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The Monroe Doctrine, issued by President James Monroe in 1823, had warned other nations against expanding their influence in Latin America. Mexico had been ruled for more than three decades by a military dictator, Porfirio Díaz.
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William Seward arranged for the U.S. to buy Alaska from the Russians for $7.2 million. Time showed how wrong they were. In 1959, Alaska became a state.
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In 1867, the same year in which Alaska was purchased, the United States took over the Midway Islands, which lie in the Pacific Ocean about 1300 miles north of Hawaii. No one lived on the islands, so the event did not attract much attention. In 1887, they pressured Hawaii to allow the United States to build a naval base at Pearl Harbor, the kingdom’s best port.
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The first battle of the war took place in a Spanish colony on the other side of the world—the Philippine Islands. The United States won the war
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When Puerto Rico became part of the United States after the Spanish-American War, many Puerto Ricans feared that the United States would not give them the measure of self-rule that they had gained under the Spanish. A war broke out and ended up Puerto Ricans gaining rights and independence.
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When the United States declared war against Spain in 1898,
it recognized Cuba’s independence from Spain. Though officially independent, Cuba was occupied by American troops when the war ended. -
In the Philippines, Filipinos reacted with outrage to
the Treaty of Paris, which called for American
annexation of the Philippines. The war claimed 4,000
American lives and cost $400 million—20 times the price the United States had paid to purchase the islands. -
The United States began to fear that China would be carved into colonies and American traders would be shut out. To protect American interests, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay issued, in 1899, a series of policy statements called the Open Door notes. The notes were letters addressed to the leaders of imperialist nations proposing that the nations share their trading rights with the United States, thus creating an open door.
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Social, political, military and economic factors. Imperialism was the policy in which stronger nations extend their economic, political, or military control over weaker territories. It was lead by Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. Each American president approached imperialism differently.
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The assassination of William McKinley in 1901 thrust Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt into the role of a world leader. ROOSEVELT THE PEACEMAKER. Roosevelt organized the Panama Canal.