ABSTRACT
The story of the United States in world politics from 1893 to 1917 falls under five heads: acquisitions; assertion of the doctrine of the open door; effort to build up a merchant marine; construction of a navy; and intervention in other countries. During the thirty years following the Civil War the people of the United States still had within the limits of their own country opportunities for industrial and agricultural expansion, for colonization, for opening up new regions, and for the employment of capital, sufficient to absorb the energies of a rapidly growing nation. The American navy acquitted itself with great credit in the Spanish-American War; but public opinion realized that it was the weakness of the Spaniards rather than the strength of the Americans that gave us the victory. As a result of the Spanish-American War the United States became involved in Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands. The Porto Ricans were made American citizens and granted representative government.
