AMERICAN

IMPERIALISM
UNIT 2
 GLOBAL COMPETITION
Americans had always sought to expand the size of their nation, and throughout the 19th century they
extended their control toward the Pacific Ocean. However, by the 1880s, many American leaders had become
convinced that the United States should join the imperialist powers of Europe and establish colonies
overseas.
Imperialism—the policy in which stronger nations extend their economic, political, or military control over
weaker territories—was already a trend around the world.
European nations had been establishing colonies for centuries. In the late 19th century Africa had emerged as
a prime target of European expansionism. Imperialists also competed for territory in Asia, especially in China.
In its late-19th-century reform era, Japan joined European nations in competition for China in the 1890s.
 Most Americans gradually warmed to the idea of expansion overseas. With a belief in manifest destiny, they
already had pushed the U.S. border to the Pacific Ocean. Three factors fueled the new American imperialism:
 desire for military strength
 thirst for new markets
belief in cultural superiority
FACTORS LEADING TO AMERICAN
IMPERIALISM
1. DESIRE FOR MILITARY STRENGTH Seeing that other nations were establishing a global military
presence, American leaders advised that the United States build up its own military strength.
One such leader was Admiral Alfred T. Mahan of the U.S. Navy. Mahan urged government
officials to build up American naval power in order to compete with other powerful nations. As a
result of the urging of Mahan and others, the United States built nine steel-hulled cruisers
between 1883 and 1890. The construction of modern battleships such as the Maine and the
Oregon transformed the country into the world’s third largest naval power.

2. THIRST FOR NEW MARKETS In the late 19th century, advances in technology enabled
American farms and factories to produce far more than American citizens could consume. Now
the United States needed raw materials for its factories and new markets for its agricultural and
manufactured goods. Imperialists viewed foreign trade as the solution to American
overproduction and the related problems of unemployment and economic depression.
3. BELIEF IN CULTURAL SUPERIORITY- Cultural factors also were used to justify imperialism.
Some Americans combined the philosophy of Social Darwinism—a belief that free-market
competition would lead to the survival of the fittest—with a belief in the racial superiority of
Anglo-Saxons. They argued that the United States had a responsibility to spread Christianity and
“civilization” to the world’s “inferior peoples.” This viewpoint narrowly defined “civilization”
according to the standards of only one culture.
4. ACQUIRING OF ALASKA- An early supporter of American expansion was William Seward,
Secretary of State under presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. In 1867, Seward
arranged for the U.S. to buy Alaska from the Russians for $7.2 million. Seward had some trouble
persuading the House of Representatives to approve the treaty. Some people thought it was silly
to buy what they called “Seward’s Icebox” or “Seward’s folly.” Time showed how wrong they
were. In 1959, Alaska became a state. For about two cents an acre, the United States had
acquired a land rich in timber, minerals, and, as it turned out, oil.
WHY WAS HAWAII IMPORTANT TO
US?
In 1867, the same year in which Alaska was purchased, the United States took over the Midway Islands,
which lie in the Pacific Ocean about 1300 miles north of Hawaii.
The Hawaiian Islands had been economically important to the United States for nearly a century. In the
1820s, Yankee missionaries founded Christian schools and churches on the islands. Their children and
grandchildren became sugar planters who sold most of their crop to the United States.
In the mid-19th century, American-owned sugar plantations accounted for about three-quarters of the
islands’ wealth. Plantation owners imported thousands of laborers from Japan, Portugal, and China. By 1900,
foreigners and immigrant laborers outnumbered native Hawaiians about three to one.
In 1875, the United States agreed to import Hawaiian sugar duty-free. Over the next 15 years, Hawaiian
sugar production increased nine times. Then the McKinley Tariff of 1890 provoked a crisis by eliminating the
duty-free status of Hawaiian sugar.
As a result, Hawaiian sugar growers faced competition in the American market. American planters in Hawaii
called for the United States to annex the islands so they wouldn’t have to pay the duty.
