World Affairs

Evaluate Theodore Roosevelt's legacy in foreign affairs with these selections from Ken Burns' The Roosevelts. Students will analyze U.S. intervention in Cuba, Panama, the Russo-Japanese War, and WWI. In the activity that follows, students are tasked with conducting research and then engaging in a Socratic Seminar to answer the question: “To what extent did Theodore Roosevelt’s record on foreign policy mar or enhance his record as US president?”   Learning Objectives: Determine what aspects of Roosevelt's background contributed to his feelings about U.S. foreign policy. Analyze Roosevelt's motivations in pushing the United States to intervene around the globe. Analyze the US Constitution as it pertains to the powers of the president to formulate and implement foreign policy. Establish criteria by which to judge the performance of a president’s record in foreign affairs and apply those criteria. Evaluate Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy using primary and secondary sources according to the criteria they establish. Opening Activity: Developing Supporting Questions to Debate TR’s Foreign Policy Record Distribute Handout: “Developing Criteria by which to Judge a President’s Record in Foreign Affairs.” Students may complete the handout as homework, and then share with the whole class and reach a consensus as a class. Review results on Part 1. According to the Constitution Article II, Sections 2 and 3, the president is commander in chief of the armed forces; may submit treaties to the Senate for ratification (by a two-thirds majority); may appoint ambassadors and cabinet ministers such as the secretary of state subject to the approval of the Senate; and may receive foreign ambassadors. (Note that Article I, Section 8, gives Congress, not the president, the power to declare war.)

Theodore Roosevelt long held that the United States' bid to become a world power would depend upon the goverment's commitment to building a strong navy. When William McKinley became president in 1897, Roosevelt lobbied to be appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy. When the U.S. battleship Maine was blown up in Havana, Roosevelt seized the opportunity to put the American Navy to the test.

After the Spanish-American War in 1898, American territory extended further into both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, making it increasingly important to build a canal that would bridge the two seas. The French, who had successfully overseen the construction of the Suez Canal in 1869, had tried and failed to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama - at that time part of Colombia. Once he became president, Roosevelt acted quickly to establish plans to build the canal. In 1902, the U.S. reached an agreement to buy rights to the French canal property and equipment. Next, the U.S. then began negotiating a Panama treaty with Colombia.

In 1905, Theodore Roosevelt established the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The Corollary stated that the U.S. could intervene in the affairs of an American republic threatened with seizure or intervention by a European country. Roosevelt's view on what makes a "civilized nation" greatly influenced his foreign policy. Roosevelt argued that it was the responsibility of civilized nations, mostly industrial and white, to govern the uncivilized nations that produced raw materials and were "incapable" of governing themselves. Roosevelt's "big stick diplomacy" signified that the U.S. would negotiate peacefully but maintain strength to exert when needed.

Theodore Roosevelt is revered for his conflict resolution skills. No incident exemplifies these skills more than his settling of the Portsmouth Treaty during the Russo-Japanese War over Manchuria and Korea, for which Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. He was the first American to be awarded any Nobel Prize.

When the United States declared war on Spain in 1898, Theodore Roosevelt saw it as an opportunity to test U.S. might, as well as his own. At age 39, he left his wife and children to recruit and lead an all-volunteer cavalry division known as the Rough Riders. Theodore Roosevelt leds the Rough Riders in the 1898 Spanish-American War.