Roosevelt Corollary Analysis

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At the turn of the 20th century, the U.S. was swept up in a whirlwind of progression from isolationism toward imperialism and becoming a global power, but with the direction America walked, the nation degressed into the barbaric acts they condemned. When America was reborn from British colonies to a fledgling new nation, the founders, especially Washington and Jefferson, believed that it was in their best interest to have European affairs stay out of America. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 harshly dictated that any act of outside influence on the politics of the U.S. would be considered a hostile act. This doctrine did not account for the inverse of the U.S. toying with the affairs of other nations. We purchased Alaska in 1867 from Russia, which …show more content…
During the early 1900s, the U.S. was tossed back and forth between the carrying out of its diplomacy. At this time, most major world powers had agreed on spheres of influence, which created guidelines as to who can access which markets, ports, cities, et cetera. America, with the addition of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, had a near perfect sphere of influence over Latin America. The Roosevelt Corollary, made by the U.S., gave the U.S. the responsibility to be the sole policing body of Latin America. This dictated that Europe could no longer intervene if a country had trespassed a European nation. The U.S., by creating a zone of control untouched by Europe, had redefined imperialism in a major way. No singular nation had controlled an entire hemisphere before. With the kind of access America had, trade boomed and the nation grew as prosperous or more opulent than any imperialist power. Three drastically different presidents heralded the newborn America at this time: Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. Each of these people had different ideologies as to how they deal with the problems of having such a large sphere of influence. Roosevelt pursued big stick diplomacy, which in essence was having a strong military to influence the sphere in a terrifying way. For instance, to build the Panama Canal, which cut out 8000 nautical miles from west to east coast, America had intervened with naval strength in Columbia to support a Panamanian revolt against Columbia. Not many countries were pleased with the United States at this time; no one liked the new interventionist and imperialist America. Taft, who was Roosevelt’s successor, shied away from military force to favor the force of thousands of investors. Dollar diplomacy was the rulebook Taft followed and invented. Dollar diplomacy ruled that bullets would be
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