7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7The Early Years
In frail health as a boy, Roosevelt was educated by private
tutors. He graduated from Harvard College, where he was
elected to Phi Beta Kappa, in 1880. He then studied briefly
at Columbia Law School but soon turned to writing and
politics as a career.
Elected as a Republican to the New York State
Assembly at 23, Roosevelt quickly made a name for
himself as a foe of corrupt machine politics. In 1884,
overcome by grief by the deaths of both his mother and
his first wife, Alice, on the same day, he left politics to
spend two years on his cattle ranch in the badlands of
the Dakota Territory, where he became increasingly
concerned about environmental damage to the West and
its wildlife.
Roosevelt attempted to return to politics in 1886 with
an unsuccessful run for New York City mayor. In 1897,
Roosevelt was appointed assistant secretary of the navy by
President William McKinley, and he vociferously champi-
oned a bigger navy and agitated for war with Spain. When
war was declared in 1898, he organized the 1st Volunteer
Cavalry, known as the Rough Riders, who were sent to
fight in Cuba. The charge of the Rough Riders, who were
on foot, up Kettle Hill during the Battle of Santiago made
Roosevelt the biggest national hero to come out of the
Spanish-American War.
Upon his return, Roosevelt was elected governor of
New York, and was an energetic reformer. His actions
irked the Republican Party’s bosses so much that they
conspired to get rid of him by drafting him for the
Republican vice presidential nomination in 1900, assum-
ing that his would be a largely ceremonial role. He became
vice president when William McKinley was re-elected.