The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

At the end of this tutorial, students will be able to:

• describe the Roosevelt Corollary
• discuss how the Roosevelt Corollary was implemented by Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson
• discuss whether or not the United States was being a friend to the countries of the Western Hemisphere or looking to expand their empire

After President Teddy Roosevelt helped to begin U.S. construction of the Panama Canal, but engineering a "revolution" in Panama, he turned his attention to solidify the United States as the sole power in the Western Hemisphere.  His Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine allowed the United States to intervene in the countries of the Western Hemisphere to make sure that the debts of those countries were paid to banks in Europe.  This prevented European countries from sending in their own troops, and made the United States the guarantors of the debts of the nations of the Western Hemisphere.

There were a number of smaller countries that the United States tried to influence using this strategy, including Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.