9 - Theodore Roosevelt: Conservative as Revolutionary

Summary

For a central irony of modern American diplomatic history is that between the 1890s and World War I, the United States became a great world power at the time that important parts of the world exploded into revolution. Theodore Roosevelt and the United States certainly did not cause this revolutionary outbreak, but in certain cases, for example, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Mexico in 1911-13, the American role was notable and in several instances determinative. In every instance, progressive diplomacy aimed at the creation of opportunity or the maintenance and expansion of opportunity. Roosevelt's plays a delicate game of balance-of-power politics in Asia was not to be confused with a quest for order. Roosevelt saw Great Britain as a natural ally. Common racial destinies seemed to have swept aside, the two nations' differences in the New World and aligned them, along the Open Door principles, against Russia and Germany in Asia.