Final answer:
In President Taft’s 1912 address to Congress, the main concern was averting the risk of European military intervention due to monetary debts in Central America by substituting European loans with U.S. funds, a strategy known as 'Dollar Diplomacy'. He also introduced the Lodge Corollary to prevent non-American corporations from holding strategic lands in the Western Hemisphere.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Main Point of President Taft’s Address to Congress in 1912
In President Taft’s address to Congress in 1912, the main point centered around the issue of financial debts of Central American nations to European countries. Taft was particularly concerned about the leverage these debts might provide for European countries to exert military influence in the Western Hemisphere. Consequently, his policy, which later became known as 'Dollar Diplomacy', aimed at replacing European loans with American finances. Where resistance was met, such as in Nicaragua, Taft did not shy away from using military force to protect US interests and maintain regional stability—an approach consistent with his predecessors' interventionist policies in foreign affairs.
The Lodge Corollary was also a key topic in Taft’s message, which prohibited foreign (non-American) corporations from acquiring strategic lands in the Western Hemisphere. This was largely in response to fears of Japanese economic expansion in Mexico, and it represented an extension of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, further illustrating the United States’ determination to be the dominant power in its hemisphere.
In summary, the overarching theme of Taft’s address was the enforcement of American economic and strategic interests in Central America and the Caribbean to prevent European and other foreign influences, an indicator of the U.S.’s expanding role as an emerging empire and a centralized power in the Western Hemisphere.