Unit 11: Overseas Expansion and World War I

Unit 11 Vocabulary:

1. Imperialism – establishment of political or economic control over other countries
2. Yellow Journalism - A sensational style of reporting the news that influenced Americans with newspaper stories that described—and often exaggerated—news about Spanish cruelty.
3. Rough Riders - Led by Theodore Roosevelt, its recruits included cowboys, miners, college students, New York policemen, athletes, and Native Americans. The Rough Riders helped the Americans capture Santiago, a key Spanish stronghold in southern Cuba.
4. Open Door Policy - This policy intended that the nations with interests in China leave open the door for other nations to trade with China.
5. Roosevelt Corollary - expanded the Monroe Doctrine to authorize the United States to intervene in Latin American domestic affairs if the United States believed it was necessary
6. Panama Canal – As trade grew with the West, it replaced the dangerous route around South America with a faster and safer route
7. Central Powers – the WWI alliance that included Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire
8. Allied Powers - the WWI alliance that included Serbia, France, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, and later Italy; the U.S. later joined in 1917
9. Militarism - a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests.
10. Alliance – a relationship formed out of a mutual interest
11. Nationalism - devotion to the interests and culture of one’s nation
12. Trench Warfare - a type of combat in which opposing troops fight from trenches facing each other.
13. Neutrality – the initial position the U.S. took for WWI, it would not help either side
14. Zimmerman Telegram – a telegram urging Mexico to join the Central Powers and declare war on the United States
15. Lusitania - When Germany torpedoes a British passenger ship believed to be smuggling arms, anger at the resulting American deaths increases pressure on President Wilson to enter World War I.
16. Treaty of Versailles - ended WWI and provided an international organization to address disputes between countries called the League of Nations.
17. Fourteen Points - President Woodrow Wilson’s plan for a lasting peace. Most of the points dealt with specific border placements. It called for an association of nations to settle disputes peacefully.
18. League of Nations – sought to settle conflicts without war. Failure was cause of WWII
19. Spanish-American War - The war began after Cubans rose up in rebellion against Spain, who had colonized the island. The United States joined the side of the Cuban rebels.
20. Platt Amendment – This amendment gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs anytime the U.S. government believed “life, property, and individual liberty” were in danger,
21. Great Migration - African Americans filled war-related jobs in the North to escape Jim Crow law in the South
22. Theodore Roosevelt – Volunteer soldier that led the Rough Riders in the fight against Spain in Cuba
23. Expansionist – those who favored taking over land outside of the country