BELIEF IN CULTURAL SUPERIORITY
Cultural factors also were used to justify
imperialism. Some Americans combined the philosophy of Social Darwinism—a
belief that free-market competition would lead to the survival of the fittest—with
a belief in the racial superiority of Anglo-Saxons. They argued that the United
States had a responsibility to spread Christianity and “civilization” to the world’s
“inferior peoples.” This viewpoint narrowly defined “civilization” according to
the standards of only one culture.
The United States Acquires Alaska
An early supporter of American expansion was William Seward, Secretary of
State under presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. In 1867, Seward
arranged for the U.S. to buy Alaska from the Russians for $7.2 million. Seward had
some trouble persuading the House of Representatives to approve the treaty. Some
people thought it was silly to buy what they called “Seward’s Icebox” or “Seward’s
folly.” Time showed how wrong they were. In 1959, Alaska became a state. For
about two cents an acre, the United States had acquired a land rich in timber, min-
erals, and, as it turned out, oil.
The United States Takes Hawaii
In 1867, the same year in which Alaska was purchased, the United States took
over the Midway Islands, which lie in the Pacific Ocean about 1300 miles north of
Hawaii. No one lived on the islands, so the event did not attract much attention.
Hawaii was another question. The Hawaiian Islands
had been economically important to the United States
for nearly a century. Since the 1790s, American mer-
chants had stopped there on their way to China and
East India. In the 1820s, Yankee missionaries founded
Christian schools and churches on the islands. Their
children and grandchildren became sugar planters who
sold most of their crop to the United States.
THE CRY FOR ANNEXATION
In the mid-19th century,
American-owned sugar plantations accounted for about
three-quarters of the islands’ wealth. Plantation owners
imported thousands of laborers from Japan, Portugal,
and China. By 1900, foreigners and immigrant laborers
outnumbered native Hawaiians about three to one.
White planters profited from close ties with the
United States. In 1875, the United States agreed to
import Hawaiian sugar duty-free. Over the next 15
years, Hawaiian sugar production increased nine times.
Then the McKinley Tariff of 1890 provoked a crisis by
eliminating the duty-free status of Hawaiian sugar. As a
result, Hawaiian sugar growers faced competition in the
American market. American planters in Hawaii called
for the United States to annex the islands so they
wouldn’t have to pay the duty.
U.S. military and economic leaders already under-
stood the value of the islands. In 1887, they pressured
Hawaii to allow the United States to build a naval base
at Pearl Harbor, the kingdom’s best port. The base
became a refueling station for American ships.
Vocabulary
annex: to
incorporate
territory into an
existing country
or state
B
Source: Robert C. Schmitt,
