American Foreign Policy at the outset of the Twentieth century evolved from a realist to an idealist position as the United States transitioned to an imperial power. This ideal framework was formed in the crucible of China during the Spheres of Influence and the Open Door. The US had to play delicate game of helping China to maintain their territorial, and administrative integrity while at the same time protecting their newly acquired overseas interests against more established imperial actors. While there were many missteps, and failures during this transition perhaps the most the important result was the change toward the approach of US foreign policy. Not only did the United States have to balance realist geo-political goals, but it had to define what an imperial United States looked like. In a sense the United States was starting from scratch, processing to a completely different game and in order to be successful it had evolve.