The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion, 1860-1898

by Walter F. LaFeber

This classic work, by the distinguished historian Walter LaFeber, presents his widely influential argument that economic causes were the primary forces propelling America to world power in the nineteenth century. Cornell University Press is proud to issue this thirty-fifth anniversary edition, featuring a new preface by the author. "In this Beveridge Award-winning study, Walter LaFeber... probes beneath the apparently quiet surface of late nineteenth-century American diplomacy, undisturbed by major wars and undistinguished by important statements of policy. He finds those who shaped American diplomacy believed expanding foreign markets were the cure for recurring depressions.... In thoroughly documenting economic pressure on American foreign policy of the late nineteenth century, the author has illuminated a shadowy corner of the national experience.... The theory that America was thrust by events into a position of world power it never sought and was unprepared to discharge must now be re-examined. Also brought into question is the thesis that American policymakers have depended for direction on the uncertain compass of utopian idealism."―American Historical Review

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, International Relations, Grad School, Politics

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

One of the foremost scholars of American foreign policy, Walter Fredrick LaFeber was the Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor in the Department of History at Cornell University. Previous to that he served as the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History and a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell.

Reviews

[Mark Bowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A. Synopsis
1. This book examines the early years of the American overseas empire. It asks the question, what effects did the industrial revolution have on our expansionist foreign policy? The foreign policy formulators were not immune to the dominant characteristic of their time--the IR and the beginning of modern America.
2. Two conclusions:
a) The United States did not suddenly begin its expansionist path in the late 1890s. The overseas empire that America controlled in 1900 was not a break in their history, but a culmination.
b) Americans actively sought out this empire.
3. It is difficult to use the terms imperialism, colonization, and expansion. The term imperialism is abandoned because of the connotations given to it during the Cold War make it almost meaningless. The term colonization is used to mean a policy which attempted to obtain political or economic control of a given area and to use that area for markets for surplus goods. The term expansion is used to describe American attempts to find trade and investment opportunities in areas where the United States did not want to exert formal political control. Expansion is also used to describe the non-economic policy toward Hawaii and the Philippines. Policy makers wanted Hawaii and the Philippines not only for direct economic returns. Instead, they were annexed in order to develop interests in Asia and (in the case of Hawaii) to safeguard a commercial passageway to Central America.
4. Under the impact of the IR, America began to search for markets not land. The results of this expansionist movement were always the same: The growth of economic interests led to political entanglements and to increased military responsibilities.
B. A new diplomatic history began in the early 1850s.
1. By the time William Seward became Lincoln’s Secretary of State in 1861, a new empire had started to take form. It was distinguished from the old in 2 ways. (1) With the completion of continental conquest, America moved with increasing authority into such extracontinental areas such as Hawaii, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. (2) The form of expansion changed. Instead of searching for farming, mineral , or grazing lands, Americans sought foreign markets for agricultural staples or industrial goods.
2. The familiar story of American isolation is a myth when examined from economic and ideological factors. From 1838-49 exports totaled $116 million. Between 1850 and 1873, exports more than doubled to $274 million. The Atlantic did shelter the US from many European problems--but not all. The US was involved in the international slave trade, Latin-American revolutions, and colonial questions in Africa.
3. The years between 1850 and 1889 were the years of preparation for the “watershed” expansionary 1890s. Spurred by an industrial revolution which produced ever larger quantities of surplus goods, America prepared to solve its dilemmas (violence, depressions) with foreign expansion and increasing commercial entanglements. These years provided the roots of empire, not the fruits. The fruits would come in the 1890s.
C. What were the intellectual, strategic, and economic formulations of this new expansion?
1. The intellectual formulation. The intellectuals speak for their society.
a) Turner, Josiah Strong, Brooks Adams, and Alfred Thayer Mahan typified the expansive tendencies of their generation. Turner and Strong did not did not directly influence expansionists during the 1890s , but their writings exemplify certain beliefs which determined the nature of American foreign policy. Adams and Mahan participated more directly in the shaping of expansionist programs.
b) An example of the intellectual contribution to expansionist thought was the “Frontier Thesis.” All agreed with Turner that the 1890s marked the closing of the “first period of American history.” This was the crucial period because the landed frontier disappeared. The frontier provided the economic support for political and social democracy.
2. The strategic formulation of the new America.
a) The decade from 1889-99 was the first decade of a new century for America. The first 100 years focused on continental expansion. The Benjamin Harrison administration( and Secretary of State James Blaine) outlined the foreign policies that characterized the nations broadening involvement in world affairs. Harrison has never received the credit he deserves for building a new empire.
b) The search for foreign markets (due to domestic overproduction) dominated the administrations foreign policies. The Harrison-Blaine approach posited American control of this hemisphere
3. The economic formulation
a) The first step in attaining the empire envisioned by Harrison was the formation of a consensus by important political and business leaders on the necessity of an expansive foreign policy. This consensus resulted from the depression which struck the United States from 1893 to 1897. Economic analyses by the Cleveland administration, business community, and congress concluded that foreign markets were necessary for the prosperity of the United States.
D. What were the reactions or the results of the expansionary policy?
1. The Venezuelan boundary crisis, 1895-96
a) What was the boundary crisis? They began in 1841 when a British surveyor mapped the western limits of British Guina. He included Point Barima, which was inside Guina’s boundaries. Venezuela protested because the Point controlled the mouth of the Orinoco River, which was the trade artery for the northern 1/3 of South America.
b) This indicated the explosive potential of the conclusion reached by American political and business leaders that overseas commercial expansion could solve economic stagnation and social unrest. Latin America was considered the most promising area for this expansion to occur. The State Department did what it thought would most benefit American interests, not what Venezuela wanted. The boundary dispute simmered for over 50 years, so it is important to note why the United States chose 1895 as the opportune moment to end the controversy and assert control over the Western Hemisphere. American action came as a direct answer to British encroachments in Latin America.
2. New problems, new friends, new foes
a) New problems: the Cuban Revolution (1895-97) disturbed hemispheric tranquillity
b) New foes: The balance of power in the Far East swung in the balance of Japan. Germany and Russia attempted to restore the balance and try to disadvantage Japan, US, and Britain.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent examination of relationship between America's rise first as an economic power and then as a colonial power. LaFeber re-evaluates McKinley. He's was far from a tool used by the powerful, but a very sharp politician he was fully in command of his administration. This book is justifiably famous, and is required reading for anyone wanting to understand America's entry into global politics.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

