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Explosion of the USS Maine
A massive explosion of unknown origin sinks the battleship USS Maine in Cuba's Havana harbor, killing 260 of the fewer than 400 American crew members aboard. -
Teller Amendment
The Teller Amendment ensured that the United States could not permanently acquire Cuba. -
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Spanish American
Spain renounced all claim to Cuba, ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States, and transferred sovereignty over the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. -
Battle of San Juan Hill
Theodore Roosevelt led his “Rough Riders” up the San Juan Heights against heavy artillery fire to help end the Spanish-American War. -
Annexation of Hawaii
The planters' belief that a coup and annexation by the United States would remove the threat of a devastating tariff on their sugar also spurred them to action. -
Annexation of the Phillipines
Spain ceded its longstanding colony of the Philippines to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. -
Boxer Rebellion
A chinese secret organization called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists led an uprising in northern China against the spread of Western and Japanese influence there. -
Roosevelt Corollary
The Monroe Doctrine had been sought to prevent European intervention in the Western Hemisphere, but now the Roosevelt Corollary justified American intervention throughout the Western Hemisphere. -
Opening of the Panamal Canal
The Panama Canal was built to reduce the distance that ships had to travel to pass between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.