TIMELINE

1886

  • U.S. begins building modern battleships

1892

  • U.S.-backed planters overthrow Hawaii’s Queen Liliuokalani

1895

  • United States arbitrates border dispute between Britain and Venezuela

  • Guerrilla war against Spanish rule begins in Cuba

1898

  • War between United States and Spain

  • United States annexes Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam

1899–1902

  • U.S.-Philippine War, ending in U.S. occupation of Philippines

  • United States pursues open door policy in China

1900

  • United States helps suppress nationalist rebellion in China (“Boxer Rebellion”)

1901

  • Hay-Pauncefote Treaty

1902

  • Platt Amendment gives U.S. exclusive role in Cuba

1903

  • U.S. recognizes Panama’s independence from Colombia

1905

  • Russo-Japanese War; Roosevelt mediates peace

1908

  • Root-Takahira Agreement

1914

  • Panama Canal opens

  • U.S. military action in Veracruz, Mexico

  • World War I begins in Europe

1916

  • Jones Act commits United States to future Philippine independence

1917

  • United States declares war on Germany and its allies, creates new agencies to mobilize economy and promote national unity

  • Espionage Act

1918

  • Sedition Act

  • World War I ends

  • Beginning of two-year influenza pandemic that kills 50 million people worldwide

1919

  • Schenck v. United States and Abrams v. United States

  • Wilson promotes Fourteen Points at Paris Peace Conference

  • Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles

1920

  • Nineteenth Amendment grants women suffrage