Download Chapter 18 Focus Questions

Imperialism/Chapter 18: Unit Understandings
American Studies
Essential Questions:
1. America emerges as a world power: what will change?
2. What factors that were seen as justifications for imperialism are still at work today?
3. If the practices of imperialism often lead to warfare, why do people continue to
support those practices?
There are two sections of review material for Chapter 18 to assist you in preparing to connect
the book Our Town, the Progressive Era, American Imperialism and the Spanish-American War,
and World War I.
VOCABULARY SECTION: be able to explain what the following terms mean, what events, people, or
ideas/concepts they are connected to, and their significance to the American experience in the context of
this chapter.
imperialism
yellow journalism
intervention
interventionism
sugar trust
dollar diplomacy
annex/annexation
canal/canal locks
sphere of influence
Social Darwinism
Manifest Destiny
missionary diplomacy
"big stick" diplomacy
"world's policeman"
Roosevelt Corollary
genetics
dominant/recessive gene
foreign v. domestic policy
commerce
Anglo-Saxon superiority
Monroe Doctrine
coaling station
anti-imperialism
tariff
political instability
protectorate
Open Door Policy
jingoist
Influence of Sea Power on History
De Lome letter
Platt Amendment
Guantanamo Bay naval base
"Cuba Libre!"
EVENTS SECTION: be able to explain what the following events were, and what people, or ideas/concepts
are connected to them, and their significance to the American experience in the context of this chapter.
Hawaiian Annexation
Spanish-American War
"Remember the Maine!"
Rough Riders at San Juan Hill
Treaty of Paris, 1898
Philippine Annexation
Philippine-American War
Boxer Rebellion
Treaty of Portsmouth
"The Great White Fleet"
building of the Panama Canal Nicaraguan intervention
Mexican Revolution
PEOPLE SECTION: be able to explain who the following people were, and what events or ideas/concepts are
connected to them, and their significance to the American experience in the context of this chapter.
Theodore Roosevelt
Sanford B. Dole
Queen Lililoukalani
Alfred T. Mahan
William McKinley
George Dewey
Emilio Aguinaldo
"Pancho" Villa
John J. "Blackjack" Pershing
Focus Questions
1. What factors spurred American imperialism?
2. "Was there complete agreement in the United States to imperialist expansion?"
a. What benefits did supporters of American imperialism say would result from America's
pursuit of acquiring new lands around the world?
b. What arguments did opponents of imperialism give against American imperialism?
3. What is Manifest Destiny? Explain its roots in the American experience.
4. What is Social Darwinism? Explain how it was used by the American upper classes.
5. Which countries were the major imperialist powers of the world in 1900?
6. HAWAII
a. Why did U.S. sugar growers want to annex Hawaii?
b. How was it accomplished?
c. In what ways is it an example of American imperialism?
7. What was the Monroe Doctrine, and how was it used in the late 19th C for the benefit of the U.S.?
8. What is the relationship between the Progressive/Laissez-Faire beliefs, and American Imperialism?
9. SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, 1898
a. What caused it? (there is a group of reasons; make sure you deal with all of them...)
b. Who was it fought against, and where?
c. How was it resolved?
d. Should it have been fought?
10. a. Why were their rebellions and insurrections against the U.S. in the Philippines, Nicaragua, China,
Puerto Rico, and Cuba?
b. Is there a pattern to the results of this?
9. Why was the U.S. so concerned with events in China, such as foreign powers "carving up" the country into
spheres of influence and the Boxer Rebellion?
10. THEODORE ROOSEVELT
a. How did "Teddy" make the U.S. a major world influence in the Russo-Japanese War?
b. What was his role in building the Panama Canal, and why did he think it was so
important?
c. How did the ideas "Roosevelt Corollary," "big stick diplomacy," "dollar diplomacy," and
the "world's policeman" contribute to the rise of the perception that the U.S. was a major
world power in the early 1900's?
d. Is this idea still present today? What's your evidence?
11. WOODROW WILSON
a. What is "missionary diplomacy?"
b. What was happening in Mexico between 1900 and 1917 that impacted the U.S.?
c. What did President Wilson do in reaction to it, and why?