Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T21:30:15.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Domestic Politics of World Power: Explaining Debates over the United States Battleship Fleet, 1890–91

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2018

Benjamin O. Fordham
Get access

Abstract

The United States' 1890–91 decision to begin building a battleship fleet, an important point in its development as a world power, can illuminate the domestic sources of foreign policy ambition. An analysis of roll-call votes in the House of Representatives indicates that socioeconomic divisions arising from industrialization strongly influenced support and opposition to the battleship fleet. This relationship worked mainly through trade policy interests: members of Congress from import-competing states tended to support the effort, while those from export-oriented states tended to oppose it. The patriotic symbolism of battleships at a time of labor unrest also helped motivate support for the program, though evidence of this pattern is less conclusive. Although party affiliation was crucial, it was also partly a function of economic structure, which shaped the two parties’ electoral fortunes. The impact of trade interests during this period is a mirror image of what previous research has found concerning the post-World War II era, when export-oriented interests tended to support American global activism and import-competing interests to oppose it. The reason for the difference is the Republican Party's commitment to trade protection, which strongly influenced both the goals of the policy and the identity of its supporters.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 73 , Issue 2 , Spring 2019 , pp. 435 - 468
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I thank Michael Colaresi, Brian Crisher, Rex Douglass, Chris Farriss, Erik Gartzke, Patrick James, Katja Kleinberg, Michael Lee, David Lindsey, Carla Martinez Machain, Michael Mousseau, Paul Poast, Mark Souva, William Thompson, and participants in colloquia at Binghamton University and the University of California, San Diego, for comments on earlier versions of this paper. I am especially grateful to Michael Flynn, who has been involved in research related to this project from its beginning, and to Jonathan Markowitz, who talked me into revisiting it. Research for this paper was funded in part by the National Science Foundation Political Science Program through grant SES-1022546.

