📘Roosevelt's Diplomacy

Roosevelt's Diplomacy

Under President Roosevelt, the United States became a world player. In fact, Roosevelt took on a diplomatic role. Russia and Japan were both rising powers, and Russia sought control of China's Manchurian ports, especially Port Arthur. Japan felt threatened by the idea of nearby Korea and Manchuria being in tsarist Russian hands and launched a surprise attack at Port Arthur in 1904. Japan was defeating Russia but was running short of troops and funds when it secretly appealed to President Roosevelt to assist with peace negotiations.

Roosevelt succeeded in negotiating the Treaty of Portsmouth of 1905 (named after the place of meeting, Portsmouth, New Hampshire), officially ending the hostilities. However, neither of the parties was satisfied with the terms: Japan felt that it should have gotten better terms as the winner of the conflict, and friendly relations with Russia died as Russia claimed evidence to the contrary to have been robbed of victory. Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his mediation of this conflict.

The Russo-Japanese War led to a large influx of Japanese immigrants to California, sparking a racial backlash in San Francisco. Japanese, Korean, and Chinese students were ordered to attend separate schools from those of white children. The Japanese felt understandably insulted.

The "yellow press" fueled fear of the "yellow peril" and raised the specter of war. In 1907, to defuse this tension, Roosevelt proposed the Gentlemen's Agreement, an unofficial understanding between the two countries that California would repeal its segregation order, the United States would not restrict Japanese immigration, and Japan would not allow further emigration to the United States.

The next year, the United States made an official agreement with Japan. In the Root-Takahira Agreement of 1908 both nations agreed to respect each other's territorial acquisitions in the Pacific and to recognize China's territorial integrity and ensure free trade as expressed in Hay's Open Door Policy.

This agreement maintained peace between the rival powers of the United States and Japan for a time.

 

Summary

From the 1890s to the 1910s, the United States underwent a huge transition. The nation became not only an economic power but a permanent player upon the world stage.

By expanding beyond its borders and acquiring new territories, the United States forever altered its foreign policy and place in the world.

The following three stages mark that transition:

• growing motivations to expand industrial and agricultural markets beyond national boundaries
• involvement in military conflict, with Spain over Cuba and with the Philippines
• Theodore Roosevelt's extension of the nation's sphere of influence and control in Latin America and Asia

Economic and Cultural Factors that Favored Expansionism
Industrialization and mechanized farming practices created a need for foreign markets to sell products and procure raw materials to sustain the industrial boom.
Alfred T. Mahan's military theories supported the need to develop naval strength to better police territories, strengthen defense, and facilitate trade.
Reverend Josiah Strong's ideas supported expansionism as a way to spread "pure Christianity" to "heathens."
Herbert Spencer and his American counterpart William Sumner claimed that survival of the fittest justified the view that the success of the rich was the product of superior talents. This claim, adapted to nations, fueled ideas of Americans' superiority and right to dominate others.
The glorification of foreign conquests by yellow journalism fueled jingoism, a self-righteous, patriotic gusto for war.

The Spanish-American and Filipino-American Wars
The United States blamed Spain for the explosion and destruction of US battleship the Maine on February 15, 1898 and fought for Cuba's right to political independence.
The Treaty of Paris at the end of the Spanish-American war on December 10, 1898, gave Cuba its independence, ceded the islands of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States, and reserved some US right to interfere in Cuban affairs (Platt Amendment).
Filipinos rebelled on realizing the United States would not give them independence. This rebellion led to a three-year-long guerrilla war with the Philippines in 1899 that launched the United States into the path of imperialism.

Theodore Roosevelt's Contributions to US Imperialism
As assistant secretary of the navy and ardent supporter of expansion and military intervention, Theodore Roosevelt led the strategy in the defeat of the Spanish fleet by the US navy in Manila Bay, the first act of the Spanish-American War in 1898 and the United States's first major move toward imperialism.
As president in 1904, Roosevelt strengthened the Monroe Doctrine with his Corollary, which allowed him to exercise stronger control over Latin American countries.
With the French canal-building company, Roosevelt helped Panama break free of Colombian control—after Colombia refused an offer—quickly recognizing Panama's independence, and succeeded in building the canal in 1904, benefiting trade and helping the United States defend its increasing international territories.
Roosevelt negotiated the Portsmouth Treaty between Russia and Japan in 1905, ending the Russo-Japan war and earning Roosevelt the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. He established the Gentlemen's Agreement in 1907, later formalized as the Root-Takahira Agreement in 1908, to control immigration from Japan to the United States and end California's segregation of Asian students.