ANNEXATION OF HAWAII
U.S. military and economic leaders in 1887 had pressured Hawaii to allow the United States to
build a naval base at Pearl Harbor, the kingdom’s best port. The base became a refueling station
for American ships.
Also in that year, Hawaii’s King Kalakaua had been strong-armed by white business leaders. They
forced him to amend Hawaii’s constitution to grant voting rights only to wealthy landowners.
 But when Kalakaua died in 1891, his sister Queen Liliuokalani came to power with a “Hawaii for
Hawaiians” agenda. She proposed removing the property-owning qualifications for voting.
To prevent this from happening, business groups— encouraged by Ambassador John L. Stevens
—organized a revolution. With the help of marines, they overthrew the queen and set up a
government headed by Sanford B. Dole.
On August 12, 1898, Congress proclaimed Hawaii an American territory, although Hawaiians had
never had the chance to vote. In 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States
AMERICA INTEREST IN CUBA
By the end of the 19th century, Spain—once the most powerful colonial nation on earth—had lost
most of its colonies. It retained only the Philippines and the island of Guam in the Pacific, a few
outposts in Africa, and the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Americas.
The United States had long held an interest in Cuba, which lies only 90 miles south of Florida. In
1854, diplomats recommended to President Franklin Pierce that the United States buy Cuba from
Spain. The Spanish responded by saying that they would rather see Cuba sunk in the ocean.
But American interest in Cuba continued. When the Cubans rebelled against Spain between 1868
and 1878, American sympathies went out to the Cuban people.
The Cuban revolt against Spain was not successful, but in 1886 the Cuban people did force Spain
to abolish slavery.
After the emancipation of Cuba’s slaves, American capitalists began investing millions of dollars in
large sugar cane plantations on the island.
 CUBANS REBEL AGAINST SPAIN
AND SPAIN RETALIATES
Anti-Spanish sentiment in Cuba soon erupted into a second war for independence. José Martí, a
Cuban poet and journalist in exile in New York, launched a revolution in 1895.
 Martí organized Cuban resistance against Spain, using an active guerrilla campaign and
deliberately destroying property, especially American-owned sugar mills and plantations.
Martí counted on provoking U.S. intervention to help the rebels achieve Cuba Libre!—a free
Cuba. Public opinion in the United States was split.
Many business people wanted the government to support Spain in order to protect their
investments.
In 1896, Spain responded to the Cuban revolt by sending General Valeriano Weyler to Cuba to
restore order. Weyler tried to crush the rebellion by herding the entire rural population of
central and western Cuba into barbed wire concentration camps.
Here civilians could not give aid to rebels. An estimated 300,000 Cubans filled these camps,
where thousands died from hunger and disease.
AMERICAN RESPONSE
To lure readers, William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York
World printed exaggerated accounts—by reporters such as James Creelman—of “Butcher”
Weyler’s brutality. They fanned war fever.
Stories of poisoned wells and of children being thrown to the sharks deepened American
sympathy for the rebels. This sensational style of writing, which exaggerates the news to lure
and enrage readers, became known as yellow journalism.
American sympathy for “Cuba Libre!” grew with each day’s headlines. When American President
William McKinley took office in 1897, demands for American intervention in Cuba were on the
rise.
Preferring to avoid war with Spain, McKinley tried diplomatic means to resolve the crisis. At first,
his efforts appeared to succeed.
Spain recalled General Weyler, modified the policy regarding concentration camps, and offered
Cuba limited self-government.
 IMMEDIATE CAUSE FOR SPANISH-
AMERICAN WAR
In 1898, President McKinley had ordered the U.S.S. Maine (Navy ship) to Cuba to bring home
American citizens in danger from the fighting and to protect American property.
 On February 15, 1898, the ship blew up in the harbor of Havana. More than 260 men were
killed. To this day, no one really knows why the ship exploded.In 1898, however, American
newspapers claimed the Spanish had blown up the ship.
