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145-804: In the history of United States foreign policy , the Roosevelt Corollary was an addition to the Monroe Doctrine articulated by President Theodore Roosevelt in his State of the Union address in 1904, largely as a consequence of the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903 . The corollary states that the United States could intervene in the internal affairs of Latin American countries if they committed flagrant wrongdoings that "loosened

290-629: A Pan-American conference in 1882 to mediate disputes among the Latin American nations and to serve as a forum for talks on increasing trade. At the same time, Blaine hoped to negotiate a peace in the War of the Pacific then being fought by Bolivia , Chile , and Peru . Blaine sought to expand American influence in other areas, calling for renegotiation of the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty to allow

435-684: A Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell. LaFeber was one of the United States' most distinguished scholars of the history of U.S. foreign policy , and a leading member of the "Wisconsin School" of American diplomatic history . He was known for providing widely read revisionist histories of the Cold War with views like William Appleman Williams but more subtle; the label "moderate revisionist" has been applied to him. LaFeber's teaching abilities led to his longstanding undergraduate "History of American Foreign Relations" class at Cornell gaining

580-617: A better world. All this, however, is not to deny that the decisions of these men resulted in many unfortunate consequences for their twentieth-century descendants. LaFeber's publication did meet with some criticism. One later accounting of the Wisconsin School notes that in The New Empire , "LaFeber's arguments were sometimes questionable or overdrawn, and he acknowledged that he had passed by episodes that did not fit his pattern." LaFeber's next work, America, Russia and

725-753: A bitter enemy of Buchanan inside the Democratic Party, worked hard to frustrate Buchanan's foreign-policy. Buchanan tried to purchase Alaska from Russia, possibly as a colony for Mormon settlers, but the U.S. and Russia were unable to agree upon a price. In China, the U.S. did not take direct part in the Second Opium War , but the Buchanan administration did gain trade concessions. The president relied on William Bradford Reed (1806–1876) his Minister to China in 1857–58. A former Whig, Reed had persuaded many old-line Whigs to support Buchanan in

870-451: A canal without the consent and cooperation of the other; neither would fortify or found new colonies in the region; if and when a canal was built, both powers would guarantee that it would be available on a neutral basis for all shipping. However, disagreements arose and no Nicaragua canal was ever started, but the treaty remained in effect until 1901. By 1857–59, London dropped its opposition to American territorial expansion. The opening of

1015-557: A close bond (the four of them would become the core of what became known as the Wisconsin School of diplomatic history). LaFeber was also influenced at Wisconsin by Philip D. Curtin , who developed LaFeber's interest in the British Empire , as well as by the early American scholar Merrill Jensen and the intellectual historian Merle Curti . During his dissertation research at the Library of Congress , LaFeber found himself at

1160-500: A commanding presence in the field of the history of American foreign relations for more than four decades." LaFeber retired in 2006 after 46 years on the Cornell faculty. His farewell lecture on April 25, 2006, billed as "A Special Evening With Cornell's Walter LaFeber: A Half-Century of Friends, Foreign Policy, and Great Losers" was given to a nearly 3,000-person, capacity gathering of former students, Cornell alumni, and colleagues at

1305-526: A commemoration address on the Arts Quadrangle following the September 11, 2001 attacks . His colleague at Cornell, professor and administrator Glenn Altschuler , praised LaFeber's overall contribution to the university, saying "He is Midwestern mensch - the best thing that's happened to Cornell in the last half century." Another colleague, Mary Beth Norton , has said that "No other member of

1450-530: A different course. In 1798, the French demanded American diplomats pay huge bribes in order to meet with Foreign Minister Talleyrand , which the Americans rejected. The Republicans, suspicious of Adams, demanded the documentation, which Adams released using X, Y and Z as codes for the names of the French diplomats. The XYZ Affair ignited a wave of nationalist sentiment. Congress approved Adams' plan to organize

1595-594: A diplomatic solution to get rid of a third-rate dictator that we had created." Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America (1984, revised 1992) received the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award ; in it, LaFeber formulates a variant of dependency theory , called neo-dependency theory, that examines corporate interests as part of explaining the relationships between the countries involved, but still looks at

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1740-413: A diversity of viewpoints. Especially noticeable in this regard were Hadley and other members of " The Vulcans ", an informal name for George W. Bush 's foreign policy advisory team, who gained their passion for foreign affairs from LaFeber. Indeed, LaFeber has said, "I didn't try to instill anything in anybody. I've never cared about having disciples. [Another professor] did, but he was very convinced he

1885-545: A few points on the chalkboard and then talking without notes (lecturing from memory was a technique his mentor Harrington had used). At its peak, the course attracted more than 400 students and lectures were sometimes held in the large Bailey Hall to accommodate them. He spoke softly for whatever room he was in, so as to force students to be absolutely quiet in order to hear him. While other revisionists focused more on ideological or institutional forces, LaFeber made his scholarship and his lectures memorable by stressing

2030-452: A firmer historical grounding. Fremont-Smith praised LaFeber's work for being a "penetrating account" that was especially strong in sorting out the chronology of events and tracing the impact of domestic politics in each of the countries involved. The relationship between the scholarship of LaFeber and William Appleman Williams has been characterized by one later historiographic survey this way: "Williams' best-known student, who has surpassed

2175-551: A foregone conclusion, the political, economic and military climate in the Americas at the beginning of the twentieth century made a declaration from the U.S. vital if they were to become the main police power of the Western hemisphere and ward off European intervention in what they deemed their territory. Critics, such as American professor and linguist Noam Chomsky , lie in-between the positive interpretations and avid opposers of

2320-486: A formal declaration of war was later confirmed by the Supreme Court. Thomas Jefferson envisioned America as the force behind a great "Empire of Liberty", that would promote republicanism and counter the imperialism of Great Britain. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803, made by Jefferson in a $ 15 million deal with Napoleon Bonaparte , doubled the size of the growing nation by adding a huge swath of territory west of

2465-727: A high-priority long-term issue was warships built by British shipyards and outfitted for the Confederacy, especially the CSS Alabama , over vehement protests from American diplomats. After 1865 Washington at the minimum demanded the British to pay for the damages done by the warships known as the Alabama Claims . But the maximum demands were much higher. Powerful Republican Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts argued that British blockade runners were responsible for sustaining

