-
McKinley Tariff
This pre-progressive era tariff set the stage for progressive reforms economically and diplomatically. The McKinley Tariff was the highest tax on foreign imports in American history until the Conservative 1920's adoption of tariffs such as the Fordney McCumber and Hawley Smoot Acts. -
Period: to
Progressive Era
During this time span, presidential powers and the roles of the US government shifted dramatically from the laissez-faire, hands-off policies of the Gilded Age. Government involvement in foreign affairs changed from president to president, but the US remained more active in global politics during this era than much of America's largely isolationist history. -
Foraker Act/Insular Cases/Platt Amendment
These events and acts all dealt with the rights of Caribbean peoples under US protection. For Puerto Ricans, juries reached the verdict that foreign territories were not naturally endowed with the privileges of American citizenship, despite theacquired popular government granted by the Foraker Act. Cuban adoption of the Platt Amendment reaffirmed the US as an international police in America decreed it had a right to intervene militarily in Cuban conflicts. -
Open Door Policy
In East Asia, America also intervened amidst European obstructions of the Chinese free market. Following the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the US called for the disestablishment of Western "Spheres of Influence." -
Roosevelt Corollary
Theodore Roosevelt amended the Monroe Doctrine during his state of the union address to Congress. It established the United States' role as an international police force and claimed to reserve power of intervention within American situations. -
Treaty of Portsmouth
President Theodore Roosevelt's mediating of the treaty and negotiations between warring states Russia and Japan established America as a major global power in global conflicts. -
Period: to
William H. Taft's Dollar Diplomacy
Throughout his presidency, Taft and his cabinet encouraged Wall Street to invest in foreign industries to promote a more globally interdependent economic policy. -
Jones Act/Repeal of the Panama Canal Tolls Act
This act was repealed under Woodrow Wilson's presidency as an anti-imperialist attempt to relinquish control over the taxes for passing trade vessels at the Panama Canal. The Jones Act granted independence to the US territory of the Philippines. -
Mexican Revolution
Wilson ordered a small American armed militia to break up a radical band of Francisco Villa supporters after their campaign of terror and crime in an attempt to provoke an American response to the controversial revolution. -
America enters WWI
Following the unfolding of historic events such as the sinking of the Lusitania and the German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare, the decoding of the Zimmerman Note, and the political uprising known as the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. -
Treaty of Versailles
President Wilson was the first American president to personally attend a foreign negotiation of terms. He mediated important decisions on the fates of Japanese-conquered territories as a member of the "Big Four." However, a newly-elected Conservative majority in congress led to the rejection of American involvement in the Fourteen Point-inspired League of Nations. -
Fourteen Point Plan
In a continuation of Wilson's increased role of foreign intervention, the President proposed his famed plan that outlined the eventual tenets of the Treaty of Versailles. Some of WIlson's points established long lasting or permanent international laws and the final point directly led to the establishment of the League of Nations and contributing to the rise of fascism in a post-war Europe. -
Emergency Quota Act of 1921/Immigration Act of 1924
These acts severely limited the percentage of Southern European immigrants allowed in America. This set the stage for the Conservative isolation of the 1920's. -
Five Power Naval Treaty/Nine Power Treaty
Under Harding's presidency in the 1920's, precautionary restrictions on naval weaponry and size were imposed as well as laws protecting vulnerable nations such as China from further atrocities. -
Dawes Plan
America attempted to help relieve the insufferable inflation crisis in Germany through the issuing of American loans and currency instead of the practically worthless German note. American interdependence on the European economy is emphasized through their willingness to aid these foreign powers to such extent. -
Kellog-Briand Pact
This pact attempted to internationally outlaw offensive warfare. -
Hawley Smoot Tariff Act
This tariff passed under Hoover proved to be a massive cause for the Great depression beginning in 1929. The drastic increase in import taxes for foreign goods led to competitive raising f foreign tariffs and overproduction. -
Period: to
FDR's Good Neighbor Policy
With such actions as the recognition of the Soviet Union as a global power and the recalling of policing forces in foreign states such as Haiti, Roosevelt ushered in a new American diplomatic approach in foreign policy. Instead of resorting immediately to the exercise of superior strength, FDR negotiated with nations such as Mexico after their illegal seizure of American oil fields. -
Period: to
Congressional Neutrality Acts of WWII
Congress, in a desperate attempt to focus on interior reform and economic recovery rather than intertwine the state in yet another global conflict, passed three consecutive acts to proclaim disinterest in foreign conflicts. -
Havana Conference
As yet another expansion of the Monroe Doctrine, this declaration reaffirmed the United States as the protector of Latin America against threats of Axis aggression.
