Abstract
Theodore Roosevelt became president following the assassination of William McKinley in September 1901. When Roosevelt came to the White House, the Far Eastern situation was a microcosm of global rivalry. All the European great powers were jockeying in the game of balance of power in the Far East, and their policies toward the region were often an extension of their relationship in Europe and other parts of the world. The United States and Japan were also major players in this game of nations. Roosevelt and his close advisors had a keen grasp of such a multipolar situation and were well aware of the limit in US capabilities for an interventionist approach in the region. Their policy toward Korea also was closely related to their broader consideration about the strategic situation in East Asia and the limit of US military capability.
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Notes
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Ian H. Nish, The Anglo-Japanese Alliance: The Diplomacy of Two Island Empires 1894–1907 (London: Athlone, 1966), 212–18.
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See Brooks Adams, America’s Economic Supremacy (New York: Macmillan, 1900);
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Quoted from F.A. McKenzie, Korea’s Fight for Freedom (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1920), 77–78.
Tani Hisao, Kimitsu Nichiro Sen-shi (Tokyo: Hara Shobo, 1966), 600–601.
Jean Jules Jusserand, What Me Befell: the Reminiscences of J.J. Jusserand (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1933), 300–301.
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© 2009 Seung-young Kim
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Kim, Sy. (2009). Great Power Rivalry and US Assessment at the Outbreak of the War. In: American Diplomacy and Strategy toward Korea and Northeast Asia, 1882–1950 and After. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230621688_4
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