0:00:00.120,0:00:00.719 Hi, everyone, and welcome 0:00:00.760,0:00:01.599 back to Heimler's History. 0:00:01.640,0:00:03.119 Now as America comes out 0:00:03.160,0:00:04.240 of the Gilded Age, 0:00:04.281,0:00:07.319 we are filthy rich and itching to flex our 0:00:07.360,0:00:09.839 collective strength on the world stage. 0:00:09.880,0:00:11.520 And when we looked around at the world, 0:00:11.561,0:00:13.719 it turns out that European countries had 0:00:13.760,0:00:16.239 been flexing their muscles for decades 0:00:16.280,0:00:18.519 in something called "Imperialism." 0:00:18.560,0:00:20.199 And so, not to be outdone, 0:00:20.240,0:00:22.239 America looked around and decided 0:00:22.280,0:00:24.040 to gather up some lands 0:00:24.081,0:00:26.559 for an overseas empire of her own. 0:00:26.600,0:00:27.879 Now, when I think of America's age 0:00:27.920,0:00:29.000 of imperialism, the best 0:00:29.080,0:00:31.281 metaphor to my mind is hunger. 0:00:31.365,0:00:33.325 "Daddy's hungry." 0:00:33.408,0:00:34.159 And in this lecture, 0:00:34.200,0:00:36.239 we're going to see what Daddy America was 0:00:36.280,0:00:38.639 hungry for, why Daddy America got so 0:00:38.680,0:00:40.839 hungry in the first place, and what it was 0:00:40.880,0:00:43.560 that Daddy found to stuff down his gullet. 0:00:43.840,0:00:44.639 Let's get to it. 0:00:44.680,0:00:46.560 (It's time to kick it old school). 0:00:47.873,0:00:58.799 [MUSIC] 0:00:59.040,0:01:04.721 So, what was Daddy hungry for? Well, first, Daddy was hungry for new markets. 0:01:04.762,0:01:09.975 You see, America had found a way to grow more food and produce more manufactured crap than the 0:01:10.517,0:01:14.520 American public could possibly consume. And so, what do you do in that case? 0:01:14.937,0:01:21.206 Well, you look for foreign markets, and so we trained our eyes on Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean. 0:01:21.290,0:01:22.480 But Daddy was also 0:01:22.560,0:01:24.279 hungry for raw materials. 0:01:24.320,0:01:25.679 You see, despite the abundance 0:01:25.720,0:01:27.599 of resources packed under the crust 0:01:27.640,0:01:29.000 of the American continent, 0:01:29.200,0:01:30.480 we did not have it all, 0:01:30.521,0:01:32.679 and so if we were going to keep feeding 0:01:32.720,0:01:35.040 those factories, we needed to find other 0:01:35.120,0:01:36.159 lands that had raw 0:01:36.200,0:01:37.800 materials that we did not. 0:01:37.841,0:01:40.159 Okay, that was what Daddy was hungry for. 0:01:40.200,0:01:42.639 Now, why was it that Daddy was hungry? 0:01:42.680,0:01:43.799 Well, two reasons. 0:01:43.840,0:01:45.160 First, there was the lingering 0:01:45.280,0:01:47.319 idea of Social Darwinism. 0:01:47.360,0:01:49.039 You'll recall that guys like John D. 0:01:49.080,0:01:50.760 Rockefeller applied the principles 0:01:50.801,0:01:53.039 of survival of the fittest to his business 0:01:53.080,0:01:54.879 practices, but now he decided to apply 0:01:54.920,0:01:56.159 those principles at the level 0:01:56.200,0:01:57.679 of nations as well. 0:01:57.720,0:01:59.640 America had proved herself to be one 0:01:59.681,0:02:01.759 of the strongest and fittest in the world, 0:02:01.800,0:02:04.079 and therefore was justified in finding 0:02:04.120,0:02:05.839 the weak and consuming them. 0:02:05.880,0:02:07.039 "Daddy's hungry." 0:02:07.080,0:02:08.639 But the second reason Daddy was hungry was 0:02:08.680,0:02:10.199 because of that old idea 0:02:10.240,0:02:12.040 of manifest destiny. 0:02:12.424,0:02:14.600 That was the old idea that God had given 0:02:14.680,0:02:17.319 us the right to possess the entirety 0:02:17.360,0:02:19.890 of the continent from sea to shining sea, 0:02:19.973,0:02:21.680 and at this point, we had done it. 0:02:22.000,0:02:23.879 All the land, which we can now consider 0:02:23.920,0:02:25.159 the lower 48 states, 0:02:25.200,0:02:26.800 were in our possession. 