American foreign relations

Essay by ask.mHigh School, 12th gradeC+, November 2006

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A. The open door was a policy made by the US to enable all the great powers to have equal opportunities when taking parts of China to become their own. Source A implies that Americans introduced the 'open door' in order to protect their economic interests with China, as they could see that European powers would otherwise take advantage of China's economic benefits. The Americans were well well-acknowledged that 'China is the 1st prize for which all energetic nations are grasping', as stated in a book called 'America's economic supremacy'. Which was written prior to the making of the policy, therefore they knew of that China would be f economic value. This is apparent when President Taft introduced his dollar diplomacy policy, whereby Taft urged Americans to invest in railway companies in China.

B. Source C is essentially a report of what Roosevelt said in his 'annual message to congress' after the acquisition of Panama, thus it is not surprising o find that it is in the respect of justifying president Roosevelt's methods of acquiring Panama.

Source B on the other hand, is a depiction of a criticism made from a different perspective, that of the Columbian minister. As the Columbians rejected the first treaty that was to allow the US to build the canal in Panama, they saw a Panamanian uprising. In order to prevent the 'Columbian forces from crushing the uprising', President Roosevelt sent the US navy without consulting the congress, as a means of protection of the Panamanians as this would lead to a revolution in Panama. Whilst President Roosevelt claimed, as written in source C that 'Columbia had forced the US to take decisive steps'. The Columbian minister held a quite different opinion. Instead, he stated that the US acted like a 'pirate' in relation to...