American Open-Door Policy and Imperialism - Essay Example

Mid Term Examination American open door policy and imperialism In the tragedy of American diplomacy, Appleman Williamsimplies that the United States of America through its foreign policy has acted as the world’s big brother. As such, the United States through its foreign policy championed for democracy, improving living standards of people across the globe, correction of what it deemed to be wrong, national security and promotion of human rights. However, Williams argues that through this foreign policy, the United States has imposed open door imperialism over the world. In light of this, the paper will evaluate and support Williams’s stance that the United States is furthering its interests via its foreign policy. The paper will incorporate historical evidence to support this stance. Open door imperialism can be basically defined as the act of powerful nations controlling the lesser powerful nation in the world so as to primarily safeguard the powerful nations’ interests. America being the world’s superpower has applied the open door imperialism to most parts of the world where it can reach. Its military is crucial to the United States spreading open door imperialism. The Monroe doctrine was the first step towards American open door imperialism. The doctrine implied that the United States would consider any acts by European states to interfere or colonize lands in north and South America as aggression towards the USA. Also, the act stated that America in return would not interfere with the internal running or colonies of European nations. The Monroe doctrine subsequently became a defining element of the USA foreign policy. Later, the doctrine would be relied upon and invoked by various USA presidents such as Ronald Reagan, John F Kennedy, and Theodore Roosevelt. Contained in the doctrine are two significant themes of manifest destiny and exceptionalism. These two themes refer to the power and right of America to interfere, correct or, exert its power and influence across the globe. This doctrine was therefore used by the United States in several instances to justify USA intervention abroad throught most of the 19th century. For instance, the USA was involved in the Hawaii annexation and the Spanish American war (McCormick, 1963). The Monroe doctrine consequently came to basically define the United States’ control sphere that very few countries dared or dare to challenge. Its definition expanded greatly as the United States gained more power. America enacted the big brother policy in the early 1880s with a major aim of rallying Latin American countries behind it. Additionally, this policy saw that these countries opened markets for USA traders. During the 1904 Venezuela crisis, President Roosevelt came up with the Roosevelt corollary which stated or gave America the right to intervene if any Latin America state did any chronic or flagrant wrongdoing. However, most critics argued that this policy simply asserted American domination in Latin America. Since 1897, the United States productive capacity outstripped the consumption ability of its population. This forced the American government to take active and relevant measures to look or find new outlets for its products and businesses. For instance, corporate or business leaders urged the USA government to expand its foreign trade. Thus the state department in 1898 stated that the world’s trade must and will be controlled by the United States. Mckinley who was then the Ohio governor came with an amalgamation of protective reciprocity treaties and tariffs to open outside markets to USA surplus output with the government’s help. Roosevelt and McKinley’s imperialism and the Spanish American war became outgrowths of this drastic orientation (Campbell 92). Nevertheless, these were not the obvious or only form of policy used by America to secure foreign markets for its surplus products. The open door imperialism of the United States used America’s political power and influence to get access to foreign resources and markets on conditions which were mainly favorable to USA interests (Rosen 153). The central aim of the open door imperialism was for America to gain access to national markets. Also, getting access to other countries’ national markets entailed the breaking down of the laid down structures of that nation. In a lot of cases, the USA treated any country that seemed to take away a major business area from its reach as being hostile. When the nation taking away us markets was a strong and powerful one like Britain, the USA would take a cool approach and try to solve the issue. However, if the state was deemed inferior, the USA government would take a more forceful approach like it did with japan. The third world countries specifically are being subordinated to the USA. The USA controls these countries through the use of concepts like improvement of living standards or through human rights advocacy. The United States of America took over the Philippines so as to increase its control over the East Asian trade in 1898. During this era, the partition of japan and china by European powers posed a risk to USA interests in the region (Israel 87). The partitioning of the two countries would lock out America from trading with chins. Fearing this, john hay who was then the us secretary of state sent notes to Germany, France, Italy, Britain, Russia and japan requiring them to uphold Chinese administrative and territorial integrity . Thus, they would let the USA use the treaty ports without any intervention. Therefore, the United States uses the pretext of championing for human rights and improving the living standards of people across the world to extend its open door imperialism across the world. 