Today in class we continued with our blogs.Discuss how the US acquired Alaska.We purchased it from Russia for 7.2 million dollars. Alaska gave us a lot of natural resources such as oil, lumber, and gold.We got Puerto Rico as a result of the Spanish American war since the military was there. Forker Act said that the military would leave and it would be ruled by a social government. We changed their currency and schools. The Jones Act gave the Puerto Ricans citizenship. The official title of Puerto Rico is a common wealth of the United States. They can move freely between states. Have to pay taxes and they can join the military but they cannot vote for President. They are not a state because they like being able to have their Spanish heritage but still get a lot of the benifits of being US citizens.We discussed Cuba next. The Teller Amendment garunteed Cuban independence after the war. Cuba was one of the last Spanish colonies to get independence. We won the war and the military was still in Cuba and they wanted us to leave. We helped the Cubans build schools, roads, and helped decrease maleria. The Platt Amendment had to be added to their constitution before the US would leave. It stated that Cuban could note make treaties with foreign countries, the US could intervene in Cuba, Cuba couldn't go into debt, Cuba had to lease or sell us land for a naval base. We wanted Cuba in the first place because of sugar, tobacco, military base, and to have a place to launch the building of the Panama Canal.Then I did mine on China.
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