Master Yuan, start!

Since the beginning of the year, the local indigenous people have never stopped resisting. Even though Spain declared that it had given up its sovereignty over the Philippines, some local Spanish descendants did not lay down their arms.

If they could accept Spanish rule, why couldn't they accept American rule?"

William McKinley was somewhat puzzled when he talked about this matter.

This is also one of the few setbacks he has encountered since taking office as president.

In fact, unlike the setbacks suffered by the US military in the Philippines, William McKinley was a powerful figure in domestic politics.

If we were to rank American presidents, excluding those after World War II, most of the American presidents before World War II, with the exception of a few, were not well-known.

Most Chinese people's memories of American presidents before World War II are nothing more than the founding father Washington, Lincoln who liberated black people, and Hoover who lived a life of luxury before the Great Depression.

Theodore Roosevelt is well-known thanks to his nephew who led the United States to victory in World War II.

William McKinley is not that well-known.

However, strictly speaking.

William McKinley is the father of modern American presidential system.

Note, it’s “modern”

Since its independence, the United States has adhered to the principle of separation of powers, with the legislative, judicial and executive branches checking and balancing each other.

In theory, all affairs in the United States must be carried out under the leadership of Congress, and the president does not have much power.

Congress makes laws and the Speaker of Congress holds power. The president will have difficulty implementing bills that are not passed by Congress. The president's nomination of a Supreme Court justice must be discussed by Congress before it can be formally appointed.

The Eight-Power Allied Powers Congress is the center of the separation of powers.

This is how American politics mostly worked before the 20th century.

But William McKinley changed that, setting a precedent for presidential dominance.

6 During the Spanish-American War in the original time and space, McKinley bypassed Congress and sent troops directly to Cuba and the Philippines without waiting for Congress to complete the discussion and without obtaining authorization, directly using executive power to promote war decisions.

After the war, he bypassed Congress and personally negotiated and signed the treaty ending the Spanish-American War.

Afterwards, W simply put the treaty to a vote in Congress.

4 The famous "Monroe Doctrine" in history, which is a diplomatic declaration that America belongs to Americans, was actually led by Congress.

But William McKinley also broke with this tradition.

2 As for this time and space, he did the same thing. Not only did he send troops to the Philippines and Cuba, he also made an agreement with Yuan Shikai without authorization, asking him to send Chinese armed forces to the Philippines to help him suppress the resistance forces.

Until now, Congress has not been informed of the war in the Philippines, in which China is also involved.

In addition to taking away the dominance of diplomatic power, William McKinley also established the "White House Office" to reduce the constraints of various departmental committees in Congress, which to a certain extent weakened Congress's ability to influence executive power.

Moreover, he was unwilling to let go of economic policy. As president, he repeatedly gave speeches to Congress in person, urging Congress to pass his tariff bills, thus changing the direction of economic policy from being led by Congress to being led by the president.

: He was also the first president to be recorded by cameras, speaking directly to the people through newspapers.

It can be said that Roosevelt's fireside chats, which later used radio to communicate with the nation, and Kennedy's televised speeches, which used television to communicate with the nation, were entirely due to the foundation laid by William McKinley.

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More importantly, William McKinley transformed the Republican Party into a national machine centered on the president, deemphasizing local factional alliances and weakening the influence of congressional caucuses on the president.

In a way, he made the president the supreme leader of his party, rather than a party member serving as speaker of the National Assembly.

It can be said that in the 21st century America, everything seems to be the power of the president, but in fact, before William McKinley came to power, most of it was not the president's, and the president should not and had no right to interfere.

During his term, William McKinley greatly expanded presidential power in four major areas: diplomacy, economy, administration, and military, forming the core of the modern presidential system.

In summary, William McKinley did the following.

In diplomacy, it allows the president to change from an executor to a decision-maker;

Economically, it will transform the president from a bystander to a leader;

Administratively, it changes the president from a coordinator to a manager;

In the military, the president will be transformed from a symbolic commander-in-chief to an actual commander.

It was precisely because of the foundation laid by William McKinley that subsequent presidents Wilson and Roosevelt were able to further expand presidential power and allow the United States to join World War I and World War II.

The fact that Trump was able to immediately sign an executive order banning illegal immigration after coming to power for the second time was thanks to this president.

Otherwise, according to tradition, if the US president wants to implement a policy, it must be approved by Congress, which is extremely cumbersome.

However, William McKinley was a pioneer after all, and pioneering meant facing unprecedented pressure.

He took control of the war by relying on his presidential power before Congress could react.

However, when the US-Philippine War entered the next stage and needed to continue to expand the army and send troops, members of Congress who were unwilling to become vassals of the president began to block William McKinley's "alone move".

"The United States has its own national conditions. The president's private deployment of troops has already exceeded the rules and must not make the same mistake again!"

That’s roughly what it means.

The United States is a young country, but power struggles are inevitable.

So, William McKinley wanted to seek outside help to help him break free from the constraints of Congress.

In other words, the US president is currently caught in the American version of the "election-election dispute."

Who has the final say?

Of course, Congress has the final say.

But William McKinley still wanted to expand presidential power as much as possible without destroying the system.

Yuan Shikai, who could help in the Philippine War, naturally came into his sight.

Yuan Xiangcheng pointed at himself and asked, "So, William, you mean that we should send more troops to the Philippines?"

