fp20thc1

Teddy Roosevelt background

President: Teddy Roosevelt ( in 1901- following McKinley’s assassination

youngest pres. to date: age 42: brash, arrogant, determined, energetic, activist approach to office

aristocratic upbringing: but populist in style

Ushers in a new era in both national and foreign policy

T Roosevelt: Foreign Policy

"big stick" idea: act diplomatically, support with military

TR "corollary" to Monroe Doctrine: US had exclusive obligation to intervene in Latin America: send the marines!

First applied in 1905: Santo Domingo (over tariffs) and in Cuba, 1906-to prop puppet

"dollar diplomacy" also crucial to policy

Do you agree/disagree w/text assessment of "corollary"?

Wilsonian Foreign Policy

Wilson as idealist-foreign policy on moral principles

Early part of term: problems with Mexico,-Huerta & Pancho Villa

Attitude towards WWI through early 1917: American neutrality & negotiated peace

"morality" as f.p. to continue through to end of war

US & World War I: 1914-1916

War breaks out in August, 1914: US - a world away

neutrality is the stated policy: American ethnic dynamics a consideration

1915 - German u-boat campaign begins to impact American view of war (also Sussex - 1916)

By 1916-war is main election issue: Wilson vs. Hughes - Wilson wins slim victory: "He kept us out of the war!"

US & WWI: 1916-1917

Emergence of groups/individuals on both sides of war question

pro-intervention: TR& Republicans, easterners

anti-intervention: IWW, socialists (war as imperialist fight), German-Americans

Germany-early 1917: sinks itself with un-restricted U-boat warfare declaration & Zimmerman telegram

war declared on Germany, central powers: 4/6/17