United States Foreign Policy Analysis

Since the birth of the United States, the nation has seen and experienced many innovations and conflicts. With each encounter the United States has faced, the nation has reacted and adapted to overcome it. These challenges have affected the nation’s beliefs each time. The United States between 1865 to 1919 has experienced the most change to society’s beliefs in the nation’s history. Society changed their views throughout this period due to internal and external influences. One of the views that was major in affecting the life and actions of the US was what the role of the federal government should be. This question led to other questions that people debated. Such questions like this are, what domestic policies should be in place, and how will

During reconstruction the government was not involved with European conflicts. The most the government did about trade abroad were the rising of tariffs. For industrialization, the government again did not interfere in European conflicts, but were more responsive to them. Foreign policies at the time were about trade and immigration. The United States had all immigrant that came from overseas go through either Ellis Island or Angel Island. This little involvement in the world changed when imperialism came the nation. The United States foreign policy was focused on expanding. The continuation of Manifest Destiney expanded US control to Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippines with Cuba as ‘independent’. The foreign policy of imperialism was different greatly over three presidencies. Roosevelt’s Big Stick policy justified imperialism with the aspect of defense of the country, Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy justified imperialism with the improving of the other nation’s economy, and Wilson’s Moral Diplomacy justified imperialism with protecting the other nations since it is the right thing to do. When WWI started, US foreign policy was originally to stay neutral and only send disapproval to the belligerent nations. This changed when British ships intercepted a transmission to Mexico from Germany asking for them to attack the US. The foreign policy then changed to support the Allies. Wilson’s Moral Diplomacy

The reason the government was not involved abroad and were involved helping the poor was due the civil war that had recently occurred at the time. The government needed to improve the life of the people and improving the economy of the nation was necessary to rebuild the stability of the nation. Once industrialization started the government was not needed to intervene anymore as poor people were able to quickly find jobs. That is why the government started making more steps with foreign interactions as the nation became more stable. Imperialism influenced government policies due to increasing pride in the strength of the country. The growing economy allowed the middle class to grow and succeed. This growing sense of pride for the country created justifications for the expansion of the country, such examples are Big Stick, Dollar, and Moral Diplomacy. The progressive era came due to increasing amounts of reformers that wanted to improve the country’s systems. These reformers came about because of imperialism. Imperialism gave the idea that our country was great and should live up to the expectations that it gives to others. When WWI came, the changes in view of government were due to the results of the actions the government during the war. Farmers and businesses prospered when the government was directly involved in regulating business and