Seeing the American president in front of him nodded, Yuan Xiangcheng's heart was shaking.

How can this be possible? Isn't this just working for the Americans?

Just kidding, I would like to send a large army into the Philippines, but can you Americans accept that place being classified as Chinese influence?

Chapter 529 You Are the American Empire

"William, I think the current problem lies within our own country. If we want to completely resolve the Philippine colonial issue, it's best not to rely on others." After pondering for a moment, Yuan Xiangcheng politely declined.

"America has this kind of strength, but it just hasn't been used yet."

"That being said, waiting." William McKinley stared straight ahead, yet sighed helplessly: "But when I want to do these things, I am always held back by the minority.

The annexation of the Republic of Hawaii by the United States has been quite fraught with problems, and the previous methods have temporarily failed.

When Yuan Shikai heard William McKinley talk about the annexation of Hawaii, he became interested and began to listen attentively.

The United States has a long history of control over Hawaii, beginning in the mid-19th century and forcing Hawaii to enact a constitution limiting the royal power in 1887.

In 1893, they launched a coup to overthrow the rule of the Queen of Hawaii and turned Hawaii from a kingdom into a republic.

After William McKinley came to power, he had always wanted to push for the United States to annex Hawaii.

After all, Hawaii lies between North America and Asia. If one wants to use force against the Philippines, it is very necessary to take Hawaii first.

However, there were many obstacles within Congress at that time.

Especially within the Senate, where the Democrats hold the majority, they not only claim that "the Hawaiian Republican Revolution went against the wishes of the local people," but also raised the banner of isolationism and opposed William McKinson, a Republican, from annexing Hawaii.

To this end, William McKinley had to "break tradition" and proposed a "joint resolution", turning the vote of one house into a combined vote of both houses, allowing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to join in, in order to counter the Democratic-controlled Senate.

In the end, with the Spanish-American War imminent, the country entered a state of emergency and the Democrats in the Senate had to compromise. William McKinley, relying on the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, allowed Congress to pass this "joint bill" that was not in line with American tradition.

In this time and space, after the Spanish-American War was basically settled, the Philippines' resistance was far stronger than in the original time and space.

William McKinley naturally wanted to send more troops, but his decision was resisted by the Senate.

Even if he intended to repeat the same trick and force it through in the form of a "joint resolution", he failed.

Because the Democrats have also learned their lesson, they claim that "the war is over" and the national emergency no longer applies, so they can no longer propose any form of joint resolution.

After hearing William McKinley's explanation of the cause and effect, Yuan Xiangcheng's eyes lit up and he blurted out:

"My Mr. President, don't those congressmen need money for their elections?

Who will provide them with the funds they need for their campaigns? The workers in the factories, the newspaper boys, the boatmen at the docks?

I think you understand without me having to tell you."

"What do you mean?" William McKinley raised his eyebrows and rolled his eyes.

"There's no doubt, Mr. President, that it was the steel tycoons, the coal tycoons, and the textile tycoons who provided the vast majority of campaign funds. Otherwise, how could those poor boys from the countryside have risen to become senators overnight?"

In his previous life, the picture in the history textbook of "American congressmen holding a meeting and fat-bellied capitalists standing behind them manipulating them" left a deep impression on Yuan Xiangcheng.

He suddenly realized that the United States in 1899 and the United States that deployed military forces around the world after World War II and even after the Cold War were completely two different countries.

They have no ambition to dominate the world. Most people just want to live their own lives. A few people are a little more arrogant, but they only say things like "America is America for Americans."

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If this sentence were said in the 21st century, I am afraid that China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany would all laugh out loud.

But this is the fact. The boldest move made by Americans in the late 19th century was to take advantage of the weakening of Spain to declare war on the nearby Spanish colony of Cuba and take over Hawaii by the way.

Hawaii has no helpers or backers in the international arena. In the original time and space, there was a Japan that made the United States wary, but Japan in this time and space is not a force to be reckoned with, and Yuan Shikai was busy with the anti-Manchu and anti-Russian wars, the Huai River expedition, the war against France, etc. He focused on the domestic situation and had no time to interfere in Hawaii.

Logically speaking, in such a war between the United States and Spain, the United States won six out of six, so Spain should pay three out of six.

But what do Americans do?

In the original time and space, under the "mediation" of the French, the United States stated that "America has occupied Spanish colonies such as Cuba, the Philippines, and Guam. We are very sorry, so we are willing to compensate Spain with 2000 million US dollars."

Yes, that's right. The United States did it too. They also did this kind of thing where they won the war and paid compensation.

If we say that the Battle of Zhennan Pass between the Qing and France was a defeat for the Qing Dynasty, then actively seeking peace would be a loss of national dignity.

The Americans were simply humiliating their country. Their fleets had already entered the ports of Havana, Cuba and Manila Bay in the Philippines, and they still had to pay money to the Spaniards.

No matter under what name this money was given to the Spaniards, compensation or island purchase fee, it was ultimately given out after they won the war.

The situation in this time and space has changed slightly. At that time, France was worried about its Indochina colony.

Therefore, the Americans were a little tougher and did not give France much face, only giving the Spaniards $1000 million in compensation.

However, although the money given is less, the essence is the same.

These examples are enough to show that the United States is not yet the arrogant, conceited, complacent, and overbearing country it became in later generations.