What presidents served between 1898-1913?

During the time period that you are asking about, the United States had three presidents (or four, depending on when in 1913 your time period ends).  These presidents were William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and, beginning on March 4, 1913, Woodrow Wilson.

In 1898, William McKinley was the president.  He had been elected in 1896 and taken office in 1897.  McKinley was a Republican.  As president, he is best known for having led the United States into the Spanish-American War and for his moves towards imperialism like the annexation of Hawaii and the taking of the Philippines.  McKinley was reelected in 1900, but was assassinated in September of 1901.

When McKinley was killed, his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, took office.  Roosevelt, of course, is one of the most famous American presidents.  As president, he is most famous for having been a Progressive.  He is known for his “trust-busting” and his support for the idea of national parks.  Roosevelt is also known for his “big stick diplomacy” in which he tried to use American military power aggressively to achieve American goals.  One example of this is his use of the military to help Panama break away from Colombia so the US could acquire the land to build the Panama Canal.  Roosevelt was elected in his own right in 1904 and did not run for reelection in 1908.

In 1908, Roosevelt’s hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft, was elected.  Taft is not very well-known, being most famous for the fact that he was the heaviest American president ever.  Taft carried on more or less in Roosevelt’s footsteps.  He, too, was a Progressive who wanted to use the power of the federal government to do things like breaking up large businesses.  However, Taft did not seem progressive enough to Roosevelt and other Republicans.  When the party nominated him again in 1912 (over Roosevelt, who had come back to try for office again), Roosevelt created a third party.  Roosevelt and Taft split the GOP vote, allowing Woodrow Wilson to become president.  Wilson is the only Democrat of these four presidents.  Because your question only goes up to 1913, I assume you do not need to know much about Wilson as he had not had time to do much as president by the end of 1913.

Please follow the link below for a list of presidents with links to brief summaries of their times in office.