2610-1184: A learning experience that we can probably never adequately describe or praise. In a number of specific instances, like my own, it changed lives." Other future academics have said much the same, including Andrew J. Rotter, and a number of female students inspired by LaFeber later attained success, including Nancy F. Cott , Susan A. Brewer, Lorena Oropeza, and others. Prominent former students of LaFeber in areas outside academia have included: U.S. Representative Thomas Downey , U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley , and Undersecretary of Defense and U.S. Ambassador Eric S. Edelman ; media critic Eric Alterman , businessman Andrew Tisch , Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried , Ambassador and Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield , and U.S. National Security Advisor Sandy Berger ; Ambassador Dwight L. Bush Sr. and Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Derek Chollet ; and Jeffrey P. Bialos, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Industrial Affairs. LaFeber's influential students were found working for both parties in Washington and had

2755-557: A local grocery store; his mother, Helen (Liedecker), was a housewife. LaFeber worked at his father's store from age eight through the end of college. He became a lifelong fan of the Chicago Cubs . At Walkerton High School , the 6-foot-2-inch (1.88 m) LaFeber was a star basketball player. In one game during his senior year for the Indians, he scored 35 points, approaching the single-game record for most points scored in

2900-591: A man of the common people. Yet his decision to take action in Latin America contradicts with the ideas enshrined in international law, which became a target for criticism. History of United States foreign policy From the establishment of the United States after regional, not global, focus, but with the long-term ideal of creating what Jefferson called an "Empire of Liberty." The military and financial alliance with France in 1778, which brought in Spain and

3045-433: A much healthier and attractive possibility, and American businessman Cornelius Vanderbilt gained the necessary permissions, along with a U.S. treaty with Nicaragua. Britain had long dominated Central America, but American influence was growing, and the small countries look to the United States for protection against British imperialism. However the British were determined to block an American canal, and seized key locations on

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3190-626: A part of the transition into the progressive era of American politics, with Roosevelt working towards combining U.S. foreign policy goals with private economic activity abroad, as seen with the SDIC in the Dominican Republic. He also uses the ideas of David Pletcher to back his ideas, showcasing the role that the Roosevelt Corollary played in transforming American foreign policy from the ‘uncertainty’ and ‘improvisation’ seen in

3335-659: A pro-British Indian boundary nation in the Midwest and giving them territorial advantage over the U.S. The British stopped impressing American sailors and trade with France (now an ally of Britain) resumed, so the causes of the war had been cleared away. Especially after the great American victory at the Battle of New Orleans, Americans felt proud and triumphant for having won their "second war of independence." Successful generals Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison became political heroes as well. After 1815 tensions de-escalated along

3480-548: A recent Venezuelan civil war. The dispute was referred to the International Court of Arbitration at Hague, which concluded on 22 February 1904 that the blockading powers involved in the Venezuela crisis were entitled to preferential treatment in the payment of their claims. This left a number of other countries which did not take military action, including the United States, with no recourse. The U.S. disagreed with

3625-487: A reputation as one of the toughest and most popular courses on campus. This was especially so during the turbulent times of the Vietnam War , when students were seeking answers for why their country was involved in that conflict and in other foreign interventions. LaFeber's lectures were considered "events"; classes met Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, with the last of these being in front of even more people than

3770-676: A reputation as one of the university's best and most popular courses. A number of his students went on to prominent positions in the U.S. government and academia. In 2006 LaFeber gave a farewell lecture before nearly 3,000 colleagues and former students at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. LaFeber was born in Walkerton, Indiana , a town of around 2,000 people in the northern part of the state, outside South Bend , on August 30, 1933. His father, Ralph Nichols LaFeber, owned

3915-470: A set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence therefore it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations & collisions of her friendships, or enmities. Our detached & distant situation invites and enables us to pursue

4060-552: A speech on 20 May 1904, and expanded on in Roosevelt’s annual message to congress on 6 December 1904, as seen below: 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. If a nation shows that it knows how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no interference from

4205-536: A treaty still in effect), Washington and his cabinet decided on a policy of neutrality, as enshrined in the Neutrality Act of 1794 . In 1795 Washington supported the Jay Treaty , designed by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to avoid war with Britain and encourage commerce. The Jeffersonians led by Jefferson and James Madison vehemently opposed the treaty, but Washington's support proved decisive, and

4350-399: A university's greatest responsibility was to eradicate racial and other injustices. But LaFeber was one of only a few liberal professors who strongly disagreed with that stance. To LaFeber, academic freedom was paramount; decades later, he reiterated his view: ... what a university is all about is rational discourse. What these people were doing was essentially raping the major principle of

4495-473: A voice during the selection and production of the important Foreign Relations of the United States book series. LaFeber became chair of that committee by 1974, and served on it until 1975. He was selected as a Guggenheim Fellow in 1989. He gave titled lectures at many universities, and made a number of appearances on radio and television. He also served on several scholarly editorial boards, including that of Political Science Quarterly . LaFeber

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4640-605: A war, and decided to sell it to the United States for $ 7.2 million. The bargain was much too good to pass up, especially since it gave the Americans a major presence in the North Pacific and blocked the British from expanding there. Public opinion was generally supportive, despite much humor about the folly of purchasing a giant "Polar bear garden." American soldiers replace the Russians, and the Russian merchants involved in

4785-735: A widely used history of the United States in Chinese. He founded the English-language journal The Chinese Repository in 1832, and it served as a major American source of information on Chinese culture and politics . According to John Pomfret, the American missionaries were crucial to China's development. Along with Western-educated Chinese, they supplied the tools to break the stranglehold of traditional orthodoxy. They taught Western science, critical thinking, sports, industry, and law. They established China's first universities and hospitals. These institutions, though now renamed, are still

4930-626: The 2003 invasion of Iraq would end up poorly, saying that the Bush Administration's foreign policy belief that an invasion would help democracy spread throughout the Middle East "flies in the face of everything we know about Iraqi history." By early 1966 LaFeber was publicly critical of U.S. strategy in the Vietnam War, saying that the country's policy reflected "the dilemma of American liberalism" with policy objectives that were contradictory and paradoxical. In general, LaFeber

5075-634: The American Civil War , and none recognized the Confederacy. That marked a major diplomatic achievement for Secretary Seward and the Lincoln Administration. France, under Napoleon III , had invaded Mexico and installed a puppet regime; it hoped to negate American influence. France therefore encouraged Britain in a policy of mediation suggesting that both would recognize the Confederacy. Washington repeatedly warned that meant war. The British textile industry depended on cotton from

