'One false step:' The 'Insular Cases' and American twentieth century foreign policy

As the sounds of gunfire faded from the 1898 Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War, the United States hovered on the precipice of empire. Though frequently imperialistic in its expansion across the North American continent and through its subordination of other peoples prior to the 1898 war, the United States had rhetorically maintained a divide between itself and traditional, European empires. Yet in the 1890s, proponents of the Large Policy, a political ideology emphasizing U.S. expansion in the Pacific and Caribbean through colonization and increased naval power, became increasingly influential in determining the nation's foreign policy. Expansionist politicians saw an opportunity to implement their philosophies when the Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War peace settlement ceded to the United States the Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. However, the constitutional viability of Large Policy ideology had to be scrutinized before the United States could act as a colonial power. In the 1901 Insular Cases, the United States Supreme Court examined and legally upheld the United States's right to exert political influence without extending democratic rights. The Insular Cases then provided a legal support system for further U.S. imperialistic inroads throughout the early twentieth century, particularly in the Caribbean and Latin America. This thesis argues that the Insular Cases brought the Large Policy to fruition in American politics and provided impetus for implementation of U.S. control in the Caribbean and Pacific, thereby playing a significant role in shaping the imperialistic foreign policy of the twentieth century.