US History

Signed in 1850 by the United States and the United Kingdom, the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was an agreement that both nations were not to colonize or control any Central American republic. The purpose was to prevent one country from building a canal across Central America that the other would not be able to use

The United States was to receive rights to a canal zone which was to extend ten miles on either side of the canal route in perpetuity; Panama was to receive a payment from US up to $10 million and an annual rental payments of $250,000.

The Monroe Doctrine, put forth in 1823 by President James Monroe, called for an end to European intervention in the American continents (both north and south). This applied only to independent governments in the Americas however, not to areas that were colonies at that time. In what came to be known as theRoosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, Roosevelt asserted that European nations should not intervene in countries to the south of the US, however under certain conditions, United States intervention might be justified.

•Not only would US act if European powers intervened in the Americas (Monroe Doctrine), but the US could intervene first in order to prevent that possibility.

anti-foreign sentiment had risen so greatly in China that they believed the secret societies could be the vanguard. The Boxers, or "The Righteous and Harmonious Fists," were a religious society that had originally rebelled against the imperial government in Shantung in 1898. They practiced an animistic magic of rituals and spells which they believed made them impervious to bullets and pain. The Boxers believed that the expulsion of foreign devils would magically renew Chinese society and begin a new golden age. Much of their discontent, however, was focussed on the economic scarcity of the 1890's. They were a passionate and confident group, full of contempt for authority and violent emotions.

These treaties modified the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. They added that the US had the right to construct and maintain the canal. It also added that the canal should be free and open to the vessels of all nations "on terms of entire equality" and that the charges of traffic should be "just and equitable."

He was a French engineer prominent in the Panama Canal controversy. He was chief engineer and organizer of the original French Company for building the canal. Not succeeding in France, he undertook to sell the company to the United States. He tried to convince McKinley and Mark Hanna to go with the Panama canal instead of the Nicaraguan route. After new opposition developed, he persuaded the French directors to reduce the price of the company, and President Theodore Roosevelt was won over to Panama. When difficulties arose with the Colombian government, Bunau-Varilla conspired with insurrectionists in Panama and touched off a successful revolution. As minister from the new Panamanian republic to the United States, he negotiated the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty, which gave the United States control of the Panama Canal.

• 1. One that exercises supreme, permanent authority, especially in a nation or other governmental unit
• 2. A nation that governs territory outside its borders.
• 3. Self-governing; independent

• Hay’s proposal called for the establishment of equal trading rights to all nations in all parts of China and for recognition of Chinese territorial integrity (meaning that the country should not be carved up). The impact of such a policy would be to put all of the imperial nations on an equal footing and minimize the power of those nations with existing spheres of influence.
• -Secretary John Hay.

• -Give all nations equal
• access to trade in China.

• -Guaranteed that China would NOT be taken
• over by any one foreign power.

• -Improve financial
• opportunities for American businesses.

• -Use private capital to
• further U. S. interests
• overseas.

• -Therefore, the U.S.
• should create stability and order abroad that would best promote America’s commercial interests.