APUSH Henretta Ch: 21

American exceptionalism

The idea that the United States has a unique destiny to foster democracy and civilization on the world stage.

"Remember the Maine"

After the U.S. battle cruiser Maine exploded in Havana harbor, New York Journal galvanized popular support for the U.S. war against Spain.

Teller Amendment

An Amendment to the 1898 U.S. declaration of war against Spain disclaiming any intention by the United States to occupy Cuba. It assured the public that the United States would uphold democracy abroad as well as at home.

Insular Cases

A set of Supreme Court rulings in 1901 that declared that the U.S. Constitution did not automatically extend citizenship to people in acquired territories: only Congress could decide whether to grant citizenship.

Platt Amendment

A 1902 amendment to the Cuban constitution that blocked Cuba from making a treaty with any country except the United States and gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs. The amendment was a condition for U.S. withdrawal from the newly independent island.

open door policy

A claim put forth by U.S. Secretary of State John Hay that all nations seeking to do business in China should have equal trade access.

Root-Takahira Agreement

An 1908 agreement between the United states and Japan confirming principles of free oceanic commerce and recognizing Japan's authority over Manchuria.

Panama Canal

A canal across the Isthmus of Panama connecting trade between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and opened in 191, the canal gave U.S. naval vessels quick access to the pacific and provided the United States with a commanding position in the Western Hemisphere.

Roosevelt Corollary

The 1904 assertion by President Theodore Roosevelt that the United States would act as a "policeman" in the Caribbean region and intervene in the affairs of nations that were guilty of "wrongdoing or impotence" in order to protect U.S. interests in Latin America.

Zimmermann telegram

A 1917 intercepted dispatch in which Germany foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman urged Mexico to join the Central Powers and promised that in the United States entered war, Germany would help Mexico recover Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

War Industries Board

A federal board established in July 1917 to direct military production, including allocation of resources, conversion of factories to war production, and setting of prices.

Nationaly War Labor Board

A federal agency founded in 1919 that established an eight-hour day for war workers (with time-and-a-half pay for overtime), endorsed equal pay women, and supported workers' right to organize.

Committee on Public Information

An organization set up by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I to increase support for America's participation in the war. The CPI was a national propaganda machine that helped create a political climate intolerant of dissent.

Four-Minute Men

Name given to thousands of volunteers enlisted by the Committee on Public Information to deliver short pro-war speeches at movie theaters, as part of an effort to galvanize public support for the war and suppress dissent.

Sedition Act of 1918

Wartime law that prohibited any words or behavior that might promote resistance to the United States or help in the cause of its enemies.

Great Migration

The migration of over 400,000 African Americans from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North during and after World War I.

National Women's Party

A political party founded in 1916 that fought for an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the early twentieth century.

Fourteen Points

Principles for a new world order proposed in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson as a basis for peace negotiations a Versailles. Among them were open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, free trade, and creation of the League of Nations.

League of Nations

The international organization bringing together world government to prevent future hostilities, proposed by President Woodrow Wilson in the aftermath of World War I. Although the League of nations did form, the United States never became a member state.

Treaty of Versailles

the 1919 treaty that ended that ended World War I. The agreement redrew the map of the world, assigned Germany sole responsibility for the war, and saddled it with a debt of $33 billion in war damages.