Representatives of a powerful but righteous nation: United States military occupations in the Dominican Republic and the German Rhineland in the Progressive Era

In the current climate of a United States administration bent upon radically altering the international environment through military force it is instructive to look back upon efforts of another administration which dramatically increased the use of military intervention to control foreign peoples and re-order international relationships. Woodrow Wilson and his administration believed that military force was a reasonable option not only for self-defense but also as a legitimate tool with which to re-order foreign governments and societies. By using force to export key domestic social and cultural values such as representative government, social and political order, and a free market economy, the Wilson administration hoped to achieve global peace and stability. This study investigates United States military occupations in two very different environments; the Dominican Republic and the German Rhineland, and examines how military officers used their own cultural assumptions to define and realize social order in foreign societies. While United States military officers certainly acknowledged the supremacy of civilian politicians, they had a certain latitude in designing policies which they believed would best fulfill their mission. The policies they enacted were strikingly similar, even though the two occupations here took place in very different cultural, social, and economic environments. Certainly, military officers accepted the idea that progressive cultural ideas such as representative government which eschewed special interests and satisfied the common good, and professionalism in the public and private spheres were universally applicable and appropriate.; Nevertheless, there were differences between the two occupations which had an impact on how United States officers perceived what they had to do to achieve a successful occupation. Some of that had to do with the indigenous social, political, and economic conditions in the Dominican Republic and the German Rhineland, yet some differences are also explained by the racial assumptions military officers held on the world around them. United States officers were well intentioned, yet their assumptions complicated their missions and led to some unintended consequences.