Presidential Biographies | McKinley Administrations - Foreign Issues

Foreign Issues

While the United States had always been prone to fits of expansion, it had previously annexed land directly adjoining its existing boundaries. The trans-Appalachian West, the Louisiana Territory, the former Mexican territories, and Oregon had all been acquired to provide land for the nation's expanding population and to fulfill the perceived "manifest destiny" of the United States to expand across the continent.

When McKinley took office in 1896, settlers had spread across the nation, but the nation was still quite isolated from the affairs of the larger world. Unless there was a direct threat to the United States, Americans preferred to stay out of world affairs. Under McKinley, however, the nation's expansionist urges would take on a new character. Rather than acquiring new land for settlement, McKinley's foreign policy was aimed at creating new markets abroad for U.S. business. Under the guidance of McKinley...