References

Acharya, Avidit, Blackwell, Matthew, and Sen, Maya. 2016. Explaining Causal Findings Without Bias: Detecting and Assessing Direct Effects. American Political Science Review 110 (3):512–29.Google Scholar
Baack, Ben, and Ray, Edward. 1985. The Political Economy of the Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex in the United States. Journal of Economic History 45 (2):369–75.Google Scholar
Bairoch, Paul. 1989. European Trade Policy, 1815–1914. In The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 8, edited by Mathias, Pater and Pollard, Sidney, 1–160. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Balke, Nathan S., and Gordon, Robert J.. 1989. The Estimation of Prewar Gross National Product: Methodology and New Evidence. Journal of Political Economy 97 (1):38–92.Google Scholar
Bailey, Michael, and Brady, David W.. 1998. Heterogeneity and Representation: The Senate and Free Trade. American Journal of Political Science 42 (2):524–44Google Scholar
Bensel, Richard Franklin. 2000. The Political Economy of American Industrialization, 1877–1900. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Broz, J. Lawrence. 2005. Congressional Politics of International Financial Rescues. American Journal of Political Science 49 (3):479–96.Google Scholar
Broz, J. Lawrence. 2008. Congressional Voting on Funding the International Financial Institutions. Review of International Organizations 3 (4):351–74.Google Scholar
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, US Department of Commerce. 1915. Foreign Commerce and Navigation of the United States for the Year Ending June 30, 1914. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Bureau of Statistics, US Department of the Treasury. 1891. Foreign Commerce and Navigation, Immigration, and Tonnage of the United States for the Year Ending June 30, 1890. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Bureau of Statistics, US Department of the Treasury. 1900. Foreign Commerce and Navigation, Immigration, and Tonnage of the United States for the Year Ending June 30, 1900. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Carr, William. 1973. Arms, Autarky, and Aggression. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Carter, Susan B., Gartner, Scott Sigmund, Haines, Michael R., Olmstead, Alan L., Sutch, Richard, and Wright, Gavin, eds. 2006. Historical Statistics of the United States, Millenium Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Census Office, Department of the Interior. 1895a. Report on Manufacturing Industries of the United States at the Eleventh Census: 1890, Part I. Totals for States and Industries. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Census Office, Department of the Interior. 1895b. Report on Manufacturing Industries of the United States at the Eleventh Census: 1890, Part III. Selected Industries. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Cooling, Benjamin Franklin. 1973. Benjamin Franklin Tracy. Hamden, CT: Archon Books.Google Scholar
Dallek, Robert. 1982. National Mood and American Foreign Policy: A Suggestive Essay. American Quarterly 34 (4):339–61.Google Scholar
Dueck, Colin. 2006. Reluctant Crusaders. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Evans, George. 1948. Business Incorporations in the United States, 1800–1943. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fordham, Benjamin O. 1998. Economic Interests, Party, and Ideology in Early Cold War Era US Foreign Policy. International Organization 52 (2):359–95.Google Scholar
Fordham, Benjamin O. 2008. Economic Interests and Congressional Voting on American Foreign Policy. Journal of Conflict Resolution 52 (5):623–40.Google Scholar
Fordham, Benjamin O. 2017. Protectionist Empire: Trade, Tariffs, and US Foreign Policy, 1890–1914. Studies in American Political Development 31 (2):170–92.Google Scholar
Fordham, Benjamin O., and McKeown, Timothy J.. 2003. Selection and Influence: Interest Groups and Congressional Voting on Trade Policy. International Organization 57 (3):519–49.Google Scholar
Frieden, Jeffry A. 1991. Invested Interests: The Politics of National Economic Policies in a World of Global Finance. International Organization 45 (4):425–51.Google Scholar
Fry, Joseph A. 1996. From Open Door to World Systems: Economic Interpretations of Late Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations. Pacific Historical Review 65 (2):277–303.Google Scholar
Gordon, Michael R. 1974. Domestic Conflict and the Origins of the First World War: The British and the German Cases. Journal of Modern History 46 (2):191–226.Google Scholar
Haines, Michael R., and the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. 2004. Historical, Demographic, Economic, and Social Data: The United States, 1790–2000 [Computer file]. Hamilton, NY and Colgate University/Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producers]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor].Google Scholar
Hannigan, Robert E. 2002. The New World Power. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Hofstadter, Richard. 1966 [1951]. Cuba, the Philippines, and Manifest Destiny. In The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays, edited by Hofstadter, Richard, 145–87. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Imai, Kosuke, Keele, Luke, Tingley, Dustin, and Yamamoto, Teppei. 2011. Unpacking the Black Box of Causality: Learning About Causal Mechanisms from Experimental and Observational Studies. American Political Science Review 105 (4):765–89.Google Scholar
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, and Carroll McKibbin. 1997. Roster of United States Congressional Officeholders and Biographical Characteristics of Members of the United States Congress, 1789–1996: Merged Data, Tenth ICPSR Edition [Computer file]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor].Google Scholar
Irwin, Douglas A. 2017. Clashing Over Commerce. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Irwin, Douglas A., and Kroszner, Randall S.. 1999. Interests, Institutions, and Ideology in Securing Policy Change: The Republican Conversion to Trade Liberalization After Smoot-Hawley. Journal of Law and Economics 42 (2):643–73.Google Scholar
