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19 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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1. Who was Alfred Thayer Mahan?
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He wrote a book in 1890, The Influence of Sea Power upon History 1660-1783.The book argued that the control of the sea was the key to world dominance; he helped to stimulate the naval race among the great powers that gained momentum around the turn of the century. Red-blooded Americans demanded a mightier navy and for an American-built isthmian canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific
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2. Why did the British agree to arbitrate the Venezuelan Boundary Dispute?
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The jungle boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela had long been disputed, but when gold was discovered in the contested area, this brought the conflict between Britain and Venezuela to a head. President Cleveland and Richard Olney brought themselves into the affair, but the British believed that the dispute was none of Uncle Sam’s business; but the U.S. commission decided to determine where the boundary should be, and threatened to go to war I the British would not accept these boundaries.
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3. Who sunk the Battleship Maine?
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In early 1898 Washington sent the Battleship Maine over to Cuba, covering as a “friendly visit,” but it was actually was to be used to protect and evacuate Americans if a dangerous flare-up should occur. On February 15, 1898 the Battleship Maine mysteriously blew up in the Havana harbor, 260 sailors were lost.
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4. What was the Teller Amendment?
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It proclaimed to the world that the United States had overthrown Spanish misrule; it was to give the Cubans their freedom. This declaration caused imperialistic Europeans to smile skeptically.
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5. How were most of the soldiers who died in the Spanish-American War killed?
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Malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, and yellow fever incapacitated numerous soldiers and sailors. Others suffered from malodorous canned meat known as “embalmed beef.” Nearly four hundred men lost their lives to bullets; over five thousand succumbed to bacteria and other causes.
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6. What was the Platt Amendment?
It placed restrictions on Cubans’ political and financial autonomy, and permitted the United States to intervene with troops to restore order when it saw fit. The Cubans also promised to sell or lease coaling or naval |
It placed restrictions on Cubans’ political and financial autonomy, and permitted the United States to intervene with troops to restore order when it saw fit. The Cubans also promised to sell or lease coaling or naval stations to their powerful “benefactor.” The United States abrogated the amendment in 1934, although the United States still occupies on remaining base in Cuba, Guantanamo, under the agreement that it can be revoked only by the consent of both parties.
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7. What was the Open Door Policy?
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In the summer of 1899 Hay dispatched to all the great powers a communication, known as the Open Door note. He urged them to announce that in their leaseholds or spheres of influence they would respect certain Chinese rights and the ideal of fair competition. But Hay had not consulted the Chinese themselves. The proposal caused much squirming in the leading world capitals, though all great powers except for Russia agreed to it.
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8. What two routes were considered for the Panama Canal?
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Americans favored a route across Nicaragua, but some agents of a French canal company were very eager to salvage something from their costly failure in S-shaped Panama. In 1902 Congress decided upon the Panama route.
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9. What was the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
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Roosevelt feared that if the Germans or British got their foot in the door as bill collectors, they would remain in Latin America, which was in violation to the Monroe Doctrine. He therefore declared a policy of “preventive intervention,” which was better known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. He announced that in the event of future financial malfeasance by the Latin American nations the United States itself would intervene, take over the customhouses, pay off the debts, and keep the troublesome Europeans on the other side of the Atlantic.
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10. What was the Root-Takahira Agreement?
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It pledged that both powers (US and Japan) to respect each other’s territorial possessions in the Pacific and to uphold the Open door in China. For the moment the two rising rival powers had found a means to maintain the peace.
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11. Who were the “Muckrakers”?
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Enterprising editors financed research and encouraged pugnacious writing by their bright young reporters, whom President Roosevelt branded as “muckrackers” in 1906. The “muckrackers” boomed circulation, and some of the most scandalous exposures were published as best-selling books.
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12. From which social classes did the Progressive reformers come?
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Progressive reformers were mainly middle-class men and women who felt themselves squeezed from above and below. Thy simultaneously sough two goals: to use state power to curb the trusts, and to stem the socialist that by generally improving the common person’s conditions of life and labor.
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13. What was the importance of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire?
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Laws regulating factories were worthless if not enforced, a truth horribly demonstrated by a lethal fire in 1911 at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in NYC. Locked doors and flagrant violations of the fire code turned the factory into a death trap, incinerating one hundred forty-six workers; most of them were young immigrant women. NY and other legislatures passed much stronger laws regulating the hours and conditions of sweatshop toil.
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14. What was the city-manager form of government?
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It was designed to take politics out of municipal administration. Some of these “reforms” obviously valued efficiency more highly than democracy, as control of civic affairs was further removed from the people’s hands.
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15. What was the Progressives’ highest political priority?
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One of the first objectives of progressives was to regain the power that had slipped from the hands of the people into those of the “interests.” They pushed for direct primary elections so as to undercut power-hungry party bosses. The favored the “initiative” so that voters could directly propose legislation themselves. They also agitated for the “referendum,” which would give the people the right to reject laws pushed through by free-spending agents of big business
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16. How did President Roosevelt end the 1902 Anthracite Coal strike?
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140,000 besooted workers, many of them illiterate immigrants, had long been frightfully exploited and accident-plagued. They demanded a 20% increase in pay and a reduction of the working day from ten to nine hours. Coal supplies dwindled, factories and schools were forced to shut down, and even hospitals felt the icy grip of winter. Annoyed by the “extraordinary stupidity and bad temper” of the “wooden-headed” mine owners, Roosevelt threatened to seize the mines and operate them with federal troops. A compromise decision ultimately gave the miners a 10% pay boost and working day of nine hours. But their union was not officially recognized as bargaining agent.
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17. What caused the Federal Meat Inspection Act to be passed?
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Big meatpackers were being shut out of certain European markets because some American meat had been found tainted, foreign governments were threatening to ban all American meat imports. American consumers were hungered for safer products, the appetite for reform was whetted by Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, Sinclair intended his revolting tract to focus attention on the plight of the workers in the big meat canning factories, but instead he appalled the public with his description of disgustingly unsanitary food products. Roosevelt induced Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act of 1906; it decreed that the preparation of meat shipped over state lines would be subject to federal inspection from corral to can.
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18. What impact did President Roosevelt have on the power of the presidency?
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Roosevelt was branded by his adversaries as a wild-eyed radical, but his reputation as an eater of errant industrialists now seems inflated. He fought many a sham battle, and the number of laws that he inspired was certainly not in proportion to the amount of noise he emitted. He was often under attack from the reigning business lords, but the more enlightened of them knew that they had a friend in the White House.
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19. What was President Taft’s foreign policy?
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Washington warmly encouraged Wall Street bankers to sluice their surplus dollars into foreign areas of strategic concern to the US. New York bankers would thus strengthen American defenses and foreign policies while bringing further prosperity to their homeland; the almighty dollar thereby supplanted the big stick
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