The Naval Act of 1890 funded the construction of a modern steel navy, including battleships.
Correct Answer
True
True. Influenced by Mahan's ideas, Congress set out to build a modern fleet, and by 1900 the United States ranked among the world's leading naval powers.
Category: Roots of Empire
Question 2
Alfred Thayer Mahan argued that a canal across Central America would be of little strategic value.
Correct Answer
False
False. Mahan called for a canal across Central America because it would greatly shorten the trip for ships between the Atlantic and Pacific, along with a stronger navy and overseas coaling stations.
Category: Roots of Empire
Question 3
Frederick Jackson Turner presented his frontier thesis at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Correct Answer
True
True. Turner delivered his paper at a historians' meeting held during the Chicago fair. His argument that the frontier had closed fed fears that the nation needed new outlets for growth.
Category: Roots of Empire
Question 4
By the late 1800s, American Protestant missionaries were spreading both Christianity and American cultural values in Asia.
Correct Answer
True
True. Missionary societies expanded rapidly, especially in Asia, and many missionaries treated spreading American-style civilization as part of their work. Women made up a majority of the missionary force.
Category: Roots of Empire
Question 5
Most Native Hawaiians supported annexation of their islands by the United States.
Correct Answer
False
False. Many Native Hawaiians resented the power of American sugar planters and opposed annexation, and thousands signed petitions against it. Annexation went forward in 1898 anyway.
Category: Hawaii and the Pacific
Question 6
President McKinley eagerly pressed for war with Spain as soon as he took office.
Correct Answer
False
False. McKinley resisted public pressure for war for months, doubting the military was ready, and tried diplomacy first. He asked Congress for war only in April 1898.
Category: Spanish-American War
Question 7
More American soldiers died of disease than in combat during the Spanish-American War.
Correct Answer
True
True. Diseases such as typhoid, malaria and yellow fever killed far more soldiers than Spanish bullets did. Combat deaths were relatively few in a war that lasted only a few months.
Category: Spanish-American War
Question 8
The Treaty of Paris won Senate approval easily, with little debate or opposition.
Correct Answer
False
False. Anti-imperialists fought the treaty hard, and it passed in February 1899 with only one vote more than the two-thirds majority it needed.
Category: Empire After 1898
Question 9
Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917.
Correct Answer
True
True. The Jones Act of 1917 made Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens, although the island remained a territory rather than a state.
Category: Empire After 1898
Question 10
The United States refused to send troops to help put down the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.
Correct Answer
False
False. American troops joined soldiers from Japan, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and other powers in an international force that lifted the Boxers' siege of the foreign legations in Beijing in 1900.
Category: East Asia
Question 11
William Howard Taft served as civil governor of the Philippines before he became president.
Correct Answer
True
True. Taft became the islands' civil governor in 1901 and oversaw the building of roads, schools and hospitals. He later served as Roosevelt's secretary of war.
Category: Empire After 1898
Question 12
The Philippines gained independence from the United States in 1902, when the fighting there ended.
Correct Answer
False
False. The Philippines remained under American rule for decades and became fully independent only in 1946.
Category: Empire After 1898
Question 13
John Hay's Open Door policy expressed American support for China's territorial integrity.
Correct Answer
True
True. Hay's first notes in 1899 asked the powers to give all nations equal trading access, and his second circular in 1900 added a call to preserve China's territorial and administrative integrity. Keeping China whole rather than carved into colonies served American commercial interests.
Category: East Asia
Question 14
Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end the Russo-Japanese War.
Correct Answer
True
True. Roosevelt brought Russian and Japanese diplomats together in 1905 to negotiate peace. He was the first American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Category: East Asia
Question 15
Japan lost the Russo-Japanese War, leaving Russia in control of Korea.
Correct Answer
False
False. Japan won the war, and the peace settlement gave Japan control of Korea, former Russian bases in Manchuria and the southern half of Sakhalin Island.
Category: East Asia
Question 16
Roosevelt's motto to speak softly and carry a big stick meant the United States should avoid building up its military strength.
Correct Answer
False
False. The motto meant pursuing diplomacy backed by a credible threat of force. Roosevelt believed a strong military, especially the navy, made that threat believable.
Category: Big Stick Diplomacy
Question 17
The Panama Canal opened in 1914.
Correct Answer
True
True. Construction began in 1904 and the canal opened in 1914, cutting thousands of miles from voyages between the Atlantic and Pacific.
Category: Big Stick Diplomacy
Question 18
The Roosevelt Corollary was first applied when the United States took over customs collection in Mexico.
Correct Answer
False
False. The corollary was first applied in the Dominican Republic in 1904 and 1905, when the United States took control of its customs revenues to manage its debts.
Category: Big Stick Diplomacy
Question 19
Under dollar diplomacy, Taft sent U.S. Marines to Nicaragua to protect American financial interests.
Correct Answer
True
True. In 1912 Taft sent marines to Nicaragua to prop up a government friendly to American bankers. Dollar diplomacy combined investment with force when investment alone failed.
Category: Dollar Diplomacy
Question 20
Taft's efforts to open Manchuria to American investment succeeded despite opposition from Russia and Japan.
Correct Answer
False
False. Russia and Japan blocked Taft's plans in Manchuria, and Japan strengthened its position in the region instead.
Category: Dollar Diplomacy