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In 1854, diplomats recommended to President Franklin Pierce that the United States buy Cuba from Spain. The Spanish responded by saying that they would rather see Cuba sunk in the ocean.
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Seward arranged for the U.S. to buy Alaska for $7.2 million.
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The United States took over the Midway Islands, which lie in the Pacific Ocean about 1300 miles north of Hawaii.
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The United States agreed to import Hawaiian sugar duty-free.
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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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Japan joined European nations in competition for China.
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Provoked a crisis by eliminating the duty-free status of Hawaiian sugar.
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When Kalakaua died in 1891, his sister Queen Liliuokalani came to power with a “Hawaii for Hawaiians” agenda
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Anti-Spanish sentiment in Cuba soon erupted into a second war for independence. José Martí, a Cuban poet and journalist in exile in New York, launched a revolution in 1895.
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In 1897, William McKinley, who favored annexation, succeeded Cleveland as president.
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Early in 1898, President McKinley had ordered the U.S.S. Maine to Cuba to bring home American citizens in danger from the fighting and to protect American property. On February 15, 1898, the ship blew up in the harbor of Havana. More than 260 men were killed.
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In 1898, however, American newspapers claimed the Spanish had blown up the ship. The Journal’s headline read “The warship Maine was split in two by an enemy’s secret infernal machine.” Hearst’s paper offered a reward of $50,000 for the capture of the Spaniards who supposedly had committed the outrage.
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On December 10, 1898, the United States and Spain met in
Paris to agree on a treaty. At the peace talks, Spain freed Cuba and turned over the islands of Guam in the Pacific and Puerto Rico in the West Indies to the United States. Spain also sold the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. -
On August 12, 1898, Congress proclaimed Hawaii an American territory, although Hawaiians had never had the chance to vote.
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In February 1898, however, the New York Journal published a private letter written by Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, the Spanish minister to the United States. A Cuban rebel had stolen the letter from a Havana post office and leaked it to the newspaper, which was thirsty for scandal. The de Lôme letter criticized President McKinley, calling him “weak” and “a bidder for the admiration of the crowd.”
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In February 1899, the Filipinos, led by Aguinaldo, rose in revolt. The United States assumed almost the same role that Spain had played, imposing its authority on a colony that was fighting for freedom.
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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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Foreigners and immigrant laborers outnumbered native Hawaiians about three to one.
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In 1900 the newly formed Cuban government wrote a constitution for an independent Cuba. The constitution, however, did not specify the relationship between Cuba and the United States.
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In 1901, in the Insular Cases, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution did not automatically apply to people in acquired territories. Congress, however, retained the right to extend U.S. citizenship, and it granted that right to Puerto Ricans in 1917.
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Consequently, in 1901, the United States insisted that Cuba add to its constitution several provisions, known as the Platt Amendment.
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In 1904, Russia and Japan, Russia’s neighbor in East Asia, were both imperialist powers, and they were competing for control of Korea. The Japanese took the first action in what would become the Russo-Japanese War with a sudden attack on the Russian Pacific fleet.
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Alaska becomes a state.
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In 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.