5220-630: The American Historical Association would write of this course that, despite his publishing achievements, "LaFeber might be even more distinguished as a teacher: one for whom the overworked adjective 'legendary' is entirely fitting. Without eyewitnesses, would we trust accounts that his upper-division lecture course regularly drew 300-plus students each Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday? ... Or that he continued running discussion sections and grading papers for that huge class when he could have easily avoided it?" In May 1976, during

5365-420: The Beacon Theatre in New York City. (The event had been moved from the originally scheduled American Museum of Natural History venue due to overwhelming demand for tickets. ) The lecture, which was centered in part around the origins and implications of Wilsonianism , was in his style delivered without notes and once again met with a standing ovation. Hunter Rawlings , the president of Cornell, noted that

5510-627: The Clark Memorandum that repudiated the Roosevelt Corollary in favor of what was later called the Good Neighbor policy . The Roosevelt Corollary was articulated in the aftermath of the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903. In late 1902, Britain, Germany, and Italy imposed a naval blockade of several months against Venezuela after President Cipriano Castro refused to pay foreign debts and damages suffered by European people in

5655-601: The Kingdom of Hawaii , and sponsored a program to bring together all the independent nations of the Western Hemisphere in what became the Pan-American Union . Before 1892 senior diplomats from the United States to other countries, and from them to the U.S., were called " ministers ." In 1892 four major European countries (Britain, France, Germany, and Italy) raised the title of their chief diplomat to

5800-535: The Mississippi River , opening up millions of new farm sites for the yeomen farmers idealized by Jeffersonian Democracy . President Jefferson planned the Embargo Act of 1807 to force Europe to comply. It forbade trade with both France and Britain, but they did not bend. Furthermore, Federalists denounced his policy as partisanship in favor of agrarian interests instead of commercial interests. It

5945-567: The Paraguay expedition . Its successful mission was to punish Paraguay for firing on the USS ; Water Witch which was on a scientific expedition. Paraguay apologized and paid an indemnity. The first American missionary in China was Elijah Coleman Bridgman (1801–61), who arrived in 1830. He soon transcended his prejudices against Chinese "idolatry," learned the Chinese language, and wrote

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6090-597: The Treaty of Ghent in 1815. Militarily it was a stalemate as both sides failed in their invasion attempts, but the Royal Navy blockaded the coastline and shut down American trade (except for smuggling supplies into British Canada). However the British achieved their main goal of defeating Napoleon, while the American armies defeated the Indian alliance that the British had supported, ending the British war goal of establishing

6235-630: The University of Wisconsin . In doing so he followed the advice of one of his college professors and declined an offer from Harvard University , taking advantage of what he later said was "the best professional advice I have ever received." The study of history at Wisconsin had a heritage going back to the time of Frederick Jackson Turner , and the intellectual atmosphere at the school encouraged people to think differently. At Wisconsin, LaFeber, and several future colleagues and co-authors, initially studied with Fred Harvey Harrington . In an era when

6380-465: The blockade runners , spending hundreds of millions of pounds on them. They were staffed by sailors and officers on leave from the Royal Navy. When the U.S. Navy captured one of the fast blockade runners, it sold the ship and cargo as prize money for the American sailors, then released the crew. During the war, British blockade runners delivered the Confederacy 60% of its weapons, 1/3 of the lead for its bullets, 3/4 of ingredients for its powder, and most of

6525-578: The realistic theory of international relations predominated, LaFeber was influenced by Harrington's inductive methodology in seminar teaching, sense of irony, and suggestions that the economic interpretations of Charles A. Beard , whose work by then had largely fallen out of favor, should perhaps not be so overlooked. After Harrington moved into university administration, he replaced himself with William Appleman Williams , for whom LaFeber and fellow students Lloyd C. Gardner and Thomas J. McCormick became teaching assistants and with whom they would strike up

6670-541: The 1856 campaign. The Treaty of Tientsin (1858) granted American diplomats the right to reside in Peking, reduced tariff levels for American goods, and guaranteed the free exercise of religion by foreigners in China. Reed developed some of the roots of the Open Door Policy that came to fruition 40 years later. In 1858, Buchanan was angered by "A most unprovoked, unwarrantable, and dastardly attack" and ordered

6815-491: The Americans shipping grain to Britain while Britain sent manufactured items and munitions. Immigration continued into the United States. British trade with the Confederacy was limited, with a trickle of cotton going to Britain and hundreds of thousands of munitions slipped in by numerous small blockade runners. The Confederate strategy for securing independence was largely based on the hope of military intervention by Britain and France, but Confederate diplomacy proved inept. With

6960-451: The British attack on the American warship Chesapeake in 1807 . In the west, Indians supported and armed by Britain used ambushes and raids to kill settlers, thus delaying the expansion of frontier settlements into the Midwest (Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, especially). In 1812 diplomacy had broken down and the U.S. declared war on Britain. The War of 1812 was marked by very bad planning and military fiascoes on both sides. It ended with

7105-634: The British, he convinced them to agree to cede the Bay Islands to Honduras and the Mosquito Coast to Nicaragua . However, Buchanan's ambitions in Cuba and Mexico were blocked in the House of Representatives where the anti-slavery forces strenuously opposed any move to acquire new slave territory. Buchanan was assisted by his ally Senator John Slidell (D.-Louisiana). But Senator Stephen Douglas ,

7250-672: The Clark Distinguished Teaching Award at Cornell in 1966; the award was created to honor junior faculty members who were involved in the teaching of undergraduates. He attained the rank of full professor in 1967, then was named to the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History chair in 1968. By 1969, The New York Times was characterizing LaFeber as "one of most respected members of the faculty" at Cornell. LaFeber's undergraduate History of American Foreign Relations class achieved

7395-641: The Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, and adopted the rule of neutralization for the Panama Canal which the U.S. built; it opened in 1914. Buchanan had a great deal of experience in foreign policy and entered the White House with an ambitious foreign policy, but he and Secretary of State Lewis Cass had very little success. The primary obstacle was opposition from Congress. His ambitions centered around establishing American hegemony over Central America at

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7540-448: The Cold War, 1945-1966 (1967), would end up going through ten editions (the last, America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-2006 , in 2006), a rarity for a book that is not explicitly a textbook. The book emerged after the initial wave of Cold War revisionist theories had already been published and debated. Eliot Fremont-Smith of The New York Times described it as part of a succeeding wave of books that tried to refine those insights in

7685-524: The Confederate war effort by smuggling weapons into Southern ports, thus prolonging the Civil War by two years. He argued that Britain should pay the entire expense of those two years and the unspoken assumption was that Washington would take parts of Canada in exchange for that debt; British Columbia, Red River (Manitoba), and Nova Scotia seemed possible. London naturally refused. Washington looked

