Isolation to Relativism

The United States moves from relative isolation into an international role because it wanted to strengthen its economy through the use of the American Dream to promote American products throughout the world by spreading the ideals of a free market and free trade to other nations to eventually create a more modernized peaceful world. They wanted to become an economic model for other nations to follow. The consequences for U.S. society due to this move are that as they become more involved with international affairs, they created tensions with other nations over territorial disputes and they also increased racial tensions throughout the country.

As the United States continued to grow in population and size and started to have more and more technological advances, the economy as well started to flourish. With the economy booming, many companies in the U.S. looked to foreign nations to expand their market. Foreign policy was being driven by the large American companies that were creating more products than were being consumed by the American people so they had a need to expand their corporations across the world. For the first time the people in the U.S. accumulated a surplus of capital much more than they needed for themselves.[1] Some circumstances that encouraged American companies to expand in other countries were the domestic merger movement and new forms of large scale corporate organization, and the interest in moving closer to raw materials and markets.[2] Having your business in a foreign market, reduced costs from high tariffs and shipping and let you spread your ideas and views into these countries. The U.S. government had a vision of spreading the American Dream throughout the world and with these American companies moving into foreign lands, it was showing what the American Dream was all about. Distinguished historian Walter LaFeber noted that American foreign policy was being driven by corporations to make money and avoid neo-Marxist revolutions in the United States.[3] Having these companies in foreign countries showed them how a free market system can work and showed the importance of owning private property and why it is a big deal and how nice it is to possess.

One of the countries that the U.S. felt they needed to deal with was Cuba because of the strong Spanish presence there. President McKinley felt that having Spain in Cuba was a threat to America's national security and that the U.S. needed to control Cuba to avoid any trouble from the Spanish or any other countries that may use Cuba to attack the U.S. Spain was not really looking to get in any type of war with the United States but also didn't want to just give them Cuba. But after American journalists, William Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer reported they had pictures of some members of the Spanish military planting mines on the USS Maine, which did actually explode, they pressured President William McKinley to decide to go to war with Spain.[4] The U.S. went in the war with no plans beyond sinking the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay and it took them months after Manila to send troops to Spain but with the Spanish putting up hardly any opposition, the United States was easily able to defeat them and both nations signed the Treaty of Paris and the U.S. acquired Cuba and around the same time acquired the territories of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam. This allowed the government to advance its interest in economic prosperity and spread the idea of the American Dream in these lands.[5] Businesses in America mostly opposed the war with Spain at the beginning because they believed that war through free trade into confusion. In the end though, this war spread free enterprise in these countries and helped businesses to expand throughout the world.

The Spanish-American War signaled a much larger commitment to the world for the U.S. By acquiring the Philippines, the U.S. had a much larger presence in East Asia and looked for an Open Door Policy in China which Senator John Hay sent a note to the major powers asking them to not interfere with the free trade and economic policies in China.[6] Although this is commonly believed to be an international agreement with several countries, it was mostly a unilateral U.S. policy. This was an example of the U.S. continuing to expand its international role and expressing its ideals of free trade in foreign countries. Another ideal that the United States had was that they wanted to keep Europe out of the western hemisphere so they could expand the United States' territory and be more economically profitable in the region by using those countries resources and by being the supreme power on that side of the world. They also wanted to spread the American Dream throughout these countries without interference form other nations. After President McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgaz, Teddy Roosevelt took over and gave The Roosevelt Corollary which spoke of keeping European Powers from colonizing in our hemisphere and how we need to take out any Dictatorships that may arise because it is a threat to our interests as a Democratic nation.[7] He talked about how American interests made it necessary to intervene in other countries. These interests were mostly economic ones so the U.S. needed to involve itself throughout the world in order to insure its economic prowess and also show the world how to effectively run a free market system. Roosevelt was also responsible for the construction of the Panama Canal which opened up more effective trading in the Latin America region and further helped the United States' economic growth.

During Roosevelt's tenure, the Russo-Japanese war broke out. The Russians occupied the Manchuria territory in China and had it sights on Korea. Japan was not pleased with this as these territories were vital parts in economic trade so they launched a surprise attack on the Russians at Port Arthur. After this war broke out, the Russians started losing very badly and eventually Roosevelt came in to help settle the dispute between the two countries with the Treaty of Portsmouth that both countries signed. The Czar of Russia agreed to cooperate with the Open Door Policy, thus still making it easy for the U.S. to secure its economic interests in East Asia. Teddy Roosevelt left a legacy as the one who ended isolation for the United States and got them more involved in the world.

Roosevelt chose William Taft as his successor for President. Taft wanted to institute Dollar Diplomacy in Latin America and East Asia, which is when U.S. corporations make investments in other countries and the U.S. would interact with these countries furthering their commercial interests as a nation. This policy did not work out the way Taft hoped and some countries used aggression and would revolt against the U.S. being in their land. After Taft, in 1912, Woodrow Wilson won the election