As one of the most prosperous nations, the Unites States desired to protect and manage “their” portion of the world. In the early 1800s, James Monroe created a plan that adhered to the isolationists’ point of view in America. This plan became known as the Monroe Doctrine. Time passed quickly and as the United States acquired more land, Theodore Roosevelt revolutionized the plan with the Roosevelt Corollary. Roosevelt’s ideas altered the way foreign affairs in the Western Hemisphere were handled.
Traditionally, most Americans believed that European countries should stay out of the affairs happening in the Western Hemisphere, and in return they would do the same. This concept prompted President James Monroe to develop the Monroe Doctrine. The doctrine stated that European countries who tried to further colonize in the Americas would be seen as making aggressive acts. The United States would become involved if necessary, but stated that they would not cause worry to already existing settlements. With this established, peace was made and for the majority kept throughout most of the ni...
In the book, America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience, Robert H. Zieger discusses the events between 1914 through 1920 forever defined the United States in the Twentieth Century. When conflict broke out in Europe in 1914, the President, Woodrow Wilson, along with the American people wished to remain neutral. In the beginning of the Twentieth Century United States politics was still based on the “isolationism” ideals of the previous century. The United States did not wish to be involved in European politics or world matters. The U.S. goal was to expand trade and commerce throughout the world and protect the borders of North America.
At the turn of the century, and after gaining our independence, the United States land mass more than doubled through the use of purchasing, annexing, and war. However, the foreign policy of our government took a predominately isolationist stand. This was a national policy of abstaining from political or economic relations with other countries. General Washington shaped these values by upholding and encouraging the use of these principles by warning to avoid alliances in his farewell speech. The reasoning behind these actions was that the Republic was a new nation. We did not have the resources or the means to worry about other countries and foreign affairs; our immediate efforts were internal. Our goals that were of primary importance were setting up a democratic government and jump-starting a nation. The United States foreign policy up to and directly preceding the Civil War was mainly Isolationist. After the war, the government helped bring together a nation torn apart by war, helped improved our industrialization, and helped further populate our continent. We were isolationist in foreign affairs, while expanding domestically into the west and into the north through the purchase of Alaska. However, around 1890 the expansionism that had taken place was a far cry from what was about to happen. Expansionism is the nations practice or policy ...
The election of 1912 signified a turning point in American history. Friends, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, competed against each other for the presidency. Though both progressive, they disagreed on how the country needed to run. Roosevelts ever increasing progressivism caused their stances on many important issues to be much different. Although, they did have some points on which they agreed. In what ways were Roosevelt 's and Taft 's stances on progressivism similar, and different?
Theodore Roosevelt was a man uniquely fitted to the role that he played in American
The Monroe Doctrine reflected the concerns and ambitions of a fledgling nation that was brave enough to declare its sovereignty on the world stage. The Doctrine, in stating that European powers ought not to intervene in America’s affairs, established the US as a world power, although one that had inadequate, hemispheric aspirations. However, these aspirations would extend, and in future years the Doctrine would substantiate its usefulness for interventionists, as well as protectionists. Being conceivably the most distinguishable and the most revered as regards principles of diplomacy, the doctrine’s influence on the popular imagination was so great that it described the limits of standard decisions on policy, in turn influencing the choice of preferences that US Presidents had for most of the last two centuries.
In foreign affairs, the "white man's burden" helped to justify Roosevelt's "New Imperialism" in foreign policy. Uncivilized nations would gain eventual independence once they had conformed to the American model of government and democracy. Roosevelt's corollary to the Monroe Doctrine set up the U.S. as policeman in the western hemisphere. Under TR, the U.S. empire extended to include the Philippines, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. He also oversaw the building of the Panama Canal, a tremendous feat that enhanced U.S. commerce immeasurably.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in the early 1900s? The turn of the century left Americans feeling more optimistic about life (Woog 4). People were honest and kind (Woog 5). The 1900s can be remembered as a happy time, but also a time of hardship for some Americans (Woog 5). Theodore Roosevelt, President 1901-1910, guided America in a way in which he created laws to help the social and economic problems of the time as well as improving politics by being a strong leader and recognizing the true needs of the country.
There was also concern, as aforementioned, that Russia would intervene to restore Spanish control of the Latin American colonies. Although much of the Monroe Doctrine seemed to be focused on Spain, there was another nation and general idea that persuaded Monroe and Adams that these principles were necessary; they were Britain and Unilateralism. Britain, like Spain, had permanent colonies, settlements, and claims in the new world. The one prized colony to their colonial chest was Canada, supplying fur, trade, and money to the British people.
John L. O’Sullivan, an editor, coined the term “Manifest Destiny” and gave the expansionist movement its name in 1845. The “Manifest Destiny” was the belief that Americans had the divine right to occupy North America. The Americans believed they were culturally and racially superior over other nations and other races such as the Native American Indians and Mexicans. The notion of the ‘Manifest Destiny’ was that the Americans were morally superior and therefore morally obligated to try to spread enlighten and civilization to the less civilized societies. According to World History Group, “The closest America came to making ‘Manifest Destiny’ an official policy was The Monroe Doctrine, adopted in 1823, it put European nations on notice that the U.S. would defend other nations of the Western Hemisphere from further colonization” (World History, 2015). This divine American mission caused Anglo-Saxon Americans to believe they had the natural right to move west and bring blessings of self-government and religion, more specifically-
Primarily, the United States foreign policy behind the Monroe Doctrine was introduced by President James Monroe in the midst of many Latin American countries gaining their independence from Spain. The doctrine stated that attempts by European countries to colonize or interfere with states in the Western Hemisphere would be viewed as acts of aggression and U.S. intervention would be necessary. The Monroe Doctrine set the precedent for various foreign policies that would result in U.S. involvement in Latin America.
