US Imperialism & WWI

In the years following the Civil War, the United States played an increasing role on the world stage. Motivation for foreign involvement was largely for trade and profit, but Social Darwinism also offered a rationale. Early steps involved America in Samoa, Hawaii and the Caribbean. More serious problems developed with the Spanish in Cuba, culminating in the Spanish American War (1898).

Emerging from the war as a hero, Theodore Roosevelt followed an activist foreign policy, reinterpreting the Monroe Doctrine and engineering the independence of Panama. Taft continued the interventionist policies by sending soldiers to Nicaragua in 1912 in a display of Dollar Diplomacy. Wilson also was a foreign affairs activist, intervening in Santo Domingo and coming close to war with Mexico.

In the Far East, the United States proclaimed an "Open Door" policy for trade with China and mediated the Russo-Japanese War (1905).

War erupted in Europe in August 1914. The U.S. attempted to remain neutral, but its resolve was tested by German submarine warfare. Wilson was returned to office in the Election of 1916, reluctantly using the slogan, “He kept us out of war.” Nevertheless, the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917 and more than 1.4 million American soldiers served in Europe. Wilson proposed Fourteen Points as the basis for peace and personally attended the conference, which drafted the Treaty of Versailles. The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty and American membership in the League of Nations.

Postwar efforts were made by the major powers to secure disarmament and extract reparations from the defeated powers.