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Historic period of Empire: American Strange Policy, 1890-1914

Roosevelt'south "Big Stick" Strange Policy

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, y'all volition be able to:

• Explain the meaning of "big stick" foreign policy
• Describe Theodore Roosevelt'due south use of the "big stick" to construct the Panama Culvert
• Explain the role of the United States in catastrophe the Russo-Japanese War

While President McKinley ushered in the era of the American empire through military strength and economic coercion, his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, established a new strange policy approach, allegedly based on a favorite African saying, "speak softly, and carry a big stick, and you will get in" ([link]). At the crux of his strange policy was a thinly veiled threat. Roosevelt believed that in light of the country's recent military successes, it was unnecessary to use force to attain foreign policy goals, so long equally the military could threaten strength. This rationale also rested on the young president's philosophy, which he termed the "strenuous life," and that prized challenges overseas as opportunities to instill American men with the resolve and vigor they allegedly had once acquired in the Trans-Mississippi West.

Roosevelt was frequently depicted in cartoons wielding his "big stick" and pushing the U.S. foreign calendar, often through the power of the U.S. Navy.

Roosevelt believed that while the coercive ability wielded by the United States could be harmful in the wrong easily, the Western Hemisphere's best interests were also the best interests of the Usa. He felt, in short, that the United States had the correct and the obligation to be the policeman of the hemisphere. This conventionalities, and his strategy of "speaking softly and carrying a big stick," shaped much of Roosevelt's foreign policy.

THE Construction OF THE PANAMA Canal

As early on equally the mid-sixteenth century, interest in a culvert across the Key American isthmus began to take root, primarily out of trade interests. The subsequent discovery of golden in California in 1848 further spurred involvement in connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and led to the construction of the Panama Railway, which began operations in 1855. Several attempts by France to construct a canal betwixt 1881 and 1894 failed due to a combination of fiscal crises and wellness hazards, including malaria and yellowish fever, which led to the deaths of thousands of French workers.

Upon becoming president in 1901, Roosevelt was determined to succeed where others had failed. Post-obit the communication that Mahan set forth in his book The Influence of Seapower upon History, he sought to attain the construction of a canal across Central America, primarily for war machine reasons associated with empire, merely also for international trade considerations. The most strategic point for the construction was across the fifty-mile isthmus of Panama, which, at the turn of the century, was role of the nation of Republic of colombia. Roosevelt negotiated with the government of Colombia, sometimes threatening to accept the projection away and build through Nicaragua, until Colombia agreed to a treaty that would grant the Usa a charter on the land across Panama in commutation for a payment of $x one thousand thousand and an additional $250,000 annual rental fee. The thing was far from settled, however. The Colombian people were outraged over the loss of their land to the United States, and saw the payment every bit far too low. Influenced by the public outcry, the Colombian Senate rejected the treaty and informed Roosevelt there would exist no culvert.

Undaunted, Roosevelt chose to now wield the "large stick." In comments to journalists, he made it clear that the United States would strongly support the Panamanian people should they cull to revolt against Colombia and form their own nation. In Nov 1903, he fifty-fifty sent American battleships to the declension of Republic of colombia, ostensibly for practice maneuvers, as the Panamanian revolution unfolded. The warships effectively blocked Colombia from moving additional troops into the region to quell the growing Panamanian uprising. Within a week, Roosevelt immediately recognized the new country of Panama, welcoming them to the world community and offering them the same terms—$10 million plus the almanac $250,000 rental fee—he had previously offered Republic of colombia. Following the successful revolution, Panama became an American protectorate, and remained so until 1939.

Once the Panamanian victory was secured, with American support, construction on the canal began in May 1904. For the first twelvemonth of operations, the Us worked primarily to build adequate housing, cafeterias, warehouses, machine shops, and other elements of infrastructure that previous French efforts had failed to consider. Well-nigh importantly, the introduction of fumigation systems and mosquito nets following Dr. Walter Reed'south discovery of the role of mosquitoes in the spread of malaria and yellow fever reduced the death rate and restored the fledgling morale among workers and American-born supervisors. At the same fourth dimension, a new moving ridge of American engineers planned for the construction of the canal. Even though they decided to build a lock-organisation rather than a ocean-level culvert, workers yet had to excavate over 170 million cubic yards of world with the use of over 1 hundred new rails-mounted steam shovels ([link]). Excited past the piece of work, Roosevelt became the showtime sitting U.Due south. president to go out the country while in office. He traveled to Panama where he visited the construction site, taking a turn at the steam shovel and removing dirt. The culvert opened in 1914, permanently changing world trade and military defence patterns.