7830-593: The Dominican when they defaulted on payments and European powers threatened to intervene should the U.S. not. In 1905, the U.S. sent in warships and demanded the customs house be turned over to U.S. negotiators, who used proceeds to pay foreign creditors. The case of the Dominican exemplifies the power that the U.S. were able to exert in the Americas as a result of the Roosevelt Corollary, with them taking action to prevent European powers becoming involved in debt collection via their usual methods, such as blockades. It gave

7975-702: The European powers looked again to recolonise in the Western hemisphere, the Roosevelt Corollary nearly a century later looked to once again promote the United States in Central and Latin America. The Corollary contributed the United States’ transition into a great world power after the 1898 Spanish-American War, which largely marked the start of the U.S. expanding its interest in states beyond its own borders, promoting its influence and ideas abroad. By expanding on

8120-521: The Europeans should stay out, but the United States has the right, under the doctrine, to go in to exercise police power to keep the Europeans out of the way. It is a very nice twist on the Monroe Doctrine, and of course, it becomes very, very important because over the next 15 to 20 years, the United States will move into Latin America about a dozen times with military force, to the point where

8265-416: The French made a major effort to build a canal through Panama, but it self-destructed through mismanagement, severe corruption, and especially the deadly disease environment. By the late 1890s Britain saw the need for much improved relations with the United States, and agreed to allow the U.S. to build a canal through either Nicaragua or Panama. The choice was Panama. The Hay–Pauncefote Treaty of 1901 replaced

8410-916: The Hanover College Choir, which provided voices for Sunday morning Presbyterian services and also gave concerts around the state, was co-chair of a "Religion in Life" Week program at the college, and was on the Hanover Board of Student Affairs, which directed extracurricular affairs on campus. He belonged to the Beta Theta Pi social fraternity, the Alpha Phi Gamma national honor society for journalism, and Hanover's own Gamma Sigma Pi honor society for academic performance. He received his BA from there in 1955. LaFeber met Sandra Gould while at Hanover. They married in 1955 and

8555-400: The Mexicans could stabilize themselves. The result was a vast American expansion. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 brought a heavy demand for passage to the gold fields, with the main routes crossing Panama to avoid a very long slow sailing voyage around all of South America. A railroad was built that carried 600,000 despite the dangerous environment in Panama. A canal in Nicaragua was

8700-471: The Mississippi River. Historian Samuel Flagg Bemis was a leading expert on diplomatic history. According to Jerold Combs : American foreign affairs from independence in 1776 to the new Constitution in 1789 were handled under the Articles of Confederation directly by Congress until the new government created a department of foreign affairs and the office of secretary for foreign affairs on January 10, 1781. The cabinet-level Department of Foreign Affairs

8845-416: The Monroe Doctrine sought to bar entry to the European empires, the Roosevelt Corollary arguably indicated the United States' intention to take their place. It could also be pointed out how the corollary violates the principles of self-determination and sovereignty that are noted in the Declaration of Independence. Roosevelt was a figure who embodied many American values: he was a war hero, an individualist, and

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8990-402: The Monroe Doctrine, rather than creating a whole new policy, Roosevelt was able to justify more easily the U.S. exercising “international police power” to put an end to wrongdoing in the Western Hemisphere as a more limited version of Corollary already existed in the Monroe Doctrine, despite the shift from verbal to active intervention in Central and Latin America. Though the Roosevelt Corollary

9135-456: The Monroe Doctrine. Rather, the Roosevelt Corollary was "an entirely new diplomatic tenet that epitomized his 'big stick' approach to foreign policy." Ricard continues that the Corollary shows the United States’ righteous and paternalistic views towards Central and Latin America, which it used to justify its foreign interference and enforcement of economic principles that the U.S. deemed to be secure and right for such states. In other words, while

9280-425: The Mosquito Coast on the Atlantic that blocked it. The Whigs were in charge in Washington and unlike the bellicose Democrats wanted a business-like peaceful solution. The Whigs took a lesson from the British experience monopolizing the chokepoint of Gibraltar, which produced no end of conflicts, wars, and military and naval expenses for the British. The United States decided that a canal should be open and neutral to all

9425-422: The Netherlands to fight the British, turned the American Revolutionary War into a world war in which the British naval and military supremacy was neutralized. The diplomats—especially Franklin , Adams and Jefferson —secured recognition of American independence and large loans to the new national government. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 was highly favorable to the United States which now could expand westward to

9570-404: The New Global Capitalism (1999, revised 2002), which analyzes the rise in popularity of basketball, Michael Jordan , Nike , and cable satellite networks and their relation to, and metaphor for, globalization . Overall, LaFeber's career has been characterized as having "imbibed the Wisconsin lessons of empiricism, criticism, and a suspicion of power." LaFeber became the first recipient of

9715-421: The Presbyterians alone had 383 primary schools with about 15,000 students. Extensive fund-raising and publicity campaigns were held across the U.S. The Catholics in America also supported large mission operations in China. President Woodrow Wilson was in touch with his former Princeton students who were missionaries in China, and he strongly endorsed their work. Every nation was officially neutral throughout

9860-561: The Republicans hated Napoleon, and no longer supported France in its war with Britain. By 1798 French privateers were openly seizing American ships, leading to an undeclared war known as the Quasi-War of 1798–99. It was an undeclared naval conflict with the French First Republic from 1798 to 1800. The French were at war with Great Britain, while the U.S. was neutral. The dispute began due to different interpretations of treaties and escalated when France seized American ships trading with Britain. Diplomatic negotiations failed. Congress reassembled

10005-407: The Roosevelt Corollary. He argues that the Roosevelt Corollary was merely a more explicit imperialist threat, building on the Monroe Doctrine, indicating that the US would not only intervene in defense of South America in the face of European imperialism but also use its muscle to obtain concessions and privileges for American corporations- giving a more balanced view of an advanced Monroe Doctrine that

10150-472: The SDIC defaulted on its payments to European bondholders, the Dominican fell into economic disaster, leading to the U.S. calling for arbitration on the case. The arbitration established a payment schedule from the Dominican to the SDIC, with the U.S. being able to collect the money from the Dominican Republic for the SDIC if it failed to pay- expanding U.S. interests in the Dominican even further. The U.S. did end up having to become involved in debt collection from

