The major European powers scrambled for new colonies and influence in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. But other potentially violent fault lines had emerged between debtors (especially farmers) and creditors, as well as between labor and capital.
The American people were now a generation removed from the fierce divisions created by the Civil War (setting apart the continuing mistreatment of African-Americans). Several decades of extraordinary growth had transformed the United States into the world’s leading industrial power yet a financial panic in 1893 plunged the nation into a major economic depression. The late 19th century was a time of great hope and anxiety for the United States. With the help of primary source documents students will debate this issue to help them come to their own assessment of the idea of an American Empire. This lesson will introduce the students to the challenges of American foreign policy in the late 19th century and specifically to the political debate over whether the United States should acquire further territory and/or become a European-style empire. Americans argued at length whether such actions properly fit into their sense of national purpose and advanced their material interests. The United States also acquired sovereign control over the Panama Canal Zone and declared its willingness to intervene if a country in the Western Hemisphere jeopardized the Monroe Doctrine by failing to maintain internal order or to pay its international debts. Cuba would soon become a political protectorate.
The United States annexed the independent Hawaiian Islands acquired Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam from Spain as part of the settlement ending the Spanish-American War and dealt with threats to the political integrity and open markets of China. A decade later, the United States appeared well on the way to establishing new frontiers and perhaps a new imperial political system. Census of 1890 famously declared the American frontier to be closed.
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