In 1907, while the Panama Canal was under construction, President Roosevelt ordered the newly built ships to travel around the tip of South America to their first stop in San Francisco. Part of the exercise was to show Japan that American ships were able to defend her Western cities even though the navy was stationed on the Atlantic. From the West Coast the fleet moved on to the Phillipines, at the time under American rule, before visiting Japan. While there, the Japanese people went to great lengths to show the United States that they wanted peace after Theodore Roosevelt helped broker an end to their war with Russia. The fleet continued on their voyage below India, through the Mediterranean, and, two years after they began, landed back in Virginia.

Known as the Knickerbocker Crisis, the financial panic took place over a three week period during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency. After United Copper Shares plummeted The New York Stock Exchange fell to half of it’s peak from the year before. These events led to the creation of a centralized monetary system able to inject money into the banks and prevent this type of situation from happening again, the Federal Reserve System.

The incident occurred in Brownsville, Texas. The white townspeople resented the fact that the regiment was allowed to be stationed in Fort Brown. Even though the commanding officers could attest to the fact that the regiment was in the barracks all night they were all dishonorably discharged by President Roosevelt.

The townspeople were able to frame the men because of spent shells recovered at the scene of the crime. The source of these shells took some time to be discovered. It turned out that the shells were from a firing range across the country the group had previously been stationed at and, in an effort not to waste any supplies, had been brought along with the regiment to the town. The shells were kept in an open box where any passers-by could conveivably grab a handful. The presence of these shells were the townspeople’s primary evidence. Both white and black Americans were outraged at President Roosevelt’s decision to dishonorably discharge all 167 men.

George White, a black man, was lynched in Wilmington, Delaware in 1903. Most people associate lynchings with south of the Mason-Dixon Line and, while this is true for the most part, black men weren’t necessarily safe in the North (the last lynching above the Mason-Dixon occurred in 1930). In 1903, George White was arrested for the stabbing of a white woman. She died while he was in custody. A mob of thousands stormed the prison while White awaited trial. They were able to fight their way past the guards and dragged the black man to a field near the scene of the crime where they burned him at the stake. President Theodore Roosevlet warned that whoever witnessed such an act, and there were young men present in the mob, would never be the same.

There were two Venezuelan crises at the end of the 1800’s and beginning of the 1900’s that pitted the United States against the European Powers.

The first, the occuring in 1895, saw the extension of the Monroe Doctrine by President Grover Cleveland to include all foreign activity in the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine, named after President James Monroe, states that America is in opposition to European Colonialism in both North and South America. Venezuela and Great Britian both claimed territory as belonging to them and President Cleveland took the side of the Latin country.

This stance would again be consequential in 1902. Theodore Roosevelt found himself facing the potential wrath of both Great Britian and Germany because Venezuela wouldn’t pay their debt to both countries. America stood on the brink of war when the European powers sent ships to blockade Venezuela and President Roosevelt let them know that any seizure of territory to pay the debt would not be tolerated. Great Britain immediately agreed to the terms set forth by the President but Germany waited until the last day to agree. With all parties in agreement the three countries were able to avoid war across the Atlantic.