Before considering Professor X’s assertion that the Roosevelt Corollary actually corrupted the Monroe Doctrine’s “benevolent intent,” it is worth considering whether or not the Monroe Docterine was as benevolent as the unnamed professor seems to suggest. Professor X considers Monroe’s 1823 Doctrine an act of benevolence, in which an increasingly dominant world power generously extends protection over its continental neighbors. Yet the Professor ignores the inherently imperialistic subtext that is contained within the Doctrine, and thus his comparison of the Monroe Doctrine to the Roosevelt Corollary omits a fundamental aspect of America’s colonialist history.
The United States of America has never been content with stagnation. The landmass of the Thirteen Colonies was enough to rival that of the Mother country from which they separated. The forefathers believed that it was the manifest destiny of this nation to eventually claim the expansion from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. By 1890, nearly a hundred years following the original claim of Manifest Destiny, the land that was once open, was now under American control. But no sooner was the Great American Frontier closed, than was the door to East Asian expansion opened with the great gold key of American diplomacy. In a world where imperialism was contagious, and cartographers had to work around the clock to keep up with an ever-changing geopolitical landscape, the United States seized the opportunity to establish herself as a significant world power. With great expansionist minds at her helm, such as Theodore Roosevelt and Howard Taft the United States began to grow beyond her border to claim stake in this wide-open world. This new expansionism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was a different institution than its early to mid nineteenth century counterpart. Still, the drive to exercise the sovereignty of the United State and to propel itself over the world’s stage was the same then as it was in the time of Thomas Jefferson. In order to understand this assertion, attention must be given to three levels of analysis. First, the similarities that exist between the drive and purpose of old and new expansion must be taken into account. Second, the differences in the global political scene must be considered. Finally, there exits differences in the means by which expansion occurred.
The formation of modern American diplomacy can not only be attributed to Wilson, for the policies of Theodore Roosevelt are what initiated his diplomatic policies. Roosevelt convinced Congress to strengthen the Army and Navy, and began major involvement in European affairs. His foreign policy regarding the Caribbean followed the policy of the Monroe Doctrine, that to maintain order in the Caribbean, foreign nations could not be involved, however Roosevelt did not follow the Doctrine to the extent of forceful evacuation of the Americas, he did use diplomatic means. He prevented European warfare in Venezuela, by negotiating with the involved nations. He found that it was America’s duty, just as all other powerful nation’s duties, to police the world and maintain order. The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine was issued, and it stated that America would be the police force of the Americas, and that European intervention was not necessary. This major step showed that America had no goals in obtaining new territories in the Caribbean, and was a measure to protect the Panama region from upheaval. Wilson would follow Roosevelt’s ideologies but to an even greater extent as he created a modern Monroe Doctrine.
The Monroe Doctrine can be considered as the United States first major declaration to the world as a fairly new nation. The Monroe Doctrine was a statement of United States policy on the activity and rights of powers in the Western Hemisphere during the early to mid 1800s. The doctrine established the United States position in the major world affairs of the time. Around the time of the Napoleonic Wars in the 1820s, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia all gained their independence from Spanish control ("Monroe Doctrine" 617). The United States was the first nation to recognize their independence from Spain. The European powers had still considered the new nations as still belonging to Spain. The Americans had a sense of pride in the former Spanish colonies gaining independence. They felt as if the American Revolution was a model for these new Latin American nations (Faragher 265). After Napoleon went down, the monarchy in Spain regained power ("Monroe Doctrine" 617). The Spanish had felt embarrassed after losing their colonies to independence. In 1815 Tsar Alexander I of Russia and the monarchs of Austria and Prussia formed the Holy Alliance. This alliance was a group set out to maintain autocracy (Migill 594). Spain then demanded the return of its colonies of the New World (Migill 594). With the possibility of help from the Holy Alliance and France, Spain’s goal was looking realistic. The Americans also feared that if the Spanish colonies were recaptured the United States might be next ("Monroe Doctrine" 617).
On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe articulated his seventh annual message to Congress. This message presented Americans with a statement that changed the way the Western Hemisphere would be view and how international affairs toward the new Latin colonies would be handle from this point forward. It addressed European nations in particular and stated that “the United States would not tolerate further colonization or puppet nations” The Monroe Doctrine was initially designed to protect the Latin colonies but later President Theodore Roosevelt extended the Doctrine to include the United States would be the policing powers of the Western Hemisphere, this became known as the Roosevelt Corollary. Roosevelt stated that the United States had a “morale mandate” to ensure that other nations used appropriate attitudes toward Latin America. Roosevelt felt strongly in about the conduct of other nations and further stated: “It is not that the United States feels and land hunger or entertains any projects as regards the other nations of the Western Hemisphere save such as are for their welfare. All that this country desires is to see the neighboring countries stable, orderly, and prosperous. Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no interference from the United States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the U...