2. The Gold Standard
The gold standard is the name for a monetary system in which the standard unit of
currency is a fixed weight of gold or—if gold money is not used—the currency is a
fixed weight of gold. In an internal gold standard, gold coins circulate as legal
tender, or paper money is freely convertible to gold at a fixed price.
In an international gold standard system, gold or currency that is convertible into
gold at a fixed price is used as a means of making international payments.
Exchange rates between countries are fixed. If these rates rise or fall by more than
the cost of shipping gold from one country to another, large inflows or outflows of
gold occur until the rates are stabilized.
The gold standard was first put into operation in Great Britain in 1821. The full
international gold standard lasted from about 1870 until World War I. It was re-established
about 1928, though by that time gold coins were no longer in circulation
in many countries. The Great Depression caused the collapse of the standard, and
in the post-World War II international system most exchange rates were pegged
either to gold or to the dollar. In 1958, a type of gold standard was established
again in which the major European countries had free convertibility of their
currencies into gold and dollars for international payments. But there was no
restoration of a pure international gold standard as such. Then in 1971, U.S.
President Richard M. Nixon ended the convertibility of the dollar into gold. Since
then, gold has been no more than a commodity traded on international markets.
3. Imperialism- The Progressive
Dark Horse of American
Foreign Policy The state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by
direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas.
In their modern form, arguments about the causes and value of imperialism can be
classified into four main groups. The first group contains economic arguments and often
turns around the question of whether or not imperialism pays. A second group of
arguments relates as part of the natural struggle for survival. The third group of
arguments has to do with strategy and security. The fourth group of arguments is based
on moral grounds, sometimes with strong missionary implications.
Economic imperialism, as this type of expansion is called, was first criticized severely by
John A. Hobson, who viewed it as the attempt of the capitalist classes in industrial
nations to achieve economic gain.
Vladimir Ilich Lenin later elaborated this theory, as did subsequent Marxists. Marxist
theory maintained that imperialism leading to war was the inevitable and final result of
economic competition. A necessary corollary of the Marxist theory explained imperialism
as a temporary phenomenon that characterized relations among capitalist states and that
would be superseded by a communist world order. Marxist theory, however, fails to
account for imperialism before the existence of capitalism as well as for those imperial
policies that the Soviet Union subsequently pursued with the creation of the Warsaw
Pact.
4. Imperialism- The Dark
Progressive Horse of American
Foreign Policy (cont’d)
After World War II imperialism took a new form. The old empires no longer existed;
the former colonies became independent states, often after prolonged national
liberation struggles. Until the 1990’s. the United States and the USSR competed for
influence over these new nations, usually through economic and military aid to their
governments.
Direct military intervention was usually a last resort; certain prominent examples
include American intervention in Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, and Panama;
Soviet use of Cuban troops in Africa; and the Soviet invasions of Hungary and
Czechoslovakia. Britain and France also continued to exert economic influence over
some of their former colonies in Africa. Less developed countries decry modern
economic imperialism (called neo-imperialism), asserting that it seriously hampers
their efforts toward economic growth and independence. Many poor Arabs
considered the 1991 Persian Gulf War imperialist, charging that it was waged to
ensure that the industrialized world would continue to have access to cheap oil.
5. Attempts to mediate imperial competition, such as the Berlin Conference
(1884–1885), failed to establish definitively the competing powers' claims.
Many African polities, states and rulers (such as the Ashanti, the
Abyssinians, the Moroccans, the Somalis, the Benin Empire and the Zulus)
sought to resist this wave of European aggression. However, the industrial
revolution had provided the European armies with advanced weapons such
as machine guns, which African armies found difficult to resist (with the
exception of the Abyssinians, who were indeed successful)
6. Yellow Journalism
William Randolph Hearst
The term yellow journalism has come to mean nonobjective or florid newspaper reporting
that is used in combination with other sensational journalistic practices, such as distorted or
mislabeled pictures and illustrations and large-type headlines, to appeal to readers' emotions
and thus to increase newspaper circulation. It derives from the phrase "yellow press of New
York," coined by Ervin Wardman of the New York Press during the 1890s to characterize the
cutthroat competition between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph
Hearst's New York Morning Journal.
They competed in other ways as well. The World was the first newspaper to introduce
colored comics, and the Journal immediately copied it. The two papers often printed the
same comics under different titles. Since color presses were new in the 1890s, the finished
product was not always perfect. The colors, especially the Yellow Kid's costume, often
smeared. Richard Felton Outcault, a cartoonist for the World in 1896, created a single-box
comic that had as its main character a slum child who wore a garment tinted yellow by a
new color process. The popularity of "The Yellow Kid of Hogan's Alley” led Hearst to lure
Outcault into joining the Journal. In retaliation the World hired George Luks to continue
"The Yellow Kid." Soon people were calling the World, the Journal, and other papers like
them "the yellow press."
