An Analysis Of Lodge's Diplomatic Thoughts And Activities

Henry Cabot Lodge was known as a famous American statesman and a senator. He served in the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate for 30 years. The United States was deeply influenced by his diplomatic thoughts and activities. This thesis makes a research on the origins and summarizes the contents of Lodge's diplomatic thoughts and activities, and also makes an overall evaluation on his diplomatic thoughts and activities.The first chapter emphatically introduces the factors which influence the origins of Lodge's diplomatic thoughts. The factors are highly extensive. I think the main factors are the influence from the Cabot family and the Lodge family, his personal growth experience and the impact of Protestant thoughts.The main contents of thesis are the second chapter, the third chapter and the fourth chapter. Those chapters introduce Lodge's diplomatic thoughts and activities separately.The second chapter introduces Lodge's expansive thoughts and activities in details. The contents of Lodge's expansive thoughts are that America needs to annex important islands and territories, construct"Big Navy Policy", construct and command the Central-American Canal, and make America a world power at last. After Lodge made his expansive thoughts, he promoted and supported that America did a series of expansive activities.The third chapter mainly introduces Lodge's realistic thoughts and activities. Lodge's realistic thoughts includes :America can participate in international affairs freely . According to Lodge's realistic thoughts, America should further strengthen the forces in the Latin America, compel the European powers to leave the American mainland, forbid the European powers interfering the American affairs and insist that the American affairs are solved by the natives of America; America consolidates its interests in the Asian mainland and keeps the same paces in the Asia-Pacific area with the other world powers in the Asia-Pacific area, in order to keep the stability and prevent the existence of a greatest world power in the Asia-Pacific area. The activities of Lodge's realistic thoughts mainly reveal as follows: on the one hand, the Republicans who were led by Lodge refused Wilson's"International Alliance"; on the other hand, Lodge supported and participated in the Washington Meeting.The fourth chapter introduces Lodge's commercial thoughts and activities in details. As a political representative of the Capitalists, Lodge has a strong commercial thought. The contents of Lodge's commercial thoughts are America continues to keep its commercial prior in the Latin America by all possible ways; America receives its economic interests and its great overseas markets in the Asia-Pacific region mainly by peaceful ways, America will be the world economic hegemony at last. The activities of Lodge's commercial thoughts reflect that the American rulers have looked the commercial competition as an important mean of the rise of a world power and the contention of world hegemony.The fifth chapter is a conclusion, which makes a comprehensive reflect on Lodge's diplomatic thoughts and activities. The author believes Lodge's diplomatic thoughts and activities are the diplomatic production when the United State rose as a world power and in essence it also reflects a policy that the American Monopoly Capitalist Classes grab the world market and resources. Lodge's diplomatic thoughts not only protected the national interests of the United States and the position of a world power effectively, but also showed the long-term plan of the development and expansion of the United States in the world. Lodge's diplomatic thoughts played a very important role in the history of diplomatic thoughts of the United States.