Foreign policies are very important to the United States. The US is recognized as the strongest nation and with that power comes ultimate sense of responsibility. The main purpose of every countries foreign policy is to survive and stay strong in today's world affairs. There were many policies put into place during the years 1895-1920. Many of these policies were made do to realism. Although there were times when we did things do to idealism. Some of these key events include the League of Nations, the Spanish American War and One of the biggest examples of realism during this time is the League of Nations. The League of Nations was championed by President Woodrow Wilson in a fourteen-point speech to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918.However, the League failed to win Senate approval and is forever remembered as a major example of a communications breakdown between the president and the Senate.The League of Nations was a contract which sought to prohibit war and create peace, but the US saw it as a complication and refused to join.This was for several reasons, first America had suffered casualties in the war, and now we felt it best to keep America out of European affairs. This policy was called isolationism. Joining the league meant that this might involve having to do things that might set back the economy or damage America otherwise. America had had enough of wars and dealing with other countries problems.In the League of Nations it also obligated member nations to defend the territorial integrity of league members. It stated “respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all members of the league”. This meant that if one league member attacked another in a dispute that had nothing to do with us we were forced to participate. By not joining we were looking out for our best interest in the present and future as we were wary of becoming entangled in others affairs as we already learned this lesson after WW1. The Spanish American War was an act of idealism. The involvement of the US during this incident was based on imperialist beliefs. President William McKinley states in President McKinley Declaration of War which can be found in the For the Record Book in pages 114 and 115“The destruction of the noble vessel has filled the national heart with inexpressible horror” and due to this the US decided to enter the war. Although there was no actual evidence that they had any involvement of the sinking of the ship as is to this very day. They just went to war due to nationalism because they had no explanation as to what really happened that night the ship sank and many think it was due to mechanical failures. Still they believed it was the right thing to do in order to protect our country, but there were many other reasons why they entered the war. First, the US had investments in Cuba and the fighting between the Cubans and the Spanish was ruining the economy and the growing feeling of power in the US created a desire to
