American Foreign Policy in Three Influential Wars

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American Foreign Policy in Three Influential Wars With the race for the presidential election under way, American foreign policy has entered the minds of many Americans. Like today, foreign policy was of great importance throughout the twentieth-century; it has and continues to play key developmental roles in economic, cultural, diplomatic, and social factors that America has faced. By looking directly at the United States motivation in entering the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II, it can be seen how these factors developed since the turn-of-the-century. In this paper, I will compare and contrast the United States’ motivation for entering these wars by examining the four key factors of foreign policy listed above, while displaying and discussing levels of continuity between these wars. Much like the involvement in World War I and II, the United States took some time before declaring war on Spain. Cuba had been dealing with an ongoing revolution in hopes of acquiring its independence. In 1898, the United States helped Cuba defeat Spain. However, Cuban independence was not the sole goal of the United States. The U.S. had long hoped to establish a stronger presence throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and Asia. According to Walter LaFeber regarding Cuba, “The island’s domination of three of the four main communication routes in the Caribbean, its short interior lines between ports, its long coastline and many harbors that made blockade nearly impossible—these strategic reasons and the $50 million of U.S. investments in the rich sugar and mining businesses made control necessary (1).” As stated, the economic factor played an influential role in the Spanish-American War. The United States had... ... middle of paper ... ...ld War negotiations. American foreign policies played extremely important roles in shaping these three wars and in return, the United States was appointed as the leading world power and the true nation of the twentieth century. Bibliography: 1. LaFeber, Walter. The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations Volume II: The American Search for Opportunity, 1865-1913. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pg. 149. 2. LaFeber, pg. 141. 3. Rosenberg, Emily S. Spreading the American Dream: American Economic and Cultural Expansion, 1890-1945. Canada: Harper Collins Canada Ltd., 1982. Pg. 43. 4. Iriye, Akira. The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations Volume III: The Globalizing of America, 1913-1945. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pg. 24. 5. Iriye, pg. 46.

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