Bellwork:
1. Explain the actions taken by President T. Roosevelt to obtain the rights to build the
Panama Canal.
2. What did President Roosevelt use as his "big stick?"
President Taft's Dollar Diplomacy
"I am in favor of helping the prosperity of all countries because, when we are all prosperous, the trade with each becomes more valuable to the other." This policy has been characterized as substituting dollars for bullets. It is one that appeals alike to idealistic humanitarian sentiments, to the dictates of sound policy and strategy, and to legitimate commercial aims.”
What did Taft mean when he spoke of prosperity in all nations?
How would you classify “legitimate commercial aims” , subjective or objective?
Why does Taft use military force?
Taft will be forced to use military force to protect American business interests.
Armed forces were deployed and remained on site until 1925. American bankers were given charge of
Nicaraguan finances, collecting customs duties, paying the nation’s debts and returning the remainder to the friendly government.
Wilson disliked the assertive policies of Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. He advocated "moral diplomacy" (a policy that made the U.S. the conscience of the world). He hoped to spread democracy, condemn colonialism, and promote peace.
While he pledged to limit American interventions in Latin America, he ended up intervening more than any previous President, deploying troops to Haiti, the
Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Mexico.

"These States lying to the south of us, which have always been our neighbors, will now be drawn closer to us by innumerable ties, and I hope, chief of all, by the tie of a common understanding of each other. Interest does not tie nations together; it sometimes separates them. But sympathy and understanding does unite them.
...We must prove ourselves their friends and champions upon the terms of equality and honor... We must show ourselves friends by comprehending their interest, whether it squares with our own interest or not. It is a very perilous thing to determine the foreign policy of a nation in the terms of material interest. It not only is unfair to those with whom you are dealing, but it is degrading as regards your own actions."
Wilson will also have to send troops to Nicaragua to keep Taft's intervention policies in place. Bryan later authorized the use of troops in the Dominican Republic and in Haiti, even though he was a longtime advocate and architect of plans and treaties furthering peace.
Wilson will have even more trouble with Mexico
Wilson decided to recognize Carranza as the legitimate heir of the revolution. Villa then seized a number of Americans in January 1916 and executed them. On March 9 he crossed the border into Columbus, New Mexico, where he killed citizens and burned the town. Wilson had to respond. Under Brigadier General John J. Pershing a force of more than 6000 troops was dispatched to Mexico. Wilson legitimized the action by acquiring Carranza's permission to pursue Villa. Villa's clever escapes and his second crossing of the border, at Glen Springs, Texas, where he again killed several Americans, inflamed public opinion on both sides of the border and almost caused full-scale war by setting Carranza against the intervention. However, a constitutional government was set up in Mexico in October 1916. Wilson began removing U.S. troops from Mexican soil as the likelihood of U.S. involvement in World War I increased.
Give 3 examples of military interventionism, 1 for each president:
T. Roosevelt:
W.H. Taft:
W. Wilson: