Word: roosevelt
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...just the misbehavior of Central and South American governments that concerned Roosevelt in this volatile region. He was also eager to prevent any foreigners from gaining a concession to build the canal that he wanted the U.S. to build. When the Colombian government turned down a proposed deal for a 100-year lease of territory in its province of Panama, the President threw his weight--and the weight of a naval landing party--in favor of one of the perennial Panamanian uprisings aimed at gaining independence from Colombia. Twelve days after Washington recognized the new nation of Panama, in November...
...Russo-Japanese War was another gift from the gods to Roosevelt. He had long worried about czarist ambitions in Asia, as he worried about German ambitions in the Atlantic. He was full of admiration for the Japanese armed services as they steadily vanquished the larger Russian armies on land and smashed the Russian fleet in the epic battle of Tsushima in May 1905. But the President did not want complete Japanese domination of the Far East either, and so he actively lobbied both sides to turn to the peace table. Since Britain was diplomatically allied to Japan, and France...
...same, the world remained a dangerous place. There were the German threat to France, the Anglo-German rivalry in the North Sea, the Balkan tinderbox and the unanswered question of Japan's ultimate ambitions. Roosevelt decided a bold move was required to send a message that the U.S. was a global player. In December 1907 he dispatched from Hampton Roads, Va., the "Great White Fleet," consisting of all 16 of the U.S. Navy's modern battleships. They were embarked on what would be a 46,000-mile, 14-month cruise around the world. Here was showing the flag, indeed. Almost...
...short while after the Great White Fleet's return, Roosevelt relinquished the presidency. To his successor, William Howard Taft, he had one message: Do not divide the fleet. The Mahanian principle of concentrating the main battle fleet in one theater remained in place. It would still be there in 1914 when the Panama Canal, instigated by T.R., finally opened. Only during the Second World War, when the U.S. Navy became the largest in the world, would the U.S. possess a two-ocean fleet...
Panama was a province of Colombia when Theodore Roosevelt took up the idea of building a canal after a failed attempt by France. When the Colombian government rejected a new treaty allowing the U.S. to build a canal, Roosevelt became enraged. Soon after, a group of Panamanian separatist leaders declared a revolution. That same day, U.S. gunboats appeared off the coast to keep Colombia from reclaiming its territory. Roosevelt vigorously denied that the U.S. had fomented the revolution but defended his actions in characteristic terms: "To have acted otherwise ... would have been betrayal of the interests of the United States...