Younger daughter wrote this essay earlier in the year on this topic....

Don’t Tread on Me

The U.S. has always been a place where people come to it; we never need to go to them. Most people had to travel a great distance and sacrificed family, friends, jobs, homes, etc. to start a new life. Therefore this isolation and assimilation caused us to not really need or want to participate outside of our borders. As time went on and America became more established and started generating their own goods, this caused us to rethink our views about being less self-sufficient. As more people came to the U.S. and as we expanded our interactions to other countries, we wanted to be able to grow as a nation and fulfill our Manifest Destiny and position us as a world leader.


When the US declared its independence from Great Britain, we were thought of as the naughty rebellious teenagers. Under George Washington and the other four fathers, our foreign policy remained the same as it was with Britain, “Don’t Tread On Me.” As the years went on, our identity, like us, matured to middle age. Other countries respected us more and we felt more confident participating in foreign affairs. By the time Theodore Roosevelt was president, we were showing the world the wisdom we gained: becoming a diplomatic leader; negotiation the end of the Russo-Japanese war; adding to the Monroe Doctrine; helped keep our open door policy with China and much more; we had shown the world that we have grown up.

During the late 1800s under President McKinley, our country’s foreign policy was one of American Imperialism. We had a desire to gain influence or ownership of areas outside the United States, for the increase in military, economic, and commercial wealth and influence they would bring to the United States. Under President Roosevelt, our strategy changed for the U.S. to become a diplomatic leader. During President Taft’s leadership (1909-1913) he stressed economic development of nations in Latin America and Asia through "Dollar Diplomacy", and went back to the “Don’t Tread on Me” philosophy in response to the revolt in Mexico. President Wilson took U.S. foreign policy in a completely new direction; the role of Big Brother, bringing morality and democracy to other nations.

Even though Americans were outraged at what was happening in Spain in the late 1890s, as our general unwritten military policy up until that time had been “Don’t Tread on Me,” it was not until the sinking of the Maine that President McKinley was forced to have the U.S. involved. In just a few short months, the U.S. (under the military leadership of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt) proved itself to be a significant military force. The Treaty of Paris provided the U.S. with almost all of Spain’s colonies. This war marked a change in how the world viewed the U.S. and how the U.S. The U.S. was no longer the rebellious little teenager; they were now a major player in world politics.

The U.S. has grown into a mature, yet sometimes still bratty, country. Our leaders who once never thought to become involved with other countries or their problems, is now known to lend not only military but financial aid. A number of former presidents have gone on to be successful ambassadors in negotiating peace agreements. While we still tend to live by the “Don’t Tread on Me” and “Speak softly and carry a big stick” policies, it has become much more difficult to stand aside and watch as humans suffer when we could possibly help them. This role we play is not often appreciated by others and we have seemed, for now, to not care so much about Manifest Destiny as much as we care about spreading democracy and being a world leader.