Key Terms
- Anti-Imperialist League
- a group of diverse and prominent Americans who banded together in 1898 to protest the idea of American empire building
- dollar diplomacy
- Taft’s foreign policy, which involved using American economic power to push for favorable foreign policies
- Frontier Thesis
- an idea proposed by Fredrick Jackson Turner, which stated that the encounter of European traditions and a native wilderness was integral to the development of American democracy, individualism, and innovative character
- Open Door notes
- the circular notes sent by Secretary of State Hay claiming that there should be “open doors” in China, allowing all countries equal and total access to all markets, ports, and railroads without any special considerations from the Chinese authorities; while ostensibly leveling the playing field, this strategy greatly benefited the United States
- Roosevelt Corollary
- a statement by Theodore Roosevelt that the United States would use military force to act as an international police power and correct any chronic wrongdoing by any Latin American nation threatening the stability of the region
- Rough Riders
- Theodore Roosevelt’s cavalry unit, which fought in Cuba during the Spanish-American War
- Seward’s Folly
- the pejorative name given by the press to Secretary of State Seward’s acquisition of Alaska in 1867
- sphere of influence
- the goal of foreign countries such as Japan, Russia, France, and Germany to carve out an area of the Chinese market that they could exploit through tariff and transportation agreements
- yellow journalism
- sensationalist newspapers who sought to manufacture news stories in order to sell more papers