• Explain more fully the different views of the causes of imperialism, including the idea of expansion as a way to create new economic markets. Show how these factors affected the Spanish-American War and the decision to take the Philippines.
  
  

REFERENCE: Walter LaFeber, The New Empire (1963).

• Analyze the complicated mix of idealism and realism in the Spanish-American War, and explain why some Americans were deeply concerned about the oppressed Cubans while others were more interested in the war as an occasion to demonstrate and spread Americas new national power abroad.
  
  

REFERENCE: Ernest May, Imperial Democracy (1961).

• Demonstrate how the political impact of the war was much greater than the impact of the actual chaotic fighting. The focus might be on the ways in which the war raised up new heroes (Theodore Roosevelt and George Dewey) and created a new sense of the United States as a great world power.
  
  

REFERENCE: David Trask, The War with Spain in 1898 (1981).

• Consider why the question of whether to hold on to the Philippines was so controversial and why the proimperialist forces were able to win by a narrow margin. The discussion might center on both the short-term and long-term consequences of the Philippine acquisition.
  
  

REFERENCE: H. W. Brands, Bound to Empire: The United States and the Philippines (1992).

• Show how the United States after the Spanish-American War was increasingly acting like a great power in world affairs, especially in Asia, and how Roosevelt energetically promoted this involvement despite the traditional belief in American isolationism.
  
  

REFERENCES: Marilyn Young, The Rhetoric of Empire: Americas China Policy, 1895 - 1901 (1968); Charles E. Neu, Troubled Encounter: The United States and Japan (1975).

• Explain why the Philippine-American War was the most serious consequence of the Spanish-American War. Consider the disturbing questions it raised about Americas new international involvements, especially imperial control of a distant, hostile people.
  
  

REFERENCE: Richard E. Welsh, Response to Imperialism: The United States and the Philippine-American War, 1899 - 1902 (1975).

• Examine Roosevelts aggressive determination to build the Panama Canal in relation to Americas growing international assertiveness, particularly in Latin America. Show how American involvement in the Panama coup and the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine aroused sharp Latin American opposition.
  
  

REFERENCE: Richard H. Collin, Theodore Roosevelts Caribbean: The Panama Canal, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Latin American Context (1990).

• Discuss the role of Asian immigration and the fear of the yellow peril in shaping Americas relations with East Asia in the early twentieth century.
  
  

REFERENCE: Alexander DeConde, Ethnicity, Race, and American Foreign Policy (1992).