Spanish American War Timeline Using Primary Sources

Our newest lesson covers the "splendid little war" known as the Spanish American War. Although brief, this war is essential for students to understand how America transitioned into becoming a world power.

In this lesson, students analyze 10 primary sources from the Spanish American War, including cartoons, newspapers, lithographs, maps, and pictures all related to each aspect of the war.

Students then match these documents to questions along a timeline. The documents begin with a cartoon related to America protecting Cuba and move through the explosion on the USS Maine, the Teller & Platt Amendments, Rough Riders, Yellow Journalism, Buffalo Soldiers, Philippine-American War, and more. 

Each task is of varying difficulty and caters to visual and kinesthetic learners in having them finishing sketches to reinforce concepts. An answer key is included and can be seen below. You can download this lesson for your classroom by clicking here. A free preview of all the documents in the lessons is available as well.

American Imperialism: World Leader or Bully?

This downloadable worksheet combines several layers of Bloom's Taxonomy, including comprehension, analysis, and critical thinking as students review 10 US actions during the Age of Imperialism.

Included are the US purchase of Alaska, Spanish-American War, building of the Panama Canal, the annexation of Hawaii, and more. For each event, students must determine whether they feel the US was acting like a "world leader" promoting good or a "bully" acting in its own self-interest.

Whatever their decision, they must provide evidence to back up their claim. After completing the chart, students then determine whether America overall acted more like a World Leader or a World Bully and compose a short persuasive essay on their choice.

I did not include an answer key because each aspect of this is opinion-based and arguments could be made for either. However, if you would like a completed student sample, please let me know and I will supply one!

Click here to download this lesson for your student to use today!

One Year of World History Warm Ups

Last week we posted a video preview of a year's worth of warm up questions from US History to help start each class period. The video below is from a World History II class that covers material from the Renaissance & World in 1500 up through the present day. Each class period begins with one of these slides and allows students to get settled in and right to work.