Published Date

January 1, 2016

Resource Type

AHA Resource, For the Classroom

Thematic

Digital Methods, Migration, Immigration, & Diaspora, Military, Religion, Social, Visual Culture

AHA Topics

Teaching & Learning, Undergraduate Education

Geographic

Latin America/Caribbean, United States

This resource was developed as part of the AHA’s Globalizing the US History Survey project

 

By Carlos Contreras

Institution: Grossmont College

Location: El Cajon, CA

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.

  • 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”)
  • From film The Splendid Little War discuss:
    • US War with Spain 1898
    • Teller Amendment
    • Theodore Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” and African American Soldiers
  • 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“
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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.
  • Discuss the importance of our article: “Confusing Occupation with Liberation” by Amy Kaplan
Carlos Contreras
Carlos Alberto Contreras

Grossmont College