national expansion

The acquisition of territory by a nation, whether by conquest, seizure or purchase. Since the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783 the United States has expanded in area about fivefold. At the beginning of the nineteenth century it had hardly cro ed the Alleghanies. Now it has in area a territory as large as the whole placer tain ing relating to th Milton: P. L. , xi. 464. 3. or one's birth, or the republic east of the Alleghanies was a hundred years ago. By the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands in August, 1898, America acquired an additional area of 7,629 square miles; and by the peace protocol signed by representatives of Spain and the United States, August 12, 1898, it was provided that Porto Rico and other Spanish islands in the West Indies and an island in the Ladrones should be ceded to the United States, and that the latter should "occupy and hold the city, harbor and bay of Manila pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace, which shall determine the control, disposition, and government of the Philippines." [UNITED STATES.]