strip of land (as opposed to six in the Hay-Herran Treaty) for the same quantity of money that Hay had offered Columbia.Roosevelt knew the United States had to be a world power, and the only way to achieve this goal was to take reigns of the continent on which America was situated. He proved this point with the Venezuelan debt crisis. Venezuela, at the time, had a dictator in charge that refused to pay off debts to the European countries that were owed. The two countries were Britain and Germany; Britain complied with America in backing off Venezuela. Germany, though, did not; they went into Venezuela and stop the blockade the Venezuelan Navy had put up. After threatening Germany with sending some of the great white fleet in there and breaking it up, they did. This set up the foreign policy that Roosevelt called the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. When McKinley was assassinated, he went on to say, "If the American nation will speak softly and yet build and keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far"(LaFeber 188). The Roosevelt Corollary was born. He went on to say this, "The United States only wanted 'the other republics on this continent' to be 'happy and prosperous'"(LaFeber 198). This idea that Roosevelt was made up of making America the mediator of the North and South American continents. The idea was also that no European country could take advantage of a debt ridden Latin American country.The Open Door Policy in China was another feat in foreign affairs. At this time, China was a relatively weak country and was plagued by Russia and Germany trying to control the country and its trade (Lowman 460). This is what called John Hay to declare the open door policy, which made all of the powers in China give China an open door for trade.William Howard Taft was considered by most as a very lethargic President. In his foreign affairs he didn't do much to re...
