History 420 - Dr. Gayle Olson-Raymer

Manifest Destiny Moves into the Pacific

Methods Discussion: Just like reading a book, students need to learn to read a map. In this Read the Map exercise, the following discussion questions should help students get a visual understanding of American movement into the Pacific Ocean.

1. Take a few minutes to read this map. What is the single most important thing you understand about the map after your reading?
2. Why would the United States want to extend its power into the Pacific between 1857-1899?
3. What is the single most important thing you understand about the topic of Manifest Destiny after reading the map?
   

Introduction: Many historians believe that the term Manifest Destiny applies only to American expansion across the North American continent. Some argue that Americans simply followed their God-given right to expand westward and conquer contiguous land. This was our destiny, they argue - this was NOT imperialism.

• What is imperialism?
• How are imperialism and Manifest Destiny different? Similar?

If we take the position that America's movement into the Pacific was an extension of Manifest Destiny - and perhaps of imperialism - then we must look at what we actually did in the Pacific to gain control over all the above islands. That is the purpose of our last two days on the topic of Manifest Destiny.

Discussion Goals:

1. To trace the early march of U.S. presence in the Pacific.
2. To examine a detailed case study of American movement into Hawaii.
3. To explore the issues raised about Manifest Destiny and imperialism inherent in the acquisition of the Philippines through warfare.
4. To understand America's movement into Samoa - the last territory gained during the 19th Century.
5. To agree with and/or refute the theme of this unit - that the consequences of Manifest Destiny are an example of the theme that progress is not always progressive.

Goal #1: To trace the early march of the U.S. presence in the Pacific

By 1853, the continental boundaries of the United States were complete. But the era of Manifest Destiny was not over. Many Americans - including many Presidents and Congressmen - had begun to look to the Pacific for possible expansion. Why? Trade with Asia - especially the appeal of profits that could be made by trading with China - and the search for guano.

Trade with China. Some of the world’s most sought after commodities - tea, porcelain, and silk - were plentiful in China and Western merchants had long sought access to this these treasures.

• In February 1784, the first American ship sailed to China, followed by a steady stream of merchants hoping to open the door to Chinese trade.
• In the early 19th century, American. traders built a small outpost in China where their interactions became both complex and contentious.
• The British East India Company (EIC) had received a royal charter in 1600 to trade with the Far East, Beginning in 1773, the EIC " began to auction opium grown on its plantations in India to independent foreign traders in exchange for silver. The opium was then transported to the China coast and sold to Chinese middlemen who retailed the drug inside China." (Source: (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/pacific-expansion). Despite the fact that opium was illegal in China, a huge market existed for the drug among the Chinese. Soon, the increasing numbers of opium addicts began to alarm Chinese officials
  • In 1839, the Chinese Emperor abolished the opium trade, confiscated approximately 1210 tons of opium (2.66 million pounds) without offering compensation to the EIC, and blockaded trade.
  • The British government objected to these actions - objections which resulted in the First Opium War. In 1842, the British won the war and by treaty, China opened five ports and ceded Hong Kong Island to the British.
• Shortly after the Opium War, the U.S decided to seek formal diplomatic relations with the Chinese Government, resulting in the 1844 Treaty of Wangxia. Shortly thereafter, U.S. ministers and consuls took up residence in China’s capital and port cities.

But getting from the United States to China , however, was difficult without a network of ports in the Pacific Ocean. Indeed, it was the primary goal of Commodore Matthew Perry who sailed to Japan in 1853 to establish a foothold that would strengthen the U.S. position for trade and diplomacy in both Japan and China.

The Search for Guano. By the 1840s, Americans looked to guano for use as an agricultural fertilizer and as a primary source of saltpeter for gunpower. Thus, beginning in 1856 and armed with a new law - the Guano Islands Act - the search for guano commenced both in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. Under the Act, Americans temporarily could occupy uninhabited islands to obtain guano. The first section of the Act states:

"Whenever any citizen of the United States discovers a deposit of guano on any island, rock, or key, not within the lawful jurisdiction of any other Government, and not occupied by the citizens of any other Government, and takes peaceable possession thereof, and occupies the same, such island, rock, or key may, at the discretion of the President, be considered as appertaining to the United States."

