American history from the late 1800s through the pre-World War I era witnessed a transformation in foreign policy. Imagine that you are preparing the introduction to a book that will cover American foreign policy before 1914. You will need to give some succinct, but essential background, beginning with the changes that took place in foreign policy and the reasons for those changes during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

If I am preparing the introduction to a book that will cover American foreign policy before 1914, I would write the following.

At the end of the 1800s, the United States passed from a neutral country in many international issues to an expansionist vision that made America be heavily interested in the foreign issues of Latin American and other countries abroad.

US President McKinley had to make tough decisions during the Cuban Independence movement against Spain. He had decided to maintain a neutral policy in the region until the sinking of the USS Maine that was anchored in the harbor of la Havana, capital of Cuba. After the incident, everything changed.

President Kinley asked the US Congress for a declaration of war and the US started the Spanish-American War against Spain.

Years later, US President Theodore Roosevelt gave a new meaning to the Monroe Doctrine when he applied the "Big Stick" foreign policy in which the US was able to use diplomacy but never feared to sue the military force to defend ist political and economic interests in the region.

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