William McKinley

On January 29, 1843, in Niles, Ohio, William McKinley was born into a family that valued education, antislavery Unionism, and disciplined public life. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War, studied law in Albany, and built a political base in Ohio as a congressman and governor. Tariff expertise and close ties to Mark Hanna turned him into the Republican standard-bearer of the 1890s.

McKinley won the presidency in 1896 and presided over recovery from the depression of the 1890s while defending protective tariffs and the gold standard. In 1898 he led the nation into the Spanish-American War, and the resulting Treaty of Paris brought Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines under American control. His second term ended with assassination in 1901, but not before his administration had firmly tied economic policy to an outward-looking national state.

McKinley's presidency marked a transition from continental expansion to overseas empire and prepared the ground for Progressive Era foreign policy. The Spanish-American War, annexation debates, and later interventions all developed within structures of national power strengthened during his administration.