Week 4 Disc. U.S. Expansionism, Womens Rights and Foreign PolicyThe United States prides itself on support of democracy and the protection of human rights.How did the United States reconcile this view with the annexation of foreign territories during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?Support your response with at least two examples.Part B:Think about American foreign policy today.Compare it to the examples you used in Part A.How has foreign policy changed?Support your response with one current foreign policy issue or action..Why was the U.S.so much slower thanEurope to create a massive,modern military after the Civil War?The most important foreign action by the U.S. between the Civil War and WWI was the Spanish-American War. This conflict established patterns for future American foreign policy.Taking Cuba, American imperialists argued, would establish the U.S. as an imperial power, albeit a minor one.The U.S. was not yet a superpower.Five European nations had just finished dividing the African continent in five, separate colonies.Europe was also colonizing Asia and parts of the Middle East.A new generation of politicians, best exemplified by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, demanded that the U.S. government start expanding their own empire.What did Americans want to develop further?After T. Roosevelt (helped to) create the Panama Canal,T. Americas economic strength exploded internationally.D.Internationally.Americas military was comparatively weak, even after WWI.In the late 1930s, for example, the League of Nations ranked the U.S. military as the19strongest in the world. (We were rated after Belgium and the Netherlands, for instance).Political Generational Differences.Younger, post-Civil War politicians like T.R. desperately wanted war.The older generation of politicians, like Pres. McKinley, remembered the Civil War violence.War did not seem glamorous them.The younger generation wanted to compete with Europe in colonization and military strength.E.The Italian Mafia invested early in Cuba, creating complicated and wealthy networks of prostitution, gambling, lavish hotels like theTropicanaHotel, and all kinds of pornography after 1921.It was the first Vegas.Cuba was not an American colony; therefore, was not under U.S.sin laws.F.When the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Cuban waters, the U.S. government blamed foreign terrorism and justified military action.While the explosion was terrifyingly real, terrorism was not the cause.THE SPANISH-AMERCAN WAR WAS THE FIRST FOREIGN CONFLICT WHICH WAS FUNDAMENTALLY AND INTENTIONALLY INFLUENCED BY THE MEDIA.I AM REFERRING SPECIFICALLY TO THE MAIN OWNERS OF THE YELLOW PRESS, WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST AND JOSEPH PULITIZER.Like today,most Americans were dependent on media coverage for knowledge of foreign affairs.No one knew what was actually happening Cuba. The yellow press and politicians like T. Rooseveltsaid the Cubans wanted the U.S. to go to war with the Spanish. Hearst and Pulitzer spend weeks telling Americans that Cubans were being murdered, attacked and raped by Spaniards. (We know now that this was far from true) Serious newspapers and moderate politicians argued that most Cubans had no problem with the Spanish government. No one really knew which politician and media source was telling the truth.