McKinley Administration And The Samoan Cases

The thesis deals with the final settlement of the Samoan tangle between 1897 and 1900 from the angle of American foreign policies. It has four chapters:Chapter one briefly disserts on the course during which the Samoan cases came into being, and how the Condominium worked in 1890s as well. It was the three Powers' chasing after their respective interests that caused the Samoan tangle. As an expedient measure to relax the tension, the Condominium itself had too many flaws, which led to the Samoan civil war of 1899 to a great extent.In the first section of chapter two, I analyze the great turn occurred in American foreign policy field in the late 1800s, which is summarized as the turn from the Continental Expansion to the Imperialist Expansion. In the other section, I discuss the passive policy practiced by the Cleveland Administration and the tough line exerted by the McKinley Administration in the Samoan cases. By arranging the structure like this, I aim at showing that the latter's Samoan policy was not only the result but also a component part of this turn.The third chapter describes the Samoan civil war of 1899. The war was the climax of the new conflict resulted from King Malietoa's death in 1898. In April 1899, a joint commission was sent to Samoa by the three Powers. It quieted down the chaos caused by the war in less than 3 months. Besides, it submitted a joint report to the three respective governments, in which a final settlement of the Samoan tangle, as well as the amendments to the Final Act, was recommended.The partition of the Samoan Islands is examined in concrete terms in the last chapter. I lay the stress on the Anglo-German negotiations held from August to November 1899, during the process of which the U.S. had remained well in the background but exerted important influence . The actual signing of the agreement on November 14 removed almost all obstacles on the road leading to the tripartite convention of December 2, which terminated the Samoan tangle.Seen from the point of view of the international relations, the settlement of the Samoan tangle declared the end of an era when great powers scramble for spheres of influence in the Pacific. While to the American foreign policy, it signified that the expansionist strategy in the Pacific had achieved an important phasic success.