Patriot's History: Expansion 1896-1912
Spanish-American War (Chap 13)
Music: Habanera, from Carmen
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Summary The interventions of America brought freedom, peace, and Christian temperament, as savage masters cried their last hurrah. And this was followed by self-government. Chapter Americans (the men) were thus defined in Nineteen-One: a Protestant Republican, three children and a son or daughter dying young, an income higher than a Brit, a quart of beer per day, tobacco habit. Women fit a different profile, moral, resolute, with half the pay. The "Gilded Age" and economic progress would dismay the socialists and "scientists" who felt we needed change. With Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and strange religious cults, prosperity was always under fire. But Liberty, for most of us, was crucial. To acquire more land to share our special blessings seemed a human right to offer all the world. As in Hawaii, where in spite of islander desire to join us and a lawless queen our nation stood for liberty, and served as go-between when Japanese expansion posed a threat. And Cuba, too: humanitarian appeals inspired us to pursue the proper course for Cubans hoping for release from Spain. The "yellow press" of Pulitzer, the famous Hearst refrain "you furnish pictures, I the war," and military need aroused McKinley, and The Maine would intercede in bold support of Cuban independence. But The Maine exploded -- indications were that treachery by Spain was cause. "Remember," Dewey said, "The Maine!" The valiant charge up San Juan Hill by Teddy's men (Rough Riders) came up large in history as Spanish and Americans waged war, and black and white and North and South, as rarely seen before, would fight together in their duty as Americans. And with the victory, our function as custodians was clear. McKinley said about the Philippines: "unfit" to govern by themselves, to educate them means "uplift and civilize and Christianize." And so control was wrested from the European powers, though the whole affair was hindered by the Populists and those who cried "imperial intentions!" Certainly, when satisfied that peace would last, the Philippines and other lands returned to self-dominion. When the war was won, McKinley earned another term, but then before his pledged "full dinner pail" was realized, America would once again bewail assassination of a leader. Teddy Roosevelt took control. "Square deal," this man, but never going by the book, a "brilliant madman," ally of the poor and the oppressed, but never understanding corporations, too obsessed with "busting trusts" to see that business serves the common good. An interventionist -- though never feeling brotherhood with "savages" in other lands -- he talked of wielding "sticks" while speaking softly. Second term, and Teddy's politics improved on business issues. In the end, in Panama, the much-desired canal was Teddy Roosevelt's last hurrah, Colombia and Europeans seeking to compete, America accomplishing the engineering feat. |