William McKinley was the 25th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his assassination in September 1901
The Spanish-American War (1898) was a conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, which began in February 1895. Spain’s brutally repressive measures to halt the rebellion were graphically portrayed for the U.S. public by several sensational newspapers, and American sympathy for the rebels rose. The growing popular demand for U.S. intervention became an insistent chorus after the unexplained sinking in Havana harbour of the battleship USS Maine which had been sent to protect U.S. citizens and property after anti-Spanish rioting in Havana. Spain announced an armistice on April 9 and speeded up its new program to grant Cuba limited powers of self-government, but the U.S. Congress soon afterward issued resolutions that declared Cuba’s right to independence, demanded the withdrawal of Spain’s armed forces from the island, and authorized the President’s use of force to secure that withdrawal while renouncing any U.S. design for annexing Cuba.
By 1899, the United States had become a world power. It was not only the world’s greatest industrial nation, but in the war with Spain it had demonstrated a willingness to use its power militarily. It had acquired possessions near and far and the sun shone on the American flag in East Asia as well as the eastern Pacific and the Caribbean. In East Asia, the Chinese government, having resisted reform and modernization, had been severely weakened by defeat in the Sino-Japanese war. It was unable to prevent European and Japanese imperialists from carving enclaves, or spheres of influence, out of its territory. President McKinley was concerned about the potential threat to American interests in China. Nonetheless, he resisted both British overtures for joint action and the lobbying of business interests demanding a more assertive policy. Nor was he moved to action by arguments about the importance of China in the world balance of power as expressed by imperialist ideologues such as Brooks Adams and Alfred Mahan.
The boxer rebellion was a violent anti foreign and anti christian uprising which took place in China towards the end of the qing dynasty between 1899 and 1901. It was initiated by the Militia United in Righteousness, known in English as the "Boxers", and was motivated by proto-nationalist sentiments and opposition to imperialist expansion and associated with the christian missionary activity. The great powers intervened and defeated the Chinese forces.