ShmoopTube

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by territorial intervention,

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A&E's hottest new diplomatic reality show.

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All right, check out this excerpt.

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And the question:

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How would an imperialist

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see the decision made by the United States in the excerpt?

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And here are your potential answers.

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All right, well the Spanish-American War

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spurred all kinds of debate over America's

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place in the world, especially in the Western Hemisphere.

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Well, let's see which option an empire-building imperialist

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would like to annex.

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In regards to U.S. intervention in the Spanish-American War,

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would imperialists have B -

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opposed international involvement?

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Well, imperialism is all about

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extending a country's reach through territorial expansion,

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so international involvement, even at the risk of American lives,

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was essential in achieving that goal.

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So that pushes out B and D.

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Would U.S. intervention in Cuba have led imperialists

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to C - support the fight against Spanish oppression?

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Well, some people believed that the U.S. had a moral obligation

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to liberate Cuba from its Spanish overlords,

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but imperialists cared way more about gaining

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territory than ridding the world of so-called oppressive regimes.

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So it's not C, either.

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Which means the imperialist response to U.S. intervention

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in the Spanish-American War would've been A -

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supporting the annexation of Cuba.

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For imperialists,

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the purpose of the Spanish-American War was

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strictly to annex new territories,

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which they accomplished in spades with additions of

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Cuba, the Phillipines, Guam, and Puerto Rico

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to America's territorial portfolio.

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So the answer is A.

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For imperialists on the prowl,

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this land was not your land; this land was their land.

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Full Transcript