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As result of Seward's lobbying, and also in appreciation of Russian support during the Civil War, Congress agreed to buy Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million.
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He wrote a book, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, where he argued that a strong navy was crucial to a country's ambitions of securing foreign markets and becoming a world power. U.S. naval strategists persuaded Congress to finance the construction of modern steel ships and encouraged the acquisition of overseas islands.
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American settlers aided in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarch,
Queen Liliuokalani. -
Cuban nationalists led a revolt and hoped to either force Spain's withdrawal or pull in the United States as an ally through sabotage and laying waste to Cuban plantations. In response, Spain sent General Valeriano Weyler and over 100,000 troops to crush the revolt. Weyler forced civilians into armed camps, where tens of thousands died of starvation and disease.
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Spurred by the nationalism aroused by the Spanish-American War, the United States annexed Hawaii at the urging of President William McKinley.
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A letter, written by the Spanish Ambassador to the United States, Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, criticized American President William McKinley by calling him weak and concerned only with gaining the favor of the crowd. Many considered it an official Spanish insult against the U.S. national honor.
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The U.S. battleship Maine was at anchor in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, when it suddenly exploded, killing 260 Americans on board. The yellow press accused Spain of deliberately blowing up the ship, even though experts later concluded that the explosion was probably an accident.
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The Teller Amendment was an amendment to a joint resolution of the United States Congress enacted in reply to President William McKinley's War Message. The U.S. would help Cuba gain independence and then withdraw all its troops from the country.
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In the first battle between Spanish and American Forces, U.S. Commodore Dewey and his Asiatic squadron defeat the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines.
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Resigning his navy post to take part in the war, Theodore Roosevelt led the Rough Riders, a regiment of volunteers, in a cavalry charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba. Roosevelt's volunteers were aided in victory by veteran regiments of African Americans.
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The U.S. Navy destroys the Spanish fleet at Santiago Bay. Without a navy, Spain realized that it could not continue fighting, and
asked for U.S. terms of peace. -
The Treaty of Paris of 1898 was signed, ending the war. It provided for recognition of Cuban independence, U.S. acquisition of two Spanish islands Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and Guam in the Pacific, and U.S. acquisition of the Philippines in return for payment to Spain of $20 million.
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After the U.S. gained acquisition of the Philippines, the people of the Philippines were outraged that their hopes for national
independence from Spain were now being denied by the United States, starting a war against American control. -
To prevent the United States from losing access to the lucrative China trade, John Hay dispatched a diplomatic note asking nations to accept the concept of an Open Door, by which all nations would have equal trading privileges in China.
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A secret society of Chinese nationalists, the Society of Harmonious Fists, or Boxers, led the Boxer Rebellion where they attacked foreign settlements and murdered dozens of Christian missionaries. U.S. troops marched into Beijing and crushed the rebellion.
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Losing patience with Colombia's demands of more money and sovereignty over the canal, Roosevelt orchestrated a revolt for Panama's independence. The new government of an independent
Panama had to sign the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 granting the United States all rights over the 51-mile-long and 10-mile-wide Canal Zone to keep U.S. protection. -
The U.S. was granted permission to build the Panama Canal with the signing of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903
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When the British dispatched warships to Venezuela to force that country to pay its debts, Roosevelt enacted the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine that declared that the United States would intervene rather than let Europeans violate the Monroe Doctrine. It meant that the United States would send gunboats to occupy major ports to manage the collection of customs taxes of Latin American countries that needed to pay debts.
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The last organized resistance to U.S. power took place on Samar . The rebels’ tactic of burning pacified villages contributed to their own defeat. Although an unconnected insurgency campaign by Moro bands on Mindanao continued sporadically, the United States had gained undisputed control of the Philippines and retained possession of the islands until 1946.
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The Root-Takahira Agreement was an important executive agreement that was concluded between the United States and Japan, pledging mutual respect for each nation's Pacific possessions and support for the Open Door policy in China.
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William Howard Taft's policy of promoting U.S. trade by supporting American enterprises abroad was known as dollar diplomacy. Taft first tested his policy in China. Wanting U.S. bankers to be included in a British, French, and German plan to invest in railroads in China, Taft succeeded in securing American participation in an
agreement signed in 1911. -
The Panama Canal was completed at the cost of hundreds of laborers who lost their lives in the effort. The work was completed
thanks in great measure to the skills of two Army colonels-George
Goethals, the chief engineer of the canal, and Dr. William Gorgas, whose efforts eliminated the mosquitoes that spread deadly yellow fever. -
In 1914, several U.S. sailors went ashore at Tampico where they were arrested by Mexican authorities and were soon released.
However, Huerta refused to apologize, as demanded by a U.S. naval officer. Wilson retaliated by ordering the U.S. Navy to occupy Veracruz. -
The first major crisis challenging U.S. neutrality occurred when German torpedoes hit and sank a British passenger liner, the Lusitania. Most of the passengers drowned, including 128
Americans. -
The new government of Mexico was challenged by a band of rebels loyal to Pancho Villa. Villa led raids across the U.S.-Mexican border and murdered several people in Texas and New Mexico. In March 1916, President Wilson ordered General John J. Pershing and an "expeditionary force" to pursue Villa into
northern Mexico. -
President Wilson convinced Congress to pass the National Defense Act in 1916, which increased the regular army to a force of nearly 175,000. A month later, Congress approved the construction of more than 50 warships in just one year.
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The German high command had decided to resume unrestricted submarine warfare. Germany recognized the risk of the United States entering the war but believed that, by cutting off supplies
to the Allies, they could win the war before Americans could react. This lead to Wilson breaking off U.S. diplomatic relations with Germany. -
U.S. newspapers carried the shocking news of a secret offer made by Germany to Mexico. Intercepted by British intelligence, a telegram to Mexico from the German foreign minister, Arthur
Zimmermann, proposed that Mexico ally itself with Germany in return for Germany's pledge to help Mexico recover lost territories: Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. -
Secretary of War Newton D. Baker devised a "selective service" system to draft men into the military. The government required all men between 21 and 30 (and later between 18 and 45) to register
for possible induction into the military. Under the Selective Service Act, about 2.8 million men were eventually called by lottery, in addition to the almost 2 million who volunteered to serve. -
The Espionage Act provided for imprisonment of up to 20 years for persons who either tried to incite rebellion in the armed forces or obstruct the operation of the draft. The Sedition Act went much further by prohibiting anyone from making "disloyal"
or "abusive" remarks about the U.S. government. -
After an Allied offensive along the Meuse River and through the Argonne Forest succeeded in driving the German army backward toward the German border, the Germans later signed an armistice in which they agreed to surrender their arms, give up much of their
navy, and evacuate occupied territory. -
The anti-German hysteria of the war years turned quickly into anti-Communist hysteria known as the Red Scare. These anti-radical fears also fueled xenophobia that resulted in restrictions on immigration in the 1920s.
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Hawaii officially became the 50th state in the Union.
