During the 19th century the major countries of Europe like England, France, and Russia, did not regard the United States as an important player on the world scene nor as a significant military power.

During this period, European countries –especially England – were becoming dependent on American wheat and cotton. American merchant ships regularly visited ports in Asia, and great numbers of “Yankee” whaling vessels hunted in the Pacific and Indian oceans.

The United States was also becoming important as a place where European and Asian countries could send their excess populations.

The Statue of Liberty, erected in New York harbor in 1886 became an almost mystical symbol of opportunities that these people expected to find in the United States.

During the early 19th century, “Yankee” clipper ships sailed to China andreturned with cargoes of tea.They were the fastest sailing ships ever built. The American design was copiedin many other countries.

“Yankee” whaling ships sailed from the towns of Nantucket and New Bedford in Massachusetts in order to hunt whales all over the world. During the early 19th

century American ships dominated the whaling industry.

In 1854 an American fleet of warships under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry sailed to Japan.

While the United Stateswas extending itsinfluence in the world, itwas becoming a promisedland for immigrants fromEurope. After 1886,immigrants saw this sightas they entered New YorkHarbor: the statue“Liberty Enlightening theWorld” which wasreceived as a gift fromFrance.

The interior of the pedestal contains a bronze plaque in-scribed with thesonnet "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus. The most famous lines of the sonnet are these:

“Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathefree,The wretched refuse of your teemingshore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossedto me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

For many years Ellis Island, in New York Harbor, was the main point of entry for immigrants to the U.S.

Between 1892 and 1954 over 12 Million immigrants entered the United States through the gateway of Ellis Island, a small island in New York harbor close to the Statue of Liberty.

Immigrants being processed at Ellis Island

Italian Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island.

During the 19th century theories ofEuropean racial superiority providedthe moral justification for Europeanand American policies territorialexpansion and colonization.

During the later part of thenineteenth century England,France, Germany and Italycompeted with one another toestablish colonies in Africa, Asiaand in the islands of the PacificOcean.

In 1867 the United States bought the province ofAlaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars. At thattime very few people lived there, but in the 1890’s a“gold rush” similar to the California gold rushbrought thousands of miners to the region. In 1959Alaska became the 49th State of the U.S.

The U.S. annexation of Hawaii in 1896 recalls, in some ways, the American annexation of Texas in 1845.

During the late 19th century, great numbers of Americans and other foreignerscame to live on the islands, which were ruled by a native king. However, when anew monarch, Queen Liliuokalani ascended the throne in 1893 and triedintroduce changes in the constitution, her subjects rose up against her.

Queen Liliuokalani

Marines from the U.S.S. Boston stand guard outside a hotel

The U.S.S. Boston

The commander of a U.S. war vessel anchored offshore, the U.S.S. Boston, sent marines ashore “to protect U.S. lives and property”.

Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th

President of the United States; and, therefore was the only US president to serve two nonconsecutive terms (1885–1889 and 1893–1897) and to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents.

U.S. President Grover Cleveland considered that the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani was illegal and that the commander of the U.S.S. had acted improperly.

In 1896, a new U.S. President, William McKinley, took office. Hawaii again requested to be annexed.

By this time, many Americanswere afraid that Hawaii mightcome into the hands of ahostile foreign power and so,after much debate, Hawaiibecame a territory of theUnited States.

In 1959 Hawaii became the 50th

state of the United States.

The location of Hawaii

In 1895 the people of Cuba were engaged in a war of liberation fromSpain. Americans were sympathetic to the Cuban movement forindependence and watched with horror as Spain resorted to brutalmethods in its efforts to crush the insurgency.

Meanwhile, newspapers competed with one another in printingsensational stories of Spanish atrocities and of that country’s allegedoffenses against American honor. This so-called “yellow journalism”was an important factor in inciting the Spanish-American War.

Spanish officials strip-search an American woman suspected of carrying arms to the Cuban insurgency; Right: U.S. battleship Main explodes

In 1898 the U.S. Battleship “Maine”exploded in Havana Harbor. “YellowJournalist” newspapers accused the Spanishof having planted a bomb. The result wasthe Spanish-American War. The true causeof the explosion has never beendetermined, but was probably accidental.

An American fleet under CommodoreDewey destroyed a Spanish fleet in theBattle of Manila Bay. The U.S.’s victory inthe Spanish-American War gave the U.S.control of Puerto Rico and thePhilippines. Cuba won her independence,but the U.S. continued to strictlysupervise its affairs.

