Chapter Overview

The construction of the Panama Canal was emblematic of the rise of America to increasingly nationalistic and interventionist power. European diplomats believed they could maintain global order by dividing the world into spheres of influence and creating a series of political alliances. They were wrong. Europe's Old World order collapsed in a terrible war.

Progressive Diplomacy

Progressive diplomacy, like progressive politics, stressed moralism and order and stretched executive power to new limits. It was driven by a sense of global destiny, a commitment to civilizing "lesser" peoples, and economic expansionism. In the Caribbean, Theodore Roosevelt tried to promote stable governments that would be fiscally responsible and resist European influence. His "Roosevelt Corollary" (1905) to the Monroe Doctrine proclaimed the right of the United States to intervene in Latin American countries.

In distant Asia he exercised ingenuity rather than force, seeking to counterbalance Russian and Japanese ambitions in the Far East while maintaining the "open door" in China and protecting the Philippines. His core strategy included an enthusiastic nationalism that could preserve world order.

In response to American economic expansion, President Taft attempted to substitute "dollar diplomacy" for "dollars for bullets." Unsuccessful in China, the Taft-Knox policies did help American capital to penetrate Latin America.

Woodrow Wilson and Moral Diplomacy

Woodrow Wilson brought a commitment to freedom, democracy, Christian values, and international harmony. He believed in an American mission to spread democracy and capitalism to promote stability and progress (and American markets) in the world.

Like Roosevelt and Taft, Wilson faced the near impossibility of grafting American-style democracy and capitalism onto foreign countries with their own traditions. Wilson's missionary diplomacy, like Roosevelt's big stick diplomacy and Taft's dollar diplomacy before it, found the world hard to shape to an American blueprint.

The Road to War

The outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914 shocked America. Wilson proclaimed a policy of neutrality. By standing above the fray, he believed the United States could lead the world to a higher peace of international cooperation and collective security. But his natural sympathies lay with the British. Their command of the high seas soon undercut American neutrality, which in practice favored Britain and the rest of the Allied Powers. In desperation, Germany launched a vicious submarine assault on Allied and neutral shipping that brought the United States into the war in 1917.

War and Society

American society organized for war in peculiarly progressive ways: fielding an army by democratic conscription, mobilizing the economy with centralized executive agencies, propagandizing the war by using modern techniques of advertising. The result was a deepening partnership between centralized government and business. Large migrations of Latinos and African-Americans reshaped the nation's cities and deepened tensions.

The conservative side of progressivism also flourished. It saw the draft as enforced democratization. Its faith in education led to soldier training programs in hygiene, literacy, and Americanization, as well as experiments with IQ tests. Its penchant for assimilation became a frenzy for loyalty and conformity, leading to court-sanctioned infringement of civil liberties.

Overseas, the arrival of the American Expeditionary Force helped to break the European stalemate. Victory, negotiated on the basis of Wilson's 14-point peace plan, gave him the chance to put his progressive ideals into practice.

The Lost Peace

At the Paris peace conference Wilson fought,with mixed results,for a new world order based on harmony, cooperation, democracy, and self-determination. He achieved his greatest success in winning acceptance of the League of Nations, which he believed could correct the mistakes made at the conference and ensure peace for the future.

Returning home, he found his hopes and his treaty dashed in the Senate, where his own refusal to compromise combined with Republican hostility to ensure defeat. Meanwhile, riots, strikes, and a "Red Scare" left the country reeling, disillusioned, and tired of idealistic crusades.