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The Causes And Impacts Of Theodore Roosevelt's Foreign Policy

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Brendan Crowley Mr Gelpke USH 2 Period 2 19 October 2017 After the untimely death of William Mckinley, on September 14th 1901, Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency. Using his aggressive Big Stick Diplomacy and his progressive policies like the Square Deal, he ushered The United States into the 20th century resulting in his spot as one of the top five presidents of all time. Roosevelt’s most important foreign policy was the establishment of the Panama Canal. This was developed during the Spanish American war as a way for American ships to get from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. After Roosevelt saw American ships had to go all the way around the tip of South America to get to Cuba, Roosevelt negotiated with Britain for the support of an American controlled canal through Panama owned by Colombia. However this canal could only be built with Colombia’s agreement. Colombia stalled because of the terms of agreement and the USA supported a Panamanian revolution resulting in Panama giving the United States control of the canal for a price of 10 million dollars and annual payment of 250,000 dollars. Roosevelt also drafted a document called the “Roosevelt Corollary” which said the United States would intervene in any Latin American Country that manifested serious economic problems. This was after Germany and Britain had sent ships to Blockade Venezuela’s coast line after they had a debt they refused to pay. Although Roosevelt didn’t want to lose allies in Europe he also

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