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Essay On Theodore Roosevelt's Big Stick Policy

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President Teddy Roosevelt believed in an idea which he called the Big Stick Policy.
Big Stick policy was a major component of Theodore Roosevelt’s international relations policy. The theory is that leaders strive for peace while also keeping other nations aware of its military power. He felt that being prepared for conflict was the best option that the U.S. had to prevent the war. He believed that other nations might be more hesitant to challenge the American military if the U.S. made a show of force to the rest of the world. Roosevelt’s policy was shown in the Nicaragua affair. Secretary of State John Hay pressed the Nicaraguan Government for approval of a canal in 1901. The deal was that Nicaragua would receive $1.5 million in ratification, …show more content…

Although this increased the level of U.S. financial involvement abroad, the results were not always profitable. Taft urged Wall Street investors to invest money in foreign markets in order to increase American influence abroad. A goal of dollar diplomacy was to preempt foreign powers from gaining or enlarging an investment foothold in key markets. A major idea of the dollar diplomacy was that foreign investments would enhance American businesses, which in turn would grow the economy and enrich the government. Another focus was the Manchurian region of China. Taft as well as many other people, believed that whoever controlled the railroads in China then they also controlled the economy. The U.S. would be frozen out of the emerging Chinese markets and the United States “open door” policy in China would be undermined without an interest in the Manchurian railroad system. Taft’s Secretary of State, Philander Knox, persuaded U.S. bankers to invest in railroad projects in China, Manchuria, Russia and Japan united in an effort to block the influence of the Americans. When the country’s government collapsed in the revolution of 1911, many U.S. investments in China were lost. Places where local revolutionary movements opposed American influence, mainly in the Caribbean and

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