The act specifically states that while the islands were considered U.S. possessions, the U.S. was not obliged to retain possession after private American interests exhausted guano deposits. Thus began the concept of insular territories. During the era of Manifest Destiny through the early 1850s, any territory acquired by the U.S. was considered to be an integral part of the country and eventually would have the opportunity to become an American state. With insular areas gained under the Guano Act, the federal government could hold land without the prospect of its ever becoming a state. Thus, in 1857, the U.S. took possession of the Howard and Baker Islands, followed by Jarvis Island. The following year, the U.S. added Kingman Reef , in 1867, Midway became an American possession, and in 1898, both Johnston Atoll and Swain's Island (now part of American Samoa) became the last two islands claimed by the U.S. under the provisions of the Guano Act.

Thus, by the mid-1850s, private, economic interests in trading and excavating natural resources became the primary motivation for U.S. movement into the Pacific Ocean. It should be no surprise that American interest in the Hawaiian Islands began with a similar trajectory - private interests first came to the island to save souls, and then to make money.

Goal #2: To examine a detailed case study of American movement into Hawaii

Shortly before private interests focused on China and guano, several individuals had set their sights on the strategically located Hawaiian Islands. Manifest Destiny initially came to Hawaii not at request of the United States government, but rather at the hands of private business entrepreners and missionaries. In the late 1820s, the first Americans began to settle in Hawaii when Presbyterian and Congregational missionaries founded schools to Christianize and Americanize the Hawaiians.

Within two decades of missionary work, the Hawaiian monarchy was worried about increasing American influence on the islands. Thus, three laws were passed that determined who could own land in Hawaii.

• The 1840 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii proclaimed that the land belonged to its people and was to be managed by the King. King Kamehameha and his 245 chiefs allocated one-third of the land to the Hawaiian crown, one-third to the chiefs, and one-third to the people.
• The 1850 Alien Land Ownership Act was passed by the Hawaiian legislature in opposition to the King. The Act, which allowed foreigners to hold title to land, was supported as a way to bring much-needed capital and labor to the islands.
• The 1850 Kuleana Act allowed Hawaiian commoners to petition for title to land on which they already cultivated and/or lived. Because private ownership of land was a previously unknown concept for ordinary Hawaiians, many did not understand the need to make a claim for land on which they already lived or worked.
  • Making a claim depended on the ability to read, to pay for a pre-claim land survey, and to find two witnesses to confirm that the claimant had worked the land.
  • The law also stated that the lands must be claimed within two years of the Act's passage.

By the late 1850s, few Hawaiians made claims. Eventually, less than one percent of the land was ever owned by the people. Instead, the chiefs and foreigners owned and controlled almost all the land while the Hawaiian people collectively worked the land.

Sugar plantations, some owned by Americans, began to grow in Hawaii.

• By the 1840s, the profits of plantation owners rose and fell according to American tariffs placed on imported sugar.
• During the Civil War when Southern sugar could not be shipped up north, Hawaiian planters' profits soared as the price of sugar rose 525% - from 4 cents per pound in 1861 to 25 cents in 1864.
• Profits again skyrocked with the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 which allowed Hawaii to sell sugar to the United States without paying duties or taxes.The Treaty led to large American investments in Hawaiian sugar plantations.

By 1885, almost all Hawaiian sugar plantations were in control of the Americans, most of whom were the ancestors of the early missionaries. Not surprisingly, the planters began to demand a greater role in Hawaiian politics.

At the same time American influence on the islands increased, new diseases significantly decreased the native Hawaiian population. To deal with labor shortages, American plantation owners began to import Chinese and Japanese laborers to work in the fields. Thus, by the time that the U.S. government was becoming interested in moving their economic and political ideals of Manifest Destiny into the Pacific, Americans in Hawaii were building a multi-racial society over which the Hawaiians were gradually losing control.

