The Civil War And Reconstruction

The Reconstruction happened in period following the end of the American Civil and the main goal was to reintegrate the Southern Confederate States back into the Union after they had been defeated by the Union (Northern States). As would be expected, the process was met with many challenges as the interests of both groups had to be addressed. There was debate over the terms under which the Confederate States would be allowed back into the Union, and whether it was the president or congress to set these terms. There was also the question about what rights freed slaves had and their role in the new American society. Even though the war had ended, the reconstruction presented a new battlefront for a political struggle between the North and the South. This paper analyses what reconstruction sought to achieve, and why it failed with dire long-term consequences.

Reconstruction was a period of time after the Civil War (1865-1877) that was supposed to be the rebuilding of America. It was also the process used to readmit all the Confederate states back into the Union. There was controversy, however, on how to go about rebuilding the nation. Abraham Lincoln proposed a lenient plan. After he was assassinated, Andrew Johnson proposed a very similar plan. The Radical Republicans, a group of legislators that were in favor of freedmen’s rights, were opposed to both plans under “Presidential Reconstruction”. They initiated “Congressional Reconstruction”. Because of the conflicting views, there was little cooperation between the Executive and Legislative branches. This lead to many unsuccessful

During Roosevelt’s time in office, he strengthened the United States’ ties to countries around the world. T.R. was a foreign-policy activist. He involved himself in the relations between the Dominican Republic and the European nations that the country owed money to. The president was afraid that European powers would start to collect their money by using force and Roosevelt didn’t want that to happen in Latin America. He asserted the United States’ power in the Western hemisphere by creating what is known as the ‘Roosevelt Corollary’ in 1904. This corollary states that “although the United States had not territorial ambitions in this hemisphere, cases of “chronic wrongdoing” on the part of a Latin American country that might invite occupation by a European

The period after the Civil War was a very difficult time in the United States' history. This time was known as the Reconstruction period and it was a very controversial time. There were many issues that had to be addressed such as what to do with the free blacks in the south and how states would be readmitted to the Union. This era saw the rise of the Radical Republicans. The government was going through changes, southerners were going through changes, and blacks were going through changes. Whites in the south were left without people to work their plantations. Slavery was indeed a very important topic during this time. Many of the reconstruction plans that were proposed required states to prohibit slavery in order to be readmitted to

In the beginning of 1865, the Civil War came to a close, abandoning over 620,000 dead and a destructive path of devastating all over the south. The North now was confronted with the task of reconstructing the destroyed and aggrieved Confederate states.

The Civil war could very easily be known as one of the greatest tragedies in United States history. After the Civil War, the people of The United States had so much anger and hatred towards each other and the government that 11 Southern states seceded from the Nation and parted into two pieces. The Nation split into either the Northern abolitionist or the Southern planation farmers. The Reconstruction era was meant to be exactly how the name announces it to be. It was a time for the United States to fix the broken pieces the war had caused allowing the country to mend together and unite once again. The point of Reconstruction was to establish unity between the states and to also create and protect the civil rights of the former slaves.

This incident, along with the progressive method of using Christian ethics and the progressive belief of pragmatism, changed Roosevelt’s idea about the Monroe Doctrine. Roosevelt believed that Christian citizens had “the duty of bearing one another’s burdens.” This belief influenced him to interpret the purpose of the Monroe Doctrine as “to safeguard like independence and secure like permanence for the lesser among the New World nations” as well as to prevent European colonization in the Western Hemisphere. However, after the Venezuela crisis, Roosevelt saw that the original doctrine was not enough to safeguard peace in the Western Hemisphere. He realized that wrongdoing from Latin American nations, for example, that Venezuela did not pay debts to European countries, could lead to European aggression in the Western Hemisphere. Roosevelt was afraid that the aggression stayed permanently and contravened the Monroe Doctrine. Using pragmatism to make the Monroe Doctrine not the “the emptiest of the empty phrases,” he stated that the United States had a duty to supervise ineffective Latin American governments, whose instability and economic problems could

1. The war in 1862 was only more than a year old and the people in both the Union and Confederate sides didn’t anticipate it would last that long, but it is going to go on. Close to the end of the summer in this same year, the Union has made huge progress in claiming confederate lands, winning some major battles. They have put the confederacy in the defensive. They have taken over New Orleans, with even black troops major on the ground of New Orleans. They have taken Missouri and are working hard to take over the Mississippi Valley and maybe even Richmond itself. Bruce Catton puts it this way in The Civil War, “Except for guerrilla activity, Kentucky and Missouri has been swept clear of armed confederates, Western Tennessee had been reclaimed, there was a Yankee army in Cumberland Gap, another one was approaching chattanooga, and a third was sprawled out from Memphis to Corinth, preparing to splice down through Mississippi and touch hands with the Union occupation forces in Baton Rouge and New Orleans” (85) So not only that they Union had taken over regions, they are advancing as well, but they did not win the way this year for some reason. Firstly, because they did not have generals and army heads capable of taking them to victory. General Halleck, chief of the Union Armies and Pope in charge of one of the Union armies in Virginia, were major examples of this.

