The United States becomes a world power, 1898-1914

Around 1900, the United States turned outward, driven by a search for new markets, naval strategy, and a belief in American superiority. In 1898 it annexed Hawaii, five years after a group of American and European-descended planters and business leaders, backed by the U.S. minister and U.S. Marines, had overthrown Queen Liliuokalani, and fought the brief Spanish-American War, sparked by Cuba's struggle for independence and the explosion of the USS Maine. Victory brought Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines under U.S. control, and Cuba became independent but under heavy U.S. influence. Filipinos who had fought Spain for independence then fought the United States in the Philippine-American War (1899-1902), in which hundreds of thousands of Filipinos died, mostly civilians. In Asia, the United States pushed an Open Door policy for equal trading access to China. President Theodore Roosevelt's "Big Stick" diplomacy asserted U.S. power in Latin America, backing Panama's independence from Colombia to build the Panama Canal, which opened in 1914, while President Taft's "dollar diplomacy" used investment to extend influence. Americans debated fiercely whether building an overseas empire betrayed the nation's founding ideals.

This explanation is AI-generated and can occasionally be wrong. 🚩 Report