678 ★ CHAPTER 17 Freedom’s Boundaries, at Home and Abroad
is known as the age of imperialism, when rival European empires carved up
large parts of the world among themselves. For most of this period, the United
States remained a second- rate power. In 1880, the head of the Ottoman empire
decided to close three foreign embassies to reduce expenses. He chose those in
Sweden, Belgium, and the United States. In that year, the American navy was
smaller than Denmark’s or Chile’s. When European powers met at the Berlin
Congress of 1884–1885 to divide most of Africa among themselves, the United
States attended because of its relationship with Liberia but did not sign the
final agreement.
Throughout the nineteenth century, large empires dominated much of
the globe. After 1870, a “new imperialism” arose, dominated by European
powers and Japan. Belgium, Great Britain, and France consolidated their
hold on colonies in Africa, and newly unified Germany acquired colonies
there as well. The British and Russians sought to increase their influence in
Central Asia, and all the European powers struggled to dominate parts of
China. By the early twentieth century, most of Asia, Africa, the Middle East,
and the Pacific had been divided among these empires. The justification for
this expansion of imperial power was that it would bring modern “civilization”
to the supposedly backward peoples of the non- European world. The natives,
according to their colonial occupiers, would be instructed in Western values,
labor practices, and the Christian religion. Eventually, they would be accorded
the right of self- government, although no one could be sure how long this
would take. In the meantime, “empire” was another word for “exploitation.”
American Expansionism
Territorial expansion, of course, had been a feature of American life from well
before independence. But the 1890s marked a major turning point in Ameri-
ca’s relationship with the rest of the world. Americans were increasingly aware
of themselves as an emerging world power. “We are a great imperial Republic
destined to exercise a controlling influence upon the actions of mankind and
to affect the future of the world,” proclaimed Henry Watterson, an influential
newspaper editor.
Until the 1890s, American expansion had taken place on the North
American continent. Ever since the Monroe Doctrine (see Chapter 10), to be
sure, many Americans had considered the Western Hemisphere an American
sphere of influence. There was persistent talk of acquiring Cuba, and Presi-
dent Grant had sought to annex the Dominican Republic, only to see the Sen-
ate reject the idea. The last territorial acquisition before the 1890s had been
Alaska, purchased from Russia by Secretary of State William H. Seward in
1867, to much derision from those who could not see the purpose of American