Comma

As a new nation after the Revolutionary War, America’s prime interest was to maintain its independence from the more powerful European countries. Thus, its main foreign policy at the time became; limiting European attempts of further colonization of the Western Hemisphere. During this time our country spanned the continent and avoided all foreign entanglements. However, like most things, this “isolationist” policy slowly came to an end as the turn of the century approached. This new aggressive foreign policy was derived from a new sense of imperialism within America, the immense consequences of the Spanish American War, and the United States’ Involvement in China, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
From the very beginning, the United States had an innate desire for expansion. Between the original driving forces of “manifest destiny,” to the calls for annexation of Indian territories, American’s have always had a sense for acquiring new land. At the start, the United States had desired land to meet their growing economic needs; however their motives began to change. Now, the United States had become tempted by the idea of emerging as world power and acquiring political supremacy. Americans began to justify this desire as their “moral obligation” to bring democracy and Christ to all nations. The Spanish-American War in the final years of the 19th century perfectly demonstrated this "new" imperialism.

America’s involvement in the Spanish American War shattered the global equilibrium which had allowed the United States to grow and prosper in virtual isolation since 1815. When the United States decided to support Cuba’s struggle for independence with Spain, it marked a major departure from the traditional American practice of liberal nationalism. The 1898 Treaty of Paris ending the war gave Cuba its independence and also ceded important Spanish possessions to the United States—notably Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and the small island of Guam. The United States was suddenly a colonial power with overseas dependencies.

This assumption of colonial responsibilities reflected not only the temporary enthusiasms of 1898 but also marked a profound change in the diplomatic posture of the United States. The foreign policies of the early 19th century had less relevance at the dawn of the 20th century because the nation had changed. The United States had almost all the attributes of a great power—it stood ahead or nearly ahead of almost all other countries in terms of population, geographic size and location on two oceans, economic resources, and military potential.
Foreign policy had to change to meet these new circumstances.

By the turn of the 20th century, the United States had become a minor imperial power, fighting a war with Spain for Cuba and the Philippines and annexing Hawaii and several other territories. World War I engaged the United States in European affairs, but after the war, a wave of isolationist feeling swept the country. Refusing membership in the League of Nations, America turned inward once again. Absorbed by the prosperity of the 1920s and the Great Depression of the 1930s, America let its military strength erode. It was not prepared for war when the Japanese struck the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor in late 1941. the 1890's, many Americans cast covetous eyes on outside US, on Samoa, Central America, and the Philippines. The US was building of first-rate navy by 1900. In 1895, during the Venezuela Boundary Dispute, the US took a hard line. It intervened in the Cuban War for Independence (the Spanish-American War). There was a flood of expansionist literature.

Emerging from World War II as the most powerful economic power on Earth, the United States changed its foreign policy dramatically.
The World in the mid-19th Century There were few changes in nation’s basic foreign policies; the overarching principles of isolation and neutrality generally remained firmly entrenched.
Xenophobic Americans regularly condemned their representatives abroad as subversive, and some cast doubt upon the need for any contact whatsoever with the Old World and its representatives.”

1898: The Birth of a Superpower

The global equilibrium, which had allowed the United States to grow and prosper in virtual isolation since 1815 was gone forever as the result of a short but shattering war. In 1898, U.S. domestic support for the independence of Cuba enmeshed the United States in a struggle with Spain over the fate of the island nation. The decision to aid the Cuban resistance was a major departure from the traditional American practice of liberal nationalism, and the results of that decision had far-reaching consequences. The 1898 Treaty of Paris ending the war gave Cuba its independence and also ceded important Spanish possessions to the United States—notably Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and the small island of Guam. The United States was suddenly a colonial power with overseas dependencies.

This assumption of colonial responsibilities reflected not only the temporary enthusiasms of 1898 but also marked a profound change in the diplomatic posture of the United States. The foreign policies of the early 19th century had less relevance at the dawn of the 20th century because the nation had changed. The United States had almost all the attributes of a great power—it stood ahead or nearly ahead of almost all other countries in terms of population, geographic size and location on two oceans, economic resources, and military potential.