 The Journal’s headline read “The warship Maine was split in two by an enemy’s secret infernal
machine.” Hearst’s paper offered a reward of $50,000 for the capture of the Spaniards who
supposedly had committed the outrage.
Now there was no holding back the forces that wanted war. On April 11, McKinley asked
Congress for authority to use force against Spain. After a week of debate, Congress agreed, and
on April 20 the United States declared war
THE WAR IN THE PHILIPPINES
The American suddenly decided that they are going to immediately attack not the Cuban colony
of Spain but the first battle of the war took place in a Spanish colony on the other side of the
world—the Philippine Islands.
On April 30, 1898 the American fleet in the Pacific steamed to the Philippines. The next
morning, Commodore George Dewey gave the command to open fire on the Spanish fleet at
Manila, the Philippine capital.
Within hours, Dewey’s men had destroyed every Spanish ship there. Dewey’s victory allowed
U.S. troops to land in the Philippines. Dewey had the support of the Filipinos who, like the
Cubans, also wanted freedom from Spain.
Over the next two months, 11,000 Americans joined forces with Filipino rebels led by Emilio
Aguinaldo. In August, Spanish troops in Manila surrendered to the United States.
THE WAR WITH CUBA
American forces landed in Cuba in June 1898 and began to converge on the port city of Santiago.
The army of 17,000 included four African-American regiments of the regular army and the Rough Riders,
a volunteer cavalry under the command of Leonard Wood and Theodore Roosevelt.
 The Rough Riders trained as cavalry but fought on foot because their horses didn’t reach Cuba in time.
Roosevelt (later US president), a young New Yorker, had given up his job as Assistant Secretary of the
Navy to lead the group of volunteers.
The most famous land battle in Cuba took place near Santiago on July 1. The first part of the battle, on
nearby Kettle Hill, featured a dramatic uphill charge by the Rough Riders and two African-American
regiments, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalries.
Their victory cleared the way for an infantry attack on the strategically important San Juan Hill. Although
Roosevelt and his units played only a minor role in the second victory, U.S. newspapers declared him the
hero of San Juan Hill.
Two days later, the Spanish fleet tried to escape the American blockade of the harbor at Santiago. The
naval battle that followed, along the Cuban coast, ended in the destruction of the Spanish fleet.
On the heels of this victory, American troops invaded Puerto Rico on July 25.
 TREATY OF PARIS
The United States and Spain signed an armistice, a cease-fire agreement, on August 12, concluding the Spanish-
American War.The actual fighting in the war had lasted only 16 weeks.
Armistice negotiations conducted in Washington, D.C., ended with the signing of a protocol on Aug. 12, 1898,
which, besides ending hostilities, provided that a peace conference be held in Paris.
On December 10, 1898, the United States and Spain met in Paris to agree on a treaty. Following were the terms
of the Paris Peace Treaty:
1. The relinquishment of all claim of Spain’s sovereignty over and title to Cuba and ensuring Cuba’s
independence
2. The cession to the United States of Puerto Rico and other islands under Spanish sovereignty in the West
Indies.
3. The cession of an island in the Ladrones, to be selected by the United States.
4. The immediate evacuation by Spain of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other Spanish islands in the West Indies.
5. The occupation by the United States of the city, bay, and harbor of Manila pending the conclusion of a treaty
of peace which should determine the control, disposition, and government of the Philippines.
6. The cession of the Philippines involved a compensation of $20 million from the United States to Spain.
DEBATE OVER THE TREATY
The Treaty of Paris touched off a great debate in the United States. Arguments centered on
whether or not the United States had the right to annex the Philippines, but imperialism was the
real issue.
President McKinley insisted that this was to educate the Filipinos and Christianize them.
Many feared that Filipino immigrants would compete for American jobs. On February 6, 1899, the
annexation question was settled with the Senate’s approval of the Treaty of Paris.
The United States now had an empire that included Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.
