The Roosevelt Corollary

"The steady aim of this Nation, as of all enlightened nations, should be to strive to bring ever nearer the day when there shall prevail throughout the world the peace of justice.There are kinds of peace which are highly undesirable, which are in the long run as destructive as any war...The peace of tyrannous terror, the peace of craven weakness, the peace of injustice, all these should be shunned as we shun unrighteous war. The goal to set before us as a nation, the goal which should be set before all mankind, is the attainment of the peace of justice, of the peace which comes when each nation is not merely safe-guarded in its own rights, but scrupulously recognizes and performs its duty toward others...It is our duty to remember that a nation has no more right to do injustice to another nation, strong or weak, than an individual has to do injustice to another individual; that the same moral law applies in one case as in the other. But we must also remember that it is as much the duty of the Nation to guard its own rights and its own interests as it is the duty of the individual so to do... Under any circumstances a sufficient armament would have to be kept up to serve the purposes of international police; and until international cohesion and the sense of international duties and rights are far more advanced than at present, a nation desirous both of securing respect for itself and of doing good to others must have a force adequate for the work which it feels is allotted to it as its part of the general world duty. Therefore it follows that a self-respecting, just, and far-seeing nation should on the one hand endeavor by every means to aid in the development of the various movements which tend to provide substitutes for war, which tend to render nations in their actions toward one another, and indeed toward their own peoples, more responsive to the general sentiment of humane and civilized mankind; and on the other hand that it should keep prepared, while scrupulously avoiding wrongdoing itself, to repel any wrong, and in exceptional cases to take action which in a more advanced stage of international relations would come under the head of the exercise of the international police."

Main Ideas and Effects

• The United States has the right to intervene in the Western Hemishpere if a European country tries to colonize there, and if the President deems it necessary
• Went into effect in 1904
• Encouraged use of military to enforce the Monroe Doctrine
• In 1904, parts of Europe wanted to invade the Dominican Republic, but America intervened on behalf of the D.R.
• Was the cornerstone of American international policy until about 1928
• Helped the Monroe Doctrine free up the trade market in the Western Hemisphere
• Led to Taft's policy of giving aid to countries in the Western Hemisphere without becoming militarily involved

Sources

Sparknotes: SAT Subject Test: U.S. History
HistoryWiz: The Roosevelt Corollary
History Central: Roosevelt Corollary
U.S. Imperialism Powerpoint
The Roosevelt Corollary (Theodore Roosevelt)
Britannica: American Domination in the Caribbean
Historical Text Archive

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