William Howard Taft

Background

- Ohio - not very popular/active - Republican

1909-1913

- Mexican revolution begins - revolution in China

Foreign Affairs

- Dollar Diplomacy - tried to assert US influence in foreign lands through investment and trade - free trade agreement with Canada (refused by Canadian parliament) - dispatched troops to safeguard US citizens and property in Latin America - did not interfere with revolutions in Mexico and China

Dollar Diplomacy

- goal: to further aims in Latin America and East Asia through economic power - guaranteed loans to foreign countries - encouraged American bankers and industrialists in securing new opportunities abroad

Domestic Policy

- wanted to carry on progressive policies of TR - broke up many trusts (Standard Oil and American Tobacco) - narrow interpretation of presidential power - compromise with conservatives in Congress over tariff reductions - conservation of natural resources