Theodore Roosevelt was a President known for a very dynamic and progressive administration, and his foreign policy in Latin America was no exception. His policies in Latin America were beneficial for the rapidly growing United States, but left an impact on Latin America that was both positive and negative. President Roosevelt took past policies of the United States, such as the unenforced Monroe Doctrine of 1823, and amended them to have the backing of the Navy in the early 1900s. One particular amendment was called the Platt Amendment of 1901, and opened the door to United States expansionism under President Roosevelt. It was under this amendment that Cuba quickly became the foundation for the new Latin American policies of the United States. The Roosevelt Corollary was another important part of Roosevelt 's Latin American foreign policy. Roosevelt believed that Latin America was quite vulnerable to European expansionism, and added his Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine which stated that should the Europeans attack, and should any Latin American nation engage in “chronic wrongdoing” such as outstanding debt, then the United States would intervene on their behalf. In essence, Europe would remain where it was, while the United States controlled the entire Western Hemisphere. The opportunity came for Roosevelt to implement this policy during the invasion of the Dominican Republic by European debt collectors, and Venezuelan Crisis. Lastly, Theodore Roosevelt had a

Roosevelt’s Good neighbor policy was a non-intervention policy that aims to promote good relationship with Latin America and solidify Latin American support through avoiding Military intervention of US to Latin America, but instead using a much more peaceful tone. This is important as it clearly shows that Roosevelt was not a staunch isolationist as the reason he want to maintain a good relationship with Latin is due to fear towards the conflict in Europe, so from this it could be seen that Roosevelt is actually preparing for intervention to war and is seeking for ways to gain more support and Latin American is one of it. In addition in August 1935, Roosevelt had also signed the Neutrality Act; a law that was designed to keep the United States out of a possible European war by banning shipment of war materiel to belligerents at the discretion of the President. This is important as despite aware of the rise of totalitarism, Roosevelt didn’t challenger over the congress over on the neutrality act and was willing to follow his good neighbor policy for the purpose of avoiding USA entanglements in the 1930s as Americans had been frightened by the tragic of war as memories of the First world War were still

It is the intention of this essay to explain the United States foreign policy behind specific doctrines. In order to realize current objectives, this paper will proceed as follows: Part 1 will define the Monroe Doctrine, Sections 2, 3, 4, and 5 will concurrently explicate the Roosevelt Corollary, Good Neighbor Policy, and the Nixon Doctrine, discuss how each policy resulted in U.S. involvement in Latin American countries, describe how it was justified by the U.S. government, respectively, and finally,

The economy was expanding and the US became more interested in the well being of surrounding economies. The Dominican Republic was in debt to various European nations at this time. They were having problems paying their debts and chose to stop paying them. In response to this issue, President Theodore Roosevelt formulated an extension to the Monroe Doctrine. The Roosevelt Corollary, as it became to be known, gave the US the power to intervene with European powers coming west in an attempt to collect debts.2 The fear was that Europe, in an attempt to collect debts, would occupy and control the country in debt. With the Panama Canal on the scope, this would hinder economic stimulus in the US. President Roosevelt’s beliefs are best captured in the Corollary when he stated:

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the United States was the most dominant power in the Western Hemisphere. European nations conceded to the United States their right of any intervention in the Western Hemisphere and allowed the United States to do whatever they wanted. The United States took this newly bestowed power and abused it. The United States intervened in many Latin American countries and imposed their policies on to these countries against their will. A perfect example of this aggression is what occurred in the Dominican Republic in 1904. The United States intervened in this sovereign nation and took control of their economy and custom houses. A memorandum from Francis B. Loomis, the United States Assistant

The Civil War left a country divided not only by property lines and borders but by beliefs as well. Not just religious beliefs, moral beliefs also. It left both sides, north and south struggling, trying to figure out what their next move towards reuniting the divided America was going to be. The period following the end of the Civil War would become known as the “Reconstruction Era.” An era that raised just as many questions as it did answers. A reconstruction of America that seems to carry on many decades later.

Another way the United States protected its interests in the international system was through the Roosevelt Corollary. This addition to the Monroe Doctrine established the power of the US to police nations in the Western Hemisphere, especially when the governments, or heads of power, of these nations are not able to maintain order (Hastedt, 12). Through this amendment of the doctrine, the US was given a bigger sphere of influence in Latin America, and ultimately, the world. These acts of intervention in other countries were implemented through the use of the military and economic resources and it was