Chapter 27 Terms and Definitions

Alfred Thayer Mahan: Naval officer whose 1890 book The Influence of Sea Power upon History argued that naval strength and overseas colonies were essential to national greatness, fueling American imperialism.
Queen Liliuokalani: The last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, overthrown in 1893 by American planters backed by U.S. Marines.
Yellow Journalism: Sensational, exaggerated newspaper reporting, practiced by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, that whipped up American public support for war with Spain.
USS Maine: The American battleship that mysteriously exploded in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, killing over 260 sailors and igniting the rush to war with Spain.
Teller Amendment: An 1898 congressional resolution pledging that the United States would not annex Cuba, but would leave the island to its own people after Spain's expulsion.
George Dewey: American commodore whose fleet destroyed the Spanish squadron at the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, without losing a single sailor.
Rough Riders: The volunteer cavalry regiment led by Theodore Roosevelt that gained fame for its charge up San Juan Hill and Kettle Hill in Cuba.
San Juan Hill: The site near Santiago, Cuba, of a decisive July 1898 battle where the Rough Riders and Black regular army units routed Spanish defenders.
Treaty of Paris (1898): The treaty ending the Spanish-American War; Spain freed Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines (for $20 million) to the United States.
Anti-Imperialist League: An organization of Americans, including Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie, who opposed acquiring the Philippines as a betrayal of American principles of self-government.
Emilio Aguinaldo: Filipino nationalist leader who fought first against Spain and then led an insurrection against American occupation of the Philippines.
Philippine-American War: The brutal 1899–1902 conflict between American forces and Filipino insurgents seeking independence, far bloodier than the war with Spain.
Platt Amendment: An 1901 provision forced into Cuba's constitution limiting its independence, permitting U.S. intervention, and securing a naval base at Guantánamo Bay.
Insular Cases: A series of Supreme Court decisions (starting 1901) ruling that the Constitution did not automatically extend full rights to residents of overseas territories.
Open Door Notes: Circulars issued by Secretary of State John Hay in 1899 asking foreign powers to respect equal trading rights for all nations within their Chinese spheres of influence.
Boxer Rebellion: An 1900 anti-foreign uprising in China, crushed by an international force that included American troops.
Panama Canal: The interoceanic canal whose construction rights Theodore Roosevelt secured in 1903 by backing Panama's revolt from Colombia; completed in 1914.
Roosevelt Corollary: Theodore Roosevelt's 1904 addition to the Monroe Doctrine, asserting the U.S. right to intervene in Latin American nations to preempt European intervention.