AMERICA AND PUERTO RICO
Ever since their transfer under the Treaty of Paris from Spain to the United States, Puerto Ricans have
debated their status. In 1967, 1993, and 1998, Puerto Ricans rejected both statehood and independence in
favor of commonwealth, a status given the island in 1952.
 As members of a commonwealth, Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. They can move freely between the island
and the mainland and are subjected to the military draft but cannot vote in U.S. presidential elections.
A majority of Puerto Ricans have rejected statehood because they fear it would mean giving up their Latino
culture.
Although many Puerto Ricans had dreams of independence or statehood, the United States had different
plans for the island’s future. Puerto Rico was strategically important to the United States, both for
maintaining a U.S. presence in the Caribbean and for protecting a future canal that American leaders wanted
to build across the Isthmus of Panama.
In 1900, Congress passed the Foraker Act, which ended military rule and set up a civil government. The act
gave the president of the United States the power to appoint Puerto Rico’s governor and members of the
upper house of its legislature. Puerto Ricans could elect only the members of the legislature’s lower house.
Congress, however, retained the right to extend U.S. citizenship, and it granted that right to Puerto Ricans in
1917. It also gave them the right to elect both houses of their legislature.
 CUBA AND THE AMERICANS
When the United States declared war against Spain in 1898, it recognized Cuba’s independence from Spain. It
also passed the Teller Amendment, which stated that the United States had no intention of taking over any part
of Cuba.
 The Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, further guaranteed Cuba the independence that its nationalist leaders
had been demanding for years.
Though officially independent, Cuba was occupied by American troops when the war ended. José Martí, the
Cuban patriot who had led the movement for independence from Spain, had feared that the United States would
merely replace Spain and dominate Cuban politics.
Under American occupation, the same officials who had served Spain remained in office. Cubans who protested
this policy were imprisoned or exiled.
 On the other hand, the American military government provided food and clothing for thousands of families,
helped farmers put land back into cultivation, and organized elementary schools.
Through improvement of sanitation and medical research, the military government helped eliminate yellow
fever, a disease that had killed hundreds of Cubans each year.
 PLATT AMENDMENT
In 1900 the newly formed Cuban government wrote a constitution for an independent Cuba. The constitution, however, did
not specify the relationship between Cuba and the United States. In 1901, the United States insisted that Cuba add to its
constitution several provisions, known as the Platt Amendment, stating that:
1. Cuba could not make treaties that might limit its independence or permit a foreign power to control any part of its
territory
2. The United States reserved the right to intervene in Cuba
3. Cuba was not to go into debt
4. the United States could buy or lease land on the island for naval stations and refueling stations
5. The United States made it clear that its army would not withdraw until Cuba adopted the Platt Amendment.
 In response, a torchlight procession marched on the residence of Governor-General Leonard Wood in protest. Some
protestors even called for a return to arms to defend their national honor against this American insult.
The U.S. government stood firm, though, and Cubans reluctantly ratified the new constitution. In 1903, the Platt Amendment
became part of a treaty between the two nations, and it remained in effect for 31 years.
Under the terms of the treaty, Cuba became a U.S. protectorate, a country whose affairs are partially controlled by a stronger
power.
 The most important reason for the United States to maintain a strong political presence in Cuba was to protect American
businesses that had invested in the island’s sugar, tobacco, and mining industries, as well as in its railroads and public utilities.
PHILIPPINE–AMERICAN WAR
In the Philippines, Filipinos reacted with outrage to the Treaty of Paris, which called for American
annexation of the Philippines. In February 1899, the Filipinos, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, rose in revolt.
The United States assumed almost the same role that Spain had played, imposing its authority on a
colony that was fighting for freedom. When Aguinaldo turned to guerrilla tactics, the United States
forced Filipinos to live in designated zones, where poor sanitation, starvation, and disease killed
thousands.
 During the occupation, white American soldiers looked on the Filipinos as inferiors. However, many of
the 70,000 U.S. troops sent to the Philippines were African Americans.
