| A | B |
|---|
| A large continent to conquer, a historically isolationist foreign policy, and bad experience as a colony | The U.S. was a late-comer to being an imperial power |
| Russia's desire to unload a seemingly worthless territory and William Seward's desire to expand across North America | Seward's Folly |
| The Venezuela Border Dispute | Britain acquiesced to the Monroe Doctrine because they were interested in cultivating friendlier relations with the United States |
| The Census of 1890 | Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis" and Americans looking overseas for new frontiers to conquer in the "New Manifest Destiny" |
| Growing industrial and agricultural production and surpluses | The pressing need to obtain overseas colonies as markets for American goods |
| Competition with foreign nations | Hit the Social Darwinist nerve of post-Civil War America of why the U.S. should obtain overseas colonies |
| Missionary impulse to spread Christianity and civilization to the darker races of the world | Increased the popularity of the white man's burden |
| The writings of Alfred Thayer Mahan | The size of the U.S. Navy increased to being the 3rd largest in the world |
| The Panic of 1893, labor unrest, and the Populist movement | Increased the need to obtain overseas colonies to divert attention from problems at home |
| The strategic location of the Samoan Islands | Germany and the United States nearly went to war |
| Revolt of American sugar planters overthrows Queen Liliuokalani | President Grover Cleveland refuses to annex Hawaii because of the means by which it was obtained |
| The strategic location of Hawaii as the "Crossroads of the Pacific" | The U.S. obtained rights to build a naval base at Pearl Harbor and annexed Hawaii despite the fact it was not a Spanish colony |
| General Weyler's reconcentrado policy and Spanish brutality, and yellow journalism | Increased Americans' sympathy for Cuba and anger against Spain |
| Cheaper publishing costs and competitive market for newspapers | Increased sensationalist and lurid stories- especially between rivals Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst |
| The explosion of the USS Maine | Was mistakenly blamed on Spain and gave the United States the irresistible urge to go to war with Spain |
| The declining power and military might of Spain | Allowed the U.S. to win the Spanish-American War despite being very unprepared for war |
| Theodore Roosevelt overstepping his bounds as Assistant Secretary of the Navy | Admiral Dewey was sent to the Philippines and delivered a smashing defeat to the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay |
| The need for coaling stations to refuel ships | The necessity to obtain island colonies such as Midway, Hawaii, etc. |
| TR's actions at San Juan Hill | Won TR the Medal of Honor and put him on the fast track to the presidency |
| The Treaty of Paris (1898) | The U.S. became a global imperial power by obtaining colonies in the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico |
| Tainted beef scandal and disease | Killed more American soldiers than the Spanish did |
| Filipinos anger at the U.S. for not granting independence to the Philippines | A guerilla war that was longer and bloodier than the Spanish-American War |
| The capture of Emilio Aguinaldo | The Filipino War fizzled out |
| Union fears of cheap labor, inconsistency of imperialism with U.S. ideals, fears of a large military, and being flooded with non-WASPs | Gave rise to the Anti-Imperialist League |
| Foracker Act (1900) and Jones Act (1917) | Made Puerto Rico the least troublesome of the U.S. colonies |
| Platt Amendment (1901) | Somewhat went against the Teller Amendment (1898) by granting the U.S. the right to intervene in Cuba and build a base at Guantanamo Bay |
| Fears the Europeans would divide up China as they had Africa | John Hay and the Open Door Note |
| The Boxer Rebellion | An international task force, including U.S. troops, rescues foreigners besieged in China and the Second Open Door Note is issued |
| The desire of Antebellum Americans to open Japanese markets | Matthew Perry's voyage |
| The fear of becoming like China and the Meiji Restoration | Japan rapidly modernizes by copying Western imperial powers |
| The Russo-Japanese War | A surprising Japanese victory and a potential upset of the balance of power in Asia |
| Treaty of Portsmouth | Won TR the Nobel Peace Prize and angered Japan because they felt they did not get what they deserved |
| The need to flex American military muscle in front of the Japanese and the rest of the world | The voyage of the Great White Fleet |
| Fears of the "yellow peril" of Japanese immigrants swamping the West Coast and the San Francisco Earthquake | Segregation of Japanese children in San Francisco |
| The need to balance fears of the yellow peril and Japanese anger at segregation | The Gentlemen's Agreement hammered out by TR |
| The fear European powers such as Germany would intervene in Latin America (ex: the Dominican Republic) to collect debts | The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine was issued |
| A volcano erupted in Nicaragua | Solidified Panama was the best location to build an isthmian canal |
| The refusal of Colombia to allow the U.S. to build the Panama Canal | TR ordered U.S. warships to assist Panamanian Revolutionaries in their fight for independence |
| The work of Dr. Walter Reed | The U.S. construction of the Panama Canal was not derailed by yellow fever as had happened with the French |
| The realization the U.S. military was not modern enough to compete with foreign militaries | The Root Reforms |
| The Mexican Revolution and Victoriano Huerta's murder of Francisco Madero | Woodrow Wilson refused to recognize the Mexican government and was eager to intervene in Mexico |
| Pancho Villa's Raid on Columbus, New Mexico | Wilson sent John J. Pershing on the Punitive Expedition into Mexico |
| Numerous U.S. interventions in Latin America from 1900-1917 | Decades of Latin American resentment toward their aggressive Yankee neighbors to the North |
