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Theodore Roosevelt on Policies of this country
Roosevelt administration foreign policy
Theodore roosevelt and foreign policy
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In chapter 5 of Manliness and Civilization, Bederman argues the significance of manliness and race intertwined throughout Theodore Roosevelt's political presence. Using Roosevelt's writings, as well as general content from the time for context, Bederman paints a well supported and clear picture of Roosevelt's attempt at fighting back against an apparent "race suicide" and "manliness" crisis. Bederman argues that, for Roosevelt, masculinity was a problem and a solution in the U.S. and abroad. His imperialistic approach to masculinity and his fear driven ideologies surrounding it were deeply connected to race and "whiteness." She dives into Roosevelt's transformation into a culturally appropriating, assertive, warrior of a man and the image
Anwar Aliy Essay #3 According to Gary Gerstle, Theodore Roosevelt was probably the most decisive historical figure of early 20th century America and its later developments. Throughout the book Gerstle brought up the importance of Rooseveltian Nation and its legacy in the shaping of American 20th century nation building and nationalist discourse. The Rooseveltian Nation, which paradoxically combines racial and civic nationalism together, has flourished from the first decade of the 20th century through its mid-century heyday until its collapse in the 1960s.
He had promoted a new kind of diplomacy, which aided the US in becoming a world power, it had been named “big stick” diplomacy. Through this diplomacy the president would rely on his military to help America reach its goals in Latin America. Theodore Roosevelt felt that it was the responsibility of the United States to uplift these weaker nations into civilized ones. With his new diplomacy at hand, Theodore had looked to the country of Panama to finish the Panama Canal. Before building the canal, the US had to aid Panama and liberate it from Colombia’s rule.
After the War of 1812, neo-colonialism started to decline within the United States and a whole new approach to foreign and domestic policy began with the ushering in of a new political culture. With the war over and European interests shifted from the Americas to Africa and Asia it left the United States with the ability to focus on internal affairs such as building the economy, reform, and expansion within the continent. (Nash, et al., 2007. , p. 270) The War of 1812 also had the effect of strengthening American nationalism and when Spain seemed to renew its interest in rebuilding it’s American empire with the help of other European powers the Monroe Doctrine was born.
President Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, was known for his love of nature. This was conveyed most strongly in his speeches, such as “Conservation as a National Duty”, in which he advocated for the preservation of natural resources in the interests of the nation and its people. In this speech as well as others he gave during his term as President, he stressed that conservation did not just pertain to preserving natural resources or deferring their exhaustion; rather, it was closely intertwined with the patriotic duty of ensuring that the nation would be able to provide for future generations, and was second only to the “great fundamental questions of morality”. One such example of how Roosevelt connected conservation with morality is found in his “The New Nationalism” speech, given in Osawatomie, Kansas in 1910. Here, he compares the way he believes the nation must behave in terms of conservation to the manner in which a farmer acts in reference to his children and the land that provides for them.
Imperialism was motivated by, “political ambitions… Nation’s will to power… or glory or national greatness,” (Doc 3). Imperialism for many countries is caused to improve the nation’s overall power. Additionally, according to President Mckinley, the U.S.’s involvement of Imperialism in the Philippines, was due to the fact that, “They were unfit for self-government,”(Doc. 7). The U.S. believed that there was nothing else for them to do, but take them over.
The expansion of America was desirable, creating a false duty to get rid of barbaric influence from asianic countries to expand America’s empire. After the end of Spanish rule in the Philippines, Senator Albert Beveridge saw potential in recruiting the Philippines as US territory. He writes, “...The Philippines gives us a base at the door of all East”(Beveridge 1). He wanted to expand America's commercial trades with Asia, but in order to do so would need an ally near the east. Knowing that the Philippines had just come out of Spanish rule, Beveridge suggested in the letter that they were not capable of self-governing, and America's intervention would be needed.
Imperialism was a big impact on the late 1800’s leading into the early 1900’s with counties like the British, Spanish, Russia, and Germany pushing to gain more land in different counties. This would lead to an arms race and the buildup which would lead into World War 1. Many different alliance were made if another country would attack another other countries would help with the fight. This would keep peace till the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.
They truly hoped that a war would be enough to turn the tide. Perhaps the most weighty opinion was the one of sitting president, William McKinley. He tried to persuade a decidedly religious group that taking over the Philippines was the Christian thing to do because America would simply be saving them from themselves and evil countries that would do far worse (Doc 3). McKinley had also advocated for the Spanish American War for much of the same reason, it would be saving these poor, repressed people from the despicable Spaniards. There were many that agreed with McKinley.
After Roosevelt’s election to office of the president, he held his ideas of a strong foreign policy true by advocating for his “Big Stick” policy. This carried the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine which stated that the US could and should intervene in foreign affairs whenever its interest were threatened. Additionally, Roosevelt was not the lone president supporting imperialism; William Jennings Bryan also supported imperialism. Bryan, in fact, was the president who annexed the Philippines. Bryan thought that the Philippines needed America to aid in their road to civilization because they could not govern themselves (
Between the era of Mahan Beveridge, Schurz, and Bryan, there have been many outlooks and opinions about whether or not imperialism is good or bad; some similar, some different. One is the speech by Obama being similar to Bryan’s opinions in relations to them both believing that imperialism is pointless, and overall not a good decision since there can be other ways to solve the problems they may have for imperializing in the first place. They both saw the same effects that can come out of imperializing; the consequence being an unnecessary war that can be avoided in the first place. Webb’s is also similar to both Bryan and Obama’s opinion because he also believes that it is an unnecessary thing to do in order for us to get what we want. They
William McKinley in his thoughts on American Expansionism has identified the reasons why America had no other choice but to incorporate Philippines as a part of it. This writing has been lifted from the excerpts of an interview with William McKinley soon after Spain had surrendered in the Spanish-American war. McKinley cleverly talks in this interview about how Philippines just came and fell into the laps of America thereby suggesting the helpless stance of America. He talks about how America’s sole intention and purpose had only been to safeguard its own interests as a country. He had to order that the Spanish fleets in Manila be destroyed because if left unattended, they would have crossed the Pacific and wreaked havoc in the American states
Gail Bederman from the university of Notre Dame claims that Theodore Roosevelt, who was the greatest supporter of the attack on Spain and Philippines, had it engineered by both race and gender. These two concepts made him perceive imperialism as being the next stage of growth in a healthy republic. To him, expansion and domination were necessary if America was to civilize the world. For people like Theodore Roosevelt, as the United States advanced, the democratic vision was also progressing (Bederman, 1996). Theodore Roosevelt, just elected to office in 1882, felt that he was very important and had many ambitions.
American wanted to control the Philippines government to get closer to China for trading. Another interest is access to trading. According to Document 1, “Process of three hundred years of superstition in religion, dishonesty in dealing, disorder in habits of industry, and cruelty, caprice, and corruption in government. It is barely possible that 1,000 men in all archipelago are capable of self-government.” US President, McKinley believed they couldn’t govern themselves against other nations.
After the war, America was awarded with the philippines, not sure with what to do with them, they looked at the reasons for imperialism, and expanding their own nation. In regard to expanding, The United States, bought Alaska from russia for 7.2 million dollars. And sugar farmers in Hawaii, overthrew the queen, and annexed to the United States. With the philippines, there were 3 main ways to do diplomacy. 3 different presidents each had their own way of dealing with the issues.
