Foreign Policy and Woodrow Wilson
Uploaded by jimih4evr on Oct 31, 2011
I. Introduction
Woodrow Wilson’s idealism created the role that the United States has played in the international community during the Twentieth Century. this paper will demonstrate how President Wilson’s views and ideals created the role that the United States played on the world stage during his presidency, and how that role has continued down to the final years of the twentieth century. To do this, this paper will first introduce Woodrow Wilson and explore his background and ideals. This paper will then look at his foreign policy and consider how that policy has continued throughout the Twentieth Century.
II. Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia on December twenty-ninth, 1856. He was the son of a Presbyterian minister (Ridings, pp. 174). Woodrow Wilson’s Presbyterian religion remained an important influence throughout his life. Wilson followed in his father’s footsteps as far as Presbyterian lay-preacher himself (Bailey, pp. 52).
Wilson originally determined to study for the ministry, and to this purpose he attended Davidson College in North Carolina. He then switched schools and continued his education at Princeton. At some point he must have rejected the ordained ministry as a career goal because he continued his education by studying law at the University of Virginia. He even practiced law for a short time in Atlanta, Georgia (Ridings. pp. 174).
Law, like the ministry, was not to be Wilson’s career. He earned his doctorate in political science from John Hopkin’s University. His doctoral thesis was published under the title Congressional Government and was translated into several languages and saw twenty-nine printings. This book described what happens to the United States government when a president is too weak to prevent Congressional domination (Ridings, pp. 174).
Wilson taught at Bryn Mawr College, Wesleyan University, and Princeton. This background would make Wilson the most educated president in the history of the United States (Riding, pp. 174). In 1910, New Jersey’s Democratic Party nominated Wilson for governor. They believed that he was an ivory tower academic who could be easily controlled. Wilson was elected to the office of governor and it became apparent that the naive educator was also a progressive reformer (Filler, pp. 94). He was responsible for legislation on electoral reform, workmen’s compensation, pure food laws, and child labor regulations (Ridings, pp. 175).
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt split...