| The process of territorial expansion, which had been highly politicized in
the 1840s' "Manifest Destiny" campaigns, was stalled by the political
revolution of the 1850s and the subsequent Civil War and Reconstruction. Of approximately
twenty opportunities to acquire overseas territory between 1865 and 1889 only
six were seized. Around 1890, however, American expansionist tendencies regained
strength. Of the twenty-five opportunities to acquire territory between 1890 and
1908, twenty-three resulted in some form of expansion.
Scholars continue to debate the reasons behind the shift. Some see an implicit
desire to validate the emerging American self-image as a world power. This theory
is tied to the concept of "classical realism," the idea that states
expand their power and influence when they have the opportunity to do so, as the
Europeans had been doing for centuries. Other scholars cite "defensive realism";
if the United States did not act, her vital interests might be jeopardized. Still
other scholars see economic motives and the growing importance of international
commerce behind the resurgent expansionism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. The uncertainties in American policy become apparent when one recognizes
that certain areas long coveted by some Americans, like Cuba, were not annexed
when they might have been, yet other areas, like the Philippines, were seized
after the briefest of national discussions. Regardless of theories, it is clear
that U.S. expansion developed in a broader context of expanding European empires
throughout the world.
Overseas expansion after 1890 also paralleled the growing influence of the
American navy. The most important American strategist in this period was Alfred
Thayer Mahan (1840-1914), head of the Naval War College and author of The Influence
of Sea Power upon History (1890); he was admired by the Prince of Wales, the German
Kaiser, and Theodore Roosevelt. Mahan, like the Greek historian Thucydides, argued
that the survival of any great power depended on a strong navy, and that a strong
navy depended on island possessions that could serve as naval bases.
This module focuses on the two primary areas of American expansion: Middle
America including the Caribbean; and the Pacific. The pattern of expansion varied
considerably. In some cases, the United States engineered the purchase of new
territory (as in the case of Alaska); in other areas American "interests"
undermined the local government and asked for annexation (as in the case of Hawaii).
In at least one instance (Samoa), the native government sought American protection.
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