Richard A. Silocka
The American spirit of “Manifest Destiny” which had remained unbroken since the founding of the Republic reached one of its peaks at the end of the nineteenth century. The years following the Civil War had seen a steady preparation for this. In 1867, for example, William H. Seward, Secretary of State under Lincoln and Johnson, purchased Alaska from Russia. His successors used the new American foothold in the North to declare that the Bering Sea was to be an area in which American authority was absolute. In other areas of the Pacific, as well as in Latin America, the growing assertiveness of the United States became more and more evident as the century drew to a close.
One spectacular illustration of the American sense of destiny was occasioned by a border dispute which arose between Venezuela and the colony of British Guiana. The dispute was a long-standing one, but it came to a head when gold was discovered in the area. Britain repeatedly refused to submit the dispute to arbitration. In 1895 Secretary of State Olney wrote a note to the British Prime Minister in which he reasserted the Monroe Doctrine and claimed that no European power had the right to interfere in “American” affairs. Olney denounced European imperialism and proclaimed that the Americas lay within the United States “sphere of influence.” “Today,” he wrote, “the United States is practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat law upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition.”
To support Olney’s position, President Cleveland obtained funds from Congress for a commission to determine the boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana. He declared that it was the duty of the United States to enforce the findings of this commission “by every means in its power,” which meant war if Britain remained adamant. At this time, however, various alliances were being formed on the continent of Europe, all of which excluded Britain. As a result, Britain was most anxious to have the friendship of the United States and she therefore refrained from forcing the issue and using her vastly superior naval power. The boundary question was resolved when Britain agreed to accept the decision of an arbitration tribunal which in the end upheld the British case.
Another aspect of the “sphere of influences” interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine was revealed in 1889, when delegates from the Latin American republics met with representatives of the United States in the first of what was to be a regular series of conferences. The delegates established the International Bureau of American Republics which later became the Pan-American Union, with its headquarters in Washington. Although the Union set up many useful committees for the purpose of exchanging information, the Latin American nations regarded it as an instrument of American influence, or even domination. Their conviction that they were not equals with the United States in the Union was strengthened when the American government directly interfered with a revolution in Chile in 1891 and a trade dispute in Brazil in 1893. More and more, it became apparent that the main concern of the United States in Latin America was to exclude European influence and to support politicians who were favorable to the expansion of American trade and investment.
In Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, and other Latin countries, Americans invested heavily in railways and copper, silver, and tin mines and grew increasingly influential in the politics of these countries. In 1899 the owners of American banana plantations formed the United Fruit Company, an American corporation which soon dominated the economic life of small states like Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Santo Domingo and Guatemala. The company, which also had large interests in Cuba and Colombia, came to exert great influence upon the policies of the American government towards the so-called “banana republics” in Latin America.
The expansion of the United States into the Pacific was also vigorous, if less firmly supported by public opinion. Ever since Commodore Matthew C. Perry opened Japan to American trade in 1853, American businessmen had taken an increasing interest in the commerce of the Pacific. Supported by farm-state representatives, Congress in 1856 passed a law enabling the President to annex any island which was rich in guano, a natural fertilizer. As a result, the United States acquired a considerable number of tiny islands in the Pacific. Other islands such as Samoa, with its fine harbor of Pago Pago, were desired as coaling stations for the United States Pacific trading ships. In 1878 a treaty with the ruling Samoan monarch gave the United States the harbor rights sought by American businessmen. But in 1889 the Germans, who also had economic interests in the islands, sought to undo this agreement by overthrowing the Samoan government. The matter was temporarily settled in that same year when Britain, Germany, and the United States established a joint “protectorate” over Samoa. Ten years later a new agreement gave Pago Pago to the United States and the rest of Samoa to Germany.
Far more important to the United States in its expansionist mood was the acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands, first visited by American missionaries in the 1820’s. Economic ties soon strengthened the religious connection. American immigrants produced sugar and pineapples there for the home market, and sailed their whalers into Hawaiian ports. Increasingly concerned about the dangers presented by imperialist rivalries in the Pacific, the Americans strengthened their naval power by securing from the Hawaiian government in 1887 the exclusive right to use Pearl Harbor. In the same year, seeking still greater control, American businessmen engineered the overthrow of the corrupt government of King Kalakaua of Hawaii and forced him to accept a new form of government—called the “Bayonet Constitution” by the Hawaiians—which gave white foreigners the vote and disfranchised the bulk of the native population. Six years later, when the Hawaiians under Queen Liliuokalani tried to regain power, the American community rose against them and set up a republic. Although the American minister in Hawaii supported the rising and authorized the use of American troops, the Cleveland administration in Washington was not enthusiastic about the means adopted and refused to annex the islands at that time.