The Global Reach of Manifest Destiny a lecture by Harry Franqui-Rivera

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The Global Reach of Manifest Destinya lecture
by Harry Franqui-Rivera
American Progress by John Gast
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Tenets of Manifest Destiny

• The war with Mexico opened talks of our right to
  our manifest destiny to overspread and posses
  the whole continent, which providence has given
  us to spread liberty and federated
  self-government.
  (The Morning Star Dec. 27,
  1845) Jack OSullivan
• Manifest Destiny can be seen as a Nation-Building
  project with a peculiar form of social, economic
  and spatial openness.
• Manifest Destiny would eventually become a
  combination of religious beliefs and a racial
  pseudo-scientific discourse that held that the
  destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race was to deliver
  the world from obscurity.

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U.S. Westward Expansion
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• The End of the Frontier?
• The U.S. Census Bureau announced the end of the
  frontier in 1890, followed by the worst recession
  ever experienced by the country (1893-97).
• In 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner in
  The Significance of the Frontier in American
  History announced the end of a formative era and
  the beginning of a new age. It was time for the
  Anglo-Saxon reunion under American leadership.

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The Manifest Destiny of the 1890s Extra
Continental Expansion Worldwide Mission

• Religious Matrix to give it a Sense of
  Exceptional Mission
• Reverend Josiah Strongs Our Country, Its
  Possible Future and its Present Crisis
• Pseudo-Scientific Racial Discourse
• John Fiske Conquering civilization and
  retreating barbarism
• John Burges Aryanism or Teutonism
• Popular Writing
• Theodore Roosevelts The Winning of the West
  1885-94
• Economic Need for Expansion
• Andrew Carnegie Peaceful Expansion and
  Industrial Competition

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• Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan
• The impact of Mahan on the development of U.S.
  foreign policy is infinite.
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Senators Henry Cabot Lodge
• John Hay, Secretary of State under President
  William McKinley.
• In addition, in 1902, Mahan was elected President
  of the American Historical Association.
• Presided over the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis

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• Uplifting the World
• Civilization
• Freedom
• Peace
• Kindred Spirits
• Industry
• Wealth
• Colonial Success
• Invincibility

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February 15, 1898 Havana Harbor
While a brutal war of independence rages in
Cuba the U.S.S. Maine explodes in Havana Harbor
and the U.S. goes to war with Spain.
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• Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898
• As a result of the war with Spain, the United
  States gained full control over Puerto Rico,
  Guam,
• Wake Island, and the Philippines, and limited
  control by the Teller Amendment - over Cuba.

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A Critique?
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Bringing peace to the Damsels in Distress,
Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines
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Uncle Sam and the New Territories Note that
the new territories are depicted as Black
Infants, while Uncle Sam and the rest of the
world are shown as white adults.
Disenchantment with the Racial Composition of
the New Territories
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Regarding the new colonies, Mahan argued that the
U.S. should follow the beneficial and
parent-like approach of the British instead of
the inhumanly oppressive Spanish model for
alien subjects were still in race-childhood.
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The model for U.S. intervention and global
colonization was set during the
Cuban-Filipino-Spanish-American War of 1898

• February 16, 1899 President McKinley accepted
  the burden of the Philippines, to safeguard the
  happiness of their inhabitants, as he proclaimed
  a campaign of benevolent assimilation.
• The occupation forces were entrusted with
  establishing a judicial and legal system,
  building sanitation projects, opening schools,
  and to setting up municipal and local
  governments.
• This kind of compassionate uplifting, first
  proposed by Mahan, became one of the precepts of
  American intervention in the Caribbean and would
  become the basis for intervention worldwide.

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Uncle Sam sharing John Bulls White Man Burden
amid oppression, ignorance, vice and the
overpopulation of the uncivilized territories
under their tutelage
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Puerto Ricans in the U.S. Military

• 1899
  Battalion of Puerto Rican Volunteers
• 1900
  Porto Rico United States Volunteers
  Regiment
• 1901
• Puerto Ricans replace all Continental Americans
  troops garrisoning the island

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• March 11, 1901, Charles H. Allen, first appointed
  U.S. civil Governor of Puerto Rico, to U.S.
  Secretary of War, Elihu Root
• It was advisable to make the Porto Rico
  Regiment of Volunteers a permanent outfit
  native troops, under the command of continental
  officers, would be adequate to garrison the
  island.
• Commenting on the troops loyalty Allen wrote
• They have been tried in almost every
  emergency except that of meeting in arms
  people of their own country.
• WHETER OR NOT THEY WOULD BE FOUND WANTING
  AT SUCH AN IMPORTANT MOMENT, SHOULD IT EVER
  ARISE, I DO NOT FEEL COMPETENT TO SAY.
• Allen continues
• But it can be said that in many discussions
  on the subject with the officers that they
  would be loyal to the sovereignty of the
  U.S. and implicitly obey the orders of their
  commanding officers. As an arm of safety their
  presence is therefore desirable.
• The question, whether they would fight against
  their fellow countrymen, would not have to be
  answered until 1950

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The much anticipated confrontation between the
Nationalists and the Puerto Rico National Guard
took place in October 30-November 1, 1950.