7. Joseph Pulitzer of
the New York
World
Yellow Journalism (cont’d)
"They colored the funnies," some said, "but they colored the news as well.”
The papers competed for sales not only with their comics but in their news and
editorial pages as well. Yellow journalism was especially prominent in the jingoistic
coverage of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Its techniques allowed both the
World and the Journal to achieve daily circulations of nearly 1 million copies. Yellow
journalism is still evident today in the approach to the news of such tabloids as the
Washington Post, Gannett Publications, New York Times, The Star and the National
Enquirer, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC.
The American press, however, had no doubts about who was responsible for
sinking the Maine. It was the cowardly Spanish, they cried. William Randolph
Hearst's New York Journal even published pictures. They showed how Spanish
saboteurs had fastened an underwater mine to the Maine and had detonated it from
shore.
As one of the few sources of public information, newspapers had reached
unprecedented influence and importance. Journalistic giants, such as Hearst and
Joseph Pulitzer of the World, viciously competed for the reader's attention.
8. Yellow Journalism
Nasty little printer's devils
spew forth from the Hoe
press in this Puck cartoon
of November 21, 1888.
In late 1896, the New York
Journal assigned Richard
Harding Davis and
Frederic Remington to
Cuba to spend a month
covering the smoldering
rebellion against Spanish
rule. The assignment gave
rise to one of American
journalism's best-known
anecdotes—that of the
purported vow of the
Journal 's owner, William
Randolph Hearst, to
“furnish the war” with
Spain. The anecdote,
while often retold, is
almost certainly
apocryphal.
Puck magazine published this cartoon depicting Cuba's difficult situation in the 1890s.
10. Imperialism Quiz
1. When did the Gold Standard begin and end?
2. Give one of the arguments for imperialism.
3. What European Conference tried to mediate the African
colonization?
4. Who were the owners and what were their papers named
that belonged to the “Yellow Press?”
5. What was the first big event to be played in the Yellow
Press?
11. Spanish-American War
In the summer of 1898, the United
States fought Spain in one of the
shortest and most pathetically one-sided
wars in modern history. The
war represented a powerful
resurgence of the same doctrine of
Manifest Destiny that had led the
United States to expand westward by
defeating Mexico in 1846-48. This
impulse toward imperialism took place
as major European nations were
establishing colonies throughout
Africa. As a result of the Spanish-
American War, the United States
became a world power that controlled
strategic island interests stretching
from the Caribbean Sea to the Far
East.
12. Roosevelt Swings His “Big
Stick”
Roosevelt flexed U.S. military might in order to establish influence. He
coined the phrase—”Walk softly and carry a big stick.”
The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine stated that the United States
would intervene in any nation in the Western Hemisphere to prevent or resolve
conflicts.
The Roosevelt Corollary was applied through American interventions in the
Dominican Republic in 1905 and in Cuba in 1906.
“Dollar Diplomacy” was President Taft’s policy of encouraging American
investments in Latin America by promising American businesses that the
United States would, if necessary, send troops to protect their investments.
The United States became an emerging diplomat.
The United States wanted to help maintain the balance of power in Asia, which
was threatened by Japan’s overwhelming victory.
Japanese-American relations were strained by treaty ending the Russo-
Japanese War and by discrimination against Japanese-Americans.
The Great White Fleet was sent around the world to impress Japan and other
nations and to gain congressional approval for the build-up of American naval
13. Panama Canal
The first attempt to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama began in 1881 after
the Colombian government granted a concession to the privately owned
Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique. The company, under the
leadership of Ferdinand de Lesseps, was financed by French capital from countless
small investors. Because of Lesseps's recent triumph building the Suez Canal, he
was able to attract public support for building a sea-level canal across Panama.
Progress was costly and extremely slow. As a cost-saving measure, the plans for a
sea-level canal were eventually dropped in favor of a high-level lock-type canal, but
this change had little effect. With no foreseeable return on its investment, the
French public lost faith in the project and its leader. Attempts at further financing
failed, and the company collapsed in 1889.
In 1906 Roosevelt resolved the matter when he sided with Chief Engineer John
Frank Stevens, who argued for a lock-type canal. The plan ultimately approved by
Congress was similar in all essential respects to the one proposed by Lépinay but
rejected by Lesseps. Included in the proposal was an enormous earthen dam
across the Chagres River at Gatún. The dam created what was then the largest
artificial lake in the world (Gatún Lake), and at the same time it brought a
considerable part of the Chagres River under control. So massive was the lake that
it was able to
14. Panama Canal (cont’d)
accommodate the greater part of the river even at flood stage. Perhaps more
important, the man-made lake formed more than 30 km (20 miles) of the canal
route.
Roosevelt could not get the Colombian government to sell the land necessary for
the canal. Using covert and subversive tactics, the Roosevelt administration armed
Panamanian revolutionaries to separate themselves from Gran Colombia. The
Panamanians were willing to work with the United States.