Foreign policy had to change to meet these new circumstances. President William McKinley drew attention to the new situation in the instructions he gave to the delegation of American statesmen who negotiated the Treaty of Paris. “We cannot be unmindful that without any desire or design on our part the war has brought us new duties and responsibilities which we must meet and discharge as becomes a great nation on whose growth and career from the beginning the Ruler of Nations has plainly written the high command and pledge of civilization.”

Another contemporary observer, George L. Rives, extended this interpretation. “Whether we like it or not,” he wrote, “it is plain that the country is now entering into a period in its history in which it will necessarily be brought into far closer and more complex relations with all the other great Powers of the world,” an outcome that would leave established foreign policy outmoded. “We shall now and henceforth be looked upon as having cast aside our traditional attitude of isolation.”

New Policies for Latin America, Asia

U.S. policy toward Latin American policy involved a significant revision of the Monroe Doctrine. Throughout the 19th century, American diplomats used the Monroe Doctrine to warn the European powers against further colonization in the Western Hemisphere. It did not imply the right of the United States to intervene in the internal affairs of the other American republics.

President Theodore Roosevelt

In 1904, President Theodore Rooseveltchanged the Monroe Doctrine through his “Roosevelt Corollary.” Roosevelt and other prominent Americans were concerned that European creditor nations would use the unpaid debt of the Latin American states to gain political control over them. Roosevelt said that no Latin American nation adhering to “acceptable international standards of behavior” had to fear intervention by the United States. But: “Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, require intervention by some civilized nation.”

Moreover, he continued, “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.”

At the same time, the acquisition of the Philippines triggered the development of a new American policy for East Asia. As American businessmen eyed the vast potential of the Chinese market, European incursions in China threatened to cut off American access. In 1899, Secretary of State John Hay proposed that nations interested in China should “enjoy perfect equality of treatment for navigation,” that is, maintain the principle of free trade, or the “open door.” In 1900, Hay extended the open-door policy to include respect for the territorial and administrative integrity of China.

New Prestige, New Growth

These major changes in policy and the subsequent increase in U.S. international political commitments resulted in a newly invigorated Department of State. The Department was thoroughly reorganized to meet its new responsibilities and important steps were taken toward the development of professional, democratic foreign services.

In 1898, the Department employed 82 people; by 1910 the number had risen to 234. The Diplomatic Service grew modestly from 93 people in 1900 to 121 in 1910. But expansion required a considerable increase in the annual budget. The expenditures of the Department at home and overseas increased from $3.4 million in 1900 to $4.9 million in 1910. The Consular Service also experienced a significant addition to its workload. Reflecting the boom in overseas trade from $1.8 billion to $3 billion, annual fees collected almost tripled in less than 20 years.

Increased responsibility necessitated a thorough reorganization of the Department in 1909. One reformer, Assistant Secretary of State Francis M. Huntington Wilson, succeeded in increasing the number of leadership positions, so that the Department now had three Assistant Secretaries of State, a Counselor to undertake a Counselor to undertake special assignments, and a Director to administer the Consular Service.

The bureau system was expanded to organize diplomacy by distinct geographic region—Western Europe, the Near East, the Far East, and Latin America—a move that fostered improved overseas communication. Several other bureaus and divisions were created to handle other new areas of responsibility, notably a Bureau of Trade Relations and a Division of Information. Talented diplomats were brought back to Washington to staff the new geographic bureaus, adding much-needed field experience.

A New Professionalism

Conclusion

The Spanish-American War of 1898 revealed the first cracks in the international balance of power that had governed global relations since 1815. The United States entered the 20th century as an emerging superpower—and adopted new foreign policies and professional diplomatic practices to suit its role. The revitalized Department of State had little time to prepare for the unprecedented challenges that the United States would face during the first European war in 100 years.
This assumption of colonial responsibilities reflected not only the temporary enthusiasms of 1898 but also marked a profound change in the diplomatic posture of the United States. The foreign policies of the early 19th century had less relevance at the dawn of the 20th century because the nation had changed. The United States had almost all the attributes of a great power—it stood ahead or nearly ahead of almost all other countries in terms of population, geographic size and location on two oceans, economic resources, and military potential. Foreign policy had to change to meet these new circumstances.