Commodore Dewey’s Flagship, “The Olympia”, can be seen on display in Philadelphia.

Prior to the Spanish-American War, the Philippines had been a Spanish colony. When the islands passed to American control the natives assumed that they would once again be independent.

For many years U.S. soldiers had to combat a Filipino insurgency and many atrocities were committed on both sides.

American troops battle the Filipino Insurrection

Filipino dead

In 1946, just after World War II, the United States relinquished its sovereignty and Philippines became an independent country.

Theodore Roosevelt, in his annual message to Congress in 1904, madean announcement that has come to be known as the RooseveltCorollary to the Monroe Doctrine. In effect, Roosevelt said that theUnited States would intervene in any Caribbean or Central Ameri-canstate if defaulted on its debts to European nations, or if its affairsbecame so unstable that European countries might be tempted tointervene.

Theodore (“Teddy”) Roosevelt was President from 1901 to 1909

“The U.S. will inter-vene so that no European country has to.” Roosevelt cited this corollary as justification for U.S. interventions in Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic.

In one of his speeches Theodore Roosevelt mentioned an African proverb, “Walk softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far”. Roosevelt’s foreign

policy became known as “the Big Stick Policy”.

In 1907 Roosevelt sent a fleet of U.S. warships, “The White Fleet”, around the World. His intention was to demonstrate to everyone that the U.S. was now a great power.

In 1903 the province of Panamadeclared its independence fromColombia. Many obstaclesprevented the Colombian armyfrom suppressing the rebellion;one of these was the presence ofthe American gunboat U.S.S.Nashville. The U.S. immediatelyrecognized the independentgovernment of Panama andbegan negotiations for thebuilding of the Panama Canal.

The U.S.S. Nashville

The construction of the Panama Canal was one of the greatest engineering feats of history.

Woodrow Wilson wasPresident of the UnitedStates from 1913 to 1921.He was known as anidealist and he tried tobring high moralprinciples to the internaland external affairs ofthe United States.

But he had greatdifficulty in determiningthe position the U.S.should take with respectto the MexicanRevolution, which beganin 1910, and World War I,which began in 1914.

Street fighting during the Mexican Revolution.

U.S. warships anchored off the coast of Vera Cruz

The Mexican Revolution began in 1910 whenFranciso Madero led a movement tooverthrow Porfirio Diaz who had ruled Mexicofor over 30 years. Madero promised to reformMexico’s inequitable distribution of land andeconomic resources, but his rule was cut shortwhen, in 1913, Victoriano Huerta one of hisgenerals, deposed and murdered him.

In 1916, Pancho Villa attacked the U.S. town of Columbus, New Mexico. He was angry at American support for Carranza. He also wished to provoke American intervention in Mexico that would embarrass the Mexican government and weaken Carranza’s position.

President Wilson orderedGeneral Pershing to lead anAmerican expeditionary force toenter Mexico and pursue PanchoVilla. Pershing and his men didnot succeed in capturing PanchoVilla, but the presence ofAmerican troops generatedMexican nationalist sentimentagainst the United States. Theexpeditionary force waswithdrawn in 1917, just before theU.S. entered World War I.

In 1914, World War I began, with Germany. Austria, and Turkey (the Central Powers) on one side and Britain, France and Russia (the Allies) on the other. Most Americans favored the Allies, and U.S. ships sent food and armaments to England. But for three years the United States remained (technically) neutral.

German submarines attacked without warning ships all ships that they thoughtmight carry food and munitions to their enemies. In 1917 the passenger shipLusitania sank with great loss of life (comparable to that of the Titanic disaster)after being hit by a German torpedo.

The participation of American troops in World War Iplayed an important role in winning a militaryvictory for the Allies, and the peace terms proposedby President Wilson were a major factor inpersuading Germany to lay down its arms in 1918. Thewar had greatly stimulated American agriculture andindustry. The U.S. United States was now one of theworld’s most powerful and prosperous nations,second only to Great Britain.

http://andersonissues.com/2013/11/07/american-expansion-and-imperialism/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_the_United_States

http://www.grifworld.com/perryhome.html

http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frihetsgudinnen

http://newyorkguest.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/terra-visit-ellis-island-on-your-next-trip-to-new-york-city/

http://mappicture.blogspot.com/2011/11/alaska-map.html

http://www.ushistory.org/us/44b.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)

http://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2012/04/philadelphia-day-1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party_(United_States,_1912)

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/28/politics/woodrow-wilson-biography-berg/

http://lincolnslunch.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html

Slides presented by:

Santiago Betancur

Andrew Acevedo