The Spanish-Cuban-American War and the Birth of American Imperialism, 1895-1902: 1895-1898

The Spanish-Cuban-American War and the Birth of American Imperialism, 1895-1902: 1895-1898
Author: Philip Sheldon Foner
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 375
Release: 1972
Genre: Cuba
ISBN: 0853452660

"This major work by Philip Foner, the well-known historian, has as its chief object the re-definition of the conflict known in the U.S. historiography as the "Spanish-American" war. This very name, in his view, reflects the bias of two generations of historians who relegated Cuba to the passive position of a prize in a struggle between Spain and the United States. It is his contention that the Cuban nation, by virtue of its prolonged and successful rebellion of 1895-1898 (treated in Vol. 1) was a central protagonist of the conflict, its role ending when it was subjected to neocolonial status by the United States. In pursuing this new outlook, Professor Foner studied the sources available in the United States, the rich materials in the Archivo Nacional and the Library of the City Historian in Havana, and enlisted help and documentary evidence furnished by the leading historians and historical institutes of Cuba. These sources have enabled him to deal at length with the occupation and subjugation of Cuba by the United States and reconstruct the story in richer detail and in a more realistic interpretation than has ever been done before. Volume II begins with the war in Cuba after U.S. intervention in 1898 and covers the imposition of U.S. domination of Cuba through the Platt Amendment, which marked the beginning of American neocolonialism"--Back cover.

First Great Triumph

First Great Triumph
Author: Warren Zimmermann
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 598
Release: 2004-01-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0374528934

The author discusses how the lives of Theodore Roosevelt, Alfed T. Mahan, Henry Cabot Lodge, John Hay, and Elihu Root intersected with the growth of the American imperialism that eventually made the United States a world power.

The Spanish-American War

The Spanish-American War
Author: Brad K. Berner
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2014-03-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1611475759

This documentary history is intended for specialist and non-specialist alike. The introductions to the book’s sections, together with introductions to each document, provide a general history of the war. The contents cover the pre-war, war, and post-war periods in Cuba, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Spain, the Philippines, and the United States. Included are documents on the main battles and diplomatic history of the war, along with internal situations in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Spain, the Philippines, and the United States. Of particular interest is the section on Black Americans’ views and participation in the war, and the section on the views of many participants, military and non-military.

The True Flag

The True Flag
Author: Stephen Kinzer
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2017-01-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1627792163

Recalls the forgotten political debate at the beginning of the twentieth century over America's role in the world, with the country's political and intellectual leaders advocating either imperial expansion or restraint.

The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations: Volume 2, The American Search for Opportunity, 1865-1913

The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations: Volume 2, The American Search for Opportunity, 1865-1913
Author: Bradford Perkins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 1993
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521483834

Between the American Civil War and the outbreak of world War I, global history was transformed by two events: the United States's rise to the status of a great world power (indeed, the world's greatest economic power) and the eruption of nineteenth- and twentieth-century revolutions in Mexico, China, Russia, Cuba, the Philippines, Hawaii, Panama, Nicaragua, and elsewhere. The American Search for Opportunity traces the U.S. foreign policy between 1865 and 1913, linking these two historic trends by noting how the United States - usually thought of as antirevolutionary and embarked on a 'search for order' during this era - actually was a determinative force in helping to trigger these revolutions. Walter LaFeber argues that industrialization fuelled centralisation: Post-Civil War America remained a vast, unwieldy country of isolated, parochial communities, but the federal government and a new corporate capitalism now had the power to invade these areas and integrate them into an industrialization, railway-linked nation-state. The furious pace of economic growth in America attracted refugees from all parts of the world. Professor LaFeber describes and influx of immigration so enormous that it led to America's first exclusionary immigration act. In 1882, the United States passed legislation preventing all Chinese immigrant labour, skilled and unskilled, from entering the country for the next 10 years.

In the Cause of Humanity

In the Cause of Humanity
Author: Fabian Klose
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 475
Release: 2021-12-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316516202

A major new history of the emergence of the theory and practice of humanitarian intervention during the nineteenth century.

