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Histroy Terms

James G. Blaine, Pan-Americanism: As Secretary of State, Blaine fostered closer U.S.-Latin American relations and brought about the first Pan-American Congress in order to forge commercial, social, economic, military, and political cooperation among the 21 republics of North, Central, and South America.
Venezuelan boundary dispute: Venezuela had a dispute over its boundary with the British Colony of Guiana. In 1895, while the British refused to resolve the issue, United States Secretary of State Richard Olney sent a message to London declaring that the US would be "practically sovereign on this content."
"Yellow journalism": Two rival newspapers in New York City, William Randolph Hearst's Journal, and Joseph Pulitzer's World, sensationalized editorializing on the issues to increase circulation. One of Hearst's gimmicks was "The Yellow Kid," which gave the name of Yellow Journalism to this tactic.
Josiah Strong, Our Country: Reverend Josiah Strong wrote the book Our Country: Its Possible Future and Present Crisis expressing his fears of the inability of relief organizations to cope with the explosive growth of the urban poor in the 1870's and 1880's.
•Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan: The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890) helped create and develop the expansionist movement. Mahan, former head of the Navy War College at Newport, Rhode Island wanted to expand United States Navy to build an isthmusian canal, and to establish strategic colonies as cooling stations, and to protect US political and economic interests.
de Lôme letter: On February 8, 1898, Hearst's Journal published a private letter written by Spanish minister to the United States Depuy de Lôme regarding his reservations for Cuban independence and disparaging President McKinley. Many Americans would have agreed, but they resented hearing it from a Spanish diplomat.
Maine explodes: When an explosion rocked the Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, killing 266 American crewmen, irritation...