0:02:27.080,0:02:29.039 The great expanse of America stretched 0:02:29.080,0:02:30.039 from the Atlantic 0:02:30.080,0:02:31.639 to the Pacific seaboards. 0:02:31.680,0:02:32.800 And listen, a hunger like 0:02:32.841,0:02:35.239 that doesn't just die off overnight. 0:02:35.280,0:02:37.039 For example, I love gummy bears, 0:02:37.080,0:02:38.839 and just because I eat a four-pound bag 0:02:38.880,0:02:40.719 of gummy bears today doesn't mean I'm 0:02:40.760,0:02:41.759 gonna be satisfied 0:02:41.800,0:02:42.839 for the rest of my life. 0:02:42.880,0:02:44.399 Next morning, I'm gonna wake up thinking, 0:02:44.440,0:02:45.999 "I could do that all over again." 0:02:46.040,0:02:47.999 So, even though the Civil War distracted 0:02:48.040,0:02:49.000 us for a little while, 0:02:49.080,0:02:51.039 now that everything was put back together 0:02:51.080,0:02:52.840 again, Daddy was hungry for more. 0:02:52.960,0:02:54.680 And since we had nowhere else to go on 0:02:54.721,0:02:56.760 this continent, we had to look elsewhere. 0:02:56.843,0:02:57.880 Now, not surprisingly, 0:02:57.921,0:03:00.639 this impulse got us into some skirmishes, 0:03:00.680,0:03:01.360 most notably 0:03:01.401,0:03:03.934 the Spanish-American War of 1898. 0:03:04.017,0:03:05.479 Now in order to tell this story, 0:03:05.520,0:03:07.119 we need to begin in Cuba. 0:03:07.160,0:03:07.959 Now Cuba had been part 0:03:08.000,0:03:09.360 of the Spanish Empire since the late 0:03:09.401,0:03:11.840 1400s, and the Cubans had had just 0:03:11.960,0:03:14.486 about enough of foreign imperial rule. 0:03:15.080,0:03:17.040 And so, the Cubans roused themselves 0:03:17.081,0:03:19.700 into a revolt against their Spanish lords. 0:03:19.783,0:03:22.079 Now, if you'll recall, way back in the day, 0:03:22.120,0:03:23.600 America embraced something 0:03:23.680,0:03:25.119 called the Monroe Doctrine. 0:03:25.160,0:03:26.840 And I compared the Monroe Doctrine 0:03:26.881,0:03:29.319 to a dog lifting its leg and peeing all 0:03:29.360,0:03:30.719 over the Western Hemisphere, 0:03:30.760,0:03:31.640 and here's why. 0:03:31.880,0:03:33.519 Because the Monroe Doctrine said 0:03:33.560,0:03:35.560 that everything in the Western Hemisphere 0:03:35.601,0:03:38.039 essentially belongs to America, 0:03:38.080,0:03:39.440 and therefore we don't want any 0:03:39.481,0:03:41.513 European intervention over here. 0:03:41.596,0:03:42.559 So, as it turns out, 0:03:42.600,0:03:43.919 Cuba happens to be 0:03:43.960,0:03:45.080 in the Western Hemisphere, 0:03:45.121,0:03:47.479 and therefore could not avoid the sprinkle 0:03:47.520,0:03:49.039 of the American urinary 0:03:49.080,0:03:50.520 habit of imperialism. 0:03:50.561,0:03:53.608 And so, America took up the Cuban cause. 0:03:53.692,0:03:55.560 Now why would America want to do this? 0:03:55.601,0:03:57.639 Well, at least one reason was something 0:03:57.680,0:03:59.360 that came to be known as "yellow 0:03:59.480,0:04:01.520 journalism," and essentially what was going 0:04:01.600,0:04:03.679 on is that people like Joseph Pulitzer 0:04:03.720,0:04:05.560 were publishing in their newspapers 0:04:05.601,0:04:07.679 accounts that were both spurious 0:04:07.720,0:04:10.559 and outlandish about Spanish atrocities 0:04:10.600,0:04:12.880 against the Cubans in order to arouse 0:04:13.120,0:04:14.959 public support for the Cuban cause. 0:04:15.000,0:04:16.079 Now in many cases, 0:04:16.120,0:04:17.719 there was a kernel of truth to these, 0:04:17.760,0:04:19.760 but they were blown way out of proportion. 