The next step in moving the direct interests of the U.S. government into Hawaii occurred in 1887 when representatives of the U.S. and Hawaii met to renew the 1875 sugar treaty. The Americans insisted that in return for continuing Hawaii's duty and tax free sugar trade, the King would grant:

"... to the Government of the US the exclusive right to enter the harbor of Pearl River, in the Island of Oahu, and to establish and maintain there a coaling and repair station for the use of vessels of the US and to that end the US may improve the entrance to said harbor and do all things useful to the purpose aforesaid."

The King, however, balked. It was clear that the American planters had become too powerful and granting U.S. Naval rights to Pearl Harbor would give them even greater power. When the King hesitated, a group of American planters, missionaries, and businessmen who were members of the secret organization, the Hawaiian League, forced King Kalakaua to accept a new constitution - which he called the Bayonet Constitution .

Methods Discussion: A close reading of an annotated version of the Bayonet Constitution will not only give you a chance to develop your DBQ Skills, it will also tell you how and why the King and the Hawaiian people were so angry with its contents. You can find the abridgedCon version by clicking here.

Then, in 1889, a young, part-Hawaiian named Robert W. Wilcox staged an uprising to overthrow the 1887 Bayonet Constitution. He led some 150 men, Hawaiians and foreigners, in a predawn march to Iolani Palace with a new constitution for King Kalakaua to sign. The king was away from the palace, and the Cabinet called out troops that forcibly put down the insurrection. Tried for high treason, Wilcox was found not guilty by a jury of Native Hawaiians who accused those in power of being usurpers and having blood-stained hands. They refused to convict him.

Adding fuel to the growing fire over who controlled Hawaii - the foreign planters or the Hawaiians - Congress passed the McKinley Tariff Act of 1890. The Tariff eliminated Hawaii's tax free sugar trading status and also gave domestic US sugar growers a bounty of 2 cents a pound so they could sell at lower prices than Hawaiian and other foreign growers.  Hawaiian sugar prices plunged 40%.  Consequently, Americans in Hawaii - who composed less than 10% of the population and owned about 3/4 of the island's total wealth - began pressing for annexation to classify their sugar as domestic rather than foreign. 

The following year, King Kalakaua died and his sister, Liliuokalani, assumed the throne. The Queen announced that she was planning a new constitution that would give her more discretionary powers to help fight the American planters. (See videos "Hawaii's Last Queen, Part 5 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G5DVF0u2OE and Part 6 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WjQwC0h7yM). In January of 1893, American and foreign resident merchants forced the Queen from power and proclaimed a provisional government under the leadership of pineapple entrepreneur Sanford B. Dole.

During the overthrow, the American Minister to Hawaii, John L. Stevens, ordered the landing of armed U.S. Marines from the USS Boston in Honolulu which he said was necessary to protect lives and property. The Provisional Government of Hawaii immediately sent a treaty of annexation to President Benjamin Harrison who referred it to the Senate for ratification on February 15, 1893. Three weeks later, Grover Cleveland became President and soon thereafter withdrew the treaty and appointed former congressman James Henderson Blount as special representative to investigate the events surrounding the overthrow. The investigation confirmed that self-interested Americans led a conspiracy and that Hawaiians opposed annexation.

Consequently, President Cleveland opposed annexation and tried to restore the Queen. In response, on July 4,1894, Sanford Dole announced the creation of the Republic of Hawaii and declared himself president. Many Hawaiians gathered arms for a counterrevolution to restore the monarchy.

In January of 1895, an insurrection began to try to restore the Queen; after 10 days of fighting, most of the rebels were captured.