Recurring landslides made the earthworks of the Culebra Cut one of the most technically challenging elements in the construction of the Panama Canal.

This timeline of the Panama Canal illustrates the efforts involved in both the French and U.S. culvert projects.

THE ROOSEVELT COROLLARY

With the structure of the culvert now underway, Roosevelt next wanted to ship a clear message to the rest of the world—and in particular to his European counterparts—that the colonization of the Western Hemisphere had at present ended, and their interference in the countries there would no longer be tolerated. At the same time, he sent a message to his counterparts in Central and S America, should the United States run across problems erupt in the region, that it would intervene in order to maintain peace and stability throughout the hemisphere.

Roosevelt articulated this seeming double standard in a 1904 address earlier Congress, in a speech that became known as the Roosevelt Corollary. The Roosevelt Corollary was based on the original Monroe Doctrine of the early nineteenth century, which warned European nations of the consequences of their interference in the Caribbean area. In this addition, Roosevelt states that the United States would use military machine force "as an international police force power" to correct any "chronic wrongdoing" by any Latin American nation that might threaten stability in the region. Unlike the Monroe Doctrine, which proclaimed an American policy of noninterference with its neighbors' diplomacy, the Roosevelt Corollary loudly proclaimed the right and obligation of the U.s.a. to involve itself whenever necessary.

Roosevelt immediately began to put the new corollary to piece of work. He used it to establish protectorates over Cuba and Panama, as well as to directly the United states of america to manage the Dominican Democracy's custom service revenues. Despite growing resentment from neighboring countries over American intervention in their internal affairs, as well as European concerns from distant, knowledge of Roosevelt'southward previous actions in Colombia concerning acquisition of land upon which to build the Panama Canal left many fearful of American reprisals should they resist. Somewhen, Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt softened American rhetoric regarding U.S. domination of the Western Hemisphere, with the latter proclaiming a new "Adept Neighbor Policy" that renounced American intervention in other nations' affairs. However, subsequent presidents would continue to reference aspects of the Roosevelt Corollary to justify American involvement in Haiti, Nicaragua, and other nations throughout the twentieth century. The map below ([link]) shows the widespread furnishings of Roosevelt'southward policies throughout Latin America.

From underwriting a revolution in Panama with the goal of building a canal to putting troops in Cuba, Roosevelt vastly increased the U.Due south. impact in Latin America.

The Roosevelt Corollary and Its Touch

In 1904, Roosevelt put the United States in the role of the "police ability" of the Western Hemisphere and set up a class for the U.S. relationship with Fundamental and Latin America that played out over the next several decades. He did then with the Roosevelt Corollary, in which he stated:

Information technology is not truthful that the U.s.a. feels any land hunger or entertains whatsoever projects equally regards the other nations of the Western Hemisphere save as such are for their welfare. All that this land desires is to run across the neighboring countries stable, orderly, and prosperous. Any land whose people conduct themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship. . . . Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, crave intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United states of america to the Monroe Doctrine may force the U.s.a., however, reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police force ability."

In the twenty years afterward he made this statement, the Usa would use armed forces force in Latin America over a dozen times. The Roosevelt Corollary was used every bit a rationale for American interest in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Republic of haiti, and other Latin American countries, straining relations between Central America and its dominant neighbor to the north throughout the twentieth century.

AMERICAN INTERVENTION IN THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR

Although he supported the Open up Door notes as an first-class economic policy in China, Roosevelt lamented the fact that the United States had no strong military machine presence in the region to enforce it. Clearly, without a military presence in that location, he could not as hands utilise his "big stick" threat credibly to achieve his foreign policy goals. As a result, when conflicts did arise on the other side of the Pacific, Roosevelt adopted a policy of maintaining a rest of power among the nations in that location. This was particularly axiomatic when the Russo-Japanese War erupted in 1904.