The Panama Canal Treaty was signed on 7 Sep 1977 by General Omar Torrijos
Herrera of Panama and President Jimmy Carter of the United States. It terminated
all prior treaties between the United States and Panama concerning the canal and
also abolished the Canal Zone. The treaty recognized Panama as territorial
sovereign in the former Canal Zone, but it gave the United States the right to
continue managing, operating, and maintaining the canal and to use lands and
waters necessary for those purposes during a transition period of 20 years covered
by the agreement. The treaty also provided for joint study of the feasibility of a sea-level
canal and gave the United States the right to add a third lane of locks to the
existing canal. The treaty went into effect on October 1, 1979, and expired on
December 31, 1999.
15. The United States Governs
Possessions
1. Guam is governed by a popularly elected governor and legislature,
though it remains under the authority of the Interior Department.
Guam sends a non-voting representative to Congress.
2. American Samoa is also governed by a popularly elected governor,
falls under the jurisdiction of the Interior Department, and sends a
non-voting representative to Congress.
3. The Virgin Islands are ruled by a popularly elected governor and fall
under the jurisdiction of the Navy Department.
4. The Governor of the Canal Zone, who also acts as the president of
the Panama canal Company, is chosen by the President of the United
States.
5. The Foraker Act called for:
1. A popularly elected House of Delegates in Puerto Rico.
16. The United States Governs
Possessions (cont’d)
2. Legislation passed by the House of Delegates had to be approved by a
governor, who was appointed by the President.
3. The act also gave Congress a veto over legislation.
4. Puerto Rico had a non-voting representative in Congress.
5. Puerto Ricans were not given American citizenship.
1. The Jones Act of 1917 granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship and the
right to elect a senate.
2. In 1947 Congress passed a bill giving Puerto Ricans the right to elect
a governor.
3. In 1952, Puerto Rican voters adopted a new constitution that made
the island a self-governing commonwealth under United States
protection.
4. Puerto Rico has rejected statehood every time it has been voted on.
17.
18. U.S. Imperialism Map
1. What area of the world did the U.S. fight for most
of its possessions?
A. The Atlantic Ocean
B. The Caribbean Sea
C. The South Pacific Ocean
D. Asia
19. The Presidency-Wilson
Style
Wilson intended to be a strong Chief Executive. He delivered his
messages to Congress in person, presenting his programs with
confidence and energetic leadership. As a Progressive and an
academic, he felt that he had the right answers for all Americans.
Wilson continued Progressive doctrine through legislation.
Wilson supported the Underwood Tariff Act because he thought the
current rates were damaging to the economy.
Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 because he thought that
the banking system had been controlled by a few powerful investment
firms that did not act in the interests of the nation as a whole. A “Bank of
the United States” would then operate under its own authority without any
scrutiny by the public. The Federal Reserve has never been audited and
has been estimated to have lost $50 trillion over its existence.
Wilson supported the Clayton Act because he sought stricter control of
the trusts and dominate the economy through government intervention
and regulation.
20. Yet Another Progressive
President- Woodrow
Wilson
Wilson reintroduced segregation into the government and military after advances had been
made in the Spanish-American War and other presidents.
In his book, A History of the American People, 1902, he states the following about the
Negro race:
“The white men of the south were aroused by the mere instinct of self-preservation to
rid themselves by fair means or foul, of the intolerable burden of governments
sustained by the votes of the ignorant Negroes.”
Wilson also told a black delegation the following about segregation:
“Segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit and so you ought to be regarded by
you gentlemen.”
21. America’s Latin American
Policy Takes a Siesta
1. President Wilson inherited the problems of the unstable regimes in
Latin America. Wilson carried on a policy of intervention in Latin
America by sending troops to Haiti in 1915, installing an American
government in the Dominican Republic in 1916, and purchasing the
Virgin Islands in 1917.
2. Wilson had major problems in Mexico because of the coup d’etat and
continuing rebellion.
1. In 1914, Wilson lifted an embargo on arms shipments to Mexico, which
aided General Huerta’s opponents. When “watchful waiting” failed, Wilson
sent troops to occupy Veracruz in a successful attempt to bring down the
Huerta government.
2. Wilson sent General Pershing into Mexico to capture Pancho Villa.
3. Pershing’s troops came under attack from Carranza’s supporters. To avert
war, Wilson agreed to Carranza’s proposal for the formation of a Mexican-
American commission to settle disputes. Carranza’s defeat of Villa
enabled Wilson to withdraw American troops from Mexico.
22. World Power Concept Map
America
on the
World
Stage
Policies
Actions that take place
Examples
23. World Power Quiz
1. What military action turned America into a world power?
2. Name one of the foreign policies that the U.S. used
during this age of imperialism.
3. What building project was of strategic economic
importance?
4. Name two of the U.S. possession.
5. Name one of the progressive policies of Woodrow
Wilson.
