United States History, 1877-
S. Foreign Policy, 1901-1941
United States foreign policy between 1901 and 1941 can be characterized as generally confident, sometimes aggressive and, occasionally, even cautious. The first twenty years of the century saw the U.S. leadership pursue confidently interventionist strategies in dealing with other countries. The next decade-a-half witnessed a clear modification toward cautious non-entanglement if not outright isolationism. With the election of Franklin Roosevelt to the White House a gap grew between the isolationist American public and an increasingly internationalist policy. This gap temporarily disappeared with Japans attack on Pearl Harbor and Americas entry into World War II.
Period of Confident Intervention, 1901-1919
Theodore Roosevelts arrival as
president could not have been less auspicious, coming as it did at the hands of an
assassin who ended the life of President William McKinley. While others may have doubted
Roosevelt's abilities, the new president gave no indications that such doubts ever
troubled his over-sized self-confidence.
|President Theodore Roosevelt relished the strenuous life almost as much as he enjoyed his status as a media celebrity. Horseback riding was a favorite pastime and helped boost his image as the "Cowboy President." (Smithsonian Institution)|
|He moved aggressively to realize the long-held U.S. goal of building (and
controlling) an inter-oceanic canal through Central America. For U.S. policy-makers the
best choice lay through the northern end of the Republic of Colombia; the Colombian
government, however, proved resistant to the notion of surrendering territory to the
American government. Roosevelt promptly supported a highly suspect independence
movement within the northernmost Colombian state of Panama and hastily recognized
the government of a pro-canal American sympathizer there. Panama began its fight for
independence from Colombia on November 3, 1903. Read the preamble and first three articles
of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla
Treaty granting the U.S. the rights to the Panama Canal.
Note the date the treaty was originally negotiated as well as the remarkable
statement in Article I.
Alarmed at the prospect of European intervention in the internal affairs of Latin American nations, Roosevelt also toughened and extended the historic Monroe Doctrine (1824) with his Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. After clicking on the following link, first read the editors note then scroll down and read the text of the "Roosevelt Corollary" as delivered to Congress in 1904. (See the section entitled "Policy Toward Other Nations of the Western Hemisphere.") What did Roosevelt promise would happen if Latin American countries invited foreign aggression? What assumptions does he make regarding the relative status of the U.S. in comparison with its Latin American neighbors?
Roosevelt further confidently intervened in world affairs by practicing a unique form of
presidential diplomacy. In 1905 he personally led negotiations to end a war between Japan
and Russia, resulting in his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. A year later he
successfully handled a similarly explosive colonial conflict between France and Germany.
Overall, Roosevelt sought to strengthen the U.S. Navy and solidify previous gains
in the Pacific.
President Woodrow Wilson's foreign policy was much like his predecessors but
informed more by paternalism than aggressiveness and opportunism. Much of Wilsons concerns focused on Asia
where the rising Japanese Empire competed with the old European empires for dominance in
China. Seeking to maintain an open
door for American trade with China, Wilson, like both his predecessors and
successors in the White House, struggled to balance the dangers of either European or
Japanese dominance in that region.
Period of Cautious Non-entanglement, 1920-1937
Traditionally historians have assigned the label of isolationist to
American foreign policy in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Clearly the mood of the American people became more and more isolationist as the
years we