In 1904, angered by the massing of Russian troops forth the Manchurian edge, and the threat it represented to the region, Japan launched a surprise naval assault upon the Russian fleet. Initially, Roosevelt supported the Japanese position. However, when the Japanese armada quickly achieved victory after victory, Roosevelt grew concerned over the growth of Japanese influence in the region and the connected threat that it represented to Mainland china and American admission to those markets ([link]). Wishing to maintain the aforementioned balance of power, in 1905, Roosevelt arranged for diplomats from both nations to nourish a secret peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The resultant negotiations secured peace in the region, with Japan gaining control over Korea, several sometime Russian bases in Manchuria, and the southern one-half of Sakhalin Island. These negotiations too garnered the Nobel Peace Prize for Roosevelt, the get-go American to receive the laurels.

Nihon's defense force against Russian federation was supported by President Roosevelt, merely when Nihon's ongoing victories put the United states of america' ain Asian interests at take chances, he stepped in.

When Japan later exercised its say-so over its gains by forcing American business interests out of Manchuria in 1906–1907, Roosevelt felt he needed to invoke his "big stick" foreign policy, even though the altitude was great. He did so by sending the U.Due south. Great White Fleet on maneuvers in the western Pacific Ocean equally a show of force from Dec 1907 through Feb 1909. Publicly described as a goodwill bout, the message to the Japanese government regarding American interests was as articulate. Subsequent negotiations reinforced the Open Door policy throughout China and the rest of Asia. Roosevelt had, by both the judicious use of the "big stick" and his strategy of maintaining a balance of power, kept U.S. interests in Asia well protected.

Browse the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery to follow Theodore Roosevelt from Rough Passenger to president and across.

Section Summary

When Roosevelt succeeded McKinley as president, he implemented a fundamental strategy for building an American empire: the threat, rather than the outright use, of military forcefulness. McKinley had engaged the U.S. armed services in several successful skirmishes and and so used the country'southward superior industrial ability to negotiate benign foreign trade agreements. Roosevelt, with his "big stick" policy, was able to keep the United States out of armed services conflicts by employing the legitimate threat of strength. However, as negotiations with Japan illustrated, the maintenance of an empire was fraught with complication. Changing alliances, shifting economical needs, and power politics all meant that the United States would demand to tread carefully to maintain its status equally a earth power.

Review Questions

How did Colombia react to the United States' proposal to construct a canal through Cardinal America?

They preferred to build such a canal themselves.

They preferred that no canal exist built at all.

They agreed to sell land to the U.s.a. to build the canal, but in a less advantageous location than the Panamanians.

They felt that Roosevelt's bargain offered too fiddling coin.

D

With the Roosevelt Corollary, Roosevelt sought to institute ________.

the consequences for whatever European nation that involved itself in Latin American diplomacy

the right of the United States to involve itself in Latin American affairs whenever necessary

the idea that Latin America was free and independent from foreign intervention

the need for further colonization efforts in the Western Hemisphere

B

Compare Roosevelt'due south foreign policy in Latin America and Asia. Why did he apply these different methods?

Roosevelt'south strategy of "speaking softly and carrying a large stick" worked well in Latin America, where the U.s.a. had a strong military machine presence and could quickly and easily human activity on any threat of military action. Roosevelt'south threat of force was therefore credible in that region, and he was able to wield it effectively. In Asia, however, the Usa had less of a armed services presence. Instead, Roosevelt sought to maintain a rest of power, wherein the various Asian countries kept each other in check and no single player grew too powerful. When the power residual tipped, Roosevelt acted to broker a peace deal between Russia and Japan equally a means of restoring balance.

Glossary

Roosevelt Corollary

a argument past Theodore Roosevelt that the Usa would use military machine force to act as an international constabulary power and correct any chronic wrongdoing by whatsoever Latin American nation threatening the stability of the region

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Source: http://pressbooks-dev.oer.hawaii.edu/ushistory/chapter/roosevelts-big-stick-foreign-policy/

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