THE UNITED STATES AND LATIN AMERICA18.4

OBJECTIVES

Examine what happened to Puerto Rico and Cuba after the Spanish American War.

Analyze the effects of Roosevelt’s “big stick” diplomacy.

Compare Wilson’s “moral diplomacy” with the foreign policies of his predecessors.

KEY PARTS

U.S. Policy in Puerto Rico and Cuba Roosevelt Pursues “Big Stick” Diplomacy Wilson Pursues Moral Diplomacy

INTRODUCTION

Read Section 18.4 Answer critical thinking questions 4&6

U.S. POLICY IN PUERTO RICO AND CUBA

William Howard Taft stressed the need to assert American power around the world.

America’s victory over Spain liberated the Puerto Rican and Cuban people from Spanish rule.

Puerto Rico remained under direct U.S. military rule. In 1900, Congress passed the Foraker Act, which established a civil government in Puerto Rico.

CONT.

This allowed the President to elect a governor and part of the Puerto Rican legislature. (similar to the Philippines)

The Insular Cases in the Supreme Court determined the rights of Puerto Ricans.

In 1917 President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act, it gave the islanders greater control of their own government and more citizenship rights.

CONT..

The Treaty of Paris granted Cuban independence, however the US Army did not withdraw until 1902.

Congress instructed Cuba to add the Platt Amendment to its constitution.

This allowed US leases to have Naval Stations, also prevented Cuba from making treaties with anyone.

Also gave the United States the right to intervene to preserve order in Cuba.

ROOSEVELT PURSUES “BIG STICK” DIPLOMACY

Roosevelt developed a broader policy for U.S. action in Latin America.

He believed that he needed a strong military to achieve America’s goals.

This view came form his ideas of balance of power principles and his view of the United States as a special nation with a moral responsibility to “civilize” or uplift weaker nations.

CONT.

Roosevelt did not originate the idea of the Panama Canal, however, he was a major part of it.

In the late 1800s the French tried to link the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans across the Isthmus of Panama but failed.

In 1903 the United States bought the claim for $40,000,000.

CONT..

To make this happen Roosevelt had to help liberate Panama from Columbia, and he was successful at it.

More than 35,000 workers helped dig the Panama Canal.

The Completion of the canal depended on scientific breakthroughs in medicine.

Doctors had to find a way to combat the tropical diseases that were killing so many canal workers.

CONT…

5,000 canal workers died from disease or accidents while building the canal.

The canal opened in 1914 and it cut roughly 8,000 nautical miles off the trip from the west coast to the east coast of the United States.

Once Taft took over as President he and Roosevelts views of Open Door Policy and maintain stability in Latin America were identical, the only difference was instead of the big stick approach, Taft believed in “Dollar Diplomacy”

CONT….

In 1912 Taft looked to substitute dollars for bullets.

The policy aimed to increase American investments in business and banks in Central American and the Caribbean.

Americans began investing in plantations, mines, oil wells, railways and other ventures.

WILSON PURSUES MORAL DIPLOMACY

Wilson takes over as president and criticized he foreign policies of his predecessors Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.

He and his Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan were considered anti-imperialists.

The new president intended to take U.S. foreign policy in a different direction.

He promised that the United States would “never again seek one additional foot of territory by conquest”

CONT.

He would instead work to promote “human rights, national integrity, and opportunity.”

He called this “moral diplomacy” He tried this moral diplomacy tactic in Mexico

and it went well initially. However rebels began to rise up against Carranza (who Wilson helped to put into power)

CONT..

The Rebels were under the leadership of Francisco “Pancho” Villa.

After the United States left out of Mexico, Villa’s men crossed into New Mexico and raided the town of Columbus leaving 18 Americans dead.

President Wilson responded by sending General John J. Pershing and more than 10,000 troops to take care of Villa’s men.

CONT…

Pershing’s forces chased Villa for several months but failed to capture the rebel leader. Wilson withdrew his troops from Mexico in 1917.

This was due to the concerns about World War I raging in Europe.

Not long after the United States declared war on Germany, and Pershing took command of the American Expeditionary Force in France.