The Early Twentieth Century
During the second half of the 19th century, the United States was preoccupied with a civil war and a post civil war industrial revolution. American foreign policy with China did not really take form until 1899 and 1900. By the turn of the century, the United States was ascending as a major player in international affairs, especially in the western hemisphere. American foreign policy, at the time, focused mostly on Latin America. However, in 1899, the Americans saw economic opportunities in an already politically suppressed China. For decades, European countries had been reaping the economic benefits by exploiting of the countrys resources and markets while claiming chunks of territory as their own. It had become a closed club of the countries already established there.
The United States, fearing that China was about to officially partitioned, wanted access to those lucrative assets as well. American Secretary of State, John Hay, perhaps using some Big Stick and gunboat tactics, popular American strategies at the time, was well positioned to get the established foreign nations in China to conform to an agreement called the Open Door policy for China. This benchmark intervention by the United States, conferred on all countries, equal and impartial trade with all parts of China, while preserving the territorial and administrative integrity of the country. The American approach did little to respect Chinas customary opposition to foreign intrusion. To China, the United States was only one more country to bully it, to exploit its resources and sovereignty and, further, to deny it of its autonomy, integrity, and dignity. This collective foreign presence, boosted by American interests, diffused any hope for China to break the chains of humiliating foreign occupation. The Chinese were virtually captives or prisoners in their own country. The United States did not deviate far from this economic policy toward China, until the communist take over in 1949.
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