American Pageant Chapter 2 Summary

“Subsequent diplomatic failures to resolve the Maine matter, coupled with United States indignation over Spain’s brutal suppression of the Cuban rebellion and continued losses to American investment, led to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898” (History 1). They were justified in doing this because many people were killed, it caused problems not just with them, but with families and it affected the country. “…killing 260 of the fewer than 400 American crew members aboard” (History 1). This took away opportunity for 260

The Kingdom of Hawaii was of great interest to several countries during the early eighteen hundreds. The chain of islands are strategically placed in the Pacific ocean, the land is great for growing many types of crops, and adding more land to territories was of huge importance during this time for many nations looking to expand their power. The possibility of gaining a hold over the the Hawaiian islands was significant to numerous nations such as the United States, Great Britain, and France. Getting the rights to have a place in the Kingdom of Hawaii was an ongoing race that was won in 1875 with the signing of the Treaty of Reciprocity. The Treaty of Reciprocity of 1875 was an exclusive free trade agreement between the United States and

Over time America started to gradually incorporate the Hawaiian islands as an extension of its territory even though Hawaii was largely recognized as its own monarchy by many global nations. It wasn’t until the 1840s when The States Department regularly intimidated other foreign countries that America would finally have full control over Hawaiian commodities. America used Hawaii as a way to solve its problem with its overpopulated naval harbors by signing the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 which allowed the US access to Pearl Harbor. American businessmen took advantage of Hawaii’s most notable product, sugar cane, which was readily available and cheap due to Hawaii’s close proximity to American coastlines.

The Spanish American War was a big step towards American War power and influenced foreign countries greatly with trade, naval power, and territory. The Era of the Spanish - American contributed to the advancement in trade for the United States. After the Hay-Pauncefote treaty with Britain was abolished, the U.S. was free to build a canal in Latin America with their help. The canal was set to be built in Panama, this canal was to benefit America to create ports free from tax in this country. This was granted when the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 gave rights over a 51 mile long and 10 mile wide Canal Zone to protect the U.S. With these rights American manufacturing exporting companies without any tariffs for the citizens of the States.

After the Civil War Hawaii’s profits on sugarcane were incredibly large. This made American’s want Hawaii even more. But President Harrison didn’t exactly see it that way. He instead saw it as a threat to America’s sugar trade. He then passed the McKinley Tariff in 1890 which raised the import rates on foreign sugar.

This explosion finally made the Americans want to go to war, and so the United States decided to get involved. On April 25, 1898, the United States officially went to war with Spain to help Cuba. Instead of the battles being fast and right away, the United States was hesitant and patient. After multiple articles from Hearst and Pulitzer exposing the horrors in Cuba and the rumors about the explosion of the U.S. Mains, America finally got involved in the Spanish American

The imperialistic mentality of the American government after the Civil War, led to some degree to the Spanish-American war that would render a great acquisition of land for the United States. However, imperialism would not be the sole factor that led to the war against Spain, but also the sympathy felt by the American government towards Cuba’s efforts in fighting for their independence; additionally, the United States would seek to protect its commercial interests (sugar) in the island. Therefore, after invoking the Spanish to secede from their brutal practices towards Cuban rebels and attain a peaceful end to the situation, the United States arbitrarily sent a navy ship, “The USS Maine” to monitor the area.

Hearst and Pulitzer manipulated public opinion in order to have the American people intervene. The U.S.S. Maine was located in the Havana harbor two hundred and sixty sailors died due to the explosion. This gave the American government exactly what they needed in order to go into cube. They came up with the slogan “Remember the Maine to Hell with Spain.”

The Spanish and American War: The war began in 1898. There was conflict between Spain and the United States. The war started when Cuba wanted to become an independent country and did not want to be ruled by Spain no more. The Cubans rebelled against Spain and Spain tried to stop the rebellion as fast as they could. The United States got into the when the USS Maine was unexplainably sunk down into the ocean.

At the start of the 19th century, America was already expanding its territory. In 1803, the United States of America had bought the Louisiana Territory, it was bought from France which had made the country two times larger. In 1819 Spain had given up their territory of Florida to the United States. President Monroe issued the “Monroe Doctrine” in 1823, its main purpose was to warn the European countries to not enter the Western Hemisphere. In order for America to achieve its goal of becoming an imperialist nation they had conquered other countries economically, culturally, and with a strong military in the late 1800’s.

Before the 20th century the United States was an isolationist nation but around the late 19th century America decided to convert into an imperialist power. They had numerous reasons to shift into being an imperialist nation. America didn’t want to begin imperializing to settle and live in the nations they were taking over, they already had America for that reason, they wanted to adopt these nations for what they had to offer, which was many things. America saw an opportunity to improving their nation and took it. Even if there were many causes for America to imperialize, three of them stood out the most.

However, around 1890, an event occurred which changed the relation of the U.S. market and Hawaiian plantation workers. When the approval, created by the Congress, of the “McKinley Tariff” was established, the sugar planters of Hawaii were marked down in the American business, leading to depression of an economic downturn in the Hawaiian islands. The Tariff revolved around increasing the price of import rates over foreign sugar from the Hawaiian islands. Due to the Congress’s decision-making, the Hawaiian sugar growers were required to sell resources in the American market for a price lower than regular. The belief, among the sugar farmers of mostly white Americans, which referred to the annexation of Hawaii to the U.S. causing for the tariff conflict to be solved, had been wondered if it is something truthful to be aware of.

The war lasted from April 1898 till August 1898; through this war we took control over Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the islands of the Philippines. The end result of this war comes to show that the reasoning behind the war has more to do with

The Spanish/American War started when Cuba wanted freedom from Spain. Two rival American newspapers were fighting for readers when word got out about Cuba, so they began making up stories to make it seem more exciting. This scared American citizens and they demanded war on Spain. America wanted Spain to clear the American hemisphere but Spain did not want to leave Cuba. Spanish, Cuban, and American diplomats were meeting up quietly to try and solve their differences.

In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was established in order to evenly divide unclaimed lands between Portugal and Spain. This led to the Line of Demarcation, in which the non-European world was divided into two zones. Portugal had rights to the eastern hemisphere, and Spain had rights to the western hemisphere. This allowed Spain to colonize areas in the New World. Even though they had this opportunity, they were not able to colonize specific areas in North America due to competition with other European countries.