Today is Thursday. We are now beginning to do our chapter 10 blogs. The blog assignment for this week is about World War 1. My Chapter 10 blog assignment was the United State's purchase of Alaska. Here are the questions that we have to answer as people present their chapter 10 blogs.Ch. 101.) Discuss how the US acquired Hawaii and Alaska.-The topic of America acquiring Alaska is pretty cut and dry. Russia had control of the land that is now known as Alaska. Russia wanted to give up Alaska. The top two contenders for the land were Great Brittain and the United States. The Russians were a bit apprehensive about selling the land to Great Brittain because of a conflict that occured between the two empires about a decade earlier. At that time, William Seward was the Secretary of State for the united States under Andrew Johnson.Seward knew that there could be much gained if the U.S. gained control of the vast lands of Alaska. Seward had a lot of trouble getting the $7.2 million from the House of Representatives that needed to purchase the land. People highly disagreed with Seward's efforts calling it "Seward's Icebox" or "Seward's Folly". It was not long after Seward had acquired Alaska that people began to realize what a resource-rich and great piece of land was bought. Alaska had forests, silver, gold, wildlife, and even oil.- America Acquiring Hawaii was a bit more of a conflict than acquiring Alaska. Explorer James Cook found the inhabited Hawaiian Islands by accident while he was sailing on the Northwest Passage. After Cook’s discovery, more and more people came to the islands for various reasons.Priests and came to convert the natives to Christianity. Others came because they found much profit in sugar plantations. In 1875, a deal was made between America and Hawaii that allowed sugar to be imported from Hawaii into the U.S. for free. Eventually, the U.S. put a tariff on the sugar. This infuriated the plantation owners. To get rid of the tariff, the people of Hawaii wanted to become a U.S. territory.The rich plantation owners had control over Hawaii. It became law that the only people who could vote in Hawaii were land owners. This narrowed it down to basically only white plantation owning men. In 1887, the U.S. was given permission to build a naval base in Hawaii which later became Pearl Harbor.Hawaii was given back to the Queen of the islands. President McKinley was elected and he wanted to annex Hawaii to the U.S. The queen knew that it might come to war if she did not agree, so she allowed the U.S. to annex Hawaii.2.) Discuss the causes of the Spanish-American War.2.) Discuss the causes of the Spanish-American War.3.) Discuss the effects of the Spanish-American War. Know which countries were acquired as territories or gained independence as a result of this war as well as casualties and other points of the Treaty of Paris,4.) Why did imperialism and colonization come about and why did the US stay isolationist until the early 1900's?5.) Discuss the the development of the Panama Canal.6.) Discuss the following US foreign policies:7.) Big Stick Diplomacy--"Speak softly but carry a big stick"8.) Roosevelt Corollary and Monroe Doctrine9.) Dollar Diplomacy10.) Missionary DiplomacyTags:
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