APUSH Unit 9
America on the World Stage
APUSH 6.1, APUSH 7.1 – APUSH 7.3
VUS.9a – VUS.9b
Roots of American Imperialism
Economic demands, militarism and nationalistic ideology caused the United States to become an
imperial world power in the late 1800s.
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Many Americans began to advocate overseas expansionism in the late 19th century, leading to new
territorial ambitions and acquisitions in the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific.
Businesses and foreign policymakers increasingly looked outside U.S. borders in an effort to gain greater
influence and control over markets and natural resources in the Pacific, Asia, and Latin America.
The perception in the 1890s that the western frontier was “closed,” economic motives, competition with other
European imperialist ventures of the time, and racial theories all furthered arguments that Americans were
destined to expand their culture and norms to others, especially the nonwhite nations of the globe.
Monroe Doctrine
Empire of Liberty
Manifest Destiny
Frederick Jackson Turner
The Frontier Thesis
New Imperialism
Herbert Spencer
“Social Darwinism”
Josiah Strong
Our Country
Rudyard Kipling
“White Man’s Burden”
Missionaries
Alfred Thayer Mahan
The Influence of Sea Power Upon
History
Nationalism
Jingoism
America Expands Its Empire
The U.S. exercised varying degrees of political, military and economic control over trade partners
in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.
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Global conflicts over resources, territories, and ideologies renewed debates over the nation’s values and its
role in the world, while simultaneously propelling the United States into a dominant international military,
political, cultural, and economic position.
Matthew Perry
Treaty of Kanagawa, 1854
Seward’s Folly
Pan-American Conference
James Blaine
Olney interpretation
Venezuela boundary dispute
Hawaii
King Kalakaua
Bayonet Constitution
Queen Liliuokalani
Sanford Dole
James Dole
Annexation of Hawaii
Pearl Harbor
“Banana republics”
John Hay
Spheres of influence
Open Door Policy
Boxer Rebellion
William Walker
Nicaragua, Columbia & Panama
Panama Railroad
U.S.-British rapprochement
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty
Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty
Panama Canal
George Goethals
William Gorgas
Walter Reed
Spanish-American War
The Spanish-American of 1898 signaled the collapse of the Spanish empire and the ascendency of American
imperialism.
 The American victory in the Spanish-American War led to the U.S. acquisition of island territories, an
expanded economic and military presence in the Caribbean and Latin America, engagement in a protracted
insurrection in the Philippines, and increased involvement in Asia.
Cuban rebellion
Valeriano Weyler
Reconcentration policy
William Randolph Hearst
Joseph Pulitzer
Yellow journalism
William McKinley
De Lome Letter
USS Maine
George Dewey
Theodore Roosevelt
Rough Riders
“Splendid Little War”
Treaty of Paris, 1898
Teller Amendment
Platt Amendment
Guantanamo Bay
Annexation of the Philippines
Emilio Aguinaldo
Philippine-American War
Puerto Rico
Guam
Insular Cases
Anti-Imperialist League
America’s New Role
Imperialism made the United States a major force in world affairs.
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Questions about America’s role in the world generated considerable debate, prompting the development of
a wide variety of views and arguments between imperialists and anti-imperialists and, later, interventionists
and isolationists.
Russo-Japanese War
Treaty of Portsmouth, 1905
Algeciras Conference
Carrot & stick
Theodore Roosevelt
Roosevelt Corollary
Big Stick Diplomacy
Great White Fleet
William H. Taft
Dollar Diplomacy
Woodrow Wilson
Missionary/Moral Diplomacy
Root-Takahira Agreement
Lodge Corollary
Jones Act of 1916
Mexican Revolution
Tampico Incident
Pancho Villa Raids
John J. Pershing
Punitive Expeditionary Force
The United States in World War I
The United States failed to remain neutral in World War I, officially entering the war in 1917.
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After initial neutrality in World War I the nation entered the conflict, departing from the U.S. foreign policy
tradition of noninvolvement in European affairs in response to Woodrow Wilson’s call for the defense of
humanitarian and democratic principles.