When African-American newspapers questioned why blacks were helping to spread racial prejudice to
the Philippines, some African-American soldiers deserted to the Filipino side and developed bonds of
friendship with the Filipinos.
It took the Americans nearly three years to put down the rebellion. About 20,000 Filipino rebels died
fighting for independence.
The war claimed 4,000 American lives and cost $400 million—20 times the price the United States had
paid to purchase the islands
AFTERMATH OF THE WAR
After suppressing the rebellion, the United States set up a government similar to the one it had
established for Puerto Rico. The U.S. president would appoint a governor, who would then appoint
the upper house of the legislature.
 Filipinos would elect the lower house. Under American rule, the Philippines moved gradually toward
independence and finally became an independent republic on July 4, 1946.
U.S. imperialists saw the Philippines as a gateway to the rest of Asia, particularly to China. China was
seen as a vast potential market for American products. It also presented American investors with new
opportunities for large-scale railroad construction.
Weakened by war and foreign intervention, China had become known as the “sick man of Asia.”
France, Germany, Britain, Japan, and Russia had established prosperous settlements along the coast
of China.
They also had carved out spheres of influence, areas where each nation claimed special rights and
economic privileges.
 OPEN DOOR WITH CHINA
The United States began to fear that China would be carved into colonies and American traders would be shut
out. To protect American interests, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay issued, in 1899, a series of policy
statements called the Open Door notes.
The notes were letters addressed to the leaders of imperialist nations proposing that the nations share their
trading rights with the United States, thus creating an open door.
This meant that no single nation would have a monopoly on trade with any part of China. The other
imperialist powers reluctantly accepted this policy.
In some time, John Hay issued a second series of Open Door notes, announcing that the United States would
“safeguard for the world the principle of equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese Empire.” This
policy paved the way for greater American influence in Asia.
 The Open Door policy reflected three deeply held American beliefs about the United States industrial
capitalist economy. First, Americans believed that the growth of the U.S. economy depended on exports.
Second, they felt the United States had a right to intervene abroad to keep foreign markets open. Third, they
feared that the closing of an area to American products, citizens, or ideas threatened U.S. survival.
 ROOSEVELT’S BIG STICK FOREIGN
POLICY
While President McKinley ushered in the era of the American empire through military strength and
economic coercion, his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, established a new foreign policy approach,
allegedly based on a favorite African proverb, “speak softly, and carry a big stick, and you will go far”. At
the crux of his foreign 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 achieve foreign policy goals, so long as the military could threaten force. 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 believed that while the coercive power wielded by the United States could be harmful in the
wrong hands, the Western Hemisphere’s best interests were also the best interests of the United States.
He felt, in short, that the United States had the right and the obligation to be the policeman of the
hemisphere. This belief, and his strategy of “speaking softly and carrying a big stick,” shaped much of
Roosevelt’s foreign policy.
PANAMA CANAL
Americans felt that the United States needed a canal cutting across Central America. Such a
canal would greatly reduce travel time for commercial and military ships by providing a shortcut
between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
As early as 1850, the United States and Britain had agreed to share the rights to such a canal. In
the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, however, Britain gave the United States exclusive rights to
build and control a canal through Central America.
Engineers identified two possible routes for the proposed canal. One, through Nicaragua, posed
fewer obstacles because much of it crossed a large lake. The other route crossed through
Panama (then a province of Colombia) and was shorter and filled with mountains and swamps.
 In the late 1800s, a French company had tried to build a canal in Panama. After ten years, the
company gave up. It sent an agent, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, to Washington to convince the United
States to buy its claim.
In 1903, the president and Congress decided to use the Panama route and agreed to buy the
French company’s route for $40 million.
CONSTRUCTION OF PANAMA
CANAL
Before beginning work on the Panama Canal, the United States had to get permission from Colombia,
which then ruled Panama. When these negotiations broke down, Bunau-Varilla helped organize a
Panamanian rebellion against Colombia.
