7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7in Congress degenerated into a spiteful stalemate that
blocked any further domestic reforms.
Foreign Policy
Every year Roosevelt asked for bigger appropriations for
the army and navy. By the end of his presidency, he had
built the U.S. Navy into a major force at sea and reorga-
nized the army along efficient, modern lines.
Several times during Roosevelt’s first years in office,
European powers threatened to intervene in Latin America.
As a result, in 1904, he issued the Roosevelt Corollary to
the Monroe Doctrine. It stated that the United States
would not only bar outside intervention in Latin American
affairs but would also police the area and guarantee that
countries there met their international obligations.
Quoting an African proverb, Roosevelt claimed that
the right way to conduct foreign policy was to “speak softly
and carry a big stick.” Roosevelt resorted to big-stick
diplomacy most conspicuously in 1903, when he helped
Panama to secede from Colombia and give the United
States the Canal Zone. Roosevelt showed the soft-spoken,
sophisticated side of his diplomacy in dealing with major
powers outside the Western Hemisphere as well. In
1904–05 he worked to end the Russo-Japanese War by
bringing both nations to the Portsmouth Peace Conference
and mediating between them. For his efforts, he won the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1906.
During his second term Roosevelt increasingly feared
a general European war. In 1906, when France and Germany
were ready to fight over their interests in Morocco,
Roosevelt took the lead in arranging a conference of the
powers in Algeciras, Spain. This meeting temporarily
settled the differences.