Woodrow Wilson and American Diplomacy
American diplomacy has had many influences over the years. One of the most significant in history was that of Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth President of the United States, who began spreading the principles of American diplomacy in the twentieth century. Until the early part of the twentieth century American foreign policy consisted mainly of isolationist tendencies. However, two factors quickly pushed America into foreign affairs. America was rapidly expanding its power and the international system centered on Europe began to crash. Until Wilson became president American foreign policy was aimed at fulfilling manifest destiny and to staying free of problems abroad. American diplomacy reflected Wilson’s Basic view of world power by helping spread democratic structure to other nations. It wasn’t perfect though and thus rejected his views of some post WWI thoughts such as the League of Nations. Woodrow Wilson, born Dec 28, 1856, served as President of Princeton University and then became Governor of New Jersey in 1910. He was elected president in 1912 as a democrat when Taft and Roosevelt divided up the republican vote. In the first few years as president Wilson concentrated on anti-trust measures and reorganizing the federal banking system. After being narrowly re-elected Wilson concentrated on World War I. He tried to sustain US neutrality but failed and later asked Congress to declare war. Wilson also played a major role in the post-war period attempting to create the League of Nations and such. President Wilson’s views on foreign policy have been seen as great by some and horrible by others. Wilson fought hard to help spread democracy and in some cases succeeded. Wilson introduced the term “moral diplomacy” to the West which attempted to spread influence and control foreign nations by using economic power. This didn’t always work as planned especially when things got tough and “moral diplomacy” alone wasn’t enough to fight off problems.
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