On November 3, 1903, nearly a dozen U.S. warships were present as Panama declared its
independence. Fifteen days later, Panama and the United States signed a treaty in which the United
States agreed to pay Panama $10 million plus an annual rent of $250,000 for an area of land across
Panama, called the Canal Zone.
Construction of the Panama Canal ranks as one of the world’s greatest engineering feasts. Builders
fought diseases, such as yellow fever and malaria, and soft volcanic soil that proved difficult to remove
from where it lay.
Work began in 1904 with the clearing of brush and draining of swamps. By 1913, the height of the
construction, more than 43,400 workers were employed. Some had come from Italy and Spain; three-
quarters were blacks from the British West Indies. More than 5,600 workers on the canal died from
accidents or disease.
The total cost to the United States was about $380 million. On August 15, 1914, the canal opened for
business, and more than 1,000 merchant ships passed through during its first year.
THE ROOSEVELT COROLLARY
Financial factors drew the United States further into Latin American affairs. In the late 19th century, many
Latin American nations had borrowed huge sums from European banks to build railroads and develop
industries.
Roosevelt feared that if these nations defaulted on their loans, Europeans might intervene. He was
determined to make the United States the predominant power in the Caribbean and Central America.
Roosevelt reminded European powers of the Monroe Doctrine, which had been issued in 1823 by President
James Monroe. The Monroe Doctrine demanded that European countries stay out of the affairs of Latin
American nations.
Roosevelt based his Latin America policy on a West African proverb that said, “Speak softly and carry a big
stick.” In his December 1904 message to Congress, Roosevelt added the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe
Doctrine.
He warned that disorder in Latin America might “force the United States . . . to the exercise of an
international police power.” In effect, the corollary said that the United States would now use force to
protect its economic interests in Latin America.
 Monroe Doctrine and Roosevelt
With the construction of the Panama canal now underway, Roosevelt next wanted to send a clear message to the
rest of the world—and in particular to his European counterparts—that the colonization of the Western
Hemisphere had now ended, and their interference in the countries there would no longer be tolerated.
At the same time, he sent anda message to his counterparts in Central and South America, should the United
States see 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 before 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.
In this addition, Roosevelt states that the United States would use military force “as an international police 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’ affairs,
the Roosevelt Corollary loudly proclaimed the right and obligation of the United States to involve itself whenever
necessary.
Roosevelt immediately began to put the new corollary to work. He used it to establish
protectorates over Cuba and Panama, as well as to direct the United States to manage the
Dominican Republic’s custom service revenues.
Despite growing resentment from neighboring countries over American intervention in their
internal affairs, as well as European concerns from afar, knowledge of Roosevelt’s previous actions
in Colombia concerning acquisition of land upon which to build the Panama Canal left many fearful
of American reprisals should they resist.
Eventually, Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt softened American rhetoric
regarding U.S. domination of the Western Hemisphere, with the latter proclaiming a new “Good
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.
 AMERICAN INTERVENTION IN THE
RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR
Although he supported the Open Door notes as an excellent economic policy in China, Roosevelt lamented the
fact that the United States had no strong military presence in the region to enforce it. Clearly, without a military
presence there, he could not as easily use 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
balance of power among the nations there. This was particularly evident when the Russo-Japanese War
erupted in 1904.
In 1904, angered by the massing of Russian troops along the Manchurian border, and the threat it represented
to the region, Japan launched a surprise naval attack upon the Russian fleet. Initially, Roosevelt supported the
Japanese position.
However, when the Japanese fleet quickly achieved victory after victory, Roosevelt grew concerned over the
growth of Japanese influence in the region and the continued threat that it represented to China and American
access to those markets.
