SSUSH14:
The student will explain America’s evolving relationship with the world at the turn of the twentieth century.
This standard measures your knowledge of the Asian American experience and of America’s growing role in world affairs. As the 20th century approached, the United States entered the world stage as an influence at least equal to such traditional powers as Britain and France. Soon the United States would emerge from the Spanish-American War as a great world power. On the U.S. West Coast, Asian Americans encountered racial discrimination and segregation.
A. Explain the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and anti-Asian immigration sentiment on the west coast.
Asian American Rights
In earlier decades, Asians had immigrated to California and other areas of the American West. Then, in the 1880s, Asian Americans faced anti-immigrant sentiment. When Chinese immigrants accepted low wages for jobs whites had held, employers lowered the pay for all workers. This angered the white workers. They encouraged Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act, which it did in 1882, thereby banning all future Chinese immigration.
Japanese Americans also faced racial prejudice. It was against California law for them to buy land or become U.S. citizens, and the federal government worked with the government of Japan to limit Japanese immigration.
Japanese Americans also faced racial prejudice. It was against California law for them to buy land or become U.S. citizens, and the federal government worked with the government of Japan to limit Japanese immigration.
B. Describe the Spanish-American War, the war in the Philippines, and the debate over American expansionism.
C. Explain U.S. involvement in Latin America, as reflected by the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine and the creation of the Panama Canal.
U.S. Actions in Latin America
The Caribbean region and Latin America remained unstable. Many of the area’s countries owed large amounts of money to European countries because they had borrowed it to build modern energy plants and transportation systems. President Theodore Roosevelt feared European countries would take advantage of this instability to gain power and influence in the region. He announced to the world that the United States had the right to intervene in Latin American countries in economic crisis, whether or not a European power planned to intervene. This policy is called the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. In contrast, President James Monroe’s original doctrine had been to get involved in the affairs of the Americas
only when needed to end the intervention of a European power.
America now controlled territory in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Seeking a faster sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific than the voyage around the tip of South America, the U.S. government built a shipping canal across the narrow Central American country of Panama. The Panama Canal was the biggest engineering project of the era. When the Panama Canal opened in 1914, a voyage from San Francisco to New York was cut from
14,000 miles to 6,000 miles.
only when needed to end the intervention of a European power.
America now controlled territory in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Seeking a faster sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific than the voyage around the tip of South America, the U.S. government built a shipping canal across the narrow Central American country of Panama. The Panama Canal was the biggest engineering project of the era. When the Panama Canal opened in 1914, a voyage from San Francisco to New York was cut from
14,000 miles to 6,000 miles.