Explain Roosevelt's Big Stick Policy

Explain Roosevelt's Corollary.

Compare the Monroe Doctrine (refer back to the Conflict between England and France lesson to brush up on Monroe Doctrine) and Roosevelt's Corollary. How are they similar? Explain how the Roosevelt Corollary took the Monroe Doctrine and added on to it OR extended it.

If you were an American in 1901, would you have supported Roosevelt's Corollary? Support your view using two forms of evidence from the lesson.

If you were a Cuban in 1901, how would you have viewed Roosevelt's Corollary or American Imperialism? Would you think American intervention was fair or necessary? Support your view using two forms of evidence from the lesson.

Big Stick policy was President Rosevelt's mechanism to handle foreign policy. He aimed to think carefully before, but to exercise sudden and relentless action, before any kind of crisis could emerge.

Roosevelt's corollary was an extension of the prior Monroe doctrine, and desgined after the Venezuelan crisis of 1902-1903. It stated that the US would intervene in Latin American countries that were under its influence, to ensure that the rights of US citizens and enterprises were guaranteed there. In such cases the US would intervene to restore the lost rights, exercising the so-called new imperalism. Of course, this was embodied in the big stick diplomacy.

In turn, the previous Monroe Doctrine firmly stated the opposition to European imperalism in the whole American continent since 1823. Any act commited by a European country, which reflected an intention of controlling a state both in North or South America, would be considered a direct offence against the US, and the corresponding retaliation would be executed.

If I were an American at the time of Roosevelt's Corollary I would have probably supported it, as it brought entrepeneurship opportunities for US citizens in Latin American countries, under the protection of the US government. On the other hand, if I was a Cuban in 1900s I would not have supported it, as that corollary meant that most of the power in some Latin American countries started to be controlled by the US, instead of emerging from the citizens of the country and being exercised by the representatives they had voted through suffrage. It meant a new, more tacit form of imperialism which made the US hypocrite.