Wishing to maintain the aforementioned balance of power, in 1905, Roosevelt arranged for diplomats from
both nations to attend a secret peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
 The resultant negotiations secured peace in the region, with Japan gaining control over Korea, several former
Russian bases in Manchuria, and the southern half of Sakhalin Island. These negotiations also garnered the
Nobel Peace Prize for Roosevelt, the first American to receive the award.
When Japan later exercised its authority 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 distance was great.
He did so by sending the U.S. Great White Fleet on maneuvers in the western Pacific Ocean as a
show of force from December 1907 through February 1909. Publicly described as a goodwill
tour, the message to the Japanese government regarding American interests was equally clear.
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
WHAT IS DOLLAR DIPLOMACY?
Policy emphasizing the connection between America’s economic and political interests overseas.
Business would gain from diplomatic efforts in its behalf, while the strengthened American
economic presence overseas would give added leverage to American diplomacy.
When William Howard Taft became president in 1909, he chose to adapt Roosevelt’s foreign
policy philosophy to one that reflected American economic power at the time.
In what became known as “dollar diplomacy,” Taft announced his decision to “substitute dollars
for bullets” in an effort to use foreign policy to secure markets and opportunities for American
businessmen.
Not unlike Roosevelt’s threat of force, Taft used the threat of American economic clout to
coerce countries into agreements to benefit the United States.
Of key interest to Taft was the debt that several Central American nations still owed to various
countries in Europe. Fearing that the debt holders might use the monies owed as leverage to use
military intervention in the Western Hemisphere, Taft moved quickly to pay off these debts with
U.S. dollars.
When a Central American nation resisted this arrangement, however, Taft responded with
military force to achieve the objective. This occurred in Nicaragua when the country refused to
accept American loans to pay off its debt to Great Britain. Taft sent a warship with marines to
the region to pressure the government to agree.
 Similarly, when Mexico considered the idea of allowing a Japanese corporation to gain
significant land and economic advantages in its country, Taft urged Congress to pass the Lodge
Corollary, an addendum to the Roosevelt Corollary, stating that no foreign corporation—other
than American ones—could obtain strategic lands in the Western Hemisphere.
In Asia, Taft’s policies also followed those of Theodore Roosevelt. He attempted to bolster China’s
ability to withstand Japanese interference and thereby maintain a balance of power in the region.
Initially, he experienced tremendous success in working with the Chinese government to further
develop the railroad industry in that country through arranging international financing. However,
efforts to expand the Open Door policy deeper into Manchuria met with resistance from Russia and
Japan, exposing the limits of the American government’s influence and knowledge about the intricacies
of diplomacy.
Taft’s policies, although not as based on military aggression as his predecessors, did create difficulties
for the United States, both at the time and in the future. Central America’s indebtedness would create
economic concerns for decades to come, as well as foster nationalist movements in countries resentful
of American’s interference.
In Asia, Taft’s efforts to mediate between China and Japan served only to heighten tensions between
Japan and the United States. Furthermore, it did not succeed in creating a balance of power, as Japan’s
reaction was to further consolidate its power and reach throughout the region.
DOLLAR DIPLOMACY IN
NICARAGUA
The United States exercised its police power through Dolar Diplomacy on several occasions. For
example, when a 1911 rebellion in Nicaragua left the nation near bankruptcy, President William H.
Taft, Roosevelt’s successor, arranged for American bankers to loan Nicaragua enough money to pay
its debts. In return, the bankers were given the right to recover their money by collecting
Nicaragua’s customs duties.
The U.S. bankers also gained control of Nicaragua’s state-owned railroad system and its national
bank. When Nicaraguan citizens heard about this deal, they revolted against President Adolfo Díaz.
To prop up Díaz’s government, some 2,000 marines were sent to Nicaragua.
The revolt was put down, but some marine detachments remained in the country until 1933. The
Taft administration followed the policy of using the U.S. government to guarantee loans made to
foreign countries by American businesspeople.
