Evaluate the impact of the Big Stick policy on US foreign relations.

The question requires that candidates make an appraisal of the Big Stick policy, weighing up the strengths and limitations of its impact on US foreign relations. Consequences may extend beyond the timeframe but they must be clearly linked to the issue raised in the question. Candidates may refer to US rhetoric regarding the pursuit of peaceful diplomacy but with the threat of military intervention, the first application of the Big Stick in response to the 1902 Venezuelan debt crisis, intervention in Columbia to build the Panama Canal and the 1904 statement of the Roosevelt Corollary. Other relevant factors may be addressed, for example the Big Stick was applied in the voyage of the Great White Fleet to impress other countries with US naval power, but with a focus on the issue in the question. Candidates’ opinions or conclusions will be presented clearly and supported by appropriate evidence.

The question required that candidates make an appraisal of the Big Stick policy, weighing up the strengths and limitations of its impact on US foreign relations. There were a good number of adequate to excellent essays that provided relevant examples from the T. Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson administrations using examples from US-Latin American relations as well as US policy in other regions. There were also many who inaccurately applied the Spanish-American War that preceded the establishment of the Big Stick policy.