into a horrible economic depression of Great Depression but not being Great Depression play man so take that 2008 according to American diplomatic historian George Herring imperialism was just what the doctor ordered to help America get out of its depression depression other historians notably Kristen hogansen imply that America infarct on Imperial Adventures part Lisa that American men could prove to themselves how manly they were you know by joining the Navy and setting sail distant water Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan publish the influence of seapower upon history and argue that to be a great power like Great Britain the US needed you control the Seas and dominate International Commerce building a canal through Central America and eventually the US should be built in Panama because you know how else are we going to get malaria in order to protect this canal we would need A Man A Plan A Canal Panama so I just wanted to get the pound room there somewhere we need much more than a man and a plan we would need ships in an order to have a functioning two-ocean Navy we would need cool in order to refuel they needed coal Depot it's a worldwide phenomenon to which the US was not immune I mean it's no accident that the 1890s Americans begin to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and celebrate Flag Day and what play to instill National private by flying the Stars and Stripes over Guam on what we now know is the continental United States to Annex Canada and also a senator talking until he or she had to stop to pee was the thing where we tried to makeover Central America to spread slavery Republic bit Congress demurred Molly and it did provide coaling stations in the Pacific but we could have had rum and Caribbean beaches my life so hard to take off her shirt dramatically I'm angry anyway ocean to the Pacific War important because in 1854 we opened Japan to American Trade by sending a flotilla of threatening Black Ships under Matthew Perry no stand not that Matthew Perry you know America's best piece of Imperial business before 1898 and was Hawaii like I like oil and gold as much as the next guy but Hawaii has pineapples and also sugar witch turn on American on plantations by Chinese Japanese Filipino and Native workers between the u.s. and Hawaiian government exempt sugar from Pearl Harbor which seems like a really good idea for Barack Obama was born in Kenya and this leads us nicely to the high tide of American imperialism the Spanish-American Cuban Filipino war war started out because native Cubans can Spain which was holding on to Cuba for dear life is the remnant of a once great Empire Cuban fight for independence was brutal 95,000 Cubans died from disease malnutrition after Spanish General valeriano weyler hurted Cubans into concentration camp for this while it was called butcher in the American yellow press which sold a lot of newspapers on the Saxon stories about his atrocities Warface War war with the us but as George Herring put it they preferred the honor of War II the ignominy of surrender let that be a lesson to you always choose ignominy investor documents  the rules here are simple I guess the only through the mystery documents on my the writer I get shocked let's hear we got today with such a conflict waged for years and an island so near us and with which our people have such trade in business relations when their wives and delivery of our own citizens are in constant danger in their property destroyed in themselves ruined where are trading vessels are liable to seizure and our seas that are very doorstep by warships of a foreign Nation conditions of filibustering that we are powerless to prevent all together at all these and others that I need not mention with the resulting strained relations are a constant menace to our peace compel us to keep on a semi war-footing with a nation with which we are at peace and obviously President William McKinley's War message to Congress you can tell it's a warm message because what's the word peace more than the word War American history which would be more impressive if we had declared war more than five times according to McKinley we officially went to war for American peace of mind and end economic uncertainty game territory at least perhaps because representatives of the industry like Colorado Senator Henry Taylor feared competition from sugar produced in an American Cuba or maybe not but probably so what caused the sinking of the USS Maine the battleship which had been in Havana's Harbor to protect American interests sank after an explosion on February 15th 1898 killing 200 66 Sailors chalk up the sinking to an internal explosion and not to Spanish sabotage but that didn't stop Americans from blaming the Spanish with their memory meme remember the Maine to hell with Spain let's go to the history if you measure success by go to paucity of deaths Secretary of State John Hay called it a splendid little war and in many ways it was fighting lasted about four months and fewer than four hundred Americans were killed in combat although 5000 died of wait for it disease stupid disease always ruining everything there were two ton of battles but those that happened got an inordinate amount of press coverage the July attack on San Juan Hill at the Cuban city of Santiago read by Future president Theodore Roosevelt he returned the hero prompted became governor of New York and by 1900 was McKinley's vice president which was eventually assassinated Manila Bay in which Commodore George Dewey destroyed a tiny Spanish Fleet and took the Philippines just did a war that was supposedly about supporting Cuban Independence was really about something else and what was that something else oh right at territorial Empire how did the war the US got a bunch of new territories notably the Philippines Puerto Rico and Guam we also use the wars an opportunity to Annex Hawaii to protect our ships that would be steaming are the Philippines we didn't Annex Cuba but we didn't let it become completely independent either the Platt Amendment in the Cuban Constitution authorized American Military intervention whenever it's off 5th and what is a permanent lease for in Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay Guam and especially the Philippines opened up access to China American presence in China was bolstered by our contribution of about 3000 troops to the multinational Force to help put down the 2 rebellion in 1900 what in the Philippines where Americans had initially been welcomed opinion soon changed after it became clear that Americans were there to stay and exercise Emilio aguinaldo leader of the Filipino Rebellion against Spain quickly turned against the us because he's real gold was Independence and it appeared the US would not provide it the resulting Philippine more lasted four years from 1899 to 1903 and 4200 Americans were killed as well as over 100,000 Filipinos Americans committed atrocities including putting Philippines in concentration camps torturing prisoners rape and executing civilians and much of these at home Mark Twain being one of the most outspoken critics investment in modernization in the Philippines and railroads schools and public health with the interests of the local people were usually subordinator those of the wealthy so American imperialism in short look like most other imperialism Constitution Constitution for colonies only territory that will eventually be incorporated as States territory its inhabitants would be citizens of Puerto Rico not the United States and there would be no path to statehood this wasn't terribly constitutional Congress did extend US citizenship to Puerto Rican 1917 now it's a commonwealth with its own government that has no voice in the US Congress or presidential elections and no control over its own defense or Environmental Policy the Philippines and similarly to Puerto Rico in a series of cases between 1901 and 1904 collectively called the insular cases because it had a sizable population of Vince Edwards who happened to be white ergo it became a traditional territory with a path to statehood because white people and also pineapples briefly talked about and time. Was in there were lots of people who set the imperialism on racial grounds arguing that it might lead to like diversity conquered people was incompatible with democracy which to be fair it is the Democratic party which is supported intervention in Cuba in 1900 opposed the Philippine War in its platform what's it supposed imperialism tool because they believe that America should focus on its domestic problems it those who supported imperialism we're just as forceful among the most vocal was Indiana senator beverage who argued that imperialism was benevolent and would bring a new day of freedom but make no mistake Underneath It All imperialism was all about trade according to refridge America's Commerce must be with Asia the Pacific is our ocean where shall we turn for consumers of our Surplus geography answers the question China is our natural customer and imperialism was really driven by economic necessity in 1902 Brooks Adams predicted in his book of the new Empire that the US would soon gold outweigh any single Empire if not all Empires combined with in 20 years America would be the world's leading economic power we didn't have the most overseas ultimately that didn't matter now the reasons for imperialism above all the Quest for markets for American Goods would persist long after imperialism became recognized antithetical to freedom and democracy and we would continue to struggle to reconcile our imperialistic urges with our ideals about democracy until now thanks for watching I'll see you next week or script supervisor is star Rojas and myself and our Graphics team is thought Cafe ibericos new captain for the River tides you can suggest captains and comments where you can also ask questions about today's because it will be answered by our team of historians to watch a crash course in this we say in my hometown don't forget to be awesome this is the part where Stan get nervous I can see any of this playing at this place I'm going this way

Uploaded by Shawn Mize.

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