Question

What was the purpose of the Open Door Policy

Answer 1

The Open Door policy was initiated by John Hays and was directed at China. Its purpose was to bring the world powers together and ensure that they had no ill intentions to China (taking it over) by basically stating that their spheres of influence (areas that they controlled in China) would respect certain Chinese rights and the idea of fair competition.

This was not entirely a act of goodwill from the United States; they actually wanted a foot in China as well (United States had no sphere of influence in China), so this policy was beneficial to the U.S.

Italy agreed quickly as they had no spheres of influence, Russia declined because they had a secret agenda for China (but the U.S. considered it a yes regardless) and the rest of the countries agreed under a condition; that they would only join if the other countries did too. ~Yahoo Answers