Name: _______________
AP US History
Date: ___________
Elmore
American Reaches Outward – 1900s
United States Foreign Policy
Objective: To gain an understanding of American foreign policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries.
Directions:
1. You and your partner are foreign policy researchers and you must decide whether American
foreign policy at the turn of the century was beneficial or hurtful to the United States.
2. Visit each website and assess America’s actions dealing with countries around the world.
3. Answer the questions below along with your partner. Discuss your answers – you may not
agree
Topic 1– Open Door Policy
Use the following site to answer questions 1 and 2 http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h908.html
1.) Why did friendly relations with China become important at the turn of the century?
2.) Why did Sec. of State John Hay call for an “Open Door” in China?
Use the following site to answer questions 3-5 (scroll down to find quotes and comments)
http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp/cw14westinAsia.htm
3.) Why did writer Mark Sullivan see the Open Door policy as positive?
4.) How did Thomas Bailey criticize Hay’s Open Door Policy?
5.) Which opinion do you agree with and why?
Topic 2 – The Panama Canal
Use the following website to answer questions 1 and 2
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tr/panama.html
1.) Why did the Panamanians revolt against Columbia?
2.) Why was William C. Gorgas important in the building of the Panama Canal?
Use the following site to answer question 3 (Scroll down to II 4) and 4 (Scroll down to II 5)
3.) Why did Rafael Reyes, Commander of the Columbian armed forces criticize John Hay?
4.) How did Secretary of State, John Hay respond to Reyes letter and how did he justify TR’s Big Stick
Diplomacy in Panama?
Use the following site to answer questions 3 and 4 http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/joining.html
5.) How did TR justify his action in the Panama revolution?
6) Click through some of the photos on this site http://www.canalmuseum.com/links/index.htm 1886 – 1915 mention the technology and organization involved in this project.
Topic 3 – The Philippines
Use the following site to answer question 1 http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/mkinly3.htm
1.) How did President McKinley justify keeping the Philippines after the Spanish American War?
Use the following site to answer questions 2 and 3 scroll down to I 1 and 2
http://thefilipinomind.blogspot.com/2009/08/american-imperialism-speech-by-us.html
2.) Why did Carl Schurz, leader of the liberal Republican wing of the party, criticize American acquisition of
the Philippines?
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us27.cfm
3.) How did Senator Henry Cabot Lodge defend American imperialism in the Philippines?
Use the following site to answer question 4
http://asms.k12.ar.us/classes/humanities/worldstud/97-98/imper/philippines/usa.htm
4.) Who was Emilio Aguinaldo and why did he turn against the United States?
5.) Should the United States have stayed in the Philippines after the Spanish American War?
Topic 4 – The Roosevelt Corollary and Big Stick Diplomacy?
Use the following site to answer question 1 http://www.pinzler.com/ushistory/corollarysupp.html
1.) Why did Teddy Roosevelt issue his “Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine?
2.) Describe the points of view of the political cartoons below concerning TR and his role in Latin American
politics?
3.) Do you agree or disagree with Roosevelt’s Big Stick Diplomacy?
Topic 5 – America and Japan
Use the following site to answer questions 1 and 2
http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/nobelportsmouth.htm
1.) Why did President Theodore Roosevelt win the Nobel Peace Prize?
2.) What did he do with the prize money? EXPLAIN
Use the following site to answer questions 3 and 4
http://www.answers.com/topic/gentlemen-s-agreement-2
3.) What issues led to the Gentlemen’s Agreement?
4.) What were the terms of the Gentlemen’s Agreement?
5.) Assess the United States relations with Japan at this time – positive? Negative? And why?
Answer - OVERALL ASSESSMENT OF US FOREIGN POLICY AT THIS TIME?