• On January 15th, the Queen was arrested and imprisoned. She was tried, found guilty, and given the maximum sentence of five years imprisonment at hard labor and a $5,000 fine.
• While the sentence was not carried out, she remained a prisoner in the palace.
• During her imprisonment, the Queen abdicated her throne in return for the release of her jailed supporters.
• Eventually, she was released (See Hawaii's Last Queen, Part 7 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFms1Qe4u54) After her release, the provisional government placed her under house arrest for a year.
• In 1896, she received a full pardon.

In 1897, a treaty for annexation was submitted to the U.S. Senate, but did not receive the required 2/3 of the majority needed for approval. In the meantime, by late 1897, 21,269 native Hawaiian people -more than half of the 39,000 Hawaiians living in Hawaii - had signed a petition saying that they opposed annexation.

Four delegates traveled to the U.S. with the petition and they met up with the Queen who was already in the U.S. fighting against annexation. Together, they created a strategy to present the petition to the Senate. However, most Congressional sympathy for the Hawaiians died in February, 1898 when the U.S.S. Maine exploded, prompting the U. S. to start the Spanish-American War. Now the need for a mid-Pacific fueling location was essential - and the Hawaiian Islands were the optimal choice.

Shortly thereafter, President McKinley signed a treaty to annex Hawaii, but it failed in the Senate. Congress still was not deterred. Instead of passing the treaty, a joint resolution of both houses of Congress was passed on July 4th to approve annexation. In 1900, Hawaii became a territory of the U.S. and Sanford Dole became its first governor. Since then, many Hawaiians and many historians have questioned the legitimacy of the annexation by joint resolution because international law requires annexation to be accomplished by a treaty.

On August 21, 1959 Hawaii joined the US and became the 50th state. And in 1993, the U.S. Congress passed and President Clinton signed an Apology Resolution apologizing for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii a century before.

End of first day discussion

Goal #3: To explore the issues raised about Manifest Destiny and imperialism inherent in the acquisition of the Philippines through warfare

Cold Call: Eleventh cold call on required reading - "Selling Empire: American Propaganda and War in the Philippines" at http://japanfocus.org/-Susan_A_-Brewer/4002/article.html

Methods Discussion: We have spent a great deal of time talking about Close Reading of our Texts. This article by Dr. Brewer required just such a close reading. Now that we have a strong understanding of her article, it is important that we work together to analyze the "bottom line." Please do the following:

1. Get into groups of 3-4. Assign a recorder who will also report your group's findings to the entire class.
2. Spend 10 minutes discussing the following:
   • Does the author portray McKinley as a liberator or a conqueror? What is the traditional narrative?
   • What were the attitudes of American "expansionists" about people of color and women? How do these attitudes fuel imperialism?
   • What were McKinley's goals for war with Spain?
   • What were the primary goals of the "campaign to keep the Philippines?"
   • What were the specific issues raised by anti-imperialists against continued U.S. control and occupation of the Philippines?
   • Describe the types of propaganda used to convince the American people to support war with the Filippinos.
3. Take another 5 minutes to decide what you believee to be the single, most powerful theme of Dr. Brewer's article. REMEMBER - a theme must be a message, a bottom line statement that consists of a complete sentence with a noun, verb, and object.
4. Be prepared to share your theme with the entire class AND to explain why the theme highlights the primary point Dr. Brewer is trying to make.

Do Now:

1. Take five minutes to write your response to the following statement: "I believe that the most important influences that Fidel Castro has had on U.S. foreign and domestic policy over the past 57 years include the following ... " In answering your question, be sure to remember that you are answering this as a teacher in training!
2. Get into a group of four people and take 10 minutes to discuss your answers and agree upon at least three influences and why your group selected them.
3. Elect a spokesperson to report your responses to the class.

Goal #4: To understand America's movement into Samoa - the last territory gained during the 19th Century

Most Americans have no idea that we have a territory in the Pacific that is about 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii - American Samoa. As we learned earlier, American Samoa is legally classified as an insular area, making it neither a part of one of the fifty U.S. states nor the U.S. federal district of Washington, D.C. Such areas are called "insular" because they were once administered by the War Department's Bureau of Insular Affairs, now the Office of Insular Affairs at the Department of the Interior.

