The United States as a World Power [2 ed.] 1330405641, 9781330405642

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'l'I-IE UNITED STArrES AS A ','TOItJ~D POWER

BY

ARCHIBALD CARY COOLIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Ncw mark

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY IB21 .dU rioht8 re8erved,

COr-YRIGB,.,

1908,

By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped.

Published May, 19o5.

NormootJ llJrtl5l5 I. B. Cushing Co. - nerwlck & SmIth Co.

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

PREFACE No one can be more conscious than the author of this volume how far it is from carrying out the too ambitious promise of its title. Its subject - the United States as a 'Vorld Power - could well be treated in many different \vays. One \vriter might recount the gro\vth of the country from its earliest infancy to its present stature; to another its economic position in the world to-day might be of surpassing interest; a third might care only for the spiritual influence of the United States, the spread of American ideals of liberty, government and civilization, and the changes those same ideals are now undergoing. The scope of the present work is n10re modest. It is a study of the part which the Ullited States plays in the great drama of world politics - a part which cannot help being important and which, although impossible to prophesy about in detail, yet is affected by circUlllstances of geography and of national character, of history and of tradition, of economic and of social conditions susccptible of investigation. This book \vas originally prepared in the forIn of }rctures \vbich were delivered at the So.,.bonne in the winter of 190G-07 as the Harvard lectures on the Hyde foundation. Since then it has been cntirely recast, but it doubtless still rctains traces of having becn first addressed to a foreign audience, the IllOre so as I have strivcn to preserve a neutral rather then a specifically American attitude. I have not felt called upon to offer a solutioll to all the v

PHEFACE

VI

problems to which I have referred or to volunteer my opinion on every disputed question. For nly last chapter I wish to lnake special acknowledgment to my fdend Louis Aubert of Paris, whose interesting recent work, AlII,el'icahl,s et Japonais, I have fOlllld most helpful, besides being reminded by it of IllallY pleasant discllssions we have had together. A volume covering so broad a field and one so full of controversial matter as tllC UIlited States as a \Vorld Power, is exposed at every point to charges of superficiality and partisanship. No book of the kind could satisfy everyone or perhaps anyone in all its details. I can only ask that Inine may be ju(lged as a whole rather thaIl praised or blamed on the strength of detached passages. As most of the facts cited are well known 01' easy to look up, copious reference to authorities has seemed needless. A. C. C. HAIWARD UNIVERSITY,

May, 1908.

CONTENTS P.lG~

1

IXTHODUCTION CHAPTER

I. II.

FORMATION AND GROWTH

16

N ATIOXALITY

40

AND !l\DUGRATION •

III.

RACE QUESTIONS

61

IV.

IDEALS AND SHIBBOLETHS

79

THE l\!oxROE DOCTHIXE

95

V.

THE SPANISH 'VAR

121

THE ACQUISITION OF COLONIES

134

VIII.

TilE PHILIPPINE QUESTION

148

IX.

ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS

172

THE UNITED STATES ANI> FRANCE

184

THE UNITED STATES AND GERMANY

196

VI. VII.

X. XI.

THE UNITED STATES AND RUSSIA

213

XIII.

THE UNITED STATES AXD ENGLAND

228

XIV.

THE UXITED STATES AXD CANADA

245

XII.

XV. XVI. XVII. XYIII. XIX.

·

THE ISTHMIAN CANAL

267

THE UNITED STATES AND LA TIN AMERICA

281

THE UNITED STATES IN THE PACIFIC.

313

TIlE UXITED STATES AND CHINA.

·

TIlE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN

·

IXDEX

vii

327 341 375