MAN: In the late 19th century, China was a fairly weak government. And as the United States looked at the various European powers that were trading there, that were setting up ports there, that were stationing troops there, they worried about two things. First, they worried that what had happened 10 or so years before in Africa would happen again in China.
There had been what was called a scramble for Africa in the 1880s when all of the European powers fought for land and nearly set off wars with each other over acquiring territory in Africa. And many people, particularly in the United States, were worried that this was going to happen again in China. American diplomats were particularly concerned that if it did, Americans wouldn't be able to get in on the scramble.
Americans certainly had economic power that they could flex in China, but they had not enough military might or Naval power to set up a colony there. And there wasn't political will to do that either. That the Philippine-American War had really convinced a lot of Americans that we were not in the colony setting-up business.
So in 1899, John Hay, who was the Secretary of State, published a series of what he called Open Door Notes, where he basically sent letters to all of the major European powers saying, we believe that China should be open to all countries equally for trade and that China should maintain its own tariff and revenue collection systems. And we should respect the integrity of China itself.
Those were terms that certainly benefited the United States as much as anybody else and certainly protected the US from having to intervene militarily. The Open Door Notes were also just that. They were just notes. And that and five cents would get you on a streetcar in 1899. And the US didn't have the military force to back those up.