Describing his foreign policy, Roosevelt quoted a West African proverb: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” As president, Roosevelt used “big stick diplomacy” to spread American values and ideals throughout the world. This unprecedented seizure of executive power upset the balance of government power mandated by the Constitution and set a precedent that still exists today. Examples of Roosevelt’s expansion of executive authority included:
1) Converting the U.S. military into the “policeman of the world”
2) Committing the U.S. military to foreign excursions without congressional consent
3) Negotiating agreements with foreign dignitaries without Senate ratification
Roosevelt believed in the concept favored by the Progressives of his time that government should oversee and manage all human interactions, ignoring constitutional restraint in the interest of “social justice.” This, along with an underlying American sense of manifest destiny, influenced Roosevelt’s view of foreign relations. This led to the perception that any foreign country not embracing the American definitions of freedom and democracy posed a potential threat to U.S. national security.
Throughout his political career, Roosevelt insisted that America “needed” wars. When he was the assistant secretary of the Navy during the Spanish-American War, he dispatched the Pacific naval fleet to the Philippines without his superior’s consent. Roosevelt then resigned his post to lead the “Rough Riders” in the Cuban invasion that led to victory in 1898.
Prior to World War I, Roosevelt showed willingness to go to war with Germany, and even a willingness to see cities such as New York attacked by the Germans because that would force German-Americans into a “patriotic display of anger against Germany.”
The Roosevelt Corollary
In 1902, Roosevelt informed Congress that the “increasing interdependence… of international political and economic relations… insist on the proper policing of the world.” Specifically, Roosevelt targeted Latin America as a region that needed American “protection.”
European powers began threatening Latin American countries such as Venezuela and the Dominican Republic for failing to pay their debts. To Roosevelt, Europe’s insistence that Latin America honor its financial obligations required an aggressive American response.
After winning a second term as president in 1904, Roosevelt declared that only the U.S. had authority to intervene in Latin America for the “best interests” of the Western Hemisphere. He stated that “the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, to the exercise of an international police power.”
While the Monroe Doctrine declared that the U.S. would oppose European nations trying to exert their influence in the Western Hemisphere, Roosevelt extended the doctrine by declaring that only the U.S. could exert influence in the West. To justify this, Roosevelt simply took the Progressive notion that impoverished people could not help themselves and applied it to impoverished Latin American countries. Thus, the U.S. would intervene in Latin American business for their own “good,” and in return Latin America was expected to embrace U.S. values and allow U.S. business to dominate their markets.
This became known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, and it was used to justify future U.S. military interventions, not only in Latin American countries but throughout the world.
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