10295-530: The Second Cleveland Administration" being accepted, LaFeber received his PhD from Wisconsin in 1959. Cornell University hired LaFeber as an assistant professor in 1959. He became an associate professor in 1963. LaFeber found an engaging environment with a number of other up-and-coming figures in the history and government departments, including Allan Bloom , Theodore J. Lowi , and Joel H. Silbey among others. LaFeber's The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion, 1860–1898 , published in 1963,

10440-634: The South Bend sectional of the Indiana High School Boys Basketball Tournament . He graduated high school in 1951. LaFeber attended Hanover College , a small Presbyterian liberal arts college in the southern part of Indiana. LaFeber played varsity basketball for the Hanover Panthers, as a reserve forward during his sophomore year. He also played some during his junior year. He sang in

10585-545: The South, but it had stocks to keep the mills operating for a year and in any case the industrialists and workers carried little weight in British politics. A war would cut off vital shipments of American food, wreak havoc on the British merchant fleet, and cause the immediate loss of Canada. Britain therefore refused to go along with French schemes. Washington's policy was deficient in 1861 in terms of appealing to European public opinion. Diplomats had to explain that United States

10730-499: The U.S. an advantage as they were able to control the internal situations of countries, including the Dominican, to their benefit, even if this meant European powers waiting longer for their repayments. This model—in which United States advisors worked to stabilize Latin American nations through temporary protectorates, staving off European action—became known as " dollar diplomacy ". The Dominican experiment, like most other "dollar diplomacy" arrangements, proved temporary and untenable, and

10875-542: The U.S. and Britain were on friendly terms for a decade. However the foreign policy dispute polarized Americans and caused the emerge of two rival parties: the Federalists led by Hamilton and the Republicans led by Jefferson and Madison. See First Party System . In his "Farewell Message" that became a foundation of policy President George Washington in 1796 counseled against foreign entanglements: Europe has

11020-535: The U.S.-Canada border, with peaceful trade and generally good relations. Boundary disputes were settled amicably. Both the U.S. and Canada saw a surge in nationalism and national pride after 1815, with the U.S. moving toward greater democracy and the British postponing democracy in Canada. After 1780 The United States opened relations with North African countries, and with the Ottoman Empire . In response to

11165-561: The US to " ambassador "; the US reciprocated in 1893. Walter LaFeber Walter Fredrick LaFeber (August 30, 1933 – March 9, 2021) was an American academic who served as the Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor in the Department of History at Cornell University . Previous to that he served as the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History and

11310-542: The United States Marines become known in the area as "State Department Troops" because they are always moving in to protect State Department interests and State Department policy in the Caribbean. So what Roosevelt does here, by redefining the Monroe Doctrine, turns out to be very historical, and it leads the United States into a period of confrontation with peoples in the Caribbean and Central America, that

11455-595: The United States Navy and authorized force against France in 1798. In February 1799, President Adams declared that he would negotiate peace. However, his own Federalist Party was split between his moderates and Hamilton's high Federalists who wanted to keep fighting. The chances of reaching a peaceful agreement were enhanced by Napoleon's rise to power in France, as he believed the Quasi-War was taking away from

11600-509: The United States launched a larger military intervention in 1916 that lasted to 1924. U.S. Presidents also cited the Roosevelt Corollary as justification for U.S. intervention in Cuba (1906–1909), Nicaragua (1909–1910, 1912–1925 and 1926–1933), Haiti (1915–1934), and the Dominican Republic (1916–1924). Although the main rationale for the corollary was to keep Europe from meddling in the western hemisphere, other intentions were hidden to retain

11745-597: The United States to construct a canal through Panama without British involvement, as well as attempting to reduce British involvement in the strategically located Kingdom of Hawaii . His plans for the United States' involvement in the world stretched even beyond the Western Hemisphere, as he sought commercial treaties with Korea and Madagascar . By 1882, however, a new Secretary was reversing Blaine's Latin American initiatives. Serving again as Secretary of State under Benjamin Harrison , Blaine worked for closer ties with

11890-512: The United States' reputation. Many other benefits such as the acquisition of raw materials and new markets attracted Roosevelt. These gains can be seen in the copious amount of sugar in Cuba or the abundant oil in Nicaragua. In 1928, President Calvin Coolidge issued the Clark Memorandum , often seen as a partial repudiation of the Roosevelt Corollary, which stated that the U.S. did not have

12035-405: The United States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately 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

12180-540: The Venezuelan Crisis and mentalities that existed within the U.S. that shaped the foreign policy of the period. One such mentality was the existence of anti-European sentiment amongst Americans that built during the Venezuelan crisis due to the preferential treatment that the International Court of Arbitration awarded the European powers. This contributed to the domestic political situation in which Roosevelt

12325-416: The Western Hemisphere. His reasons were twofold: firstly, Blaine's wariness of British interference in the Americas was undiminished, and he saw increased trade with Latin America as the best way to keep Britain from dominating the region. Secondly, he believed that by encouraging exports, he could increase American prosperity. President Garfield agreed with his Secretary of State's vision and Blaine called for

12470-412: The Wisconsin School overall, but did praise LaFeber as the best of them, a "sophisticated and urbane historian" who was "not a crude polemicist". Unger found it particularly notable that LaFeber did not vilify the people he identified as being behind much of American foreign policy. Indeed, in the preface to The New Empire , LaFeber writes: Finally, I must add that I have been profoundly impressed with

12615-637: The [20th] century wove a tie between the American church-going public and China that did not exist between the United States and any other country. The number of missionaries increased from 513 in 1890 to more than 2,000 in 1914, and by 1920 there were 8,325 Protestant missionaries in China. In 1927 there were sixteen American universities and colleges, ten professional schools of collegiate rank, four schools of theology, and six schools of medicine. These institutions represented an investment of $ 19 million. By 1920, 265 Christian middle schools existed with an enrollment of 15,213. There were thousands of elementary schools;

12760-607: The announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862, it became a war against slavery that most British supported. A serious diplomatic dispute erupted over the " Trent Affair " in late 1861, when the American navy seized Confederate diplomats from a British ship. Public opinion in the Union called for war against Britain, but Lincoln gave in and sent back the diplomats his Navy had illegally seized. British financiers built and operated most of

12905-636: The annulment of the Platt Amendment by the Treaty of Relations with Cuba in 1934, and the negotiation of compensation for Mexico's nationalization of foreign-owned oil assets in 1938. Indeed, leaving unchallenged the emergence of dictatorships like that of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua, and François Duvalier in Haiti were each considered to be "Frankenstein dictators" due to

