| Imagining an Anglo Ocean examines the U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet's world tour in 1907--1909 and its role in developing and reinforcing cultural and ideological ties among Anglo nations in the Pacific. Focusing on the official stops and celebrations that occurred along the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand, this work argues that the Pacific was an integrated region of white contact during the early twentieth century, where racial and cultural identity were transforming outside national boundaries. Thus, I attempt to examine the festivities on a local level to show how the communities hosting the Fleet, especially those on the West Coast and in Hawaii, understood the Pacific within a context that the rest of the nation did not share. Celebration committees sought to encourage such trans-Pacific ties through practices found in all the cities welcoming the Fleet. First, organizers used boosterism to bring international attention to their cities and garner financial benefits from hosting the Fleet. Second, they used or ignored specific minority populations during the celebrations to aid arguments that the Fleet and the Pacific were white. Third, women, children and cultural similarities were emphasized to demonstrate imagined, or the potential for future, relationships among the three countries. Finally, souvenirs were presented to sailors to express thanks for the visit and disseminate information about their communities. I argue that celebrants understood their relationships to each other and their position within the region against the backdrop of Japan's emergence as a world power, as well as increasing immigration from Asian countries to Anglo nations. As organizers framed the festivities around concerns like immigration, boosterism, modernization and Anglo power in the Pacific; Americans, Australians and New Zealanders developed a shared identity embodied in the idea of an Anglo Pacific. Based on news reports, personal accounts, official records, and ephemera from the celebrations I argue that this image served as the basis for the creation of social, economic and military ties between the nations that have lasted to the present day. |
