What were the 3 major contributions that president McKinley accomplished during his presidency?

Answer 1

Major Domestic Policy: During the election of 1896, the coinage of silver became a very prominent issue. Farmers wanted more coinage of silver in order to relieve their debt, and the elite in the east viewed unlimited coinage of silver as a bad idea. They wanted to completely use the gold standard because of fear for a depression. McKinley was then nominated by the Republicans, while the Democratic Convention were split between the gold supports and the silver supports. The gold supports left the Convention and were drawn in by William Jennings Bryan's speech "cross of gold," and lead to the Democrats declaring coinage of unlimited amount of silver. McKinley won the election by over 50% of the popular vote and electoral votes, hence the coinage of silver did not occur and bimetallism was abolished. During his Presidency, he established the McKinley tariff, which raised rates up to 48.4%. The tariff caused harm to the farmers by increasing the prices of farm equipment and caused a decline in farm prices. McKinley then ran for presidency for a second term and easily received office once again, but was shot by Leon Czolgosz at the American Exhibition in Buffalo. He then died eight days later, and Theodore Roosevelt took office.

Major Foreign Policy: During McKinley's presidency, the United States had a grand interest in Cuba. Polk was never able to purchase Cuban land from Spain from the Ostend Manifesto in the 1840's. Then, in 1898, the United States invaded Cuba due to the fact that Spanish were going against human rights and the United States were in support of the Cuban revolutionist. Also, the United States was in hopes of expanding its territory into the Pacific Ocean. The war began in Havana harbor when there was an explosion on the battleship Maine. There is still no real evidence of what the cause of the explosion was, but the journalists and press took this news and turned it into a large deal by making it look like American's were at serious harm. As a result, the Spanish-American War was declared. The war only lasted about three months, but in those months, the United States conquered the Spanish Empire and acquired the Philippines and Guam. This helped the world realize that the United States was powerful, since the defeat only took three months. This war also created a realization to the American Government that there was need for a canal in Central America. McKinley also was interested in making American producers involved in the nation market by annexing Hawaii and getting involved with China.