Institution: Grossmont College

Location: El Cajon, CA

Participant: Carlos Contreras

Year: 2016

Films:

• Business Interests Push US Involvement Overseas (3:50, an Intelecom film)
• The Splendid Little War (2:34, an Intelecom film)
• Spoils of Spanish-American War Extend beyond the Caribbean (4:21, an Intelecom film)
• The Panama Canal (4:05, an Intelecom film)
• Manifest Destiny: To Conquer or Redeem, Act I (to 26:09) and Act III: “Benevolent Assimilation” (58:52-1:29)

Readings:

• “Confusing Occupation with Liberation” by Amy Kaplan (LA Times article)
• Read the following articles: “The Monroe Doctrine” and “The US and Latin America since the End of the 19th Century” by Carlos Alberto Contreras

Take copious notes on these very important films and give expansive answers to the following big questions for each before our discussion. One question is from our article. All of these are on your exam.

1. From film Business Interests Push US Involvement Overseas discuss the following:
   US expansion overseas
   Manifest Destiny
   Social Darwinism
   Frederick Jackson Turner's “Frontier Thesis” (the “frontier” and “Manifest Destiny”)
2. From film The Splendid Little War discuss:
   US War with Spain 1898
   Teller Amendment
   Theodore Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” and African American Soldiers
3. From film Spoils of Spanish-American War Extend beyond the Caribbean discuss:
   US and the Philippines
   US and Puerto Rico
   The role of race and Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden“
4. From film The Panama Canal, discuss in detail:
   How US foments the “independence” of Panama from Colombia
   The importance of a trans-isthmian canal to an expanding US
   The Hay/Bunau Varilla Treaty
5. From film Manifest Destiny: To Conquer or Redeem, Act I, discuss in detail: Act I
   The role of violence
   Frederick Jackson Turner’s “Frontier Thesis” (the “frontier” and “Manifest Destiny”)
   1893 Economic Collapse
   The navy and US power
   Hawaii and what it has to do with Manifest Destiny, US power, and Empire
   The role of the US media
   Cuba, a canal, and coaling stations
   The US and the Philippines
6. From film Manifest Destiny: To Conquer or Redeem, Act III: “Benevolent Assimilation,” discuss in detail:
   Race and US economic expansion
   US and Cuba and the Platt Amendment
   1898
   The US and the Philippines
   Ideology: Christianity
   Ideology: “Benevolent Assimilation”
   What does “Benevolent Assimilation” mean for the Filipinos? Consequences?
   US “Informal Empire,” US Hegemony, discuss in detail.
7. Discuss the importance of our article: “Confusing Occupation with Liberation” by Amy Kaplan