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The U.S., fulfilling the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, goes to war with Mexico and ends up with a third of Mexico's territory. -
Tennessee adventurer William Walker and his mercenaries take over Nicaragua, institute forced labor, and legalize slavery. -
First of five U.S. interventions in Panama to protect the Atlantic-Pacific railroad from Panamanian nationalists. -
U.S. declares war on Spain, blaming it for destruction of the Maine. (In 1976, a U.S. Navy commission will conclude that the explosion was probably an accident.) The war enables the U.S. to occupy Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. -
When negotiations with Colombia break down, the U.S. sends ten warships to back a rebellion in Panama in order to acquire the land for the Panama Canal. The Frenchman Philippe Bunau-Varilla negotiates the Canal Treaty and writes Panama's constitution. -
U.S. Marines help Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz crush a strike in Sonora. -
Marines occupy Cuba for two years in order to prevent a civil war. -
Liberal President José Santos Zelaya of Nicaragua proposes that American mining and banana companies pay taxes; he has also appropriated church lands and legalized divorce, done business with European firms, and executed two Americans for participating in a rebellion. Forced to resign through U.S. pressure. The new president, Adolfo Díaz, is the former treasurer of an American mining company. -
Nicaragua occupied again by the U.S., to shore up the inept Díaz government. An election is called to resolve the crisis: there are 4000 eligible voters, and one candidate, Díaz. The U.S. maintains troops and advisors in the country until 1925. -
U.S. bombs and then occupies Veracruz, in a conflict arising out of a dispute with Mexico's new government. President Victoriano Huerta resigns.