President Roosevelt’s Diplomatic Achievements and his Impact on the Development of the Foreign Policy of the United States of America.

“Your great work in world politics this summer, will be, when the history of our time is written, one of your most, if not your most, certain titles to a really enduring fame.”

-US Senator Henry Cabot Lodge to Theodore Roosevelt. [6]

This is a student essay corrected by an SEC examiner, marked 90/100. The feedback is in italics. You may also like H1 History Notes for Leaving Cert.

Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States. He became William McKinley’s Vice President in 1900 when elected and, in September 1901 when McKinley was assassinated, Roosevelt assumed the presidency. At the age of 43, he was the youngest man to ever become President of the United States. He successfully ran again for his second term in 1904. The 1904 election gave him the opportunity to run for president in his own right. This essay aims to explore Roosevelt’s role as President of America. The essay will investigate how Roosevelt affected future US foreign policy. Finally, I will draw on comparisons between US foreign policy today with the approach taken during Roosevelt’s time in office. (leave this last sentence out). Be more direct in your introduction-you have not outlined the points that you are making in your essay at all here. List the main points topic that you will address in each of the paragraphs here e.g make US a global power, the Roosevelt Corollary, the Treaty of Portsmouth ..) (4)

As President, Roosevelt recommended an increase in the influence and prestige of the United States internationally and to make the country a global power. He also believed that the exportation of American values and ideals would have an “ennobling effect”1 on the world. He believed that the virtues of courage, honour, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood were expressly American and that their spread across the globe would create more moral and cohesive neighbours. TR’s diplomatic maxim was to “speak softly and carry a big stick”1, and he maintained that the Chief Executive must be willing to use force when necessary while practicing the art of persuasion. He therefore sought to assemble a powerful and reliable defence for the United States to avoid conflicts with enemies who might prey on weakness. Roosevelt followed McKinley in ending the staunch isolationism that had dominated the country since the mid-1800s, acting aggressively in foreign affairs, often without the support or consent of Congress. (7)

One of Theodore Roosevelt’s most substantial motions was his Roosevelt Corollary, an addition to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the U.S. may intervene in the affairs of any American republic threatened with seizure or intervention, particularly when threatened by European interest groups. Roosevelt stated that “Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power”9. Among the Roosevelt Corollary, he reserved the right for the United States to intervene in Latin America for the sake of stability, a decision which had profound influence over the rulings of American policy makers, leading to an extensive record of Latin state overthrows – such as in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Ecuador – even to this day. (8-very good paragraph, and good research is evident, well done!)

At the time, Santo Domingo – now the Dominican Republic – encountered problems with ambitious European countries. European investors had appealed to their governments to collect money from the debt-ridden Latin American nation. After the Dominican government appealed to the United States, Roosevelt ordered an American collector to assume control of the customs houses and collect duties to avoid possible European military action.(4-this paragraph is a bit too short and should be joined with another..)

It was during the Santo Domingo crisis that Roosevelt formulated the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine, issued in 1823, stated that the United States would not accept European intervention or colonisation in the Americas. President James Monroe stated that “the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers” Roosevelt realised that if nations in the Western Hemisphere continued to have chronic problems, such as the inability to repay foreign debt, they would become targets of European invention. To pre-empt such action and to maintain regional stability, the President drafted his corollary: the United States would intervene in any Latin American country that manifested serious economic problems. The corollary announced that the United States would serve as the “policeman”1 of the Western Hemisphere, a policy which eventually created much resentment in Latin America. It is evident that Theodore Roosevelt had an overtly Imperialistic perspective, wanting to extend the authority of an American sphere of influence over foreign countries. (7)

Roosevelt negotiated the Treaty of Portsmouth signed on September 5th, 1905, which officially concluded the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and marked the emergence of a new era of diplomatic negotiations. President Roosevelt was no fan of the Russians: “No human beings, black, yellow or white, could be quite as untruthful, as insincere, as arrogant in short, as untrustworthy in every way as the Russians”3, he wrote in August 1905, near the end of the Russo-Japanese War. The Japanese, on the other hand, were “a wonderful and civilized people”3, Roosevelt wrote, “entitled to stand on an absolute equality with all the other peoples of the civilized world”3. The war began when the Japanese fired on the Russians at Port Arthur, in Manchuria. The Japanese maintained the military upper hand throughout the conflict, but Russia, despite being riven by civil strife, would not stop fighting. Lacking financial means to continue the war, Japan asked President Theodore Roosevelt to mediate a peace. Both sides accepted. (7-good paragraph)

Roosevelt invited Russian and Japanese negotiators to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine and then on to the presidential yacht, the Mayflower. Eventually, thanks in part to Roosevelt’s astute negotiating, both sides agreed that Russia would give up any rights to Port Arthur and to the southern half of Sakhalin Island, but would not pay indemnities to Japan, and that Japan could exercise control over Korea. Russia and Japan promised to evacuate Manchuria. Japan felt itself the victor in the war and believed it should have gained more in the peace. This feeling would fester for many years. Roosevelt’s goal was to create a balance of power between the two empires. Through arbitrating the peace talks between two major military and imperial powers, Roosevelt’s efforts also elevated the United States to a position of greater authority in world affairs. In 1906, the Nobel Prize Committee awarded Theodore Roosevelt the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomatic success in ending the Russo-Japanese War. He was the first U.S. President to garner this prestigious award. (8-very good!)

Roosevelt made a critical participation in the 1907 Algeciras Conference which was an international conference of great European powers and the United States, in which they discussed France’s relationship to the government of Morocco. He furthered the concept of American Exceptionalism, which is the theory that the U.S. is qualitatively different and superior from other nations, through military expansion. He expanded the United States’ imperialist role in Latin America, as well as executive influence in foreign policy. Overall, Theodore Roosevelt sought to make America a “world power” and would do that by any means possible. (6-good paragraph)

Theodore Roosevelt exploited the President’s powers as Commander in Chief to initiate a forceful, unilateral foreign policy, deploying military forces abroad without direct consultation with Congress. Overall, Roosevelt used his military forces a total of 14 times. He helped Panama in their revolution against Columbia and eventually built the Panama Canal. Under Roosevelt, America saw a large expansion of the US Navy. Roosevelt paraded his Great White Fleet around the world to show America’s great might. He ended the Filipino Insurrection, aggressively sought to ensure protection of U.S. interests in South America, with little regard to their sovereignty. Also under Roosevelt’s presidency, America saw the end of the Gilded age. He abandoned the laissez-faire method of foreign policy and started maintaining a strong globalist foreign policy. (7-very good conclusion)

CM 58/60

OE 32/40

Total 90/100 H1

Well done, this is a very well researched essay. You could try to bring it down from nine paragraphs to just the eight, and work on your introduction a bit more in order to push up over the 90% here. You have clearly done a lot of additional research in your study time, and this is a very good essay. Well done!