13050-520: The arguments against the actions of Perkins. LaFeber publicly announced that he would not return to Cornell if Perkins remained. LaFeber's stance was one of the more influential in leading to Perkins' resignation at the end of the semester. In 1971, LaFeber was named to the American Historical Association's seat on the Department of State Historical Advisory Committee , as part of an effort to give revisionist historians

13195-424: The best of their kind in China. The women missionaries played a special role. They organized moralistic crusades against the traditional customs of female infanticide and foot-binding , helping to accomplish what Pomfret calls "the greatest human rights advances in modern Chinese history." Missionaries used physical education and sports to promote healthy life styles, to overturn class conventions by showing how

13340-405: The cloth for its uniforms; such act lengthened the Civil War by two years and cost 400,000 more lives of soldiers and civilians on both sides. The American diplomatic mission headed by Minister Charles Francis Adams, Sr. proved much more successful than the Confederate missions, which were never officially recognized. Historian Don Doyle has argued that the Union victory had a major impact on

13485-494: The couple had two children. He then went to Stanford University , gaining an MA in 1956. There, he studied under Thomas A. Bailey , and would be influenced by Bailey's lively writing style. Contrary to some later accounts, LaFeber has said he got along well with Bailey. At the time LaFeber was not dissatisfied with U.S. foreign policy, having supported the presidential candidacies of Robert A. Taft in 1952 and Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. At this point LaFeber went to

13630-508: The course of world history. The Union victory energized popular democratic forces. A Confederate victory, on the other hand, would have meant a new birth of slavery, not freedom. Historian Fergus Bordewich, following Doyle, argues that: Secretary of State Seward was an enthusiastic expansionist, but he had minimal support in Congress. In 1867, Russia, fearing a possible war with Great Britain, decided it would quickly lose its Alaska colony in

13775-422: The department has commanded the same respect as Walt in the 35 years I have known him." The devotion of past students towards LaFeber and his course has often been noted; many, regardless of what occupation they went into, have used the word "awe" to describe their recollection of his lectures. Historian and former student Richard H. Immerman has been quoted as saying, "Those of us who took that course enjoyed

13920-604: The disputed area of Texas. That triggered the Mexican–American War , which the Americans won easily. As a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 the U.S. acquired territory that included California, Arizona, and New Mexico, and the Hispanic residents there were given full U.S. citizenship. The British wanted a stable Mexico to block American expansion to the Southwest, but the Americans invaded Mexico before

14065-428: The early twentieth century had become an expression of American exceptionalism, whereby the U.S. had superior virtue and a duty to help ‘lesser’ states in their development. Roosevelt himself showed longer-lasting ideas of the U.S. being the police state for the Western hemisphere than is seen simply in the Venezuelan crisis, with him asserting in his 1901 annual message that international police duty “must be performed for

14210-427: The event evinced an "intellectual passion, a group catharsis of the first order," not by any manifestation of popular culture or the information age, but by nothing more than "a lecture on diplomatic history". In 2013, LaFeber was given an American Historical Association 's 2013 Award for Scholarly Distinction, a lifetime achievement award for what the association said was for being "one of the scholars who re-invented

14355-484: The exercise of an international police power. While the Monroe Doctrine had been verbal and defensive in warning European powers to keep their hands off countries in the Americas, President Roosevelt now changed this into an aggressive military “obligation” of the U.S. to intervene in Latin and Central America to maintain stability in these areas. Where the Monroe Doctrine had been asserted in the early nineteenth century when

14500-670: The expense of Great Britain. He hoped to re-negotiate the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty , which he viewed as a mistake that limited U.S. influence in the region. He also sought to establish American protectorates over the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora , In part as a destination for Mormons. Aware of the decrepit state of the Spanish Empire, he hoped to finally achieve his long-term goal of acquiring Cuba, where slavery still flourished. After long negotiations with

14645-405: The fall but reserving the spring for researching and writing. He began doing less than that in the 1990s, but then was offered the Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor post, which brought him back to teaching. The Tisch position is considered Cornell's highest faculty distinction. In another prominent occasion, Cornell president Hunter Rawlings chose LaFeber to give

14790-631: The fur trade all left. However some Russian Orthodox priests remained as missionaries among the Alaska natives. Alaska attracted almost no attention until the 1890s, when gold was discovered in the neighboring Yukon district of Canada, and the easiest way for miners to get there was through Alaska. In addition gold was found in Alaska itself. Relations with Britain (and its Canadian colonies) were tense. British officials were negligent in allowing Confederates to raid Vermont in November 1864 . For Washington,

14935-620: The history of Panama–United States relations and with helping the United States Senate decide to ratify the Panama Canal Treaty . A revised edition in 1990 was critical of U.S. policy since then. In the wake of the United States invasion of Panama in 1989, LaFeber appeared on television frequently as an expert, and in an interview at the time, said the invasion was "an admission of failure to work out

15080-481: The intervention of Soviet communism in Guatemala . This was used to justify Operation PBSuccess that deposed the democratically elected president Jacobo Árbenz and installed the military regime of Carlos Castillo Armas , the first in a series of military dictators in the country. Historians Cyrus Veeser and Matthias Maass present a positive view of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. Veeser sees it as

15225-435: The late nineteenth century to the ‘executive-driven, interventionist strategies’ of the early twentieth century. This shift aided the U.S. in their goal for becoming a global power. Maass is equally complimentary of the role played by the Roosevelt Corollary, which he sees as being an updated version of the Monroe Doctrine suited to the modern circumstances of global imperialism. Although he acknowledges that it wasn’t necessarily

15370-555: The locals. That made it wise to unify the separate Canadian colonies into a self-governing confederation named the Dominion of Canada. Negotiations for the Alabama Claims dragged on for years until Hamilton Fish became Secretary of State under President Ulysses S. Grant in 1869. Fish ranks with Webster as the leading American diplomat of the 19th century, and he worked out an amicable solution with Britain. The controversy

15515-584: The main war against Britain. The Quasi-War came to an end with the signing of the Convention of 1800 in September, but news of the peace only arrived after Adams lost the 1800 election to the Republicans. Despite opposition from high Federalists, Adams was able to get the convention ratified by the Senate in the lame-duck session of Congress. He then disbanded the emergency army, which he had never used. The ability of Congress to authorize military action without

15660-804: The master in the quantity and quality of his historical output while continuing to promote the line of interpretation laid down by Williams, is Walter LaFeber." However, not all have agreed; a broadside against Cold War revisionists was published by historian Robert H. Ferrell in 2006, who criticized their reliance on a monocausal theory. In particular he charged LaFeber with overusing the papers of Bernard Baruch , whom Ferrell said lacked real influence in determining American foreign policy. LaFeber's later scholarly works received praise within academic and other circles. His 1978 work, The Panama Canal: The Crisis in Historical Perspective , has been attributed with influence over elite opinion regarding

