American History

What transpired during the development of the United States as it entered the world arena as an international power in the 20th century?

At the turn of the 20th century, the United States emerged as a world power. The Spanish American War and the acquisition of the Philippines represented both an extension of earlier expansionist impulses and a sharp departure from assumptions that had guided American foreign policy in the past. For the first time, the United States made a major strategic commitment in the Far East, acquired territory never intended for statehood, and committed itself to police actions and intervention in the Caribbean and Central America.
Source: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/worldpower/index.cfm

In the years leading up to its entry into World War I, America did its best to maintain its influence in Asia through diplomacy while following an aggressive foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere. The United States showed little interest in European affairs until the outbreak of war in August 1914 and even then remained officially neutral for almost three years. The commitment of American troops in 1917 was a significant factor in the Allied victory and earned President Wilson the right to help shape the peace settlement. The failure of the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, however, marked a shift toward a more isolationist foreign policy.


The French had tried but failed to construct a canal across the Isthmus of Panama in the 1880s, so the United States decided to take over the project. Under the Hay-Herran Treaty (1903), Columbia agreed to a 99-year lease of a six-mile-wide strip of land in Panama (a province of Columbia at the time) in return for a $10 million cash payment and an annual fee of $250,000.

When the Columbian Senate refused to ratify the treaty, the Panamanians mounted a successful revolt that had the tacit approval of the Roosevelt Administration. Sending warships to prevent Columbia from taking action, the United States quickly recognized Panama's independence. A new agreement — the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty — gave the United States full control and sovereignty over the Canal Zone (an area ten miles wide across the isthmus) in return for the same financial arrangements made with Columbia. Construction on the Panama Canal began in 1904, and the first ship passed through the locks in 1914.

Throughout the Progressive Era and well into the 1920s, the United States followed a policy of intervention in the Caribbean and Central America. Under the Platt Amendment (1901), which was incorporated into the Cuban constitution and a Cuban-American treaty, the United States could intervene to preserve the independence or political and social stability of Cuba. Furthermore, Cuba agreed to grant land for an American naval base on the island (Guantanamo Bay), not to sign a treaty with another country that impaired Cuba's sovereignty, and not to incur a debt that could not be repaid out of current revenues. The U.S. government used this amendment as the justification for sending American troops into Cuba in 1906, 1912, and 1917.

the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1904) maintained that “chronic wrongdoing” by any nation in the Western Hemisphere might force the United States to exercise its “international police power”; that is, it would intervene.

At the same time, in the Taft-Katsura Agreement (1905), the United States and Japan acknowledged the United States' control of the Philippines and Japan's control of Korea. Despite the tensions that arose because of immigration and the Gentlemen's Agreement, relations between the two countries remained good. They agreed to respect the territorial integrity of each other's possessions in Asia, and Japan reconfirmed its support for the Open Door Policy through the Root-Takahira Agreement (1908).

Taft's foreign policy relied on dollar diplomacy — spreading American influence through the economic penetration of overseas markets by U.S. corporations

CliffsNotes.com. Foreign Policy in the Progressive Era. 2 Jul 2008
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/topicArticleId-25238,articleId-25196.html
-Sharon