Imperialism and Diplomacy: Important People Flashcards
President William McKinley
The president during the Spanish-American War, had us go into the Philippines after the Spanish-American War. Never picked a stance on the gold-standard. McKinley Tariff which raised tariffs as high as 49% to protect American Goods. We scratched some nations’ backs in terms of the tariffs. He was important because he ended the conflict between Cuba and Spain. Involved in imperialism, president from 1896-1901
Jose Marti
The apostle of Cuban Independence. He inspired the Cubans to rebel against Spain. Founded Cuban Revolutionary Party. Ordered scorched Earth Policy. Opposed U.S. help.
“Butcher” Weyler
The Man that Spain sent to Cuba to scare the Cubans to stop the revolution. He set of POW camps, basically concentration camps. But this backfired because he struck a sense of pity and a desire to help in the hearts of the Americans.
Emilio Aguinaldo
Led the independence movement in the Philippines. Played an important role in the Filipino revolt against Spain. He fought against the United States using guerilla tactics when they refused to make the Philippines independent.
Commodore George Dewey
He was the Naval general who led the Navy in the battle of Manila Bay, which was the battle which lasted only a few hours at the Philippines and we had defeated Spain. He was important because this battle highlighted the superiority of the U.S. navy to Spain’s navy, and it set the mood for the war. He sunk the Spanish fleet in the Philippines.
Captain Alfred T. Mahan
Supported a large navy, saying that it was important in gaining power around the globe and oversea bases. He used other Great powers as an example of his theory such as Great Britain and Germany. He was important because he influenced, along with William Hunt the Great White Fleet to be built (which it was by 1900)which allowed us to win the Spanish-American War.
William Randolph Hearst
Owned the New York Journal, and competed against Pulitzer’s The New York World. He used pictures from the Cuban Revolution on the cover of his newspapers to convince people to buy his newspapers. He often distorted the treatment of the Cubans to strike pity and anger into Americans which fueled their desire to know more about the subject, and continue to buy the newspapers. He instigated an internal strife with Americans and Cuba. He spread propaganda about the situation in Cuba.
Joseph Pulitzer
Owned multiple newspaper across the U.S. and used them as a tool of propaganda regarding the Spanish-American-Cuban War. Attempted to manipulate the American public to favor war with Spain with yellow journalism to sensationalize atrocities in Cuba. Rival was William Randolph Hearst.
Rudyard Kipling
Wrote the poem “The White Man’s Burden,” which he intended to be a wake up call to Americans to see what they were actually doing to foreign people.
Spencer Herbert
Coined the term social Darwinism. Essentially he took Charles Darwin’s idea of Darwinism and applied to the social world. This essentially meant that the most fit group of people would take over the land, and he saw those people being the Americans. This gave us justification to mistreating people and taking over their land and resources.
Frederick Jackson Turner
Wrote “The importance of the Frontier on American History” which basically said that now that the U.S. had conquered all the land within their borders, they would turn outward. He said that the American frontier had given us a sense of independence of culture. One that was strayed from European culture.
John Hay
John Hay played became the Secretary of state in 1898 under president McKinley, and held this position until his death in 1905. He supported Open Door Policy in China which allowed open trade in China and did not allow any specific country to get control of the region. He also played a role in obtaining the rights of building the Panama Canal and pressuring the nicaraguan government to give them permission.
President Teddy Roosevelt
The president after McKinley who supported Big Stick Foreign Policy, and added to the Monroe Doctrine. He wanted to protect the Latin American countries from economic force of European Countries. He acted aggressively. Countries did not like our aggressive approach to foreign policy.
President William H. Taft
He advocated the dollar diplomacy type of foreign policy, he took a more economical approach to foreign policy as opposed to Roosevelt’s militaristic type policy. This economic approach became more aggressive however. We did use it in China however and that did make the U.S. seem good.
President Woodrow Wilson
He advocated moral diplomacy. However, his foreign policy evolved into a more aggressive one once the moral diplomacy didn’t work as he had planned. His involvement in latin American countries was very extensive even more so than both Roosevelt and Taft, and some countries and their leaders resented us for our aggressiveness.