15805-683: The mishandlings of the American occupations in the countries. The era of the Good Neighbor policy ended with the start of the Cold War in 1945, as the United States felt there was a greater need to protect the Western Hemisphere from Soviet influence. In 1954, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles invoked the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary at the Tenth Pan-American Conference in Caracas , denouncing

15950-553: The navy. American public opinion swung against France, encouraging the Federalists to attempt to suppress Jefferson's Republican Party. Adams reluctantly signed the Alien and Sedition Acts designed to weaken the Republicans. However Adams broke with the Hamiltonian wing of his Federalist Party and made peace with France in 1800. The Federalist party now split, and was unable to reelect Adams in 1800; it never regained power. However,

16095-418: The new independence of Spanish colonies in Latin America in 1821, the United States, in cooperation with Great Britain, established the Monroe Doctrine in 1823. This policy declared opposition to European interference in the Americas and left a lasting imprint on the psyche of later American leaders. The failure of Spain to colonize or police Florida led to its purchase by the U.S. in 1821. John Quincy Adams

16240-658: The nineteenth century through the 1990s. While a New York Times review called it a "dense chronological account...not for the fainthearted," The Clash received both the prestigious Bancroft Prize in American History and the Ellis W. Hawley Prize of the Organization of American Historians . LaFeber then shifted focus and returned to his youthful interest in basketball, examining the effect of modern sports and communication empires in his book, Michael Jordan and

16385-551: The other way when Irish activists known as Fenians tried and failed in a small invasion of Canada in 1866 and 1870-1871 . Canada could never be defended so the British decided to cut their losses and eliminate the risk of a conflict with the U.S. The first ministry of William Gladstone withdrew from all its historic military and political responsibilities in North America. It brought home its troops (keeping Halifax as an Atlantic naval base), and turned responsibility over to

16530-452: The outcome in principle and President Theodore Roosevelt saw the need to take action politically. The Corollary went towards ensuring that U.S. interests abroad were protected from, in future, European powers using this ruling at Hague as justification for military action and/or occupation in Central and Latin America. There were many contributing factors to the assertion of the Roosevelt Corollary in 1904, including both physical events such as

16675-468: The poor could excel, and by expanding gender roles using women's sports . During the Boxer Rebellion of 1899–1901, Christian missions were burned, thousands of converts were executed, and the American missionaries barely escaped with their lives. Paul Varg argues that American missionaries worked very hard on changing China: The growth of the missionary movement in the first decades of

16820-468: The right to intervene when there was a threat by European powers. Herbert Hoover also helped to move the U.S. away from the imperialist tendencies of the Roosevelt Corollary by going on good-will tours, withdrawing troops from Nicaragua and Haiti, and abstaining from intervening in the internal affairs of neighboring countries. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt further renounced interventionism and established his " Good Neighbor policy " that led to

16965-455: The role of U.S. government policy and other factors as well. The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad Since 1750 (1989, revised 1994) encompasses some of what was in LaFeber's famous course. In The Clash: U.S.-Japanese Relations Throughout History (1997), LaFeber turned toward East Asia, surveying the breadth of the American engagement and conflict with Japan from

17110-518: The role of individuals, from his narrative hero John Quincy Adams to a few Cornell-related figures such as Willard Straight . Throughout his career LaFeber was concerned with teaching students critical thinking skills in historical analysis rather than gaining converts to his viewpoint, and accordingly even those who did not always agree with the markets-oriented interpretations advanced in his lectures still found them compelling. LaFeber's classes typically ended to pronounced ovations. In 2013,

17255-441: The sake of the welfare of mankind”. Therefore, the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary was largely shaped and created due to the ruling of the Venezuelan Crisis of 1902-03, but there were still underlying and previously seen ideas and domestic mentalities that contributed to its form. The Roosevelt Corollary, or the ideas it contained regarding the U.S. becoming the policeman of the Western hemisphere, were first articulated by Secretary Root in

17400-473: The same table as historian Ernest R. May of Harvard, with both working on the same period but with very different interpretations of it. The more established May helpfully supplied LaFeber with documents he had found, which LaFeber took as an object lesson on how two fair-minded scholars can reach differing conclusions from the same sources. With his dissertation titled "The Latin American Policy of

17545-491: The similarities of Cornell founders Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White to the founders of the nation , saying they shared a common passion in the belief of the power of ideas, but stressed that Cornell and White were part of the expanding of human rights to groups the founders had excluded, thus leading the university to take on the role of "midwife when revolutionary ideas enter an un-revolutionary society." LaFeber switched to half-time teaching in 1989, giving classes in

17690-409: The statesmen of these decades. ... I found both the policy makers and the businessmen of this era to be responsible, conscientious men who accepted the economic and social realities of their day, understood domestic and foreign problems, debated issues vigorously, and especially were unafraid to strike out on new and uncharted paths in order to create what they sincerely hoped would be a better nation and

17835-453: The study of American foreign relations in the 1960s: not only transforming many specific debates, but lastingly changing our sense of what this field could be. ... An exceptionally visible and valuable public intellectual, Professor LaFeber has managed to reach broad audiences without sacrificing academic rigor." The influence of LaFeber was again a topic in 2016 at Zankel Hall in New York City, when he and several prominent students discussed

17980-424: The ties of civilized society". Roosevelt tied his policy to the Monroe Doctrine, and it was also consistent with his foreign policy included in his Big Stick Diplomacy . Roosevelt stated that in keeping with the Monroe Doctrine, the United States was justified in exercising "international police power" to put an end to chronic unrest or wrongdoing in the Western Hemisphere. President Herbert Hoover in 1930 endorsed

18125-467: The transcontinental railroad in 1869 made travel to California very fast, cheap and safe. It took six days from Chicago instead of six months. Americans lost interest in canals and focused their attention on building long-distance railways. The British, meanwhile, turned their attention to the Suez Canal for fast access to India. London maintained a veto on American canal building in Nicaragua. In 1890s,

18270-464: The university always has to be open and it cannot be compromised." Following the actions on campus, in which the university president, James Alfred Perkins , agreed to some of the students' demands as they departed the Straight, LaFeber resigned his position as chair of the history department. On a trip to New York City with a few other professors to meet with university trustees, LaFeber marshalled

