The Influence of Sea Power upon History – written by Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan in 1890; argued that control of the sea was the key to world dominance; it stimulated the naval race among the great powers

“white man’s burden” – a part of America’s “civilizing mission” in which the wealthy Americans must help to uplift (and exploit) the underprivileged, underfed, and underclad of the world; if you were in AP Euro last year, they had the mission of converting the heathens

Teller Amendment – Adopted after Congress declared war on Spain, declared to the world that when the United States had overthrown the Spanish misrule, it would give the Cubans their freedom.

Platt Amendment – was written into the Cuban constitution of 1901, hated by Cubans; it essentially served the purpose of bringing Cuba under American control; they could not engage in compromising treaties (from the viewpoint of the United States) and could not take on a debt beyond their resources (against, from the viewpoint of the US); the US was also allowed to intervene in the country’s affairs, and the US was leased or sold land on Cuban soil (such as Guantanamo)

Treaty of Paris – between Spain and American in 1898; Cuba was freed from Spain; US secured Guan and Puerto Rico (payment for war costs); McKinley could not morally let go of the Philippines, so he decided to annex them, later paid $20 to Spain for the islands; ended the spanish american war

INSULAR CASES

Insular Cases – the Supreme Court declared that the Constitution did not extend to the Philippines and Puerto Rico (although they were US owned)

Open Door Notes – Secretary of State John Hay urged world powers to announce that in their leaseholds or spheres of influence (in China) they would respect certain Chinese rights and the ideal of fair competition (without bothering to consult the Chinese themselves). Italy was the only major power to accept the Open Door unconditionally and Russia was the only major power not to accept it

Boxer Rebellion – a superpatriotic group in China known as the “Boxers” murdered more than two hundred foreigners and thousands of Chinese Christians and besieged the foreign diplomatic community in the capital, Beijing (Peking); a multinational force was used to stop the rebellion

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty – gave the U.S. a helping hand from Britain to build the canal and rights to fortify it (US and Britain were friends again!)

Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty – gave the U.S. control of a 10-mile zone around the proposed Panama Canal; Panamanians feared that the US might build the canal in Nicaragua

Roosevelt Corollary – added to Monroe Doctrine; declared that in the event of future monetary problems of Latin American countries with European countries, the U.S. could pay off the Latin American counties' debts to keep European nations out of Latin America

Treaty of Portsmouth – ended war between Japan and Russia, sponsored by Theodore Roosevelt; left neither side satisfied, Japan was especially resentful; TR won the Nobel Prize for this peacemaking efforts

Gentleman’s Agreement – TR convinced the San Fran Board of Education to repeal the offensive segregation of Asians and whites; he also secretly got Tokyo to agree to stop the flow of laborers to the American mainland by withholding passports

Muckrakers – young writers that dug deep for the dirt that the public loved to hate; mudslingers, used and excess of zeal, but helped boom circulation of papers

The Shame of the Cities – a work published in 1904 by Lincoln Steffens that sought to expose public corruption in many major cities throughout the United States

How the Other Half Lives – 1890 by Jacob A. Riis; his account was a damning indictment of the dirt, disease, vice, and misery of the rat-gnawed human rookeries known as New York slums; deeply influence Theodore Roosevelt

The Jungle – in response to food safety (esp. canned meat), written by Upton Sinclair in 1906; aimed to focus attention on the p[light of the workers in the big canning factories, but instead he appalled the public with his descriptions of disgustingly unsanitary food products, eventually helped spur the Meat Inspection Act

The History of the Standard Oil Company – written by Ida Tarbell, was a devastating but factual exposé of the Standard Oil Company (muckraking); fearing legal backlash, muckraking magazines went to great lengths to verify their data

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire – a horrible fire that showed the disregard for laws regulating factories, happened in 1911; 146 workers died

 “Dollar Diplomacy” – a system in which Pres. Taft encouraged Wall Street bankers to send surplus dollars into foreign areas of strategic concern to the US, esp. in the Far East and in region critical to the security of the Panama Canal; this would strengthen American defenses and foreign policies, while bringing further prosperity to the US