Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt

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After the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt inherited a growing empire when he took office in 1901. The U.S. had annexed Hawaii in 1898 and Spanish-American War granted the U.S. control of the Philippines. It also led the U.S. to establish a protectorate over Cuba and grant territorial status for Puerto Rico. By taking on the Philippine Islands as an American colony after the Spanish-American War he had ended the U.S.'s isolation from international politics. Theodore Roosevelt believed that nations should pursue a strenuous life and do their part to maintain peace and order. It was also a belief that civilized nations had the duty of modernizing the barbarous ones. He also pushed for a bigger army and navy and by the end of his presidency he had built the U.S. Navy into a major force at sea. Roosevelt shaped the legacy of expansionism that he inherited from McKinley into a new imperialism. Roosevelt's reinterpretation was dedicated to the idea of order in world affairs, rather than occupation or colonization, eventual independence for undeveloped or developing nations once they had conformed to the American model of government, and a world in which international disputes would be settled by negotiation instead of war. The new world order that Roosevelt envisioned was broad in that it would open foreign markets to American values and products. New imperialism viewed the world as divided between the developed nations and the undeveloped regions of the world. Roosevelt used this concept to justify U.S. involvement in world affairs. He reasoned that America's superior morals and mission was in contrast to that of the corrupt ‘barbaric regions of the non-Western world." To carry out new imperialism,... ... middle of paper ... ...way in Egypt. Some think that Roosevelt's intervention in these two hot spots averted fighting a potential major war between Asia and Europe. During his presidency Roosevelt had a tendency to carry the big stick then to speak softly. He got quite involved with the situation in Central and South America and also there was the controversy of the acquisition of the Philippines in the Pacific Islands. Roosevelt was also able to show the soft-spoken, sophisticated side of his diplomacy in dealing with major powers outside the Western Hemisphere. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations with Russia and Japan, hardly the actions of a war monger. Roosevelt was just an energetic person and he wanted to civilize what he thought of as uncivilized countries. 1. http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/monroe.htm 2.http://www.pinzler.com/ushistory/corollarysupp.html

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