Expansionist Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson

Background Information By going to war with Spain and acquiring overseas possessions, President McKinley has set the stage for a more aggressive foreign policy. The next three presidents – Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson – pursued their own policies, but all gave the United States a greater role in world affairs.

Although their foreign policies differed, each president intervened abroad to pursue American goals. Some goals were realistic, such as controlling access to foreign resources. Other goals were idealistic, such as promoting democracy. In developing foreign policy, the guiding principle for all three presidents was to serve national interests. This is the set of goals, political, economic, military, and cultural, that the nation considers important. Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson carried out foreign policies they believed would advance American interests.

Draw the following 3 graphics (leave room around the circles to write information!) Howard Taft Dollar Diplomacy Theodore Roosevelt Big Stick Policy Woodrow Wilson Moral Diplomacy

Read about your assigned president’s policy and complete the graphic by adding at least 3 key points of information about the policy. Once you have completed your graphic you will need to find someone in class who completed the other 2 graphics and ask them for the points they added about their president’s policy.