William Mckinley. American politician. Twenty-fifth President of the United States of America . With his mandate began a period of dominance of the Republican Party, during which commercial activity was encouraged and the United States became a world power after its victory in the Spanish-American War. He used the explosion in Havana of the US battleship USS Maine to intervene in the Spanish-Cuban war.
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 2 Political Life
- 1 President
- 1.1 Internal policy
- 1.2 Foreign policy
- 2 Death
- 1 President
- 3 Source
Biographical synthesis
He was born on 29 of January of 1843 in a devout Methodist family in the small town of Niles, Ohio .
He attended Allegheny College for a year. At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 , he enlisted in the Union Army and reached the rank of officer.
Political life
He began practicing law in Canton, Ohio , in 1867 and began his political career in 1869 as a county attorney.
In 1877 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives, growing his influence within the Republican Party .
He was also elected Governor of Ohio ( 1892 – 1896 ). By 1896 he had become the safest Republican presidential candidate, thanks to his leadership in Ohio, his connections within the party, and his support for certain economic issues, especially protectionist tariffs.
President
The elections held in 1896 were a turning point in American politics. McKinley defended tariffs as a means of protecting companies and the labor market against foreign imports; He was also a supporter of the gold standard, contrary to the opinion of his Democratic opponent, William Jennings Bryan , who advocated unlimited minting in silver, which would have increased inflation.
The support of millionaire Mark Hanna made it easy for him to vote by an overwhelming majority over the Democratic candidate, William J. Bryan .
Internal politics
His government enacted the protectionist tariff of 1897, imposed the gold standard in 1900, and generally fostered confidence in business circles. The country’s economy recovered from a severe depression in large part thanks to this economic policy, and the Republicans were thus associated with economic prosperity, which made them the dominant political force until the 1930s .
During his first term ( 1897 – 1900 ) he reinforced customs protectionism in response to the economic crisis.
McKinley obtained public approval of his management when he defeated Bryan again and was re-elected in 1900, in the presidential elections.
Foreign policy
Foreign relations were a delaying obstacle to the McKinley administration’s priority objectives when the Cuban uprising against Spanish colonial rule created pressure for the United States to intervene in Cuba.
Before the Cuban War of Independence ( 1895 – 1898 ), he used the explosion in Havana of the American battleship USS Maine to intervene in the Spanish-Cuban war, as important sectors of the American public opinion had been requesting through press campaigns.
This fact put an end to the Spanish colonial presence in Cuba , Puerto Rico and the Philippines , and led the United States to annex Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam, as well as to initiate its penetration in Cuba.
That same year, 1898, he obtained re-election as president, despite Democratic accusations of having been an instrument of big business interests and a new imperialism . On April 20, 1898, he signed the Joint Resolution that authorized the president to use force to eliminate the Spanish government in Cuba, and on March 2 , 1901, he sanctioned the Platt Amendment , which previously approved by the United States Congress , required practically the new Cuban government to subordinate itself to that of that nation.
Although the war was popular in the United States, these new possessions – to which Cuba, formally occupied in 1899, would be added and which would remain as a de facto protectorate despite its theoretical independence after the approval of the Platt Amendment (1901) – they provoked controversy for involving the United States in world politics as a great power.
The unprecedented growth of large companies, called trusts, caused unrest in the country and McKinley showed concern about these issues when he was re-elected in 1900.
Death
The possibility of introducing changes in the economy was cut short when the anarchist León Czolgosz shot him in Búfalo (city) , New York state , on September 6 , 1901 .
He died eight days later, succeeded by his vice president Theodore Roosevelt .