This policy was called dollar diplomacy by its critics and was often used to justify keeping
European powers out of the Caribbean
WOODROW WILSON’S
MISSIONARY DIPLOMACY
The Monroe Doctrine, issued by President James Monroe in 1823, had warned other nations
against expanding their influence in Latin America. The Roosevelt Corollary asserted, in 1904,
that the United States had a right to exercise international police power in the Western
Hemisphere.
In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson gave the Monroe Doctrine a moral tone. According to
Wilson’s “missionary diplomacy,” the United States had a moral responsibility to deny
recognition to any Latin American government it viewed as oppressive, undemocratic, or hostile
to U.S. interests.
Prior to this policy, the United States recognized any government that controlled a nation,
regardless of that nation’s policies or how it had come to power. Wilson’s policy pressured
nations in the Western Hemisphere to establish democratic governments.
 Almost immediately, the Mexican Revolution put Wilson’s policy to the test.
THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION
Mexico had been ruled for more than three decades by a military dictator, Porfirio Díaz. A friend of the
United States, Díaz had long encouraged foreign investments in his country.
As a result, foreigners, mostly Americans, owned a large share of Mexican oil wells, mines, railroads,
and ranches. While foreign investors and some Mexican landowners and politicians had grown rich, the
common people of the country were desperately poor.
 In 1911, Mexican peasants and workers led by Francisco Madero overthrew Díaz. Madero promised
democratic reforms, but he proved unable to satisfy the conflicting demands of landowners, peasants,
factory workers, and the urban middle class.
After two years, General Victoriano Huerta took over the government. Within days Madero was
murdered. Wilson refused to recognize the government that Huerta formed.
Wilson adopted a plan of “watchful waiting,” looking for an opportunity to act against Huerta. The
opportunity came in April 1914, when one of Huerta’s officers arrested a small group of American
sailors in Tampico, on Mexico’s eastern shore.
 INTERVENTION IN MEXICO
The Mexicans quickly released them and apologized, but Wilson used the incident as an excuse to intervene
in Mexico and ordered U.S. Marines to occupy Veracruz, an important Mexican port. Eighteen Americans and
at least 200 Mexicans died during the invasion.
The incident brought the United States and Mexico close to war. Argentina, Brazil, and Chile stepped in to
mediate the conflict. They proposed that Huerta step down and that U.S. troops withdraw without paying
Mexico for damages.
Mexico rejected the plan, and Wilson refused to recognize a government that had come to power as a result
of violence.
The Huerta regime soon collapsed, however, and Venustiano Carranza, a nationalist leader, became president
in 1915. Wilson withdrew the troops and formally recognized the Carranza government.
Carranza was in charge, but like others before him, he did not have the support of all Mexicans. Rebels under
the leadership of Francisco “Pancho” Villa and Emiliano Zapata opposed Carranza’s provisional government.
In January 1916, Carranza invited American engineers to operate mines in northern Mexico. Before they
reached the mines, however, Villa’s men took the Americans off a train and shot them. Two months later,
some of Villa’s followers raided Columbus, New Mexico, and killed 17 Americans.
REBELLION IN MEXICO
With the American public demanding revenge, President Wilson ordered Brigadier General John J.
Pershing and an expeditionary force of about 15,000 soldiers into Mexico to capture Villa dead or
alive.
Carranza demanded the withdrawal of U.S. troops, but Wilson refused. War seemed imminent.
However, in the end, both sides backed down. Mexico adopted a constitution that gave the
government control of the nation’s oil and mineral resources and placed strict regulations on foreign
investors.
U.S. intervention in Mexican affairs provided a clear model of American imperialist attitudes in the
early years of the 20th century. Americans believed in the superiority of free-enterprise democracy,
and the American government attempted to extend the reach of this economic and political system,
even through armed intervention.
The United States pursued and achieved several foreign policy goals in the early 20th century. First, it
expanded its access to foreign markets in order to ensure the continued growth of the domestic
economy. Second, the United States built a modern navy to protect its interests abroad. Third, the
United States exercised its international police power to ensure dominance in Latin America.