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Purchase of Alaska
On March 30, 1867, the United States reached an agreement to purchase Alaska from Russia for a price of $7.2 million. The Treaty with Russia was negotiated and signed by Secretary of State William Seward and Russian Minister to the United States Edouard de Stoeckl. -
Annexation of Midway Atoll
Reported and claimed for the United States in 1859 by Captain N.C. Brooks, the atoll was first called Middlebrooks and then Brooks. The name Midway dates from the islands' formal annexation by the United States in 1867 -
Burlingame Treaty
The Burlingame Treaty is issued, a treaty between the U.S. and China is concluded, establishing policies of commerce and friendship. -
Treaty of Washington
The Treaty of Washington was a treaty signed and ratified by the United Kingdom and the United States in 1871 that settled various disputes between the countries, in particular the Alabama Claims. -
Pearl Harbor
The Senate ratifies a treaty with Hawaii guaranteeing the U.S. sole rights to build a naval base at Pearl Harbor. -
Overthrowing of Hawaii
Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii overthrown by John L. Stevens, U.S. ambassador to Hawaii, and powerful planters led by Sanford P. Dole. -
De Lome Letter
This letter, written by the Spanish Ambassador to the United States, Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, criticized American President William McKinley by calling him weak and concerned only with gaining the favor of the crowd. -
Battleship Maine
USS Maine (ACR-1) is an American naval ship that sank in Havana Harbor during the Cuban revolt against Spain, an event that became a major political issue in the United States. -
Treaty of Paris
On July 26, three months after it began, the "splendid little war" is ended. The Treaty of Paris, ratified in December by a vote of 57-27, declares that Spain cede the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the U.S. -
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Panama Canal
President Theodore Roosevelt oversaw the realization of a long-term United States goal—a trans-isthmian canal. Throughout the 1800s, American and British leaders and businessmen wanted to ship goods quickly and cheaply between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
