The period after the Spanish-American War marked a time when United States continued to seek growth on the world stage. New global markets for U. S.
products began to appear and international commerce and trade continued to expand. European countries even felt threatened by U. S. technology and its mass production capabilities.
President Woodrow Wilson held the belief that economics and politics were directly related and promoted this as foreign policy. The United States began using military power to make interventions in other countries to enact its policies.The first areas targeted were in Latin America using the Monroe Doctrine as a basis of their actions. From 1901 – 1920, U. S.
Marines landed in Caribbean countries more than twenty times. The main reason for these interventions was economics, with the U. S. feeling that military force was necessary to create safe and stable environments for U. S.
businesses to operate. Theodore Roosevelt views had played a large part in these interventions. His world-view divided countries into “civilized” and “uncivilized” nations.He believed the civilized nations had an obligation to establish order in these other countries and he pursued that in Central America. He stated that he did not have a desire to expand U. S.
territory by these actions. However, as a result of his first action in Panama, the United States did gain territory, a fifty-one mile long and ten mile wide strip of land know as the Canal Zone. This property would be used for the greatest engineering marvel up to that time – the building of the Panama Canal.Roosevelt’s actions reflected the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, the idea that the U.
S. had the right to exercise “an international police power” in the Western Hemisphere. The United States was not eager to become involved in the World War for a variety of reasons. Not the least of these was the division in sentiments in the country due to the feelings and loyalties of immigrants. Other pacifist groups were against U.
S. military involvement. When the war broke out in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared that the U. S.
was neutral.The primary reason for the United States becoming involved in the war was the conditions at sea which were unsafe for travel and trade. Germany used submarine warfare to sink commercial vessels and establish blockades of Britain. Their goal was to cripple Britain economically before the U.
S. would become involved in the war. Although unwilling to become involved, President Wilson was finally forced to petition Congress for a declaration of war against Germany, which was passed on April 2, 1917.In January 1918, President Wilson issued the Fourteen Points, a clear statement of American war aims and his vision of new international order.
This included freedom of the seas, free trade, and open diplomacy. In my opinion, the personalities and policies of Roosevelt and Wilson were very similar. They both held the belief that the United States was responsible to impose its policies on other countries. They both felt this necessary to benefit U. S. economic interests.
However, Wilson was more persuaded to pursue these campaigns from the standpoint of morality.He had a conviction that the U. S. had a responsibility to teach other nations democracy.
He felt that expanding U. S. economics meant more than just profits, but included expanding the very freedoms our country was founded upon. As a whole, I feel that Roosevelt and Wilson were similar.
World War I was a time of great changes in the United States. During this period, the United States saw prosperity in business and economy due to the war effort, women’s suffrage, and the implementation of prohibition.