Although the American Expeditionary Force played a relatively limited role in the war, Wilson was heavily
involved in postwar negotiations, resulting in the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations, both of
which generated substantial debate within the United States.
Questions about America’s role in the world generated considerable debate, prompting the development of
a wide variety of views and arguments between imperialists and anti-imperialists and, later, interventionists
and isolationists.
World War I and its aftermath intensified debates about the nation’s role in the world and how best to
achieve national security and pursue American interests.
Central Powers
Allied Powers
Assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand
Neutrality
Isolationism
Pacifism
“Preparedness”
Lusitania
Sussex Pledge
Election of 1916
“He kept us out of war”
“Peace with honor”
Unrestricted submarine warfare
Zimmerman Telegram
Jeanette Rankin
“A war to make the world safe
for democracy”
American Expeditionary Force
(AEF)
John J. Pershing
Doughboys
Trench warfare
Stalemate
War of attrition
Heavy artillery, machine guns,
airplanes, zeppelins, poison gas,
tanks
Tsar Nicholas II
Russian Revolution & Bolshevik
Revolution
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Vladimir Lenin
Soviet Union
Armistice
Foreign Policy After WWI
In the years following World War I, the United States pursued a unilateral foreign policy that
used international investment, peace treaties, and select military intervention to promote a vision
of international order, even while maintaining U.S. isolationism, which continued to the late 1930s.
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America’s rejection of the Treaty of Versailles weakened the League of Nations, one of many factors that
paved the way for World War II.
World War I and its aftermath intensified debates about the nation’s role in the world and how best to
achieve national security and pursue American interests.
14 Points
Big Four
Woodrow Wilson
David Lloyd George
Georges Clemenceau
Vittorio Orlando
Treaty of Versailles
League of Nations
Reparations
War guilt
Territorial adjustments
Demilitarization
Self-determination
Mandate system
Irreconcilables
Reservationists
Henry Cabot Lodge
14 Reservations
Washington Naval Conference,
1921-1922
Dawes Plan, 1924
Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928
Fordney-McCumber Tariff, 1922
Smoot-Hawley Tariff, 1929
World War I Era at Home
World War I sparked domestic extremism, including political dissent, strident nativism and racial
violence.
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World War I created a repressive atmosphere for civil liberties, resulting in official restrictions on freedom
of speech.
The global ramifications of World War I and wartime patriotism and xenophobia, combined with social
tensions created by increased international migration, resulted in legislation restricting immigration from Asia
and from southern and eastern Europe.
Several acts of Congress established highly restrictive immigration quotas, while national policies continued
to permit unrestricted immigration from nations in the Western Hemisphere, especially Mexico, in order to
guarantee an inexpensive supply of labor.
Mobilization
Selective Service Act
George Creel
Committee on Public Information
Propaganda
Herbert Hoover
Food Administration
Liberty (Victory) Gardens
Bernard Baruch
War Production Board
18th Amendment
Women in factories
19th Amendment
Red Scare
Socialism, communism &
anarchism
Espionage & Sedition Acts
Eugene Debs
Schenck v. U.S., 1919
Palmer Raids
Emma Goldman
Sacco & Vanzetti
United Mine Workers (UMW)
Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW/“Wobblies”)
WASPs
Nativism
Great Migration
“Red Summer” of 1919
Lynchings
Ku Klux Klan
Emergency Quota Act, 1921
Immigration Act of 1924
Unit Review: Essential Questions
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Why did the U.S. seek to expand its economic, military, political and cultural influence in
the second half of the 19th century?
To what extent was the age of American imperialism a departure from previous foreign
policy?
In what ways was the Spanish-American War emblematic of American foreign policy in
the late 1800s?
How did Americans debate the United States’ new role in world affairs from 1890-1920?
Why did the United States become involved in World War I?
How did American visions of the postwar world differ?
Did American involvement in World War I offer new opportunities or restrict freedoms?