No more evidence that we're living in the Second Gilded Age than the return of reciprocal tariffs, openly racist anti-immigration, and imperialist intervention in Latin America - all at the bidding of a cronyist elite. Only, in the first Gilded Age this made a sort of twisted sense, reflecting a real crisis of manufacturing overproduction. Today, a thoroughly deindustrialized America in need of a new growth engine is simply rummaging through old, hashed-out ideas as its inept policymakers refuse to come to terms with the secular stagnation the world has faced for some time now. Propping up consecutive bubbles each with weaker recoveries didn't work, so now we turn to out-right theft. Bleak times

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating exploration of the economic circumstances and intellectual movements that influenced American imperialism that led up to the Spanish-American War of 1898.

[Wv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book. Excellent sources. Details how commerce, not land or colonies, was the main driven in forging a global US.

[Eleanore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mehhh - it is an important classic work of Diplomatic History. Lefeber was one of the first scholars to make the argument that far from acquiring empire "in a fit of absent-mindedness," the US expansionist foreign policy in the late 19th century was a natural and explicit extension of its industrialized capitalist economy. In doing so, he highlights American anxieties surrounding the closing of the frontier, the experience of a number of severe economic crises, and the European commercial encroachments in the Western Hemisphere. Clearly written and researched, the New Empire fails to transcend the tedium of the details its argument is embroiled with - interesting characters and unusual events are left as pale shadows and the thread of potentially vivid and gripping narrative almost always is dropped in favor of rather dry analysis. Nonetheless, the work has real value and renewed relevance in light of our current economic crises and a new era of strategic maneuvering in the Far East...

[Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provides a solid structural overview of the historical processes that led the United States to becoming an imperial power in the late 1800s. LaFeber does a good job describing how the political climate was shaped within the U.S. by various actors and how their debates and actions helped set the course for the country's future.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lafeber does well at proving his thesis: that American imperialism was largely a consequence of the industrial revolution and the need for new markets. "The New Empire" was a very calculated move by statesmen from the end of the Civil War until the turn of the century. The book isn't really that interesting in how its written, but maybe it isn't an easy subject matter to do so.

[Nicole]

Certainly a classic, and it still largely stands. I didn't enjoy the writing style, though it was certainly good when it was written. It reminded me a lot of Higham's Strangers in the Land, with it's very strict chronological approach.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for school, not for review.