History Week 3

Questions for consideration for this Forum assignment:

1. Describe Alfred T. Mahan’s impact on American strategic thinking in the late nineteenth century.

2. If, as Americans repeatedly said, they had fought Spain to help the Cuban people gain independence, how did the United States find itself fighting the Filipino people for just the opposite reason, that is to prevent them from having freedom?

3. Why did America become involved in World War i? How did President Wilson justify his decision to enter the war in 1917? Was the war in the national interest?

4. What was President Wilson’s vision of the postwar word, and how did he specifically propose to achieve it? How did European leaders react to Wilson’s ideas? Why did the U.S. Senate refuse to ratify the peace treaty?

5. Which nations and peoples attended the Paris Peace Conference? What nations did not? Which nations and mandates were created at the conference?