American History
Mrs. Shafer
United States Imperialism
T-Notes

Expansionism
In 1896
was elected president. His strongest supporter was
so McKinley
appointed him assistant secretary to the Navy.
Roosevelt believed in
or the idea that America should expand its power to
the western hemisphere and the
.
The biggest opponent to expansionism was
who
ran against McKinley for president.

European countries were starting to practice
, or building
empires by taking control of the governments and
economies of other countries.
Asia and the Pacific

America started its expansion in
.
Americans wanted to expand in order to be able to
. Most of Europe had already
taken over
. So the United States
made a treaty with
instead.
We began occupying islands along the way that
served as
stops for our ships. The
first islands we took were
Hawaii

.
Next, we looked to Hawaii, but the natives there
already had a government and were ruled by their
own
.
They did allowed the United States to build a Navy
base at
.
Many U.S. sugar cane farmers began moving to
Hawaii and requested it to be
.
The Hawaiians did not like this and neither did
President Cleveland, but when McKinley became
Queen Liliuokalani
president he annexed it in
.
Spanish-American War

American farmers also established farms on the
Caribbean islands of
and
. They wanted the U.S. to annex
these islands as well.

Cubans themselves wanted independence from
. They tried to revolt and failed.
The Spanish severely punished the Cubans and
forced them into camps where they had no
,
,
, or
.

Americans wanted to get involved to help the
Cubans. Some newspapers even started reporting
using
, or
sensational or shocking reports.

To help the Cubans, America sent a battleship
named
. On
the ship exploded and sank in Havana Harbor killing
American sailors. Spain was
immediately blamed and America declared war on
Spain on

.
The army grew from
to
with so many men wanting to fight. Theodore
Roosevelt resigned his office and made his own
regiment called the
.
They were able to capture
and force the Spanish to surrender.
The Aftermath:

The war lasted
and had
deaths. In the treaty Cuba got its independence
“The Maine was sunk by an act of dirty
from Spain but had to allow the Americans to keep
treachery on the part of the Spaniards!”
their
– Theodore Roosevelt
also had to give up
to the United States.
there. Spain
The Philippines

When the United States declared war on Spain
Roosevelt ordered
to attack the
,
which were owned by Spain. The Philippines also
wanted their independence from Spain. Their
revolt was led by
.
On
the Americans attacked
the Spanish fleet in Manila. By
all of the Spanish fleet had been demolished.

After the war America bought the Philippines for
and did not give
them their independence. The Filipinos began
attacking the Americans fighting for their freedom.
The struggle between the US and the Philippines
lasted
. In the end the
Filipinos lost
men and the U.S.
lost
men. America
the Philippines and did not give them their
independence until
“Is America a weakling, to shrink from the
work of the great powers? No. The young
giant of the West stands on a continent
and clasps the crest of an ocean in either
hand.” – Theodore Roosevelt

.
In 1901, Roosevelt, who was now Vice President,
wanted to build a
connecting
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in order to better
protect America’s new territories. In September
President McKinley was
and
Roosevelt became President. Roosevelt offered
The Panama Canal
Colombia
for part of Panama,
which they owned, and they refused. So
Roosevelt sent warships to Panama and started a
against
Colombia. Panama won the war and accepted the
to build a canal. The canal was
finished in
and we returned the canal
zone to Panama in
. In 1921 the
United States paid Colombia
to apologize for the Panamanian Revolution.