American YAWP 19

American Empire

The period in the late 1800s–early 1900s when the United States expanded its political, military, and economic influence overseas through war, diplomacy, and intervention.

Spanish American War

An 1898 war between the U.S. and Spain that resulted in the U.S. gaining overseas territories and becoming a global power.

Patterns of American Interventions

The recurring U.S. practice of intervening militarily or politically in other nations to protect American economic interests and maintain stability.

China

A key target of U.S. trade interests where Americans sought access to markets without colonization.

John Hay

U.S. Secretary of State who promoted the Open Door Policy and negotiated U.S. expansion after 1898.

Open Door Policy

A policy calling for equal trading rights for all nations in China and the preservation of China’s independence.

Boxer Rebellion

A Chinese nationalist uprising (1899–1901) against foreign influence, which was crushed by an international military force including the U.S.

Pacific Islands

Strategic territories used by the U.S. for naval bases, trade routes, and military expansion.

Guano Islands Act of 1856

A law allowing Americans to claim uninhabited islands with valuable guano (fertilizer) deposits for the U.S.

Hawaii

An independent kingdom overthrown by American planters and annexed by the U.S. in 1898 for strategic and economic reasons.

Latin America

A region frequently targeted by U.S. economic and military interventions to protect American interests.

Mexico

A focus of U.S. intervention during its revolution due to instability along the border.

Porfirio Diaz

Mexican dictator whose rule favored foreign investors but oppressed workers, contributing to revolution.

Victoriano Huerta

Mexican general who seized power through a coup; opposed by President Woodrow Wilson.

Woodrow Wilson

U.S. president who promoted moral diplomacy and intervened in Latin America to support governments he viewed as democratic.

Tampico

A Mexican port where a U.S. sailor’s arrest helped spark American military involvement.

Venustiano Carranza

Leader of Mexico’s constitutionalist faction supported by the U.S.

Pancho Villa

Mexican revolutionary who led raids against U.S. targets after losing American support.

Columbus, New Mexico

The town attacked by Pancho Villa in 1916, prompting U.S. military retaliation.

Punitive Expedition

A U.S. military mission sent into Mexico to capture Pancho Villa.

John J. “Blackjack” Pershing

U.S. general who led the Punitive Expedition into Mexico.

Middle East

A region where American missionaries and educators spread U.S. cultural influence rather than direct political control.

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

A Protestant missionary organization that promoted education and Christianity abroad.

Reformed Church of America

A Protestant denomination involved in overseas missionary work.

Robert College (Istanbul, Turkey)

An American-founded school promoting Western education and values.

American University of Beirut

An institution established by American missionaries to spread education in the Middle East.

American University of Cairo

Another American-founded university promoting U.S. cultural influence.

Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars (1898–1902)

Conflicts that expanded U.S. power but exposed contradictions between imperialism and democratic ideals.

Cuba

A Spanish colony whose struggle for independence helped trigger the Spanish-American War.

Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau

Spanish general who used brutal reconcentration camps in Cuba.

USS Maine (Havana harbor)

An American battleship whose explosion helped justify war with Spain.

William Randolph Hearst New York Journal

Publisher who used sensational journalism to promote war sentiment.

Philippines

A former Spanish colony that became a U.S. possession after 1898.

George Dewey

U.S. naval commander who defeated Spain at Manila Bay.

Theodore Roosevelt

Assistant Secretary of the Navy and later president; strong advocate of American expansion.

Rough Riders

A volunteer cavalry unit led by Theodore Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War.

1898 Treaty of Paris

The treaty ending the Spanish-American War, granting the U.S. overseas territories.

Guam, Puerto Rico

Territories acquired by the U.S. after the war with Spain.

Lyman Abbott

Religious leader who justified imperialism as moral and civilizing.

Albert J. Beveridge

Senator who argued that imperialism was America’s destiny.

Battle of Manila Bay

A decisive U.S. naval victory over Spain in the Philippines.

Walled City

The Spanish colonial center of Manila captured by U.S. forces.

Emilio Aguinaldo

Leader of Filipino independence who later fought U.S. rule.

First Philippine Republic (Malolos Republic)

The independent Filipino government established before U.S. occupation.

Philippine Insurrection (Philippine-American War)

A violent conflict between U.S. forces and Filipino nationalists resisting American rule.

John Bass (Harper’s Weekly)

Journalist whose reporting exposed abuses by U.S. troops.

Philippine Commissions

U.S. governing bodies tasked with managing and reforming the Philippines.

William H. Taft

Head of the Philippine Commission and later U.S. president.

American Anti-Imperialist League

An organization opposing U.S. imperial expansion on moral and constitutional grounds.

Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, and Jane Addams

Prominent Americans who criticized imperialism.

Republican Party

Generally supportive of imperial expansion during this period.

William McKinley

President during the Spanish-American War who supported expansion.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy

Roosevelt’s position, allowing him to prepare the navy for war.

Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon History

A book arguing that naval power was essential for national greatness.

Henry Cabot Lodge

Senator and strong supporter of American imperialism.

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

A strategic naval base vital to U.S. Pacific power.

Leon Czolgosz

An anarchist who assassinated President McKinley.

Great White Fleet

A U.S. naval tour demonstrating American military power.

“Big stick” diplomacy

Roosevelt’s policy of negotiating peacefully while threatening military force.

Panama Canal

A U.S.-built canal that increased American naval and commercial power.

Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

Declared the U.S. had the right to intervene in Latin American nations to maintain order.

police actions in Caribbean and Latin American countries

U.S. military interventions to protect American interests.

Dollar diplomacy

A policy using economic investment rather than military force to influence other nations.

Margaret McLeod

Examples of Americans promoting U.S. commercial and cultural expansion abroad.

Alexander MacWillie (H. J. Heinz Company)

A business representative of the H. J. Heinz Company whose international work illustrated how American corporations expanded U.S. economic influence abroad without formal colonial rule.

Anti-Imperialist League

An organization formed in 1898 that opposed U.S. imperial expansion, arguing it violated American ideals of democracy, self-government, and consent of the governed.

Jane Addams

A social reformer and settlement-house leader who criticized imperialism, linking overseas expansion to injustice, racism, and inequality at home.

Josephine Shaw Lowell

A reformer who opposed imperialism on moral grounds, believing American power should focus on social reform and ethical responsibility rather than conquest.

Ida B. Wells

Journalist and activist who linked racism at home with imperialism abroad.

Italians, Poles, Eastern European Jews

Groups labeled as “new immigrants” in the late 1800s.

Irish and Germans

Earlier immigrant groups considered more assimilated.

Chicago Haymarket affair

A labor protest that fueled fears of immigrants and radicalism.

Franklin Benjamin Sanborn

Reformer involved in social welfare and anti-imperialist thought.

Massachusetts Board of State Charities

An early reform organization addressing poverty and social issues.

Chinese

Immigrants targeted by exclusion and racial discrimination.

Anti-Chinese protests

Violent and political actions against Chinese immigrants.

“Caucasian race of California”

Language used to justify racial exclusion laws.

Page Act

An early law restricting Chinese immigration, especially women.

Chinese Exclusion Act

The first U.S. law banning immigration based on race or nationality.

“New Immigrants”

Southern and Eastern Europeans arriving in large numbers after 1880.

Catholic and Jewish

Religious groups viewed with suspicion by nativists.

U.S. Immigration Commission

A government body studying immigration and supporting restriction.

Catholicism

A religion associated with new immigrants and feared by Protestants.

Italy, Poland, and Eastern European countries

Primary sources of new immigrants.

Pope Leo XIII

Catholic leader whose teachings influenced immigrant communities.