The jingoistic tenet of Manifest Destiny tried to justify Amencas territorial expansion by arguing that it was not only inevitable but divinely ordained. The implications of Manifest Destiny were actually threefold:
1) inevitability of the independence of the United States; 2) the legitimacy of American's territorial expansion;
3) the spread of American democracy being the task of American people who are chosen to do the Lord's work.
(The tenet of Manifest Destiny was used many times to just the acquisition of new territories in American history.)
In 1845, the US Congress passed a resolution admitting Texas to the Union.
Mexico soon severed its diplomatic relations with the United States in protest of the annexation. When the American Government sent troops to occupy the disputed border region between Texas and Mexico, war broke out.
Mexico was not as strong as the United States. The US troops defeated Mexican troops, crossed the border and drove into the capital of Mexico. The Mexican Government was forced to give in and negotiations began. The unequal treaty imposed on the Mexicans included three main points:
1 ) The Rio Grande River was to be the boundary between Mexico and the United States
2) The large block of territory, over 500 000 square miles, including California and New Mexico, was ceded to America;
3) The US Government, in return, would pay the Mexican government $15 million.
the Mexican War, one of the aggressive wars started by the US government, finally expanded the territory of the United States to the Pacific Coast. A number of new states were organized in the Far West and Southwest of Unite States Oppemmifies and Adventures
The first half of the 19th ~eentury wit_nessed America's t~'ritorial expam. and social development. The purchase of Louisiana and annexation of Texas led to a large-scale westward movement. Socially, Americans were getting more freedom for individuals to conduct their own affairs, the Federalists, who had feared the danger of too much liberty, discredited after the Second War with England. As a radical democrat.
President Jackson actually embodied American people's fai~ m hunma
nature and ..the belief that citizens deserved to live free from government restraint. The newly,founded Democratic Party provided the chance for men of humble origins to be appointed~ to 'high office.
Meanwhile, opportunities for Americans to become rich also increased. Stories of those who found pathways to wealth caused Americans to believe that there were many opportunities open to them. In one book, The Rich Men of Massachusetts, readers discovered that Roswell Gleason had won success only because of his strong determination to do something and be somebody, a reflection of the Puritanic belief.
Some other books suggested that the future was especially bright for those who were willing to take some risks. Herman Melville explained in his novel Moby Dick why many young boys longed to go to sea:
\home with me foreign clothes of rich fabric.., and wear them up and down the streets \
Novels like Moby Dick and people's eagerness to make a fortune promoted the development of the whaling industry. Whaling was profitable because people used the
4. 1867 Purchase of Alaska
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?Much of the territory the United Stats was purchaed, such as and Florida. When there was no
neighboring land to be purcbesed, America bought Alaska from Russia at the price of 7.2 million dollars in 1887.(1.5 millionSKMs)
?The purchse of this large “ice-box”, a nickname given by Americans, was not warmly welcomed by common Americans, but gradually the new territory proved its value with its rich reserves of gold and oil. Alaska Lakes
5.1898 US-Spanish War(P. 334-336)
The fast development of economy and the growth of big interetest groups pushed America to imperialism. Its old concept of isolation and the Monroe Doctrine could no longer satisfactorily meet the need of the US capitalists production
The United States had long been covetous of the islands generally known as Cuba which was then still controlled by Spain. America offered of $ 100 miliion in exchange for Cuba, but rejected by Spain. But American monopolist, suceteded in controlling much of Cuba?s economy and foreign trede by throwing in large investments and flooding Cuba with American goods.
America's chance finally came in 1895 when the War of independence broke out in Cuba. After maintaining neutrality for 3 years, America found a pretext in a mysterious explosion which sank the Amencnn. Battship Maine in Havana harbor. Warship of UA-Spanish War Result of the War
Spain and United States signed a peace treaty in Paris in December 1898.
1) It provlded for Spamsh withdrawal from Cuba, leaving the island under US' occupation.(The United States did not actually annex Cuba because the Teller Amendment passed when the $. S.Congress declared war, prevented the United States from taking over Cuba.
2) Puerto Rico, Guam, and. the Philippines were ceded by Spain to the United States, which in return paid Spain $ 20 million.
3) The United States controlled the Philippins until it was granted complete independence on July 4, 1946. American troops left Cuba in 1902 ,but retained the control of Cuba's Guantanamo as a military. Aggression Against China
The Sino-US relation dates back to the early nineteenth century when trade between the two countries developed. After the Opium War, the United States managed to get almost all the pdvileges provided in the unequal Treaty of Nanjing, but it did not ask for cession of land. The U. S. China policy was based on the Open Door doctrine, which referred to the principle of western powers “equal trading rights in China”.
In the late1800s, the major European powers had btained control of important regions of China. It appeared that they would soon carve up China and edge out the United States.
The United States was unwilling to accept such a result because it desired access to the large market of China. Accordingly, in 1899 and 1900 U.S. Secretary of State John Milton Hay negotiated an agreement with Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, and Japan that guaranteed \equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese Empire\Chinese territorial and administrative\. The open door doctrine remained the basis of U. S. policy toward China until the end of the Second World War.
