American Imperialism and World War I (late 1800s-1920)

Factors that led to Imperialism (US foreign policy):

→ increase of US demand for raw materials and new markets to sell products

→ US gov sought out new sites for military bases

Monroe Doctrine (1823)

Roosevelt Corollary

added to the Monroe Doctrine (US told Europe to stay out of the Western Hemisphere)

→ US had the right to be the “policemen” in the Western Hemisphere

→ US gave itself the right to interfere in Latin American affairs

Spanish-American War

In 1898, the US went to war with Spain

→ Spain was defeated quickly, and US gained the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, as well as control of Cuba

→ this began a long period of intervention in Latin America (for example, the US took over Panama to build the Panama Canal)

Neutrality

When World War I broke out in Europe in 1914, the US declared this foreign policy

Events that caused the US to join WWI:

British propaganda, German Submarine Warfare (the sinking of Lusitania), and the Zimmerman Note (letter to Mexico from Germany)

During and after WWI, the US…

restricted the civil liberties of citizens (took away some of their rights)

Espionage Act and Sedition Act

made it illegal to publicly criticize the government

Schenck v. US

Supreme Court said that speech could be a crime if it presented a “clear and present danger” to national security

14 points

created by President Wilson after WWI

→ one idea was that the US should join the newly-created League of Nations; the Senate rejected this because it feared that it would get the US involved in more European conflicts