0:04:19.801,0:04:22.120 So, at this point, the American public was 0:04:22.200,0:04:23.440 clamoring for a fight, 0:04:23.481,0:04:25.839 and so we sent our newest Navy destroyer 0:04:25.880,0:04:27.719 down to Cuba and just parked 0:04:27.760,0:04:29.519 it right in Havana Harbor. 0:04:29.560,0:04:30.880 Nothing going on here, 0:04:31.000,0:04:33.106 just came down to say, "Hay." 0:04:33.190,0:04:34.360 And as you can imagine, 0:04:34.401,0:04:37.000 this move caused an awful lot of tension 0:04:37.080,0:04:39.160 between America and Spain, 0:04:39.240,0:04:42.407 but nothing really happened until one day. 0:04:42.491,0:04:46.199 In the evening of February 15th, 1898, 0:04:46.240,0:04:48.872 the USS Maine exploded, 0:04:48.955,0:04:52.000 killing 260 American sailors. 0:04:52.083,0:04:53.839 Now, of course, Joseph Pulitzer and his 0:04:53.880,0:04:55.120 army of yellow journalists 0:04:55.240,0:04:56.520 jumped all over this. 0:04:56.680,0:04:58.360 They pumped out ream after ream 0:04:58.401,0:05:00.720 of newspapers accusing the Spanish 0:05:00.920,0:05:02.279 of destroying the Maine. 0:05:02.320,0:05:03.959 Now just so you know, in 1976, 0:05:04.000,0:05:05.479 the U.S. Navy did an extensive 0:05:05.520,0:05:07.199 investigation into the explosion, 0:05:07.240,0:05:08.079 and what they found was 0:05:08.120,0:05:09.680 that the overwhelming amount of evidence 0:05:09.721,0:05:11.959 suggested an internal explosion, 0:05:12.000,0:05:13.519 which is to say it was not 0:05:13.560,0:05:15.199 in fact caused by the Spanish. 0:05:15.240,0:05:17.039 But investigating the truth didn't 0:05:17.080,0:05:19.039 much matter to the American public. 0:05:19.080,0:05:20.639 We wanted Spanish blood. 0:05:20.680,0:05:22.559 Now to emphasize just how much Americans 0:05:22.600,0:05:24.360 wanted to get into a fight despite any 0:05:24.440,0:05:26.200 action that might lead to a diplomatic 0:05:26.280,0:05:28.360 solution, you should know that American 0:05:28.480,0:05:30.999 diplomats presented Spain with a list 0:05:31.040,0:05:33.000 of demands saying, "Do this, 0:05:33.240,0:05:34.440 and we will not go to war." 0:05:34.481,0:05:37.399 And apparently, Spain really did not want 0:05:37.440,0:05:38.759 to go to war with America, 0:05:38.800,0:05:40.639 because they complied with all 0:05:40.680,0:05:41.360 of the demands, 0:05:41.401,0:05:43.679 including the most stringent of them, 0:05:43.720,0:05:45.512 to which America said, "Hmm, 0:05:46.040,0:05:46.839 now, we really didn't 0:05:46.880,0:05:47.919 think you all would do all that. 0:05:47.960,0:05:49.620 You all still want to start a war? 0:05:50.000,0:05:50.679 All right, we're gonna go to war." 0:05:50.720,0:05:51.719 "Wait, what?" 0:05:51.760,0:05:52.320 Why? 0:05:52.400,0:05:54.879 Well, President McKinley knew how unwise 0:05:54.920,0:05:57.279 it would be to not start a war because, 0:05:57.320,0:05:59.120 hey, elections were coming up, 0:05:59.161,0:06:01.319 and if he didn't give the people what they 0:06:01.360,0:06:03.399 wanted, then they wouldn't reelect him. 0:06:03.440,0:06:04.679 And that is how you get 0:06:04.720,0:06:06.119 the Spanish-American War. 0:06:06.160,0:06:07.760 Now, I'll just cut to the end of what 0:06:07.801,0:06:10.039 McKinley called this splendid little war 0:06:10.080,0:06:12.679 because it only lasted for 114 days, 0:06:12.720,0:06:14.079 and I'll let you know that America 0:06:14.120,0:06:15.760 triumphed on behalf of the Cubans 0:06:15.801,0:06:18.039 and repulsed Spain from the last scrap 0:06:18.080,0:06:20.171 of their once vast New World empire. 0:06:20.255,0:06:22.119 And one of the strange strategies we 0:06:22.160,0:06:23.799 employed to win this battle 0:06:23.840,0:06:25.840 in the Caribbean was by invading another 0:06:25.920,0:06:28.240 Spanish possession way over in the 0:06:28.320,0:06:31.224 Pacific, namely the Philippine Islands. 