Presidential Biographies | Wilson Administrations - Foreign Issues

Foreign Issues

The end of the nineteenth century saw fundamental changes in the role of the United States in world politics. The crushing defeat of the (already much weakened) European power of Spain in the Spanish-American War (1898) impressively demonstrated U.S. military strength. The war also resulted in the establishment of an overseas empire for the United States, as it gained control of Puerto Rico and the Philippine Islands. The United States, which had long held to a policy of avoiding involvement in international affairs, was now establishing itself as a major power.

This new aggressive approach continued throughout the first decade of the twentieth century. President Theodore Roosevelt sent the U.S. navy around the world in a show of strength and began construction of a canal across the isthmus of Panama (which opened during the Wilson administration). The willingness of Roosevelt and President William H. Taft to...