Hurrah for Imperialism! Life, 1898, Newbury Library

1. This 1898 lithograph portrays a highly romantic version of the Battle of San Juan Hill. The famous charge was much less glamorous than pictured here. Theodore Roosevelt, whose Rough Riders had taken nearby Kettle Hill, called to his men to charge the next line of Spanish trenches in the San Juan hills. But in the excitement of the battle, they didn't hear him and Roosevelt found himself charging virtually alone. He had to go back and rally the Rough Riders, who then charged the hill on foot. The illustration does get one thing right: The nearsighted Theodore Roosevelt led the charge wearing his spectacles. Fearing that he might lose his glasses in battle, Roosevelt insisted that Brooks Brothers custom-make his uniforms to include a dozen pockets for extra eyeglasses.

2. Hurrah for Imperialism!Life, 1898, Newbury Library Amid the patriotic frenzy over Dewey's naval victory, cooler heads wondered whether the United States knew what it was getting into with all the talk about creating an American empire. Here, Life magazine, often a skeptical commentator on American public life, pictures a blindfolded Uncle Sam stepping off a cliff.

3. Onto the World Stage • A Power among Powers • The Open Door in Asia • Wilson and Mexico • The Gathering Storm in Europe

4. World power status came with penalties, however, and America paid the price: men were killed or wounded in the war with Spain and the Philippine insurrection, government spending increased, and the newly acquired colonial territories far removed from the Western Hemisphere were vulnerable to unfriendly powers. • Suddenly, rivalries that had gone unnoticed became significant to the American government, as did the British move toward rapprochement. The United States had become a world power just as war was about to erupt in Europe.

7. Roosevelt justified American dominance in the Caribbean by saying that it was incumbent upon the civilized powers to insist on the proper policing of the world and the maintenance of the balance of power.

8. The cornerstone of Roosevelt’s thinking was Anglo-American friendship • Hay-Pauncefote Agreement of 1901 • “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” • Roosevelt's foreign poli­cies, like his colonial policies, were derived from his assumption that it was "incumbent on all civilized and orderly powers to insist on the proper policing of the world."

9. Roosevelt stretched his constitutional authority to its lim­its and intervened to preserve stability and American domination in the Caribbean, where, with Mahan, he felt the United States could not afford a rival.

10. Venezuela • England, Germany, and Italy, demanded payment of debts • The President did not intend to permit Germany or any other European power to use the excuse of debt collection for establishing a foothold in the Caribbean.

11. Panama • June 1902 Congress directed the President to negotiate with Co­lombia for the acquisition of a strip of land in Panama, provided that the old French canal company, which had begun work decades earlier, agreed to sell the United States its titles and equities in the area on rea­sonable terms.

12. Roosevelt pressed Co­lombia to surrender control of the land in return for $10 million and an annual rental of $250,000. A treaty to that effect was rejected by the Colombian govern­ment, which wanted more money and greater rights of sovereignty in the zone.

13. He did have a clear strategic purpose-the control of the Caribbean as one essential part of national de­fense. That purpose imbued his message to Congress of December 1904, in which he announced that the United States would not interfere with Latin Ameri­can nations that conducted their affairs with decency, but that "brutal wrongdoing" might require interven­tion by some civilized power, and that the United States could not "ignore this duty."

14. An enormous effort that took eight years, the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers finished the Panama Canal in 1914, giving the United States a commanding commercial and strategic position in the Western Hemisphere.

16. the Boxers, an organization of fanatical Chinese patriots, incited an uprising that took the lives of 231 foreigners and many Christian Chinese. In June the Boxers began the siege of the legations in Peking and cut the city off from the outside world for a month. The Western powers and Japan then sent in a military force, to which the United States contributed five thousand troops. This expeditionary force relieved the besieged legations on August 4.

17. On July 3, 1900, Hay issued a circular stating it to be the policy of the United States "to seek a solution which may bring about permanent safety and peace to China, preserve Chinese territorial and administrative entity," and protect all trade rights mentioned in the Open Door notes in all parts of the empire.

18. The “Gentlemen’s Agreement” of 1907, in which Japan agreed to restrict immigration to the United States, smoothed over Japan’s fury over mistreatment of the Japanese, but periodic racist slights by Americans made for continuing tensions with the Japanese.

19. The Root-Takahira Agreement of 1908 confirmed the status quo in the Pacific as well as the principles of free oceanic commerce and equal trade opportunity in China

20. Wilson followed a policy of "watchful waiting" until October 1913, when Huerta, supported by Brit­ish oil interests, proclaimed himself military dictator.

21. In Europe, there was rivalry between Germany, France, and Britain; in the Balkans, Austria-Hungary and Russia were maneuvering for dominance.

22. The Open Door in Asia • (1) that no power would interfere with the trading rights of other nations within its sphere of influence, • (2) that Chinese tariff duties (which gave America most-favored-nation rights) should be collected on all merchandise by Chinese officials, and • (3) that no power should levy discriminatory harbor dues or rail­road charges against other powers within its sphere.