Uncle Sam's War of 1898 and the Origins of Globalization

Preface

Preface ~ In early 1996, Walther Bernecker and Thomas Fischer ofthe University of Erlangen-Niirnberg, Germany, invited me to address a special conference ofthe Latin American Section ofthe Central Institute planned for June 1997. The conference's title, "1898: The Year that Marked an Epoch," set me to analyzing the meaning ofthe 1890s. Other opportunities to talk on 1898 at St. Antony's College, Oxford, in June 1997; at "The Crucible ofEmpire" conference organized by the University of New Orleans's Eisenhower Center in February 1998; at a panel discussion with Walter LaFeber, Robert Beisner, Kristin Hoganson, and Joseph A. Fry at the Society for Historians ofAmerican Foreign Relations (SHAFR) meeting in June 1998; at the University of Cologne in July 1998; and at the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association meeting in San Diego in August 1998 encouraged my quest for greater understanding of 1898. My graduate training in the u.s. Civil War and Reconstruction and in U.S. military history started under T. Harry Williams. During the early years ofthe Vietnam War, I discovered U.S. foreign relations. The writings ofWalter LaFeber, Thomas McCormick, Hans-Ulrich Wehler, David Horowitz, and, ofcourse, William A. Williams persuaded me to study foreign relations rather than military history. Later, the work ofFrench scholar Fernand Braudel, U.S. sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, and others drew me to the larger meaning of history. The scholarship and friendship ofWalt LaFeber, Louis Perez Jr., Ralph Lee Woodward, Jiirgen Buchenau, Tom McCormick, Kinley Brauer, Akira Iriye, and Robin Winks aided me at various turns. lowe these scholars and friends all a debt ofgratitude. The debt lowe Walt as a friend and colleague is special. He discussed this book with me over several years, read the whole xiv Preface manuscript very closely in an advanced stage, and agreed to write the foreword . Several colleagues at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette have encouraged and supported my work: Dean David Barry, former Academic Vice-President Gary Marotta, and two recently retired colleagues, Jim Dormon and Gloria Fiero. A glance at my interpretation of the international military and diplomatic events of the nineteenth century and 1898 reveals the debt to them and to scores of others. Much ofthe argument and evidence in this book comes from colleagues who may not agree with my reworking and synthesizing of their work. Another part of the evidence is borrowed from my research in fifteen countries over the past thirty-five years. Rather than burden the endnotes with extensive (and repetitive) citations ofarchival items, I have cited my essays and books as a shorthand device to direct the reader to places with full reference to the archives and scholarship which have influenced me on these matters. This project amplifies and expands on ideas advanced in the various talks mentioned in the first paragraph and published, in a revised version, in Walther Bernecker, ed., 1898: su significado para Ceniroamerica y el Caribe. Cesura, Cambio, Continuidad? (Frankfurt: Vervuert, 1998), and in the SHAFR Newsletter 28:3 (Sept. 1997). I thank the following presses for permitting me to draw upon my prior writings: Purdue University Press, from the essay "Napoleon Is Coming! Maximilian Is Coming!: The Intemational History of the Civil War in the Caribbean Basin," in The Union, the Confederacy, and the Atlantic Rim, ed. Robert E. May (W. Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue Univ. Press, 1995); the University ofAlabama Press, from Germany in Central America: Competitive Imperialism, 1821-1929 (Tuscaloosa, Ala.: Univ. ofAlabama Press, 1998); and Scholarly Resources, from The French in Central America: Culture and Commerce, 1820-1930 (Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 2000). I opted for a selected bibliography, which lists items cited several times in the notes or that were vital to my education about the meaning of 1898 in U.S. history. The translated quotations from German, Spanish, and French are my work. Colleagues at UL Lafayette, Guiliang Feng, Ke Lan, and Haiyan Tian, graciously guided me to the modern Pinyang spelling of Chinese personal and place names (the older Wade-Giles form is placed in parentheses at the first use). Various friends and colleagues have helped me locate and acquire the photos and images - I wish to thank all of them heartily: Louis A. Perez Jr., Dr. Georg Mondwurf(Bremerhaven, Germany), Iris Engstrand, Jean-Michel Granger (Paris, France), and Michael BolIn (Weder, Germany). My colleague Robert Carriker worked with me (and taught me) to make the maps. Preface xv lowe...