Kehr, Eckart. 1975 [1930]. Battleship Building and Party Politics in Germany, 1894–1901. Edited, translated and with an introduction by Anderson, Pauline R. and Anderson, Eugene N.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kehr, Eckart. 1977 [1927]. Anglophobia and Weltpolitik. In Economic Interest, Militarism and Foreign Policy, edited by Craig, Gordon, translated by Heinz, Grete, 22–49. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kleinberg, Katja B., and Fordham, Benjamin O.. 2013. The Domestic Politics of Trade and Conflict. International Studies Quarterly 57 (3):605–19.Google Scholar
LaFeber, Walter. 1963. The New Empire. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
LaFeber, Walter. 1993. The American Search for Opportunity, 1865–1913. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Laughlin, J. Lawrence, and Willis, H. Parker. 1903. Reciprocity. New York: Baker and Taylor.Google Scholar
Legro, Jeffrey W. 2005. Rethinking the World. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Levy, Jack. 1989. The Diversionary Theory of War: A Critique. In The Handbook of War Studies, edited by Midlarsky, Manus, 259–88. Boston: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Lipsey, Robert E. 1963. Price and Quantity Trends in the Foreign Trade of the United States. Princeton, NJ: National Bureau of Economic Research.Google Scholar
Long, J. Scott. 1997. Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Luce, S.B. 1889. Our Future Navy. North American Review 149 (392):54–65.Google Scholar
Mahan, Alfred T. 1987 [1890]. The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Mahan, Alfred T. 1897 [1890]. The United States Looking Outward. In The Interest of America in Sea Power, Present and Future, edited by Mahan, Alfred T., 3–27. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Mayer, Kenneth R. 1991. The Political Economy of Defense Contracting. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
McCormick, Thomas J. 1967. China Market. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.Google Scholar
McDonald, Patrick J. 2009. The Invisible Hand of Peace. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mead, Walter Russell. 2001. Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Milner, Helen V., and Tingley, Dustin H.. 2010. The Political Economy of US Foreign Aid: American Legislators and the Domestic Politics of Aid. Economics and Politics 22 (2):200–32.Google Scholar
Milner, Helen V., and Tingley, Dustin H.. 2011. Who Supports Global Economic Engagement? The Sources of Preferences in American Foreign Economic Policy. International Organization 65 (1):37–68.Google Scholar
Moore, John Bassett. 1903. The United States As a World Power (188–1902). The Cambridge Modern History, vol. 7: The United States, edited by Ward, Adolphus William, Prothero, G.W., and Leathes, Stanley Mordaunt, 655–86. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Narizny, Kevin. 2001. The New Debate: International Relations Theory and American Strategic Adjustment in the 1890s. Security Studies 11 (1):151–70.Google Scholar
Narizny, Kevin. 2007. The Political Economy of Grand Strategy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
O'Connell, Robert L. 1991. Sacred Vessels: The Cult of the Battleship and the Rise of the US Navy. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Palen, Marc-William. 2015. The Imperialism of Economic Nationalism, 1890–1913. Diplomatic History 39 (1):157–85.Google Scholar
Palen, Marc-William. 2016. The “Conspiracy” of Free Trade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Perkins, Bradford. 1984. The Tragedy of American Diplomacy: Twenty-Five Years After. Reviews in American History 12 (1):1–18.Google Scholar
Poole, Keith T., and Rosenthal, Howard. 2007. Ideology and Congress: A Political Economic History of Roll Call Voting. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Rhodes, Edward. 1999. Constructing Power: Cultural Transformation and Strategic Adjustment in the 1890s. In The Politics of Strategic Adjustment, edited by Trubowitz, Peter, Goldman, Emily O., and Rhodes, Edward, 29–78. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Roy, William G. 1990. Rise of American Industrial Corporations, 1880–1914. [Computer file]. Los Angeles, CA: University of California, Department of Sociology [producer]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor].Google Scholar
Rundquist, Barry S., and Carsey, Thomas M.. 2002. Congress and Defense Spending. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Shulman, Mark. 1999. Institutionalizing a Political Idea: Navalism and the Emergence of American Sea Power. In The Politics of Strategic Adjustment, edited by Trubowitz, Peter, Goldman, Emily O., and Rhodes, Edward, 79–104. New York Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Simon, Matthew, and Novack, David E.. 1964. Some Dimensions of the American Commercial Invasion of Europe, 1871–1914: An Introductory Essay. Journal of Economic History 24 (4):591–605.Google Scholar
Snyder, Jack. 1991. Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Socolofsky, Homer E., and Spetter, Allan B.. 1987. The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Sprout, Harold, and Sprout, Margaret. 1966 [1939]. The Rise of American Naval Power, 1776–1918. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Terrill, Tom E. 1973. The Tariff, Politics, and American Foreign Policy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Thorpe, Rebecca U. 2014. The American Warfare State. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Trubowitz, Peter. 1998. Defining the National Interest: Conflict and Change in American Foreign Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
US Congress. 1890. Congressional Record, vol. 21 (51st Congress, 1st Session). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
US Congress. 1891. Congressional Record, vol. 22 (51st Congress, 2nd Session). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
US Senate. 1890. Report of Policy Board, Ex. Doc. No. 43, 51st Congress, 1st Session. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Wehler, Hans-Ulrich. 1970. Bismarck's Imperialism, 1862–1890. Past and Present 48 (August):119–55.Google Scholar
Williams, William A. 1969. The Roots of the Modern American Empire. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Williams, William A. 1972 [1959]. The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, new ed. New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Wright, Carroll D. 1901. Sixteenth Annual Report of the Commission of Labor: Strikes and Lockouts. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Fordham supplementary material

Appendix

Download Fordham supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 908 KB