18415-425: The university. Once you introduce any kind of element of force into the university, you compromise the institution. To me, that is totally unforgivable. ... We have to make a distinction between procedure and politics. What I am talking about is procedure. I'm a relativist in terms of object and conclusion. I don't think I am necessarily right. What I am absolutist about is the procedure you use to get there. Which means

18560-495: The weekday ones, because students brought their friends to listen. Even students who never took the course or went to a lecture were aware of its existence and renown. LaFeber, who was known for being "old school" in his appearance and demeanor, always wearing a coat and tie to class, was lauded by Cornell's in-house newspaper for his simplistic approach to presentation, with a style that has been characterized as "anti-razzle-dazzle". He began classes by writing an outline of only

18705-464: The world's traffic, and not be militarized. Tensions escalated locally, with small-scale physical confrontations in the field. In the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty of 1850 Washington and London found a diplomatic solution. To avert an escalating clash it focused on a Nicaragua Canal that would connect the Pacific and the Atlantic. The three main treaty provisions stated that neither nation would build such

18850-509: The wrong direction." But the occupation of Willard Straight Hall by African American students, who eventually became armed, as well as some other physical and verbal threats made against university officials and faculty at the time, greatly dismayed him. Many of the younger and more progressive faculty members on campus supported the actions of the campus Afro-American Society and considered that traditional notions of academic freedom were secondary to larger questions of human rights and that

18995-584: The year of the United States Bicentennial , Cornell University broke with an over-100-year-old tradition: Instead of the university president or another administrator delivering the commencement address, LaFeber became the first faculty member to give it. Cornell president Dale R. Corson later explained the reason: "It was the bicentennial. I felt that something significant should be said by someone who could say it with authority." In his address at Schoellkopf Field , LaFeber highlighted

19140-471: Was "absolutely gleeful in pronouncing the American debacle as proof that the entire experiment in popular government had failed. European government leaders welcomed the fragmentation of the ascendant American Republic." Elite opinion in Britain tended to favor the Confederacy , while public opinion tended to favor the United States. Large-scale trade continued in both directions with the United States, with

19285-533: Was Secretary of State under President Monroe. In 1846 after an intense political debate in which the expansionist Democrats prevailed over the Whigs, the U.S. annexed the Republic of Texas. Mexico never recognized that Texas had achieved independence and promised war should the U.S. annex it. President James K. Polk peacefully resolved a border dispute with Britain regarding Oregon, then sent U.S. Army patrols into

19430-567: Was a greatly expanded revision of his dissertation. It received the Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association ; in fact the award was given based on the book having been read in manuscript form before publication. The work established LaFeber as a prominent scholar, and has remained a popular choice in academic circles for several decades. Historian Irwin Unger , writing in 1967, did not find much to like of Williams or

19575-432: Was able to benefit the U.S. in their hemisphere. There are obvious differences between the Monroe Doctrine, which focused on defence of the Americas, and the Roosevelt Corollary that asserted U.S. power and ensured they were able to advance their own goals for U.S. gain. Frenchman Serge Ricard of the University of Paris argues that these differences are significant and that the Roosevelt Corollary did not simply escalate

19720-436: Was an addition to the Monroe Doctrine, it could also be seen as a departure. While the Monroe Doctrine said European countries should stay out of Latin America, the Roosevelt Corollary took this further to say the United States had the right to exercise military force in Latin American countries to keep European countries out. Historian Walter LaFeber wrote: [Roosevelt] essentially turns the Monroe Doctrine on its head and says

19865-540: Was an imperative part of American imperialism. U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic is generally seen as the first true use of the Roosevelt Corollary. The case in the Dominican arose due to the San Domingo Improvement Company (SDIC), a New York company, taking over the Dominican’s finances in 1893. This brought the interests of the U.S. and Dominican closer together and so, when in 1897

20010-610: Was created in 1789 by the First Congress. It was soon renamed the Department of State and changed the title of secretary for foreign affairs to Secretary of State; Thomas Jefferson returned from France to take the position. His rival Alexander Hamilton often won Washington's support and outmanoeuvred Jefferson in setting foreign policy. When the French Revolution led to war in 1793 between Britain (America's leading trading partner), and France (the old ally, with

20155-535: Was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . LaFeber served as president in 1999 of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations . LaFeber's career as a scholar, teacher, and public figure was celebrated with a Festschrift -like issue in the journal Diplomatic History in 2004. The editor-in-chief of the journal wrote in an introductory note that "Professor LaFeber has been

20300-470: Was highly unpopular in New England, which began smuggling operations, and proved ineffective in stopping bad treatment from British warships. The Jeffersonians deeply distrusted the British in the first place, but the British shut down most American trade with France, and impressed into the Royal Navy about 6000 sailors on American ships who claimed American citizenship. American honor was humiliated by

20445-409: Was in sympathy with many of the student causes of the 1960s, including opposition to the war, the quest for racial justice, and the desire for a political system that better represented democratic ideals. He later said that "academic freedom means the freedom, indeed means the requirement (otherwise what is tenure for?) to criticize American society when evidence accumulates that society has gone off in

20590-447: Was not committed to the ending of slavery, but instead they repeated legalistic arguments about the unconstitutionality of secession. Confederate spokesman, on the other hand, were much more successful by ignoring slavery and instead focusing on their struggle for liberty, their commitment to free trade, and the essential role of cotton in the European economy. In addition, the European aristocracy (the dominant factor in every major country)

20735-494: Was peacefully resolved in 1872 by an international arbitration tribunal, in which the U.S. received $ 15.5 million from Britain for damages caused by British-built Confederate warships. James G. Blaine , a leading Republican (and its losing candidate for president in 1884) was a highly innovative Secretary of State in the 1880s. By 1881, Blaine had completely abandoned his high-tariff Protectionism and used his position as Secretary of State to promote freer trade, especially within

20880-492: Was right. I'm often not." To LaFeber, the most important thing was not necessarily the conclusions one drew from history, but the importance of studying it. Alterman has said, "To me, Walter represents the ur-notion of what it means to be a disinterested scholar. There's a willingness to follow the scholarship wherever it leads, even if it's in politically inconvenient directions." Nonetheless, LaFeber has sometimes stated his views quite publicly, especially his prediction that

21025-421: Was shaping his Corollary- making the introduction of the corollary harder to sell to the American public, especially as few people had any true understanding of the importance of America in international affairs. Even the long-existing concept of Manifest Destiny , which was commonly used during the expansion of the United States’ western frontier, came into play to build the Roosevelt Corollary. Manifest Destiny by

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