Beginning at the end of the 19th century, with the Spanish–American War in 1898 and the Boxer Rebellion, the United States began to play a more prominent role in the world beyond the North American continent. The government adopted protectionism after the Spanish–American War to develop its native industry and built up the navy, the "Great White Fleet". When Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901, he accelerated a foreign policy shift away from isolationism and towards foreign involvement, a process which had begun under his predecessor William McKinley.