Guantánamo

Guantánamo
Author: Jonathan M. Hansen
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2011-10-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0809048973

An on-the-ground history of American empire Say the word "Guantánamo" and orange jumpsuits, chain-link fences, torture, and indefinite detention come to mind. To critics the world over, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is a striking symbol of American hypocrisy. But the prison isn't the whole story. For more than two centuries, Guantánamo has been at the center of American imperial ambition, first as an object of desire then as a convenient staging ground. In Guantánamo: An American History, Jonathan M. Hansen presents the first complete account of this fascinating place. The U.S. presence at Guantánamo predates even the nation itself, as the bay figured centrally in the imperial expansion plans of colonist and British sailor Lawrence Washington—half brother of the future president George. As the young United States rose in power, Thomas Jefferson and his followers envisioned a vast "empire of liberty," which hinged on U.S. control of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Politically and geographically, Guantánamo Bay was the key to this strategy. So when Cubans took up arms against their Spanish rulers in 1898, America swooped in to ensure that Guantánamo would end up firmly in its control. Over the next century, the American navy turned the bay into an idyllic modern Mayberry—complete with bungalows, cul-de-sacs, and country clubs—which base residents still enjoy. In many ways, Guantánamo remains more quintessentially American than America itself: a distillation of the idealism and arrogance that has characterized U.S. national identity and foreign policy from the very beginning. Despite the Obama administration's repeated efforts to shutter the notorious prison, the naval base is in no danger of closing anytime soon. Places like Guantánamo, which fall between the clear borders of law and sovereignty, continue to serve a purpose regardless of which leaders—left, right, or center—hold the reins of power.

Expansionism

Expansionism
Author: Frank Villafana
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2017-09-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351521136

Starting in the early part of the nineteenth century, American administrations expressed a desire to own Cuba. A rationale for adding Cuba to the territory of the United States could be built on Cuba's sugar and tobacco industries, as well as Cuba's mineral deposits. But economics was not the primary motivation. American presidents knew that in the event of war, any nation occupying Cuba would have an advantage over the US military strategies; this fear, coupled with the economic benefit, explains a century of policy decisions. As Frank R. Villafana shows, Cubans were not sitting idle, waiting for outsiders to liberate them from Spanish oppression. A major part of this research is devoted to studying Cuban efforts to liberate their island from prolonged Spanish domination. Cuba had been struggling for independence from Spain since the 1830s, followed by the Ten Year War. During the 1895-1898 War of Independence, Cuba came close to defeating Spain, but a merciless Spanish military effort converted Cuba into a series of concentration camps. Spain surrendered after its naval defeats by the US at Manila Bay and Santiago de Cuba, following a failed ground campaign in eastern Cuba. After the US occupied Cuba militarily, American political leaders realized only a small minority of Cubans supported annexation, and the Platt Amendment was developed as a substitute. Today, most Cubans agree that independence, even constrained by the United States, was better than enslavement by the Castro brothers. However, as Villafana emphasizes, Cubans living in Cuba as well as abroad still seek a land free and independent of foreign threat and domestic tyrants.

President McKinley, War and Empire

President McKinley, War and Empire
Author: Richard F. Hamilton
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2011-12-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1412809622

This second volume of President McKinley, War and Empire assesses five theories that have dominated analysis of modern societies in the last century--liberalism, Marxism, mass society, pluralism, and elitism--in accounting for an aberrant event in American history: the Spanish-American War. President McKinley and the Coming of the War 1898, volume 1 of this definitive history, considered the origins of that war. This second volume is concerned with the war's outcome; the settlement in which the U.S. gained an "empire." The book begins by reviewing various expansionist episodes in U.S. history--some successes, some failures--and by analyzing the complexities, support, and opposition involved in expansionism. It then examines the work of expansionist writers, men said to have "driven" the 1898-99 movement, finding these claims to be questionable. Hamilton assesses McKinley's decision-making in regard to the settlement of the Spanish-American War, including the influences that might have moved him, as well as his own justifications. He then reviews the subsequent achievements: the size and character of the new American "empire;" trade flows the Philippine experience and U.S. efforts in China--supposedly the prime goal of the new imperialism. Many contemporary writers anticipated great possibilities in China, but that "fabled" market remained minuscule throughout the following century. Much American trade continued to be with Western Europe, while the biggest change in U.S. exports went largely unnoticed--Canada became the nation's number one trading partner. In much historical writing, McKinley is portrayed as little more than a "front man" for Mark Hanna, the adept businessman-politician who organized and led his presidential campaign, aided by generous financial contributions from business leaders across the nation. Hanna certainly was a leading figure in McKinley's career, but the assumption that his influence was controlling is not justified, as has been shown in recent research. McKinley was far more than a figurehead easily manipulated by representatives of "the interests."