Website Spotlight: Crucible of Empire

Website URL: http://www.pbs.org/crucible/

Introductory Note:

Welcome to one in a series of posts which spotlight quality websites that I use with my U.S. History survey course students at Azusa Pacific University to enrich the regular material in our learning modules.

In this post, I limit myself to those specific aspects of the website which I find fit particularly well within our face-to-face class sessions (each student is required to bring a laptop to class) or as the basis for the students' regularly-assigned written reactions.

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I ask the students to work through the following links:

I. INTERACTIVE TIMELINE

a. Go to Site Map to get Timeline entries
http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_timeline.html

b. Read through each of these short sketches:

1868-1878: Ten Years' War in Cuba
1893: Turner's Thesis
1895: Cuban War for Independence
February, 1896: Reconcentration Policy
August 1896: Revolt in the Philippines
March 4, 1897: President McKinley Inaugurated
April 16, 1897: T. Roosevelt Appointed Asst. Sec. of the Navy
December, 1897: McKinley Asks Congress for Aid to Cuba
February 9, 1898: Dupuy de Lôme Letter Scandal
February 16 1898: Battleship U.S.S. Maine Explodes
March 17, 1898: Senator Proctor Exposes Spain's Brutality in Cuba
April 25, 1898: Congress Declares War
May 1, 1898: Commodore Dewey's Victory in the Philippines
May 15, 1898: Theodore Roosevelt resigns as Asst. Sec. of the Navy
June 22, 1898: U.S. troops land in Cuba
July 1, 1898: Victory in San Juan Heights
July 17, 1898: Spanish surrender Santiago
August 12, 1898: Spain signs Peace Protocol
December 10, 1898: Treaty of Paris signed
January 1899: Senate Debate over Ratification of the Treaty of Paris
February 6, 1899: Treaty of Paris ratified
March 4, 1901: McKinley begins 2nd term; Roosevelt his Vice-President
March 23, 1901: Aguinaldo captured by U.S. troops
September, 1901: President McKinley assassinated
July 4, 1902: Philippine War declared over

II .Yellow Journalism:
http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_journalism.html

a. Read the material on this introductory page. [Same URL for the four sections]

b. Read the biographies of William Randolph Hearst and Richard Harding Davis

c. Click on Headline Gallery and read the items there.

d. Click on Cartoon Gallery and view the items there.

III. 1890s Music:
http://www.pbs.org/crucible/music.html

Sheet Music Gallery
http://www.pbs.org/crucible/music_gallery.html

Pick out songs that interest you.

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Concluding Note:

I hope you will use this blog post in conjunction with both the modules on my Learning Professor wiki and the numerous other posts in my Website Spotlight series.

1. The website spotlighted in this post fits within the following U.S. History survey course module on the wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Eyes+Abroad

2. The other blog posts in my Website Spotlight series--chronologically displayed by U.S. History survey course module-- can be found on this wiki page:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/WEBSITE+SPOTLIGHT