American Century - Early Characteristics

Early Characteristics

Beginning at the end of the 19th Century, with the Spanish-American War in 1898 and the Boxer Rebellion, the United States began to play a more important role in the world beyond the North American continent. The government adopted protectionism after Spanish-American War and built up a powerful navy, the "Great White Fleet". When Theodore Roosevelt became President in 1901, he accelerated a foreign policy shift away from isolationism towards foreign involvement, a process which had begun under his predecessor William McKinley. For instance, the United States fought the Philippine-American War against Filipino nationalists to solidify its control over the newly acquired Philippines. In 1904, Roosevelt committed the United States to building the Panama Canal, creating the Panama Canal Zone. Interventionism found its formal articulation in the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, proclaiming a right for the United States to intervene to stabilize weak states in the Americas, a moment that underlined the emergent U.S. regional hegemony.

The United States also played an important role in the World Wars era (encompassing World War I and World War II).