Theodore Roosevelt President 1901-1909
Roosevelt inherited an empire in the making. At the end of the Spanish-American war of 1898 Spain ceded the, Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam. to the United States thus ending American isolationism, in place since the end of the civil war. The United States also annexed Hawaii and protected Cuba.
With his strong belief in American exceptionalism Roosevelt welcomed America’s new roll on the world stage and set out to increase it’s power, influence and prestige around the world. In 1903 the U.S. supported a Panamanian Revolution to gain independence from Colombia and entered an agreement to build …show more content…
His “Dollar Diplomacy”sought to encourage American commercial investors in South America and Asia. Taft was committed to the foreign expansion trade. He used government officials to promote the sale of American products such as heavy industrial goods, and military hardware, sending 2,700 U.S marines to stabalize Nicaragua's conservative. Tafts idea of a "new look" for the U.S foreign policy was unsucessful, his program was seeking commercial advantages in Central America, which had been generated by Roosevelt's military inventions. Taft had experience with imperialist rivals, "Japan" Roosevelt's secretary of war. He believed that investments would effectivley "dollars for bullets", and it would offer a more peaceful way of maintaining order. His efforts had minimal success with an actual decline in trade with China and the Pan American Confernce Of Nations which seeked to limit U.S. intervention and influence in South America. When Taft made an effort to intervene in the Mexican revolution he met opposition in congress and was later defedeted in his bid for