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Big Idea: Expansion
The U.S. expanded their power by going into other countries and gaining power over them. They used other countries' resources to make money and used their power to become more respected as a foreign power.

Spanish-American War
The U.S. and Spain started a war over Cuba. Spain had its military in Cuba, and the Cubans wanted independence. The U.S. started fighting with Spain to liberate Cuba from Spain and the U.S. wanted to claim Cuba for itself. Cuba is a source of sugar and the U.S. could make a lot of money from it. This was considered imperialistic because the U.S. was trying to claim another country as its own. In the end, Cuba became kind of a part of the U.S. The U.S. Army protected it, had a naval base there, and could intervene whenever Cuba needed help. As a result, the U.S. became repected for its military. But they didn't really respect Cuba's wish to be free. They were free of Spain, but now the U.S. had control there. This is meaningful because we basically tricked Cuba into becoming "ours". We told them we would fight for them, but we took them over after the war was over. I think that the U.S. was wrong to do this. Cuba really wanted to be independent and we didn't let them. I think that we should have allowed them to at least try on their own before we took over.

Imperialism Debate
Some people thought that the U.S. should just give Cuba along with the other countries it acquired during the Spanish-American War independence. People also thought that if the U.S. was going to be in charge of land, it was unfair that that land didn't get representation in the U.S. government and that decisions were made for them without taking what they want into consideration. People also thought that if the U.S. was going to go on conquests for land, they would neglect problems at home. People in the U.S. wanted the government to focus on solving problems at home before trying to gain more land or money by taking over other land.They were causing more problems than they were fixing by trying to take over land. They were wasting money and hurting people in other countries for no good reason. We could have done without taking over.

Philippine Insurrection
The Philippines declared independence from Spain after the Spanish-American War. The U.S. however wanted to have control over the Philippines, so they bought the islands from Spain. The U.S. didn't think that the Philippines would be able to take care of themselves and that there would be riots and anarchy all over the place, so they bought the islands in order to "help" the Filipino people; in other words, the U.S. tried to make the Philippines like us. The Filipinos were super unhappy and didn't want to be controlled, so they fought against the U.S. for their independence. Many people in the U.S. were unhappy that the U.S. was trying to take over. Some thought that the U.S. was becoming like Spain and pretty much taking Spain's job without improving anything for the Filipino people. Other people didn't like the U.S. taking over the Philippines because they thought a bunch of people would move from the Philippines to the U.S. and they didn't want a bunch of non-white immigrants coming into our country. The U.S. gained control of the Philipinnes and basically said they could be independent when their government was stable and the U.S. determined that they were fit to run themselves.

Panama Canal
The U.S. wanted to build a canal using the land that was controlled by Columbia, so they signed a treaty saying they would have a 99 year lease over the land, but the Columbian government didn't sign the treaty. Rebellions starting breaking out and the U.S. kept the Columbians from intervening. The Panamanian ambassador signed the treaty giving U.S. the ability to build the canal., but since he wasn't from Panama, technically he wasn't allowed to sign the treaty. There were lots of riots and the land was returned to Panama. The U.S. bought the French equipment that was being used to build the canal and payed Columbia a bunch of money so that they could start building the canal. Many people in Panama were mad because they believed that the land that the U.S. was using to build the canal belonged to Panama.

Open-Door Policy
The Open-Door Policy said that the U.S. and all of the European countries could trade with China, because the U.S. felt like China was going to be taken over by Europe and Japan and they wanted to protect the money they had in China. None of the other countries liked the Open-Door policy and they tried to get special treatment in trade from China. Japan made a treaty with Germany that they would get all of the assests Germany had in China if they won a war. Most countries participated in activities like these and didn't follow the Open-Door policy. When the Japanese took over Manchuria, the Open-Door policy officially ended.

Roosevelt Corollary
The Roosevelt Corollary was an amendment to the Monroe Doctrine that said that the U.S. could go help Carribean and Central American countries if they have economic trouble and couldn't pay international debts. This came about because Venezuela had trouble paying their debts and Germany came in to aggressively collect the money. The U.S. decided that it would be better for us to go in and try to help rather than European countries doing it because they tend to be a little grabby when it comes to money. The Roosevelt Corollary was used in Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. In 1928 it was reversed because people didn't think the U.S. should get involved unless Europe threatened the small country.

Dollar Diplomacy
The goal of dollar diplomacy was to make the economies of other countries stable so that the U.S. could use them to make a profit. Basically, the U.S. would go into a country that they thought had a poor or unstable ecomony and try to fix it. Then, they would try to gain money from that country. This policy also helped the U.S. keep other foreign powers from making money off of these countries. The U.S. used this policy to "help" countries in the Carribean and Central America. In exchange, the U.S. got control over countries like Haiti. Some countries didn't let the U.S. take control. They revolted when the U.S. tried to intervene in Nicaragua. I think that many countries wouldn't like for the U.S. to try to fix their economies, especially when it comes at the price of letting the U.S. take over their economy and take money that rightfully belongs to their country.