The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
The turn of the century has always been a big deal for modern
civilizations. One hundred years of life is quite large compared with the
average 70 or so given to most. Because of that, people tend to look in
trends of decades, rather than centuries or millennia. When it does come
time for a new century, when that second digit rotates, as it does so
seldom, people tend to look for change. Events tend to fall before or after
the century, not on top of it, and United States history, particularly, has
had a tendency for sudden change at the century marks. Columbus' accidental
discovery of the West Indies in 1492 brought on the exploration age in the
1500s. Jamestown colony, founded in 1607, was England's first foothold on
the New World. A massive population surge, brought on in part by the import
of fricans, marks entry into the 18th century. Thomas Jefferson's
presidency, beginning in 1800, changed the face of American politics. 1900
was a ripe year for change, but needed someone to help the change arrives.
That someone was Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt's political presence altered
the course of the United States, transforming it into a superpower fully
ready to handle the challenges of any opposition, and changed the role of
the president and executive branch of US government, making it a force with
As the first president with progressive views, Roosevelt enacted
the first regulatory laws and prosecuted big businesses who had been
violating them and others for years. Roosevelt also initiated the United
States' active interests in other countries, and began to spread the
benefits of democracy throughout the world. Before Roosevelt, the United
States was an inward-looking country, largely xenophobic to the calls of
the rest of the world, and chiefly concerned with bettering itself. As one
critic put it, "Roosevelt was the first mode...