Image courtesy the Victorian Scrapbook at
 The Trade Card Place.

1865

US Civil War ends

Great Sioux War, or Red Cloud’s War, over control of Bozeman Trail area; massacre of Capt. W. J. Fetterman and his troops in 1866; in resulting Treaty of Fort Laramie the US withdraws troops from forts along the trail, concedes Powder River area as “unceded territory,” and sets aside western half of South Dakota as Sioux lands (1865-1868)

1867

US purchases Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million

US annexes Midway Island in the Pacific Ocean

1868

US and China sign Burlingame Treaty permitting access of Chinese laborers to United States

Treaty of Medicine Lodge forces more than 100,000 Apache, Arapaho, Kiowa, Navajo, and other tribes onto reservations in Indian Territory

1871

Congress declares that it will no longer make treaties with Native American tribes, but instead they will be subject to congressional and presidential authority

US signs Treaty of Washington with Great Britain; settles CSS Alabama claims

Violence associated with suppression of Paris Commune in France shocks Americans and stimulates fear of communism and radicalism

1873

The Virginius, US filibusters tramsporint arms to Cuban revolutionaries, is captured by Spanish and 53 of those aboard are executed in Santiago; Spain pays $80,000 indemnity for those killed

1874

King David Kalakaua ascends the throne in Hawai’ian Kingdom

1875

Page Act bars entry to prostitutes, felons, and contract laborers from China and Japan; results particularly in the exclusion of Chinese women

1876

US and Hawai’ian Kingdom sign Reciprocity Treaty providing for duty-free imports from the islands; Hawai’i precluded from signing such treaties with any other power

US Coast Guard Academy founded at New London, CT

1879

Hayes Administration negotiates “executive agreement” for coaling station in Samoa

1882

Chinese Exclusion Act bars entry of Chinese laborers for ten years

US and Korea sign treaty permitting Korean immigration

Violent pogroms in Russia stimulate immigration of Russian Jews seeking refuge in the United States

Image courtesy the Victorian Scrapbook at
 The Trade Card Place.

1884

US Naval War College is founded at Newport, RI

1887

Reciprocity Treaty between US and Hawai’i renewed; as condition for renewal US requires and receives a lease to use Pearl Harbor as a naval base; US imposes “bayonet constitution” on the islands

1888

Bayard-Chamberlain Treaty

1889

Commercial Union of American States formed

1890

Pan-American Union founded

1891

King David Kalakaua of Hawai'i dies; his sister Liliuokalani ascends the throne

United States becomes party to an international copyright bill protecting copyright in US and Europe

Mob in Chile kills two American sailors, creating international incident and calls for war with Chile

1892

Geary Act extends Chinese exclusion for the next decade and requires registration of all Chinese living in the United States

Ellis Island opens as major US processing center for European immigration

Bering Sea dispute

1893

Hawai’i’s Queen Lili’uokalani attempts to replace US-imposed “bayonet constitution” of 1887 with her own constittuion; US facilitates coup against her; coup leaders declare Republic of Hawai’i the following year

1895

Cuban nationalists living in the United States and other countries return to Cuba to launch revolution against Spanish rule
In boundary dispute between British Guiana and Venezuela, US asserts right to interfere in such disputes in the Western Hemisphere; resolved with British agreement to accept arbitration

1896

Congress passes resolution condemning Sultan Abdul Hamid II for massacre of Armenians; first US international human rights resolution

1898

In Spanish-American War, US enters Cuban revolution on side of revolutionaries against Spanish rule, but displaces them on the battlefield and in treaty negotiations; claims Guam and Puerto Rico, pays Spain $20 million for the Philippines

US annexes Hawai’ian Islands, Wake Island, and Palmyra in the Pacific Ocean

Anti-Imperialist League founded in Boston to oppose US imperialist policies

Teller Amendment passes Congress, asserting that US seeks full Cuban independence and will not interfere in the affairs of Cuba as a free nation

The "Maine" Entering Havana Harbor. Morro Castle on the Right.
"Personal Narrative of the 'Maine'," Scribner's Monthly, Nov. 1898, p.80.

1899

Hague Conference on armaments and war held in the Netherlands

Philippine-American War (1899-1902, with sporadic episodes of resistance continuing over the next three decades)

1900

US establishes “protectorate” in American Samoa

US troops join European and Japanese forces to put down patriotic revolt of “Boxers” in China, protesting foreign domination

1901

Through Platt Amendment, Congress restricts Cuban independence and asserts US right to intervene as it wishes in Cuban affairs

US Army War College founded at Washington, DC

Philippine nationalist leader Emilio Aguinaldo captured by US troops

Hay-Pouncefote Treaty

“Open Door” policy toward China advoated by United States

US sends troops to Samoa to assert US rights; Germany and US divide the islands into two “protectorates”

In the Insular Cases, Supreme Court rules that Puerto Rico is neither a foreign country nor a state and Congress may decide the status of its inhabitants, as citizens or “dependents” of the United States (1901-1904)

Time now to "say nothing and saw wood"
Harper's Weekly, Jul. 1902, p.924.

1902

Congress extends Chinese exclusion for another decade; follows up in 1904 by making this indefinite

United States and Mexico are first nations to submit a dispute to the Hague Court of Arbitration for settlement, the first nations to do so

1903

Violent pogroms in Russia stimulate immigration of Russian Jews seeking refuge in the United States

US facilitates Panamanian revolution against Colombia; under resulting Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, US pays Panama for indefinite lease on a six-mile strip of land on which to build an isthmaian canal (1903-1904)

1904

Roosevelt Corollary

1905

Roosevelt implements “executive agreement” with Dominican Republic

President Roosevelt helps mediate peace agreement to end Russo-Japanese War at Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Treaty of Portsmouth results

Roosevelt Administration and prime minister of Japan negotiate secret agreement, by which US relinquishes any claims in Japanese-controlled Korea and Japan does likewise for US-controlled Philippines