Gender anxieties provided an additional motivation for American imperialism. In the late nineteenth century, with the Civil War long over, many Americans worried that the rising generation of American men lacked opportunities to test and strengthen their manhood. For example, in 1897 Mississippi congressman John Sharp Williams lamented the waning of “the dominant spirit which controlled in this Republic [from 1776 to 1865] . . . one of honor, glory, chivalry, and patriotism.” Such gender anxieties were not limited to elites. The depression of the 1890s hit working-class men hard, causing them to question their self-worth as they lost the ability to support their families. In this context, the poem “The White Man’s Burden,” written by the British writer and poet Rudyard Kipling in 1899, touched a nerve with American men. In the poem, Kipling urges white men to take up the “burden” of bringing civilization to non-Western peoples. By embracing the imperialist project, they would regain their manly honor.
See Document 20.1 for part of Kipling’s famous poem.
The growing presence of women as political activists in campaigns for suffrage and moral, humanitarian, and governmental reforms was particularly troubling to male identity. Some men warned that dire consequences would result if women succeeded in feminizing politics. Alfred Thayer Mahan believed that women’s suffrage would undermine the nation’s military security because women lacked the will to use physical force. He asserted that giving the vote to women would destroy the “constant practice of the past ages by which to men are assigned the outdoor rough action of life and to women that indoor sphere which we call the family.” As Mahan’s comment shows, calling American men to action was often paired with a call for American women to leave the public arena and return to the home.
American males could reassert their manhood by adopting a militant spirit. An English verse from 1878 described this attitude: “We don’t want to fight, yet by Jingo! If we do, we’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, and got the money too.” Known as jingoists, war enthusiasts such as Theodore Roosevelt could not contain their desire to find a war in which to prove their masculinity. “You and your generation have had your chance from 1861 to 1865,” Roosevelt exclaimed to a Civil War veteran. “Now let us of this generation have ours!” Captain Mahan concurred. “No greater danger could befall civilization than the disappearance of the warlike spirit (I dare say war) among civilized men,” he asserted. “There are too many barbarians still in the world.” Mahan and Roosevelt echoed the British jingoists’ pride in naval power. The Naval Act of 1890 authorized funding for construction of three battleships to join the two existing ones. These warships would provide the foundation for a revitalized navy capable of safeguarding American interests in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Ten years later, the U.S. fleet had grown to seventeen battleships and six armored cruisers, making it the third most powerful navy in the world, up from twelfth place in 1880. Having built a powerful navy, the United States would soon find opportunities to use it.
|
What role did economic developments play in prompting calls for an American empire? What role did social and cultural developments play? |
Why did the United States embark on building an empire in the 1890s and not decades earlier? |