0:06:31.308,0:06:32.279 And the freedom-loving 0:06:32.320,0:06:33.319 Filipinos were like- 0:06:33.360,0:06:34.839 "Yay, the Americans are 0:06:34.880,0:06:36.319 here to make us free!" 0:06:36.360,0:06:37.640 And as the war closed, 0:06:37.681,0:06:39.919 we sat across the treaty table from Spain 0:06:39.960,0:06:41.679 and took the Philippine Islands off 0:06:41.720,0:06:43.600 their hands for a cool 20 million. 0:06:43.641,0:06:45.760 And once President McKinley saw how 0:06:45.920,0:06:48.599 backwards and brown and un-Christian these 0:06:48.640,0:06:50.199 Filipinos were, actually, 0:06:50.240,0:06:50.839 don't tell anybody, 0:06:50.880,0:06:52.359 but their leader was highly educated 0:06:52.400,0:06:53.199 and the Filipinos were 0:06:53.240,0:06:54.840 already mostly Christians. 0:06:54.881,0:06:57.159 McKinley decided to do the right thing 0:06:57.200,0:07:00.080 and keep the Filipinos under American rule 0:07:00.160,0:07:01.160 until they became, 0:07:01.280,0:07:02.359 you know, more American. 0:07:02.400,0:07:04.199 And since the Philippine Islands were just 0:07:04.240,0:07:05.720 so dang far away, 0:07:05.920,0:07:08.160 we began to think that we needed a rest 0:07:08.360,0:07:10.239 stop, you know, some place between our 0:07:10.280,0:07:11.840 western coast and Asia 0:07:12.280,0:07:13.800 where we could just chill and eat some 0:07:13.880,0:07:15.919 coconut meat, maybe some place like, 0:07:15.960,0:07:17.480 I don't know, Hawaii. 0:07:17.560,0:07:19.679 So, in 1898, America went ahead and brought 0:07:19.720,0:07:21.319 a bunch of diseases to the native 0:07:21.360,0:07:23.039 Hawaiians and killed a bunch of them off 0:07:23.080,0:07:24.359 and was like, "So, if you all aren't using 0:07:24.400,0:07:26.119 these islands anymore, we'll take them." 0:07:26.160,0:07:27.880 And that's how you get the 50th 0:07:27.960,0:07:29.440 state of the United States. 0:07:29.481,0:07:31.559 Now with all this imperialistic activity, 0:07:31.600,0:07:33.439 there arose, not surprisingly, 0:07:33.480,0:07:35.039 a great clamor from a bunch 0:07:35.080,0:07:36.999 of people saying this is wrong. 0:07:37.040,0:07:38.679 The folks who were saying this were called 0:07:38.720,0:07:40.599 the Anti-Imperialist League, 0:07:40.640,0:07:42.520 and they argued that America should not be 0:07:42.600,0:07:44.800 taking over nations and ruling other 0:07:44.920,0:07:46.680 peoples because, in case you forgot, 0:07:46.840,0:07:49.079 there's a deep conviction in the soul 0:07:49.120,0:07:51.280 of America that people must be 0:07:51.400,0:07:53.159 governed by their own consent. 0:07:53.200,0:07:54.560 A philosopher during that time named 0:07:54.601,0:07:56.639 William James put it magnificently. 0:07:56.680,0:07:58.360 He said he couldn't believe that America 0:07:58.480,0:08:01.320 could puke up its ancient soul in five 0:08:01.400,0:08:03.650 minutes without a wink of squeamishness. 0:08:03.733,0:08:05.279 But on the other side of the argument 0:08:05.320,0:08:06.880 were the expansionists. 0:08:06.960,0:08:09.039 They raised arguments about patriotism 0:08:09.080,0:08:11.440 and about how America had a civilizing 0:08:11.520,0:08:12.959 mission in the world, 0:08:13.000,0:08:14.719 not to mention that the possibilities 0:08:14.760,0:08:16.160 for the expansion of trade 0:08:16.201,0:08:18.199 were positively fabulous. 0:08:18.240,0:08:20.200 And in the end, it was the expansionists 0:08:20.241,0:08:22.719 who won out, and on February 6th, 1899, 0:08:22.760,0:08:24.799 Congress approved the treaty with Spain 0:08:24.840,0:08:27.319 and America became an empire. 0:08:27.360,0:08:29.120 And that's all we have time for now. 0:08:29.320,0:08:30.360 I'll see you next time.