“The Moral Miasma of the Tropics”: American Imperialism and the Failed Annexation of the Dominican Republic, 1869-1871

Historians of American foreign relations have rarely paid attention to conceptual contestability in accounting for political disputes over territorial expansion; often, concepts and ideologies are treated as mere self-interested rhetoric. This essay examines an episode in the history of 19th century...

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Autor principal:	Fidel Tavárez
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN FR PT
Publicado:	Centre de Recherches sur les Mondes Américains 2011
Materias:	Annexation Dominican Republic Imperialism Republicanism Tropics United States Anthropology GN1-890 Latin America. Spanish America F1201-3799
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a1b5f87040cc44ec9b06ba75e0601f53
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:a1b5f87040cc44ec9b06ba75e0601f53
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a1b5f87040cc44ec9b06ba75e0601f532021-12-02T10:39:41Z“The Moral Miasma of the Tropics”: American Imperialism and the Failed Annexation of the Dominican Republic, 1869-18711626-025210.4000/nuevomundo.61771https://doaj.org/article/a1b5f87040cc44ec9b06ba75e0601f532011-07-01T00:00:00Zhttp://journals.openedition.org/nuevomundo/61771https://doaj.org/toc/1626-0252Historians of American foreign relations have rarely paid attention to conceptual contestability in accounting for political disputes over territorial expansion; often, concepts and ideologies are treated as mere self-interested rhetoric. This essay examines an episode in the history of 19th century American imperial history from the perspective of an intellectual history keenly aware of meaning and intention. It argues that the political conflict surrounding the ratification of the Santo Domingo Annexation Treaty was defined by two contending conceptions regarding the influence that climate had on human morals. While some politicians argued that the tropics degenerated the Anglo-Saxon race, others dismissed this idea entirely. Moreover, the manifest concern with how territorial expansion affected the inner workings of the republic, suggests that this episode must be understood as part of the long republican tradition of the West. Lastly, although this paper primarily focuses on conceptual contestability, by combining some of the methodological insights of Reinhart Koselleck, Quentin Skinner and J.G.A Pocock, it also proposes a way of reconciling the history of economic structures with the contextual history of political thought.Fidel TavárezCentre de Recherches sur les Mondes AméricainsarticleAnnexationDominican RepublicImperialismRepublicanismTropicsUnited StatesAnthropologyGN1-890Latin America. Spanish AmericaF1201-3799ENFRPTNuevo mundo - Mundos Nuevos (2011)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN FR PT
topic	Annexation Dominican Republic Imperialism Republicanism Tropics United States Anthropology GN1-890 Latin America. Spanish America F1201-3799
spellingShingle	Annexation Dominican Republic Imperialism Republicanism Tropics United States Anthropology GN1-890 Latin America. Spanish America F1201-3799 Fidel Tavárez “The Moral Miasma of the Tropics”: American Imperialism and the Failed Annexation of the Dominican Republic, 1869-1871
description	Historians of American foreign relations have rarely paid attention to conceptual contestability in accounting for political disputes over territorial expansion; often, concepts and ideologies are treated as mere self-interested rhetoric. This essay examines an episode in the history of 19th century American imperial history from the perspective of an intellectual history keenly aware of meaning and intention. It argues that the political conflict surrounding the ratification of the Santo Domingo Annexation Treaty was defined by two contending conceptions regarding the influence that climate had on human morals. While some politicians argued that the tropics degenerated the Anglo-Saxon race, others dismissed this idea entirely. Moreover, the manifest concern with how territorial expansion affected the inner workings of the republic, suggests that this episode must be understood as part of the long republican tradition of the West. Lastly, although this paper primarily focuses on conceptual contestability, by combining some of the methodological insights of Reinhart Koselleck, Quentin Skinner and J.G.A Pocock, it also proposes a way of reconciling the history of economic structures with the contextual history of political thought.
format	article
author	Fidel Tavárez
author_facet	Fidel Tavárez
author_sort	Fidel Tavárez
title	“The Moral Miasma of the Tropics”: American Imperialism and the Failed Annexation of the Dominican Republic, 1869-1871
title_short	“The Moral Miasma of the Tropics”: American Imperialism and the Failed Annexation of the Dominican Republic, 1869-1871
title_full	“The Moral Miasma of the Tropics”: American Imperialism and the Failed Annexation of the Dominican Republic, 1869-1871
title_fullStr	“The Moral Miasma of the Tropics”: American Imperialism and the Failed Annexation of the Dominican Republic, 1869-1871
title_full_unstemmed	“The Moral Miasma of the Tropics”: American Imperialism and the Failed Annexation of the Dominican Republic, 1869-1871
title_sort	“the moral miasma of the tropics”: american imperialism and the failed annexation of the dominican republic, 1869-1871
publisher	Centre de Recherches sur les Mondes Américains
publishDate	2011
url	https://doaj.org/article/a1b5f87040cc44ec9b06ba75e0601f53
work_keys_str_mv	AT fideltavarez themoralmiasmaofthetropicsamericanimperialismandthefailedannexationofthedominicanrepublic18691871
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“The Moral Miasma of the Tropics”: American Imperialism and the Failed Annexation of the Dominican Republic, 1869-1871

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