Roosevelt, throughout his political life, felt that being
prepared for conflict was the best recourse the United States had
to prevent war. He believed that if the U.S. made a show of force
to the rest of the world, other nations might be more hesitant
to challenge the American military. As a corollary to this, he
also understood that the threat of force rather than force itself
was often sufficient to deter military conflict. He summarized
this belief with an old African proverb, "Speak softly and carry
a big stick, and you will go far." The press instantly latched
onto this saying and used it to describe Roosevelt's style of foreign
policy as Big Stick Diplomacy. Indeed, many of the political cartoons
of the era depict the president swinging a large club to make others
do as he wished.
Roosevelt brandished the Big Stick several times during
his terms as president, most notably in Latin America. Various
revolutions in the latter half of the 1800s had established many
inefficient governments throughout Central America. In Venezuela,
the newly self-proclaimed dictator, Castro, had conducted bad economic
policies that drove the nation into poverty, leaving it unable to
pay its European creditors. After a year of attempted negotiation,
Germany attempted to force Venezuela into paying in 1902, blockading
five ports on the coast of Venezuela and bombarding one of its
coastal bases. Outraged, President Roosevelt threatened to attack
the German ships if the siege on Venezuela continued. The Germans
ceased fire and both Venezuela and Germany conducted successful
negotiations. A year later in 1903, Roosevelt feared a similar
situation and stepped in with a plan to help the impoverished government
of Santo Domingo invest its money in order to pay its debts to
Europe. Although the U.S. Senate rejected the plan, Roosevelt sidestepped the
Senate with a temporary executive order to establish the investment
funds. The plan worked, as the European nations were paid off and
war was prevented in Santo Domingo.
Originally, President Roosevelt understood the grievances
of the European powers who wished to collect on the debts owed
to them in South America. He felt that the European nations could
admonish the Latin American countries with any necessary means
except occupation. Occupying a Latin American country would be a
direct violation of the Monroe Doctrine issued almost a century
earlier by U.S. President James Monroe. The Monroe Doctrine stipulated
that all European powers should remain out of the Western Hemisphere.
The Venezuela and Santo Domingo affairs changed Roosevelt's mind,
however. To prevent the European powers from attempting any similar
military actions and from gaining territory in Latin America, the
president declared that only the United States had the right to
correct the "wrong-doings" of the weaker states in the Western
Hemisphere. This declaration came to be known as Roosevelt's Corollary
to the Monroe Doctrine.
Roosevelt chose to prevent war in other ways as well.
Twice during his Presidency he mediated disputes between aggressive
foreign powers–in the name of promoting peace, but also secretly
out of a desire to protect American interests in jeopardy. In 1905,
Roosevelt offered to mediate the conflict between Russia and Japan,
two nations that had been embroiled in a yearlong war over commercial rights
in northern China and Korea. Roosevelt favored the Japanese but
feared that American commercial interests in China would be jeopardized
no matter which country won the war. Japanese and Russian delegates
met with the president on board an U.S. Naval ship in Oyster Bay
and later in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Negotiations lasted three
weeks. For his mediation efforts, President Roosevelt became the
first American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Japanese were not entirely satisfied, however. Although
the peace settlement had given Japan the southern half of Russia's Sakhalin
Island, many Japanese felt this was insufficient tribute from Russia,
who had technically lost the war. Anti-American sentiment began
brewing in Japan and climaxed when rioters burned four churches
in Tokyo. Many Americans, for their part, were not pleased with
the Japanese either, somewhat resentful of the tide of Japanese
immigrants that had been pouring into the country during the last
decade. In 1906, the San Francisco Board of Education initiated
a segregation policy and refused to admit Japanese students in
the public school system. Japan was infuriated and the situation became
more heated. President Roosevelt received several reports from
other foreign intelligence agencies warning him that Japan was preparing
for war. One report even mentioned that ten thousand Japanese troops
disguised as laborers were waiting in Mexico to invade should war
break out. Roosevelt understood the Japanese anger over the segregation
policy in San Francisco and he had no desire for a conflict with
Japan. Eventually an agreement was reached: San Francisco public
schools readmitted the Japanese students, and Japan placed restrictions
on the number of immigrants to the United States.
Within days of resolving the Russian-Japanese dispute, Roosevelt
also mediated a conflict over the North African country of Morocco.
In 1904 France and Great Britain signed a public treaty that granted
France sole commercial rights in Morocco and Britain sole rights
in Egypt, and that stipulated that Morocco would eventually be
divided between the two. The German leader, Kaiser Wilhelm II,
took this to be a threat to thwart German interests in Africa. War
seemed likely to erupt. Having heard of Roosevelt's hand in designing
the Open Door Policy in China, the Kaiser asked Roosevelt to mediate
the dispute in Morocco, hoping the President would side with Germany.
Fearing a war between the European powers and the disruption it
would cause to American trade, Roosevelt agreed to mediate at the
Algeciras Conference, but not in person. He sent a delegate, Henry
White, to preside for him. Contrary to the Kaiser's hopes, Roosevelt
upheld the treaty between England and France, leaving Germany with
nothing. Years later, several historians interpreted Roosevelt's
decision as the first step in aligning the United States with England
and France against Germany in World War I.
Ironically, although Roosevelt acted as mediator in East
Asia and in North Africa, he had trouble doing so in North America
when Great Britain challenged the United States' claim to part
of Alaska. Although many had previously considered Alaska a barren
wasteland, the discovery of gold in the Klondike region in the
late 1800s suddenly made Alaska a very popular and profitable territory,
and many Americans rushed to the region during the Klondike Gold Rush.
Great Britain, however, challenged the boundary line between Alaska
and the British-owned Canadian province of British Columbia. This
challenge outraged Roosevelt, who initially refused to negotiate
the boundary line. He did eventually consent to arbitration by
six impartial judges, three from the United States and three from
Canada and Great Britain. Instead, however, Roosevelt sent three
judges who were very partial to his interests: his Secretary of
War Elihu Root, a former supportive Senator named George Turner,
and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge who was arguably Roosevelt's closest
and most trusted friend. These three convinced a judge from England
to side with their pro-American viewpoint, and the United States
won the dispute.
