Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER I Introductory survey: On the limits of modern history
- CHAPTER II The transformation of social life
- CHAPTER III The world economy: Interdependence and planning
- CHAPTER IV Science and technology
- CHAPTER V Diplomatic history 1900–1912
- CHAPTER VI The approach of the war of 1914
- CHAPTER VII The first world war
- CHAPTER VIII The peace settlement of Versailles 1918–1933
- CHAPTER IX The League of Nations
- CHAPTER X The Middle East 1900–1945
- CHAPTER XI INDIA AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
- CHAPTER XII China, Japan and the Pacific 1900–1931
- CHAPTER XIII The British Commonwealth of Nations
- CHAPTER XIV The Russian Revolution
- CHAPTER XV The Soviet Union 1917–1939
- CHAPTER XVI Germany, Italy and eastern Europe
- CHAPTER XVII Great Britain, France, The Low Countries and Scandinavia
- CHAPTER XVIII The United States of America
- CHAPTER XIX Latin America
- CHAPTER XX Literature 1895–1939
- CHAPTER XXI PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIOUS THOUGHT
- CHAPTER XXII PAINTING, SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE
- CHAPTER XXIII Diplomatic history 1930–1939
- CHAPTER XXIV The second world war
- CHAPTER XXV Diplomatic history of the second world war
CHAPTER XVIII - The United States of America
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- CHAPTER I Introductory survey: On the limits of modern history
- CHAPTER II The transformation of social life
- CHAPTER III The world economy: Interdependence and planning
- CHAPTER IV Science and technology
- CHAPTER V Diplomatic history 1900–1912
- CHAPTER VI The approach of the war of 1914
- CHAPTER VII The first world war
- CHAPTER VIII The peace settlement of Versailles 1918–1933
- CHAPTER IX The League of Nations
- CHAPTER X The Middle East 1900–1945
- CHAPTER XI INDIA AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
- CHAPTER XII China, Japan and the Pacific 1900–1931
- CHAPTER XIII The British Commonwealth of Nations
- CHAPTER XIV The Russian Revolution
- CHAPTER XV The Soviet Union 1917–1939
- CHAPTER XVI Germany, Italy and eastern Europe
- CHAPTER XVII Great Britain, France, The Low Countries and Scandinavia
- CHAPTER XVIII The United States of America
- CHAPTER XIX Latin America
- CHAPTER XX Literature 1895–1939
- CHAPTER XXI PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIOUS THOUGHT
- CHAPTER XXII PAINTING, SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE
- CHAPTER XXIII Diplomatic history 1930–1939
- CHAPTER XXIV The second world war
- CHAPTER XXV Diplomatic history of the second world war
Summary
In the last year of the nineteenth century the American people re-elected William McKinley as President. By doing so, they ratified the liberation of Cuba and the annexation of Puerto Rico and the Philippine Islands. Probably not knowing what they were doing, and certainly unwilling to accept the full implications of their new situation, the American people had moved out on to the world stage, little better prepared for their new role than the Japanese had been when Commodore Perry's ‘black ships’ broke the centuries-old, self-imposed blockade of the island empire.
William Jennings Bryan, who had fought for the economically unfortunate, above all for the angered and impoverished farmer, in 1896, had fought in 1900 against ‘imperialism’. But the sharp edge of discontent had been blunted by the flow of gold from South Africa and the Yukon, by a natural turn in the trade cycle, and the vague issue of ‘imperialism’ was not an adequate fighting theme. Flushed with an easy victory over an impotent Spain, and moving into a new boom period, the American people was convinced that it was living in the best of all possible republics, that it had nothing and no one to fear.
The politicians who felt this mood had no need to worry about re-electing the President and some of them took the chance to get out of the way an obstreperous hero of the brief Spanish-American war, Theodore Roosevelt, who had won the governorship of New York on the strength of his achievements with a regiment of irregular cavalry in Cuba.
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- The New Cambridge Modern History , pp. 556 - 583Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1968