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Showing results 51 – 60 of 83
Glossary Term – Person
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (1857–1930) had served as a federal judge and the appointed governor of the Philippines before Theodore Roosevelt named him secretary of war. But his talents as administrator served him poorly as a president, and he was perceived, wrongly, as a tool of entrenched interests. As president, Taft had substantial Progressive accomplishments. He filed twice as many anti-trust suits as Roosevelt, expanded Roosevelt’s program of conserving public lands, created a Children’s Bureau within the Labor Department, and pushed through...
Glossary Term – Place
Hawaii
After taking over the Hawaiian government in 1893, the American businessmen who had conspired to overthrow Hawaii’s Queen Lili‘uokalani lobbied President Benjamin Harrison and Congress to annex the islands. In his last month in office, Harrison sent an annexation treaty to the Senate for confirmation, but the new president, Grover Cleveland, withdrew the treaty “for the purpose of re-examination.” He also received Queen Lili’uokalani and replaced the American stars and stripes in Honolulu with the Hawaiian flag. Cleveland also ordered a...
Glossary Term – Place
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is an artificial waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Isthmus of Panama in Central America. Built by the United States between 1904 and 1914, the canal stretches about forty miles. The United States controlled the canal until 1979, when it became overseen by both US and Panama authorities joined together in the Panama Canal Commission. On December 31, 1999, the United States officially relinquished its control over the canal.
Interactive
Filibusters in Nicaragua
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William Walker may be largely forgotten today, but to Americans in the 1850s, he was a major celebrity, one of many so-called filibusters who would swoop into Central American countries to conquer and spread the ideals of American-style democracy—exploits neatly summed up by the often-used phrase of the era, “manifest destiny.”
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Primary Source
Panama Canal proposal, 1881
