History essay on US foreign policy

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How important were economic factors in shaping US foreign policy between 1890-1917?

There were many economic factors which contributed to the shaping of US foreign policy, some were very important and others less so. There were also many strategic, religious and government policy factors which affected the USAs foreign policy. Foreign policy is the way a certain country deals with other countries, it can be affected by domestic considerations and the behaviour of other states.

America gained an influence over Hawaii mainly because of economic and strategic benefits. They wanted it for economic reasons as it helped the trade with China and Japan as it acted as a stepping stone and helped to protect ships. Also Americans owned 75% of everything on Hawaii so Hawaii would not be able to run without Americas help so Hawaii was willing to let America influence it. This meant America would make more because they would be able to control trade and exporting. The strategic benefits were that it acted as a stepping stone to the Far East, it allowed America to build a naval base in the pacific (pearl harbour) and made it easier to attack Spanish colonies in the pacific during the Spanish-American war. The US also used Cuba in a similar way. It used Cuba strategically to help protect Florida and the east coast and to establish control over Central America and the Caribbean. This also made trade safer between the countries which would benefit the economy.

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America also felt it needed to acquire a certain amount of control over China because there were so many people (three times the population of the US) to trade with and China is such a vast space. It did this by sending in troops to control the boxers then declaring that China has an open door policy when it comes to trade. The US then acquired a strip of land in Panama so it could build a canal. It did this for both economic and strategic reasons. The economic reasons are that it would be able to trade with other ...

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