So what does that mean? While Congress extends citizenship rights by birth to all inhabited territories, American Samoa is the ONE exception. American Samoans are the only people left with U.S. national status, even though they have been part of the U.S. for over a century. This means that American Samoans:

• are U.S. nationals by place of birth, or they are U.S. citizens by parentage, or naturalization after residing in a State three months;
• are free within the U.S. to move around and seek employment without immigration restrictions;
• cannot vote or hold office outside of American Samoa;
• do not pay U.S. federal income taxes but must pay other U.S. federal taxes - import/export taxes, federal commodity taxes,social security taxes.

Their current status - about which we will learn more later in our discsussion - came to be as a direct result of the American march into the Pacific during the era of Manifest Destiny. As we will see, their history of territorial status with the U.S. is both similar to, and quite different from, that of Hawaii. So just what is this history?

Methods Discussion: Research tells us that students simply do not understand the chronology of history. There are at least two ways that you can introduce students to Chronological Understanding.

1. Sentence Strip Timeline Activity. Working from a chronology you have either taken from a source or created yourself, select 10 events from the chronology that you feel are most important for students to understand about this history of the event/nation/person, etc.

• Make 4 copies of the events and cut them into strips. Put 10 strips into four different envelops - once for each group.
• Put students into four groups. Elect a spokesperson who will also take any relevant notes. Spend 5 minutes discussing among yourselves what you believe to be the appropriate chronoogical order of the events described in your 10 sentence strips. Then put them in that order by gluing them to a blank piece of paper provided by the teacher.
• Distribute your chronology with all of the events to each of the groups. (If you click here, you will see the entire selected chronology of the history of U.S. relations with American Samoa.) Using the chronology, have students take 5 minutes to determine how well their group did in establishing the correct chronological order of events.
• Take another 15 minutes to review the timeline and address the following questions. Be prepared to share your findings with the class.
  • What does the timeline tell you about how the Samoans felt about European and American interest in their islands?
  • How and why did Samoa get divided into two distinct lands - Western (now the Republic) Samoa and American Samoa?
  • What do you believe are the 5 most important events in the history of American Samoan territorial status of the United States of America.
  • How and why does this history of American Samoa fit into our discussion of Manifest Destiny? Or does it?

2. Chronological Reading. Provide your students with a copy of a chronology you have either taken from a source or created yourself. Have your students read through the chronology and using a marker, highlight the ten most important historical events that they believe give them the best understanding of the history of the event/topic, etc. Have them get into groups of 4 where they spend 15 minutes agreeing on the 10 most important events in the chronology. Conduct a classroom discussion on the findings.

So, now that we know the history of how and why American Samoa became a U.S. territory, let's bring the conversation forward to its contemporary status and the last two issues:

• American Samoans live in the only remaining unorganized territory and are the only territory in which its people are not U.S. citizens.  The legal status of “national” only applies to those who are born in American Samoa. 
• American Samoans are divided about the issue of citizenship.

If we look at American Samoa as the last territory annexed to the United States in the 19th Century and if we accept that part of the reason for its annexation was the American belief in Manifest Destiny and that the vast majority of American Samoans are patriotic and proud to be associated with the U.S., then we should all be asking - Why are American Samoans divided about losing their national status and becoming official U.S. citizens? The answer is complex and fascinating - and lies deeply embedded both in the understanding of American Samoans about what happened to other Pacific Islanders, especially the Hawaiians, during the era of Manifest Destiny, as well as the cultural and political traditions of the Samoan people.

