Theodore Roosevelt racist jerk

  • progressive years the American foreign-policy reflected the United States feeling like a world power and flexing its economic and political interests
  • Theodore Roosevelt wanted to use American power in the world he described by citing the proverb Speaks Softly But Carry a Big Stick he had two different standards for using his power
  • 1st standard for civilized nations and the 2nd standard was for non-civilized nations
  • Roosevelt believed civilized nations were white Anglo-Saxon
  • non-civilized nations were Latin or Slavic
  • he believed Japan was civilized because they were rapidly industrializing their society
  • so racism was only part of the basis of his distinction between civilized and uncivilized economic development also played a role that is why he believed Japan was civilized
  • he believed uncivilized nations were suppliers of raw materials and markets for goods
  • civilized nations were producers of industrialized materials and goods
  • he believed a civilized nation had the right to intervene in the affairs of uncivilized or backwards nations to preserve order and stability for the sake of both nations
  • Roosevelt wanted America to become a power at sea and have a strong Navy
  • by 1906 the American Navy was bigger than everybody except for Great Britain. Germany had a huge navy too

Protecting the Open Door and Asia

  • Roosevelt wanted the open door to maintain American trade in the Pacific he did not want any single nation to accept list dominance there
  • Russia Japan Germany and France were already and Asia as well
  • 1904 Japan had a surprise attack on the Russian fleet in China. It was an area of China that Japan and Russia controlled
  • the Japanese requested that America and Roosevelt mediate the conflict and because Russia did bad in the war they had to agree they had a peace conference in New Hampshire in 1905
  • Japan and the United States had a secret agreement that the US could trade freely in the region
  • Roosevelt won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his work and being the Russian Japanese war
  • Japan destroyed the Russian fleet at Port Arthur and they were becoming a big naval power in the Pacific and they started to exclude American trade from Japanese controlled territories
  • 1906 San Francisco voted to separate Asian schoolchildren
  • California passed a law limiting the immigration of Japanese laborers
  • anti-Asian riots in California
  • yellow peril made people in Japan mad that Asians were treated badly in the United States
  • Roosevelt sent 16 battleships they were known as The Great White Fleet to remind Japan how big the American Navy was
 

The Ironfisted Neighbor

  • 1902 the government of Venezuela stopped paying its debts to European banks the naval forces of Britain Italy and Germany blockaded the Venezuela coast in response then German ships started to blow up a Venezuela port town and Roosevelt said he would send the American Navy to make Germany stop
  • 1904 Roosevelt Corollary was added to the Monroe Doctrine it said the United States had the right to oppose European intervention in the Western Hemisphere and it could involve itself in the domestic affairs of American neighbors if the neighbors proved unable to maintain order and national sovereignty on their own
  • the motivation for the Roosevelt corollary and the first opportunity to use it was in the Dominican republic
  • a revolution happened and the government was bankrupt in 1903 it went in debt to Europe for $22 million Roosevelt controlled Dominican customs and gave 45% of the money to the Dominican republic and 55% to the rest of its foreign creditors this lasted for three decades 30 years
  • 1902 United States gave political independents to Cuba but the new government agreed to the Platt Amendment it was named after Sen. Thomas Platt of Pennsylvania the amendment gave the US the right to prevent any foreign power from intruding into the new nation so in 1906 American troops landed in Cuba and remain there for three years

The Panama Canal

  • the biggest accomplishment of Roosevelt’s presidency was the construction of the Panama Canal linking the Atlantic and the Pacific by a channel through Central America
  • 1901 Hay-Pauncefote treaty between America and Britain canceled and 1850 agreement where US and Britain agreed to construct the canal together so now the US the bill that on its own
  • they wanted to build it through Nicaragua but went to Panama and Colombia instead
  • the French tried to build one in Columbia they were 40% done when they gave up
  • John Hay was Secretary of State negotiated an agreement with Colombia to allow construction of the Panama Canal
  • 6 mile wide Canal zone across Colombia the US paid Columbia 10 million in annual rental of 250,000
  • the Colombians did not like this deal they demanded 20 million plus a share of the payment to the French
  • Roosevelt didn’t want to pay it so he helped organize and finance a revolution in Panama Roosevelt landed troops from the USS Nashville and Panama to maintain order so the Cuban forces couldn’t rebel and three days later Roosevelt recognized Panama as an independent nation
  • the new Panama agreed to the terms the Colombian Senate had rejected and work began on the canal
  • the Panama Canal opened in 1914

Taft and Dollar Diplomacy

  • president William Howard Taft had a Secretary of State named Knox.
  • Knox had a policy called Dollar Diplomacy which means American money investments in last developed regions and countries
  • Taft /Knox foreign-policy greatest failure in the Far East ignored Roosevelt’s 1905 agreement with Japan that limited American involvement in China he increased American economic influence in the region to build railroads in China he tried to exclude China from any role in China’s railroads in Manchuria and Japan responded by a forming an alliance with Russia and the railroad project collapsed
  • in the Caribbean the Taft/Knox administration established American economic presence revolution broke out in Nicaragua in 1909 sent American troops to Nicaragua and then America spent a lot of money in the country

Diplomacy and Morality

  • President Woodrow Wilson did not have much experience in international affairs
  • 1916 United States established a military government in Dominican republic the military occupation lasted eight years
  • 1915 80 which shares the island of the has been a law with the Dominican republic president Wilson sent the Marines in 1915 to stop a revolution American military forces stayed in Haiti until 1934. America broke the Constitution for Haiti in 1918
  • Wilson was afraid that Danish West Indies might be, controlled by journeying so he bought the colony from Denmark and renamed it the virgin islands
  • he was worried about the possibility of European influence in Nicaragua so we signed a treaty with Nicaragua that no other nation would build a canal there
  • president Wilson and Mexico American businessman had a lot of money and Mexico it was run by a dictator named Diaz
  • in 1910 Mexican president Diaz was overthrown by a new leader named Madero who was hostile to American business and Mexico
  • the United States helped a new leader named Huerta come to office. President Wilson said he would never recognize Huerta’s “government of butchers” after he murdered Madero
  • Huerta had a full military dictatorship in Mexico in October of 1913 so Woodrow Wilson and the British stopped supporting Huerta
  • April 1914 Huerta’s Army arrested several American soldiers from the USS dolphin in even though they were released right away a general America was mad and told the Mexicans that they had to give a 21 gun salute to the American flag as a display of being sorry and the Mexicans refused so the United States used the small incident to take over the Mexican port of Veracruz
  • Americans killed hundred and 26 Mexican troops in Veracruz. 19 Americans died in Veracruz Mexico
  • a new leader named Carranza in Mexico took over Mexico City and forced the old Mexican dictator Huerta to leave the whole country of Mexico
  • Mexicans new leader Carranza would not follow American guidelines for the creation of a new government
  • Poncho Villa led a rebel army in Mexico January 1916 he took American mining engineers from a train in northern Mexico and shot 16 of them then they crossed into New Mexico and killed 17 more Americans he was trying to start a war between Mexico and the United States
  • president Wilson got permission from Mexican president Carranza and sent Gen. John Pershing to lead an American force across the Mexican border in pursuit of Poncho Villa
  • the forces never found Poncho Villa but did get into some fights with the Mexican army 40 Mexicans died and 12 Americans died Wilson brought back the American troops from Mexico March 1917 and he granted formal recognition to the president of Mexico Carranza to avoid war with Mexico