American Imperialism/World War I Flashcards
An amendment to the 1898 U.S. declaration of war against Spain; assured the public that the United States would uphold democracy abroad and thus would not take control of Cuba
Teller Amendment
A set of Supreme Court rulings in 1901; declared that the U.S. Constitution did not automatically extend citizenship to people in acquired territories; only Congress could decide whether to grant citizenship.
“Insular” Cases
A 1902 amendment to the Cuban constitution that blocked Cuba from making a treaty with any country except the United States and gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs.
Platt Amendment
A claim put forth by U.S. Secretary of State John Hay that all nations seeking to do business in China should have equal trade access.
“open door” policy
The 1904 assertion by President Theodore Roosevelt that the United States would act as a “policeman” in the Caribbean region and intervene in the affairs of nations that were guilty of “wrongdoing or impotence” in order to protect U.S. interests in Latin America; “speak softly and carry a big stick.”
Roosevelt Corollary
A 1917 intercepted dispatch in which Germany urged Mexico to join the Central Powers and promised that if the United States entered the war, Germany would help Mexico recover Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; outraged the American public and led toward U.S. entry in the war on the Allied side.
Zimmerman Telegram
A federal board established in July 1917 to direct military production, including allocation of resources, conversion of factories to war production, and setting of prices.
War Industries Board
A federal agency founded in 1918 that established an eight-hour day for war workers (with time-and-a-half pay for overtime), endorsed equal pay for women and supported workers’ right to organize.
National War Labor Board
Name given to thousands of volunteers enlisted by the Committee on Public Information to deliver short prowar speeches at movie theaters to galvanize public support for the war.
Four-Minute Men
Wartime law that prohibited any words or behavior that might promote resistance to the United States or help in the cause of its enemies.
Sedition Act of 1918
The movement of over 400,000 African Americans from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North during and after World War I.
Great Migration
A political party founded in 1916 that fought for an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the early twentieth century.
National Women’s Party
Principles for a new world order proposed in 1919 by President Woodrow Wilson as a basis for peace negotiations at Versailles. Among them were open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, free trade, territorial integrity, arms reduction, national self-determination, and creation of the League of Nations.
Fourteen Points
The international organization bringing together world governments to prevent future hostilities, proposed by President Woodrow Wilson in the aftermath of World War I; the United States never became a member state.
League of Nations
The 1919 treaty that ended World War I; assigned Germany sole responsibility for the war; a debt of $33 billion in war damages; severely limited Germany’s military.
Treaty of Versailles
