The American Pageant Chapter 27 Reading Guide
Vocabulary
Big Sister policy
Great Rapprochement
McKinley Tariff
Insurrectos
U.S.S. Maine
Teller Amendment
Rough Riders
Anti-Imperialist League
Foraker Act
Insular Cases
Platt Amendment
Open Door Note
Boxer Rebellion
Hay-Paunceforte Treaty
Roosevelt Corollary
Root-Takahira Agreement
Reading Questions
1. What forces led to America’s desire to expand overseas?
2. How did people like Josiah Strong and Alfred Thayer Mahan influence our desire for imperialism?
3. What is the main idea of Blaine’s “Big Sister” policy?
4. How did crises in the 1880s and 1890s change American diplomacy? (Know the minor conflicts as well as
the conflict between the U.S. and Great Britain that led to the Great Rapprochement.)
5. How did the McKinley Tariff indirectly cause American planters to push for annexing Hawaii?
6. What resulted from the conflict between Queen Liliuokalani and the white planters?
7. For what reasons did U.S. interest in Cuba increase in the 1890s?
8. What is “yellow journalism” and how did William Randolph Hearst use it in the example of Cuba?
9. Explain the Maine crisis and the American response to it.
10. What is the significance of the Teller Amendment?
11. How did Commodore George Dewey seize the Philippines?
12. Why does McKinley feel it is essential to annex Hawaii during the Spanish-American War?
13. Describe the U.S. invasion of Cuba, especially the role of the Rough Riders.
14. Why was obtaining the Philippines such a controversial decision? (Describe both positions on the issue.)
15. Why do the Anti-Imperialists believe feel that annexing the Philippines went against American ideals?
16. What is the Imperialist response to the Anti-Imperialists?
17. Explain how the Foraker Act determined the governing of Puerto Rico by the United States.
18. Why are the Insular Cases significant decisions by the Supreme Court, and what questions do they
answer?
19. What is the Platt Amendment, and why did the Cubans despise it?
20. How did the rise of American imperialism increase nationalism as well?
21. How did the Filipinos respond to the American presence in the Philippines in 1899?
22. How did the Americans under Taft deal with their new territory of the Philippines?
23. Explain the Open Door note crafted by Secretary of State John Hay.
24. What is the response by the Americans and European powers to the Boxer Rebellion? What was the
Boxer Rebellion?
25. The 1900 election is a rematch between Bryan and McKinley. Who is McKinley’s vice-presidential
candidate, and why is this important? What does victory for the Republicans mean in this election?
26. Describe Theodore Roosevelt’s personality as outlined in the section titled: TR: Brandisher of the Big Stick.
27. Explain the significance of the Hay-Paunceforte Treaty.
28. Following that treaty, how did events lead to the United States building the Panama Canal? (Timeline is a
good idea here.)
29. What is the Roosevelt Corollary, and why does the book call it a “perversion” of the Monroe Doctrine?
30. What is Roosevelt’s role in the Russo-Japanese War?
31. Describe the conflict between the government of San Francisco and Asians in California, particularly
Japanese.
32. Explain how the Gentlemen’s Agreement and the Root-Takahira Agreement ease tensions between the
Americans and Japanese.
33. What is the Great White Fleet?