The doctrine was opposed to any attempt to carve up China by any imperialist powers. The United States opposed the occupation of Northeast China by Japan after the Incident of September 18.
As foreign merchants and missionaries poured into China, conflicts arose. Waves of anti-foreign aggression spread through out many parts of China. This finally led to the uprising of 1900 of Yihetuan (or “Society of Righteousness and Harmony”), known by Westerners as the Boxer Uprising. With encouragement from the Qing Court, radicals among the Boxers tried to storm foreign legations and killed a number of foreign missionaries. Under the pretext of protecting their citizens and property in China, the Eight-power Alliance, including the United States, invaded China.
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The Qing government was forced to sign the Boxer Protocol (1901), which provided that China pay out 450 million silver dollars to the foreign allies and allow foreign troops to control the railway stretching from Tlanjln to Be,jlng.
America got 24 million dollars from the indemnity. Then the U. S. Congress declared that America's dividend exceeded its total expenditure on the war and 11million dollars was to be returned to China as educational fund to help educate Chinese students in American schools.
For this purpose, some preparatory schools were set up in China. Some American politicians argued that this embodied Amenea's belief in fair play and America's good will to the Chinese people, but the Chinese people regard the war as aggression against Chma. Questions for Lecture XVI
?What are the main factors that have contributed to the fast development of American economy?
Lecture XVI. National Economy
?General Introduction
?The United States is the largest developed country and the only superpower in the world.
?With about 5% of the world's population, the United States produces about 27% of the total world output. Its (GNP) per capita surpassing $ 35,000 which is 40 times as much as that of China.
?The U. S. leads the world in such fields as information technology; computers, space, nuclear energy, electronics and military products.
?The United States is the largest automobile maker of the world and it produces a large proportion of the world's machinery, chemicals, oil, steel, and electrical energy. ?The united States is a major/largest buyer and seller in the world market.
?Common American people?s sense of being an American is closely related with the idea that he or she is the citizen of the world?s largest industrialized nation with a large territory and rich natural resources. This sense contributes the distinction between Americans and that of other nations.
But America was underdeveloped before 1776. under British rule, the colonies were consigned largely to two roles:
1. As the suppliers of raw materials;
2. As the markets for British manufactured goods. Advancement of American Industrialization
?The first factory of textile in the US was built in 1793 by a British immigrant in Rhode Island. The textile industry remained the pillar main for many years. ?In 1890, the output of factories exceeded that of farms
?By 1913, more than one-third of the world?s industrial output was produced in the US.
?Largest productive capacity leads to enormous consumption . The US each year consumes some 25% of the raw materials produced in the world.
?The US plays a very important role in the healthy development of the world economy. Some world economists say, “When the United States coughs, the rest of the world catches a cold.”
Factors contributing to the fast development of American economy (204)
1.Sparsely-populated land, rich natural resources; (it produces half of the world?s corn, ref. to p.220) 2.Continuous influx of immigrants have reduced the cost of labor;
3.Strongest power in the western hemisphere, (Mainland America) immunized from foreign aggression;
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4. Foreign policy protected American industries against fierce competition from abroad. American Economic System
?The economic system of the United States is known as free enterprise because everyone is free to start an enterprise, the capitalist system as Carl Marx named. Today it is often referred to as market economy.
?The US law protects American people's right to \pursuit of happiness.“ It regards the right to property as a human right because the right to possess property is indispensable to one's pursuit of happiness,
?The system protects private ownership of property, including the means of' production. land, for example, can be sold and bought freely by private individuals.
?The government is not allowed to confiscate private property without making compensation.
?The US economic system has been based on the main argument contained in The wealth of Nations, Americans embraced the economic ideas advocated by Adam Smith because they fitted with. the American dream of freedom. Lecture XVI
Roosevelt’s New Deal the Great Depression
The Trigger: The immediate cause of the Great Depression was the New York Stock Exchange crash on October 24,1929, known as “Black Thursday”.
?Overproduction and the sluggish market had already filled investors with fear about the future. When they learnt that a decline in prices of securities might be expected, stockholders began to sell large blocks of stock. The rich people withdrew their money. Some others started to hoard gold. With so much money withdrawn from circulation, banks had to close their doors.
Countless factories went bankrupt and closed down, as people were forced to reduce their consumption because their wages had decreased. During the crisis America's production of coal declined 14%, iron and steel 80%, and autos 80%. The total value of the industrial output dropped from some $ 70 billion to slightly more than $ 31 billion.
The farm products prices fell to such a low level that farmers refused to harvest their ripe crops, financial returns from the fields in 1932 were only half those in 1929.
About 25% of the total labor force, without counting the many millions working part-time, Wages decreased 60%. There was no social security program.
About 2 million young people became \or a meal at every stop.