1. Understanding of American Samoans about what happened to other Pacific Islanders, especially the Hawaiians. The American Samoans have deep ties with the Hawaiian people - culturally, politically, economically, and spiritually. Furthermore, they have a clear understanding of what happened when the Hawaiian king and his chiefs allowed foreigners - especially Americans - to buy Hawaiian land. And what did happen?? Because of this knowledge, many American Samoans have tenaciously held onto their traditional cultural and poliical traditions in order to keep American Samoa under the control of American Samoans.
2. Cultural and political traditions of American Samoans. American Samoa has two systems of government - the Constitutional government and the traditional village government.

• Constitutional government. The government has three branches: Executive, Legislative and Judicial.
  • Executive. Because American Samoa is a self-governing territory, the official executive is the U.S.President. While he does not play an active role, he can dissolve the Legislature/Fono and no legislative act can become law without his approval. The actual head of government is the elected Governor of American Samoa
  • Legislative. Legislative power is vested in the bicameral Fono. The House of Representatives has 21 elected members and the Senate has 18 members. Representatives are elected by the people and Senators are elected by the matai (chiefs). All senators must be matai.
  • Judicial. The judicial branch is independent of the executive and the legislature. The High Court of American Samoa is the highest court below the United States Supreme Court in American Samoa, with the District Courts below it. The High Court consists of a Chief Justice and an Associate Justice who are appointed by the United States Secretary of the Interior.

Traditional (local) village politics of both Samoa and American Samoa Islands are deeply imbedded in fa'amatai and fa'asamoa.

• Fa'asamoa refers to the traditional language and customs, and
• fa'amatai consists of the protocols of the local Fono (council) and matai. The fa'amatai influences every aspect of politics - from the family, to the village, to the region, to national matters. The Fono elect the matai through consensus. The matai and the fono decide on who owns and who may live on communal lands - the majority of which are communal. In most cases, such decisions about owning and residing on land are based upon one's status as a Samoan.

Discussion:

1. Who can be recognized members of the local fono?
2. Who can be matai?
3. Who can be members of the American Samoan Senate?
4. Who controls who owns and resides on communal land in American Samoa?
5. Why would any of these requirements encourage some American Samoans to continue supporting national status rather than American citizenship?

One of the bottom line understandings of this final content discussion on Manifest Destiny is that by 1899, as the map indicates, America had gained control over most of the Pacific Islands, thus extending the concept of Manifest Destiny outside the boundaries of the continental United States. The quest for Pacific possessions had begun before the Civil War - with the 1857 acquistion of Jarvis Island and the Howard and Baker Islands. It was sealed with the annexation of Hawaii in 1898 and finalized with the annexation of American Samoa in 1899.

Goal #5: To agree with and/or refute the theme of this unit - that the consequences of Manifest Destiny are an example of the theme that progress is not always progressive.

Methods Discussion: We are already familiar with the Write Around. So we will end today's discussion with this method.

• Step 1: Get into groups of 3-4 people each. Each of you needs a piece of lined paper. Write your name on the paper. As you work on the assignment below, please follow these rules:
  • Use legible writing
  • Use every minute of time you are allowed to write.
  • Please do not talk. This is a silent activity.
• Step 2: Each person will spend 5 minutes writing a response to the following question: The consequences of Manifest Destiny are an example of the theme that progress is not always progressive. Be sure to provide evidence from our last month's discussion in your response.
• Step 3: Pass your response to the person on your left. Take 5 minutes to read what was written by the other group member and write a response beneath it.You can agree or disagree, add an additional comment, ask questions, share a connection ("that reminds me ..."), or raise a whole new idea. Just keep the conversation going.
• Step 4: Pass your response to the person on your left. Take 10 minutes to read what was written by the two other group members and to respond as explained above in Step 3.
• Step 5: Pass the paper back to the original writer. Take 5 minutes to read what you originally wrote and what your other group members wrote in response and underline/highlight what you believe is the single most convincing argument that anyone wrote - including yourself.
• Step 6: Taking turns, each of you should read out loud the single most convincing argument you marked. Then take 10 minutes to decide if you can agree on ONE single most convincing arguement.. Elect a group spokesman to share your thoughts with the entire class. Be sure to turn in your papers at the end of class.