American Foreign Policy example essay topic

At the end of the nineteenth century, the United States emerged as a world power. Although Congress was reluctant to endorse expansionist schemes, during the end of the nineteenth century many others had become convinced that the United States had to adopt a more aggressive and forceful foreign policy. Some believed expansion would be good for American business. Others felt America had a duty to spread its way of life to less fortunate countries. Behind all the arguments, however; the United States was a great and important country, and it should start acting the part. With America's Navy rebuilt there was an emergence of aggression in foreign policy.

The two developments originated from the same source: a ready acceptance of force as the final authority of international disputes. That acceptance of force led to the Spanish-American War of 1898. Those same attitudes, during the presidencies of B. Harrison and G. Cleveland between 1885 and 1897, almost caused several other wars. America's attitudes changed toward foreign policy first with their relationship to Samoa, a group of 14 South Pacific volcanic islands with splendid natural harbors. American negotiated a treaty with a tribal chief to grant the United States rights to a naval station. Unfortunately, Germany had also decided that Samoa should belong to them.

Through some conferences and a natural typhoon that wiped both Germany and United States out of the Pacific they finally came to an agreement without going to war. American troubles were a little different with Chile. Trade and strategic policy were not the reasons for interfering with Chile, but more of touchy pride and patriotism. A revolutionary faction had taken control of the Chilean government. During that time some US sailors were docked in their country. A riot had broken out and some sailors got hurt and a couple even got killed.

What made matters worse was that the Chilean police, who were there, did not intervene. However, they took the sailors away to jail. The Americans sought for reparations for the insult and Chile refused to apologize. After threatening them to go to war, they finally decided to back down, by apologizing for the attack on the sailors and paying $75,000 compensation. Hawaii figured prominently in American foreign policy planning by its location. Not only were they ideally situated along the trade routes to Asia, but they offered a perfect site for protecting the Pacific sea lanes to the American west coast and to the potential locations of a cape canal.

Investments, in their sugar, returned high dividends and for a time business was prosperous. The McKinley Act of 1890 cost Hawaiian producers $12 million and the government changed when Queen Liliuokalani ascended the throne. She wanted to purge American influences in Hawaii and disfranchise all white men except those married to native women. Her government was overthrown and Harrison felt it was time to takeover the island with a treaty.

But before the Senate was able to ratify the treaty Cleveland, anti-imperialist president, took office and did not except the treaty. Four years and three days later, during the Spanish-American War, the US finally annexed Hawaii. Potentially the most serious conflict America faced during the 1890's originated in a dispute over a strip of land in a South American jungle. There was a peaceful dispute over land between Venezuela and British Guiana, until the discovery of gold in the region in the 1880's. Venezuelan requests of help, the US several times offered to settle the matter, and each time Britain refused the offer. The US hinted that intervention with the military if its wishes were not honored.

Britain did not reply for four months; they did answer in the effect that the dispute did not involve either the US or the Monroe Doctrine and would kindly mind if they mind their own business. The violence of America's reaction surprised the British and certainly did not want war. British Prime Minister reversed his position and allowed a commission to arbitrate the dispute. In the end, the arbitral trial gave Britain most of the land it claimed. However, American felt that they won because they faced Britain head on and they backed down, which made them feel as the real winner. During the Cuban Revolution, Cubans took up arms in pursuit of independence from their Spanish rulers.

Cubans actively sought American support, but the US steered clear. Even though the trade between the two countries became affected from the revolution it did not play an important role, yet the humanitarianism was far more important. It reminded the Americans of their own war of independence. With "Yellow Journalism", exaggerations of sad and inhumane conditions in Cuba persuaded America to call for intervention in the Cuban Revolution. They were hesitant, but when a US ship was destroyed in the Havana harbor, war was inevitable and the beginning of the Spanish-American War. Compared to the Philippines, Cuba was a minor problem.

McKinley's decision to annex the Philippines pleased some Americans and angered many more. Like the Cubans, the Filipinos held dear the cause of freedom. Like the Spanish, the US was not willing to grant that freedom. Between 1899 and 1902 American troops and Filipino revolutionaries fought an ugly and destructive colonial war. The struggle against the Filipinos led to congressional investigations and shocked many Americans.

Political and business leaders, however, continued to believe that the Philippines were worth the fight because the islands were of strategic importance both as a military base and a stepping-stone toward the Asian markets. Americans knew that hostility within their own people would be inevitable if any U.S. military ventured into Asia just for trade purposes. John Hay, the Secretary of State in 1899, issued an Open Door note. It was an attempt to prevent further European partitioning of the Manchu empire and to protect the principle of open trade in China. All countries active in China would respect each other's trading rights by imposing do discriminating duties and closing no ports within their spheres of influence. By 1900, European powers had accepted his proposal.

The Chinese themselves had other plans. A group of Chinese nationalists known as Boxers besieged the Legation Quarter in Peking, calling for the expulsion or death of all westerners in China. A joint European and American rescue force crushed the Boxer rebellion. Held mostly by Americans, the Open Door policy notes became the idea, that the US was China's protector. It was another example of the increasingly active role the United States had taken in world affairs. After 250 years of looking westward across American's seeming limitless acres of land, they began to look toward the oceans and consider the possibilities of a new form of expansion.

This outward thrust was accompanied and enhanced by the growth of presidential power. Although the presidents pursued different policies, they agreed that America should have a greater influence in world affairs. None questioned the fundamental fact that the United States was and should be a world power.