Columbus’ voyage seemed to be finally completed. Looking for the riches of India and China, he had discovered America, whose European colonizers and settlers had continued the treck westward over to the shores of the Pacific ocean. And now they had taken island after island westbound over the largest body of water on earth to reach the Far East at last.
It really must have seemed like ‘manifest destiny’ to many.

   Just like in our days China was considered a dormant giant. And Americans most certainly wanted to profit from its waking up or even sound the alarm clock them- selves. Charles Denby, former minister to China expressed the belief of many as he said in 1899 that „Asia is our Eldorado. Here are hundreds of millions of the human race to be civilized, christianized, if possible, and clothed and fed.“[78]  He had marked out the two sorts of Americans that would be needed to plough this fertile field: the missionary and the salesman. Concerning the latter, China made up only 1 to 2% of America’s foreign trade but one look at the map would reassure him that
there was ‘a hell of a market’ over there.[79] 
The missionaries had already been more active. Over the last decade, they had doubled their number to over 1000. But not having gotten very far with warnings about judgement day, they had recently shifted their gospel to practical reform for the under-developed society which was of course to adopt the American way to progress.
They thus did not only represent their religion but patriotically preached the values of the United States as well and turned the Christian mission into cultural expansio- nism.[80]

   But the efforts of the European powers to divide the vast Chinese Empire into spheres of influence which would then be shut off for exclusive economic develop- ment seemed to push Americans out of the competition for souls and consumers. Russia and Japan were occupying Korea and Manchuria, France had taken Indo- china and aimed for South China, Great Britain had acquired Hong Kong and was expanding as well in the North and even Germany had gotten a port and a sphere of its own - but what was the United States to do? An active involvement would mean engaging in conflict with the other great powers. That was considered neither de-
sirable nor realistic. Yet, an extension of trade relations was the interest of the U.S.; they consequently would have to find a peaceful way of opening the European (and Japanese) spheres for Americans.[81]
 
   On September 6, 1899, Secretary of State John Hay issued the ‘Open Door Note’ to Germany, Italy, Russia, France, Great Britain and Japan. He asked these powers to respect the principles of equal trade in their spheres of influence: the same tariffs, harbor dues and railway fares were to apply to all nations and the spheres were to be open for citizens of all nations.[82]

   This Open Door Note was a departure from the past in so far as it clearly establi- shed the United States as a country that wished to have a say and play a role in Asian politics. With the intention to secure this policy and American interests ex- pressed in it, emerged a new commitment for the U.S. Navy in Asian waters. The Open-Door Policy „over time developed into a rationale for the presence (...) of American political influence (...) [and] military power in Asia and the Pacific.“[83]
In the spring of 1900, anti-foreign riots led by a society known as the Boxers and encouraged by the imperial Chinese government, claimed the lives of many foreign citizens. To protect them and to restore order, the foreign powers sent in troops. But apparently some powers wanted to use the opportunity by extending their spheres of influence. Hay used the 5,000 U.S. soldiers to have the other powers agree to his Second Open Door Note of July 3, 1900. Since they needed the American troops to put down the rebellion, all agreed to preserve Chinese independence and integrity. [84]  The Secretary of State knew that he had pulled off the maximum result:

             „The inherent weakness of our position is this: we do not want to rob China
             ourselves, and our public opinion will not permit us to interfere, with an army,
             to prevent others from robbing her. Besides, we have no army. The talk of the
             papers about ‘our preeminent moral position giving the authority to dictate to
             the world’ is a mere flap-doodle.“[85]

   The Open-Door Policy seemed to please everyone. The ones who wished to see the United States as an Asian power as well as those who wanted to cling to the traditional doctrine of ‘no entangling alliances’ and anti-imperialist (after all, the U.S. had tamed the imperialistic powers!). Stressing the American interest in Chi- nese independence gained them sympathies in China which became the basis for a special relationship in the following decades.[86]

   The Open-Door Policy had once more emphasized one of the main threads of American foreign policy: free trade relations, and the way they had treated the opening-up of China would later provide a precedent for developing policies coping with other regions of the world.
 
 
 

The United States now fitted into the definition of a world power. Although it had not yet sought involvement in Europe or Africa, it was listened to and the Old World had to acknowledge that the United States would make itself listened to if its interests were at stake. The USA had one large exterritorial possession in Asia (the Philippines) and virtually controlled the Caribbean. Its expanded navy now patrol- led the waters of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. And what was most im- portant was that the Spanish-American War and its immediate consequences had
scored an important political success for the champions of an assertive foreign policy.[87]

   As the nation was just showing to the world the position it had accomplished at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo/NY in September 1901, an anarchist shot President McKinley who had only just explained to the nation, the ambitious new 'global player',  that „isolation is no longer possible or desirable“.[88]

   He was succeeded by vice-president Theodore Roosevelt, the former assistant secretary of the navy and popular bellicose rough rider who went to prove how right his predecessor had been.