Posted on 02/26/2017 3:57:02 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
The end of the Second World War is often considered the defining moment when the United States became a global power. In fact, it was another war forty years earlier, a war that ended with America having an empire of its own stretching thousands of miles beyond its continental borders. The Spanish-American War, which lasted five months, catapulted the United States from provincial to global power.
The Spanish-American War was a classic example of the “Thucydides Trap,” in which tensions between a declining power, Spain, and a rising power, the United States, resulted in war. By the end of the nineteenth century, Spain was clearly in decline, and Madrid’s grasp on its empire was increasingly tenuous. Cuba and the Philippines both experienced anti-Spanish revolts, and Spain’s difficulty in putting them down merely illustrated to the rest of the world how frail the empire actually was.
Meanwhile, in North America, the American doctrine of Manifest Destiny had run its course. The admission of Washington State to the Union in 1890 had consolidated America’s hold on the continent. Americans with an eye toward expanding America’s business interests and even creating an American empire couldn’t help but notice weakly held European colonial possessions in the New World and the Pacific. The march towards war in America was multifaceted: even liberal-minded Americans favored war to liberate Cuba from a brutal military occupation. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...
Our Navy, the so-called Great White Fleet was basically a cardboard fleet. A good description of it was in “Guns Of August” by Barbara Tuchman. She describes how weak those ships really were compared to say the English Dreadnoughts. I forget off hand when we built our first Dreadnought class battle ship. I found this an interesting read: http://www.navy.mil/navydata/ships/battleships/bbhistory.asp
The US had enough power to demand that France leave Mexico immediately after the end of the US Civil War, but our Navy went into steep decline pretty much as soon as that war ended. So our ‘influence’ really didn’t extend past the Caribbean & Canada. Add in the expense of the military occupation odf the South (Reconstruction) and the US rrally wasnt quite ‘there’ yet. We were about were China is now. Big player on the local block but less so the further you get from the home turf.
The “Michigan” class had everything but turbine propusion. And while the Brits got the glory of building the first ‘Dreadnought’ the US Superdreadoughts built in 1916 (Arizona & Pennsylvania) were arguably on par with anything the Brits had. Plus the American concept of the “Standard Battleship” — ships designed to operate interchangeably in a common battling — made our fleet very imposing.
The Spanish-American War & the building then sailing of the “Great White Fleet” showed the world we ha entered the international stage as a world power to be reckoned with. One maybe not the equal to a Great Britain but certainly on par with any continental European power. WW1 demonstrated we were the equivalent of Great Brtiain. (At the time I doubt the “talking heads” of the day realized what a hollow power GB was!) WW2 sealed the deal!
Battling = Battle Line.
Bookmark
Thanks for that. The book just detailed the Great White Fleet and it’s coaling problems. Congress denied funds for the fleet to continue just to show Teddy that they and not he had the control.
... As to the Great White Fleet, the logistics of actually sending a major steam powered battlefleet on a world tour had never been tackled before. Other powers sat up & took notice of that demonstration of naval professionalism.
Tsushima showed a Russian battlefleet arriving in no shape to do battle. The US showed how it might have been done properly. The IJN certainly took notice.
It was a guy named Mahan who knew sea power and how to use it. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/mahan
Dow sold gun powder to Germany and once we began to enter WWI, US companies quit selling gunpowder. The nature of trench warfare dictated mass quantites of gun powder were needed - Germany literally ran out of gun powder.
They were about to but then they found out how to fix nitrogen out of the air to manufacture nitrates which helped them in making munitions. (Guns Of August)
Indeed. Mahan was very influential, and the reason everybody wanted a battle line. He perhaps neglected other forms of naval warfare, namely Guerre de Course. Had the Imperial German Navy invested in more light cruisers and U-boats they’d have had the material to throttle Britain. Instead they built a battle line that was effectively blockaded for much of the war. They had a puncher’s chance however, and their ships were tough and gunnery excellent.
Bkmark
I actually did not know that. Thanks for the info. I just hate Philly but if I did, i would visit it.
But the Kaiser was afraid to lose his precious navy and especially after Jutland. (my dad being Navy had me read a lot of naval history).
European countries were actually quite worried at the end of the Civil War. We had an army and navy more powerful than any other nation on earth. They thought we would engage in imperialistic conquest.
The most worried I think were the Canadian colonies. It pretty much forced them to unite in 1867 (two years after the Civil War ended) and create Canada. The US civil war gave birth to Canada.
Dan Carlin did a 6 part Hardcore History podcast on WWI. It was haunting.
bump
The War of 1812 was very nearly the ruination of the country. First, because it was possible the war could have been averted because the government of Britain underwent a shakeup just at the time the US was voting to declare war; new negotiations might have allowed the tension to be resolved. Second, because the US came pretty close to losing it outright. An American sniper killed the top British commander at a critical time, preventing the fall of Baltimore.New England wasn’t on board, and its farmers were selling their produce to the British Army in Canada. The peace treaty which ended the war was a relief to the Americans, and - until news of the Battle of New Orleans reached London - was controversial in Britain.
Tho the population of the US was geometrically increasing, it was still small; after 1820 the US would have had the wherewithal to have taken Canada.
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