Chapter 21- An Emerging World Power Flashcards
The idea that the United States has a unique destiny to foster democracy and civilization on the world stage.
American exceptionalism
After the U.S. battle cruiser Maine exploded in Havana harbor, the New York Journal rallied its reader to “Remember the Maine,” galvanizing popular support for the U.S. war against Spain. Evidence of Spanish complicity in the explosion was not found; the likely cause was later found to have been internal to the ship.
“Remember the Maine”
An amendment to the 1898 U.S. declaration of war against Spain disclaiming any intention by the United States to occupy Cuba. The amendment assured the public that the United States would uphold democracy abroad as well as at home.
Teller Amendment
A set of Supreme Court rulings in 1901 that 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. The amendment was a condition for U.S. withdrawal from the newly independent island.
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
A 1908 agreement between the United States and Japan confirming principles of free oceanic commerce and recognizing Japan’s authority over Manchuria.
Root-Takahira Agreement
A canal across the Isthmus of Panama connecting trade between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and opened in 1914 , the canal gave U.S. naval vessels quick access to the Pacific and provided the U.S. with a commanding position in the Western Hemisphere.
Panama Canal
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.
Roosevelt Corollary
A 1917 intercepted dispatch in which German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann urged Mexico to join the Central Powers and promised that if the U.S. entered the war, Germany would help Mexico recover Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Published by American newspapers, the telegram outraged the American public and helped precipitate the move toward U.S. entry in the war on the allied side.
Zimmermann 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 8 hour day for war workers, endorsed equal pay for women, and supported workers’ right to organize.
National War Labor Board
An organization set up by President Woodrow Wilson during World War 1 to increase support for America’s participation in the war. The CPI was a national propaganda machine that helped create a political climate intolerant of dissent.
Committee on Public Information
Name given to thousandths of volunteers enlisted by the Committee on Public Information to deliver short prowar speeches at movie theaters, as part of an effort to galvanize public support for the war and suppress dissent.
Four-Minute Men
Wartime law that prohibited any words or behavior that might promote resistance to the U.S. or help in the cause of its enemies.
Sedition Act of 1918
The migration of over 400,000 African Americans from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North during and after World War 1.
Great Migration
A political party founded in 1916 that fought for an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the early 20th century.
National Woman’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 reductions, 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 1. Although the League of Nations did form, the U.S. never became a member state.
League of Nations
The 1919 treaty that ended WW1. The agreement redrew the map of the world, assigned Germany sole responsibility for the war, and saddled it with a debt of $33 billion in war damages. Its long term impact around the globe-including the creation of British and French imperial “mandates”-was catastrophic.
Treaty of Versailles
