Washington didn’t gently accept this fate. The government violently suppressed strikes at home and jacked up tariffs on foreign goods while engaging in a burst of global expansion.16 The United States pumped investment and exports into new markets in Latin America and East Asia while keeping its home market relatively closed against European goods.17 It built a vast navy and seized key strategic points such as Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and the Panama Canal route. It fought a war against Spain, sent troops to China, and asserted a right to keep foreign powers out of the Western Hemisphere.
...more