1. The United States had always viewed the Soviet Union as a threat. In fact, the United States had even tried to destroy the Soviet Union prior to 1945. Between 1945 to 1962, the United States of America took relevant and appropriate measures to contain and subsequently weaken the Soviet Union’s expansion and nuclear program. Therefore, this part will analyze how the United States of America contained and weakened the expansion and strength of the Soviet Union The USSR’s threat was an ideological and political one but not a military threat. America’s concern with fascism was replaced with the USA’s concern with communism in the post WWII period. The USA viewed the Soviet Union as an expansionist power which aimed at conquering and spreading its tentacles across the world. As such, the United States decided to form an inter-American system that it would use to combat the spread of communism. In the Monroe doctrine, the element of communism replaced the monarchy concept. Hence, the United States used this infinitely elastic policy/ doctrine to further its interests or to combat the rise of the Soviet Union. The Chapultepec act of 1945 which was basically signed by a lot or most nations required the nations to respond collectively in case any country in the hemisphere was attacked by an additional continental power. Furthermore, the inter-American defence board was formed majorly to standardize the organization, weapons, and training of Latin America militaries. The USA now controlled most of the Latin American nations. Moreover, the inter-American treaty on reciprocal assistance which was formulated in 1947 implied that all states under the treaty would aid each other in case any of them was attacked. The United States viewed this treaty as an anti-communist treaty that would be used to weaken the Soviet Union’s influence in the internal operations of Latin American nations. The cold war was characterized by the Soviet Union consolidating its control over nations in the eastern bloc while the USA commenced a worldwide strategy to weaken the Soviet Union’s power (LaFeber 76). The USA did this by for instance extending financial and military aid to Western Europe nations. The victory of the Soviet Union leaning side during the Chinese civil war expanded the conflict between the USA and the Soviet Union. This increased competition for south east and Middle East Asia and Latin America. the national security act passed by congress in 1947 led to the formation of the CIA and national Security Council which all targeted the spread of communism. In 1954, the USA conspired with Castillo Armas to topple the government of Guatemala which was democratically elected. The USA blamed the Guatemalan leadership of being too soft towards the communists. After Castillo took over, he automatically outlawed communism in Guatemala. The USA’s intervention in Guatemala led to the death of more than 200 000 anti-communist people. The overthrow of a democratically left leaning Guatemalan government sent clear signals to Cuba that the USA would not hesitate to intervene if the Cuban leadership supported communism. Fearing the USA overthrow, Castro requested the Soviet Union to set up missiles in Cuba as an anti-American measure. This action led to the 1962 missile crisis. The nuclear race was characterized by both the USA and the Soviet Union increasing their weapon stock piles (Fleming 25). Both countries competed in building more and more nuclear weapons. Also, both countries believed that having nuclear weapons would discourage the other country form going to war. This belief is commonly referred to as nuclear deterrence. The United States took several measures and consequently adopted policies that would enable it to counter soviet influence. Some of these policies include the redefinition of the Monroe doctrine which subsequently outlawed communism in the western world. The doctrine termed communism as an alien and foreign ideology. Secondly, America supported groups which tended to favor USA interests even though the groups were not aimed at improving democracy. Thirdly, America advocated for the need for collective action against the Soviet Union. Additionally, the USA had the right to intervene in any state unilaterally if it deemed that the state was adopting communism policies. Works Cited Campbell, Alexander Elmslie, ed. Expansion and imperialism. Harper & Row, 1970. Fleming, Denna Frank. The Cold War and Its Origins: 1917-1960. 1950-1960. Vol. 2. Doubleday, 1961.Print. Israel, Jerry. Progressivism and the Open Door: America and China, 1905–1921. University of Pittsburgh Pre, 1971. Print. LaFeber, Walter. America, Russia, and the cold war, 1945-1996. McGraw-Hill, 1997. Print. McCormick, Thomas. "Insular Imperialism and the Open Door: The China Market and the Spanish-American War." The Pacific Historical Review (1963): 155-169. Print. Rosen, Steven J. "The open door imperative and US foreign policy." Testing Theories of Economic Imperialism (1974): 117-142. Print. Read More