Imperialism in the Americas

• WARNING……do NOT interfere in Western Hemisphere

• Two main points of Monroe Doctrine• American continents should not be looked

at to be colonized by Europe• US considers any action toward American

continents as a threat

Why Monroe Doctrine was necessary

• Europeans, especially Britain, had built empires.

• Spain looking to re- conquer Latin America

Causes of Spanish American War

• Spain control Cuba

• Cuba begins revolt 1895

• Spain crush revolt + begin concentration camps

• US sympathetic toward Cuba

• USS Maine in Havana Harbor + explodes (probably its own boiler) + blame Spain

• April 1898 US declares war

Justification for War

• Moral Justification for US in Cuba……

Independence / concentration camps

• Economic and Political Justification:• Sugar and Tobacco• Monroe Doctrine• US Imperial Power ambitions

U.S. gains from Spanish-American War

• Philippines

• Guam

• Puerto Rico

• Cuba (protection)

Panama’s independence

• Panama – a state of Colombia

• U.S supported revolution with naval assistance to create an independent republic…….

• Why?????????

• To get permission to build canal

Panama Canal

• connect Pacific and Atlantic

• Importance of Canal for U.S. • cut travel time (trade/military)• Get navy from East coast to West coast• more influence in Latin America • compete with Imperialist powers in Pacific

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