Roosevelt’s foreign policy

Venezuelan Affair

The need for a canal

Panama revolution

Building the canal

President Theodore Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy

“Speak softly andcarry a big stick; youwill go far” is a WestAfrican proverb thatRoosevelt used whilevice president andcame to represent hisideological approachto foreign policy.

He viewed the U.S.as the regionalsuperpower thatwould keep Europeansout and keep peacethroughout theAmericas.

What international role did Roosevelt envision for theUnited States?

Major elementsin the cartoon:

Oyster Bay,New York iswhere RooseveltlivedThree figurescircling the treestump representEl Salvador,Guatemala, andHonduras

Venezuelan Affair, 1902

During a civil war inVenezuela from 1898-1902, theproperty of British, German,and Italian citizens living in theregion was damaged.

After the European nationsdemanded retribution andreceived none, they sentmilitary ships to impose ablockade on the major portsalong Venezuela’s coastline.

Roosevelt opposed Europeanintrusion into the WesternHemisphere and acted amediator in the dispute.

This strengthened the U.S.’srole in the region.

The Monroe Doctrineissued in 1823 forbadeany new colonies in the

Americas.

As a result of the Venezuela Crisis, Roosevelt added theRoosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, stating thatthe U.S. could intervene when the stability of any Latin

American nation was in question.

During the Spanish American War in 1898, the U.S.desired a quicker way of moving ships between theeast and west coast of North America. The voyage

around South America could take months.

15,000 MILES

Cuba

The search for ashortcut across theCentral Americanisthmus dates backto early Spanishexploration in the1500s.

Surveys of theregion in the 19th

century by theSpanish andFrench suggestedtwo viable routes,one throughColombia the otherNicaragua.

8,000 miles

The French began constructionon a canal in Panama, aprovince of Colombia in 1882.

Thousands of constructionworkers died of yellow fever.

President Rooseveltnegotiated a buyout from theFrench and permission from theColombians, but felt the pricewas too high.

Two political cartoons on Colombia's refusal toaccept purchase offer price of $40 million.

In 2007, $40 million would be $995 million

Roosevelt’s solution was to support a Panamanianrevolution in 1903 so the U.S. could build the canal at a

cheaper price.

Yellow fever was a devastating diseasethroughout the 19th century.

Carlos Finlay, a Cubandoctor, identified the

mosquito as the carrierof the disease to

humans in the 1870s.

Walter Reed, a U.S.army surgeon,proved Finlay’s

theory while in Cubain 1900.

William Gorgas, anAmerican doctor, was

the chief sanitaryofficer at the PanamaCanal, controlled themosquito population,allowing completion.

1905 YellowFever Quarantine

Station

1905fumigation car

eradicatingmosquitoes in

Panama.