Foreign Policy, And Theodore Roosevelt's Big Stick Imperialism

During World War One imperialism was trending on a global scale and eventually the United States became an imperial nation, meaning that its goal was to conquer weaker nations in order to expand their own: formally and informally. The US also felt it was its destiny to “civilize” or “westernize” foreign nations so that they would be affluent. During this time, Theodore Roosevelt created the idea of big stick diplomacy, which is Roosevelts Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. He believed that it was the US’ duty to intervene in the affairs of nations that have continuously been doing wrong. Since it is the US’ obligation, as a world power, to support democratic objectives and spread its influence around the world, Roosevelt’s big stick diplomacy …show more content…
Roosevelt is drawn unrealistically large in comparison to the scale of the other images in the drawing. He is depicted with a bat that is labeled, “big stick” and is treading across the “Caribbean Sea”, which is surrounded by Panama, Mexico, Santo Domingo, Cuba, and Venezuela. In addition to the drawing, ships labeled “debt collection, the sheriff, and the receiver” are following Roosevelt, indicating that they are American ships. The ships portray the idea of informal imperialism, having a sphere of influence on a nation economically, militarily, and politically. Also, Roosevelt has a gun and knife tied around his waist as he treads, this put an emphasis on the corollary because Roosevelt wanted to stress that his navy fleet was fully prepared to go to war if it was completely necessary. The depiction alludes to the idea that Roosevelt was flaunting his navy fleet and had no fear when dealing with Caribbean …show more content…
The war was being fought for Cuban independence, however, Cuba was not able, in McKinley’s eyes, to be solely independent. At this point, the US began to informally acquire Cuba, along with its $400 million debt. Subsequently, the Platt amendment was created, it stated that the US was able to intervene in Cuba’s political affairs if they at all seemed unstable. Though Roosevelt was not president during this time, he served as lieutenant for an unofficial cavalry called the Rough Riders. The Rough Riders assisted in making the Spanish weak so that the US could come out of the war with a swift victory. Additionally, many reporters from that time made mockery of how his foreign policy ideas overpowered those of McKinley, it was as if Roosevelt ran the office before he was officially swore into it. After the Spanish American war, the Philippines sought their independence through the Philippine Insurrection (Philippine American war) and William McKinley was assassinated. During this war, Theodore Roosevelt was thrown into office and soon thereafter the Philippine Insurrection came to a halt, with a US victory. The ship entitled “debt collection” in the cartoon illustrates this by highlighting the debt assumption of Cuba and its oppressive control over that nation. Since Cuba and the Philippines