Main Contents of the New Deal
1.Roosevelt?s idea to struggle against the panic from the Great Depression: There is nothing to fear , the only thing we have to fear is fear itself 2.Financial approaches: 1)EBA
(1)suspend the link between gold and US dollar (2)devalue US dollar
2)The Truth in Securities Act 3.Employment approaches:
1)Abolition of Prohibition Law
2)WPA----Works Progress Administration
(1)TVA----Tennessee Valley Authority ----flood control and power generation projects;
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(2)CCC----(Civilian Conservation Cops) tree planting, construction of roads, high-ways, parks
3)establishment of Minimum Rate of pay
4.Remedy for Farm overproduction:
1) AAA---Agricultural Adjustment Act
2) AAA---Agricultural Adjustment Administration
In 1933 the Congress passed the AAA and set up the AAA to carry out the Act -----to raise farm prices by acreage limitations. Ref. toP.349
The historical significance of Roosevelt?s “New Deal”
?Roosevelt?s “New Deal” was an American type of social reform based on the new concept that the government was responsible for the healthy development of national economy and social security, and that the growth of production could not be maintained only if the great body of the consumers could continue to purchase its output. To achieve balanced development, the New Deal increased government interference in the nation’s economic life.
?the New Deal did not really bring an end to the Great Depression, but it saved the capitalist system and allowed Americans to survive the worst crisis in the history of capitalism. Lecture XVII American Culture
?American culture, in its broad sense, refers to everything related to American people and society--airs, literature, education, values, concept, insihgt, mode of production, social system and way of life. American culture emerged with the English colonies in North America, which were predominated by English cultural patterns, epeeially in language and political institutions. But American culture has been influenced by many other cultures brought in by immigrants from all over the world. many other factors unique to the United States have also contributed to the formation and development of Alnerican culture. Basis of American Culture
Pursuit of freedom and equality has been the guiding principles and goal of American culture. Most of the history of the United States revolves around the struggle to translate these principles into practice----from the founding of Plymouth colony to the Independence War, to the adoption of the Bill of Rights, to the Civil War, to New Freedom, to the civil rights movement, Great Society
The White Anglo-Saxon Protestants played a dominant role in the process of laying the foundations of American culture. \representative of some great idea,\
In Our Country, according to Strong, Greek civilization was famed for its beauty, the Hebrews for their purity. Romans for their law.
He argued that the Anglo-Saxon race had two great ideas to its credit. The first was the love of liberty, and the second was Christianity
The Anglo-Saxon Protestant theology believed the basic sinfulness of humankind; but it also declared that God had determined that some people, the elect, would be saved despite their sins. The Puritans, who regarded themselves as the elect would be actually saved. They were actually Calvinists. People who adhered to Calvin?s advocacy of sociely, diligence, thrift, and lack of ostentation. The Puritans regarded contemplation mere laziness, and poverty either as punishment for sin or evidence that one did not have God?s grace.
?Puritanism advocated industriousness, self-discipline, introspection(内省，反省) and readiness to endure the hardships involved in trying to gain one?s goal. Not to succeed in one?s calling was a sign that the approval of God was withheld. In the eyes of the of puritans, the behavior for worldly
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wealth should replace the behavior for sanctity(圣洁，尊严)
They considered individual responsibility more important than blind obedience. Because of its stress on strict morality, the word Puritanism is often misused in a way that does not mean the same as historical Puritanism. People, for instance, improperly label rigid moral standard, prohibition of wine, opposition to innocent pleasure, and religious intolerance as puritanical.
?They had some different religious belliefs from the Catholic Clhurch. they believed that God was incomprehensible to man, and the power of God was all-knowing, yet hidden and hidden to man, while Cathohes believed that God could be roached through his representative on the earth----the Pope. Puritan salvationwas different from that of Catholics. Puritans were convinced that human beings were predetined by God before they were born. Some were God?s chosen people, others were predestined to be damned to hell. Therefore no good works could save anyone, and nobody knew if he or she was God's elect?
?But Catholics argued that a person could confess his or her sin, do good works and give money to the church and buy back his or her soul.
?Was there any evidence for Puritans to show that some peo!le were God's chosen people? Puritans believed that everyone had a calling which was given by God. The success of one's work or the prosperity in his calling was the sign of being God's elect.
?Therefore, everyone must work hard, spend little and invest for more ?business. Working hard and living a moral life were their ethics. How ?Could puritans find God's will and establish a direct contact with God? ?They concluded that the Bible was the authority of their doctrine. So
?every Pmitan must read the Bible in order to find God's will and search for one's individual contact with Ged. To be able to read the Bible and undersdand God' s will, education was essential for Puritans.
?The experience of the early immigrants also contributed to the distinction of American euhure. The immigrants sailed across the stormy Atlantic Ocean in small and poorly provided ships, risking their lives. Many of them left their families hehin because they did not have so much money to pay for the passage.
?When they arrived North America, they found half of the landmass was covered with dense forest, Everymhing was different from that in their home country and they had to struggle for survival in the wilderness. The early imnfigrants' experience of hard labor for survival contributed to the labor ethics of American people and strengthened their love of land and nature. Americans love to keep close to nature, glorify labor, and desire to have a piece of land
?Early Puritanism (in New England):
?As most of the Mayflower people were puritans, the early time of New England was widespread with Puritanism
?Before they came to the New World, they thought the Church of England was too catholic and wanted to purify the church, so they were called \the doctrine by John Calvin.
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