Wilson and the New Diplomacy

Problems of the first administration: dollar diplomacy in Dominican Republic and China and Nicaragua, German threat to Haiti and its Mole St. Nicholas, Senate opposition to Bryan-Chamorro and Panama Canal tolls, Congressman John Tillman's opposition to Canadian-American Migratory Bird Treaty (last passenger pigeon died 1914), Mexico's Huerta and Texas rangerism, California Alien Land crisis, Japan's 21 Demands on China despite Wilson's policy of nonrecognition. "American insensitivity to the nationalism of other peoples became another imperial legacy. Filipino resistance to American domination, Cuban anger against the Platt Amendment, Colombian outrage over Panama, and Mexican rejection of Wilsonian intervention bore witness to the depth of nationalistic sentiments. " It was an "informal empire administered by troops, financial advisers, and reformers who showed contempt for native people's culture, politics, and economies through a paternalistic discourse." Churchill's 2 worlds: "the actual, visual world with its peaceful activities" and another world "of monstrous shadows moving in convulsive combination through vistas of fathomless catastrophe."

Woodrow Wilson 1902

DC in 1916 - bg cu

West Wing Executive Offices 1909 - press room

Reasons for Empire
Creating the Empire
Managing the Empire
Dollar Diplomacy
Philippines
Map of Empire

I. Wilson the Idealist

A. Strong Leadership

1856 born Thomas Woodrow Wilson in Virginia
- strong father, weak mother - image
1879 class at Princeton
- studied classics, debate team
1885 class at Johns Hopkins grad school
- Ph.D. in politics & history
1885 marriage to Ellen Axson
- close-knit family of 3 daughters - image
- Margaret 1886, Jesse 1887, Eleanor 1889
- 2nd wife Edith Boling Galt - image
1888 professor at Princeton
- admired Disraeli, Gladstone
- endorse F. J. Turner 1893
1902 president at Princeton
- sought reforms. preceptorial
- image with Carnegie
1906 arterial illness
- personality changed, more stubborn
1907 affair with Mary Hulbert
- need for moral compensation
1910 governor of New Jersey
- Insurgent progressivism
- image with Champ Clark, C.E. Hughes
1912 elected President of U.S.
- due to Republican split - image
1913 New Freedom program
- Underwood tariff - image
- Federal Reserve Act - image
- Clayton Act - image

Princeton 1909

B. Key Ideas

Woodrow Wilson Memorial inside the Reagan Building, Federal Triangle, Washington DC, June 1999 - pictures

Canon Inn - lawn parties

Religion
- "The Bible reveals men unto themselves, not as creatures in bondage, not as men under human authority, but responsible through his own conscience to his Lord and Maker."
- "I will not cry 'peace' so long as there is sin and wrong in the world ... America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy scripture."
Morality
- Foreign policy must be "more concerned about human rights than about property rights."
- "The force of America is the force of moral principle."
Democracy
- "When properly directed, there is no people not fitted for self-government."
- "Discipline - discipline generations deep."
Progress
- U.S. to be the "preceptor to the world."
Mission
- "America's mission was to realize an ideal of liberty, provide a model of democracy, vindicate moral principle, give examples of action and ideals of government, uphold the rights of man, work for humanity and the happiness of men everywhere, lead the thinking of the world, promote peace - in sum, to serve mankind and progress."

II. Wilson the Realist.

A. China

Willard Straight & the Family

1912 China

feared "wedge" of revolution 1911 and rise of Japan
TR gave Japan Korea and S. Manchuria, S. Sakhalin, Liaotung at Portsmouth 1905 and in Taft-Katsura 1905 - map
Root-Takahira 1908 recognized status quo and Japan's dominance, but was considered "terrible blunder" by Willard Straight who sought to help China with consortium to provide loans and banks and E. H. Harriman's railroad
China Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen 1905-1912, but Yuan Shih-kai replaced Sun Yat-sen March 12, 1912 - photo
Koumintang's Sung Chiao-jen won elections Feb. 1913, but Yuan killed Sung March 20, 1913, and Sun Yat-sen began a "second revolution" and civil war with Yuan
Wilson granted recognition to Yuan May 2, 1913, to encourage a parliament
no support for 6-Power railroad consortium's loan, but Yuan got money
Wilson agreed with Sen. James Phelan effort to stop Japanese immigration - already 50,000 arrived and Calif becoming a "Japanese plantation"
Webb Land Act 1913 to prohibit aliens owning land
strong Japanese opposition - fear of war - Navy sought preparedness
Wilson dissolved Bradley Fiske's Joint Board in April
Wilson used diplomacy, not military - sent WJB to Calif - Webb Act did not mention Japanese, only aliens "unqualified for citizenship"
realists in 1915 cabinet: Lansing (State), McAdoo (Treasury), Josephus Daniels (Navy), Lindley Garrison (War)
R. Lansing vs. minister P. Reinsch
Wilson follows "moral suasion", status quo
Japan's 21 Demands 1915
Lansing-Ishii Agreement 1917

B. Caribbean

Bryan-Chamorro Treaty 1913 gave U.S. 99-year lease on Corn Islands and Fonseca Gulf, plus exclusive canal option to prevent foreign canal, paid $3 million to Nicaragua to be used to repay American bankers - Senate opposed intevention clause, U.S. ignored opposition of Central American Court of Justice
Marines in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba
but some idealism:
- Panama Canal tolls equalized
- Jones Act for Puerto Rico
- Colombia treaty 1914 - $25m. indemnity for Panama Canal
- no United Fruit-sponsored coup in Costa Rica - Wilson lectured J.F. Dulles
- Bryan's 22 "cooling-off" treaties

C. Mexico

see Mexican Revolution outline

Resources:

Diplomats - "The Family"
Managing the Empire includes Interpretations
Woodrow Wilson House and pictures
Embassy Row
Foreign Service from AFSA
Henry P. Fletcher from the Allison-Antrium Museum
Museums map from Dupont Kalorama Museum
Office of Historian U.S. State Department
Woodrow Wilson House map at 2340 S Street
Wilson (1944) film by Darryl Zanuck
maps of China and Mexico and Caribbean
WWI and WWII links

revised 1/27/04 by Schoenherr | Wilson & Pictures | Maps