Which president introduced the notion of the united states as an international police power?

The U.S. became directly involved in the revolutions of Latin America when it declared war on Spain in support of the independence of Cuba and the Philippines during the Spanish American War of 1898. The war was short, and Spain relinquished control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States.

Cuba was granted independence, but the United States decided to keep the other territories. This was not welcome news in the Philippines. Filipino revolutionaries had welcomed the United States because they admired the Americans who had also fought against colonial rule. But they rebelled when the United States tried to assert itself as a colonial master: the Philippine American War (1899–1902) pitted Filipino freedom fighters against the United States.

Read this text. Do you think the U.S. leaders who wanted to keep the Philippines as a U.S. colony were hypocritical, or was this arrangement merely an irony of history? Why did the Americans grant freedom to Cuba, which is close to the U.S. mainland, but try to maintain control over the Philippines?

The United States began to flex its muscles when it realized it could direct policy in the Americas and around the world. Many American leaders believed in the assertions of the Monroe Doctrine and felt they should take advantage of their military successes during the Spanish American War. The United States claimed dominance over Latin America and other areas of interest. According to President Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), the United States would famously continue to "walk softly, but carry a big stick". The Roosevelt Corollary prompted the United States to assert a new position: it would serve as a police force in the Americas and carry out its objectives as a world power, with force if necessary.

Read this article on this shift in U.S. policy. How did Roosevelt assert U.S. dominance as a world power in the Roosevelt Corally? How do you think this policy impacted revolutions in Latin America and other conflicts around the world?

The Roosevelt Corollary

With the construction of the canal now underway, Roosevelt next wanted to send a clear message to the rest of the world – and in particular to his European counterparts – that the colonization of the Western Hemisphere had now ended, and their interference in the countries there would no longer be tolerated. At the same time, he sent a message to his counterparts in Central and South America, should the United States see problems erupt in the region, that it would intervene in order to maintain peace and stability throughout the hemisphere.

Roosevelt articulated this seeming double standard in a 1904 address before Congress, in a speech that became known as the Roosevelt Corollary. The Roosevelt Corollary was based on the original Monroe Doctrine of the early nineteenth century, which warned European nations of the consequences of their interference in the Caribbean. In this addition, Roosevelt states that the United States would use military force "as an international police power" to correct any "chronic wrongdoing" by any Latin American nation that might threaten stability in the region. Unlike the Monroe Doctrine, which proclaimed an American policy of noninterference with its neighbors' affairs, the Roosevelt Corollary loudly proclaimed the right and obligation of the United States to involve itself whenever necessary.

Roosevelt immediately began to put the new corollary to work. He used it to establish protectorates over Cuba and Panama, as well as to direct the United States to manage the Dominican Republic's custom service revenues. Despite growing resentment from neighboring countries over American intervention in their internal affairs, as well as European concerns from afar, knowledge of Roosevelt's previous actions in Colombia concerning acquisition of land upon which to build the Panama Canal left many fearful of American reprisals should they resist. Eventually, Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt softened American rhetoric regarding U.S. domination of the Western Hemisphere, with the latter proclaiming a new "Good Neighbor Policy" that renounced American intervention in other nations' affairs. However, subsequent presidents would continue to reference aspects of the Roosevelt Corollary to justify American involvement in Haiti, Nicaragua, and other nations throughout the twentieth century. The map below shows the widespread effects of Roosevelt's policies throughout Latin America.

From underwriting a revolution in Panama with the goal of building a canal to putting troops in Cuba, Roosevelt vastly increased the U.S. impact in Latin America.

The Roosevelt Corollary and Its Impact

In 1904, Roosevelt put the United States in the role of the "police power" of the Western Hemisphere and set a course for the U.S. relationship with Central and Latin America that played out over the next several decades. He did so with the Roosevelt Corollary, in which he stated:

"It is not true that the United States feels any land hunger or entertains any projects as regards the other nations of the Western Hemisphere save as such are for their welfare. All that this country desires is to see the neighboring countries stable, orderly, and prosperous. Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship. . . . Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however, reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power".

In the twenty years after he made this statement, the United States would use military force in Latin America over a dozen times. The Roosevelt Corollary was used as a rationale for American involvement in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Haiti, and other Latin American countries, straining relations between Central America and its dominant neighbor to the north throughout the twentieth century.