A Brief Overview

How one country interacts with another country or group
In the United States our
Foreign Policy has spanned the extremes of Isolationist to
Internationalist.
USS Chesapeake

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Isolationism
The view that a nation should tend to its own domestic rather than international affairs.
Internationalism
The view that a nation should assume active role in international affairs.

1. Totally isolationist
2. Isolationist
3. Internationalist
4. Totally internationalist

What factors guide a nation to be isolationist or internationalist?
The question for some is “ What is in our national interest?
” These people would suggest that we should ask only what is in the national interest of the United States and not what is best for the for the world.
Others, Universalists, argue that we should take into account the interests and rights of people outside the United States as well as ourselves.

Goals of A Nation
’ s Foreign Policy
Preserve independence and integrity
Security for the nation and its citizens
Prosperity for the nation and its citizens
Sometimes for some nations: revenge or prestige
Sometimes for some nations: the protection or expansion of specific ideals or ideas

YOUR VIEW: Which Goal is most important? Why?
1. Preserve independence
2. Maintain security for the nation
3. Seek prosperity for the nation
4. Seek revenge or prestige
5. Spread ideals or ideas

Factors that influence Foreign Policy
Geography
Military and economic power
Economic needs
Ethnic and religious ties
History
Note that conditions change over time- an appropriate policy when it took six weeks to cross the Atlantic by sailing ship might not be sound in the age of ICBMs.

THREE PHASES OF U.S.
FOREIGN POLICY (1789-1920)
ISOLATIONISM
Nonentanglement
CONTINENTAL EXPANSION
Manifest Destiny
IMPERIALISM
Great Crusades

The entangling and permanent 1778 Alliance with France
Washington ’ s Farewell Address with its call for no “ permanent alliances ”
President Jefferson ’ s call in his first Inaugural
Address for no “ entangling alliances ”
War of 1812
Monroe Doctrine (1823)

Two treaties – a commercial agreement and a political/military alliance
We needed French to win our independence
The 1789 French Revolution leads to aggressive policies against other European powers beginning in 1793 that results in the
English going to war with the French
Jefferson (good faith), Hamilton (no obligation), and Washington ’ s (neutral) positions

Established concept of isolation which would dominate US foreign policy until the
20 th century:
“Good faith and justice toward all nations”
“Steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world”

Jefferson
’ s First Inaugural Address
“ kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe ”
Jefferson expanded upon Washington ’ s warning against “ permanent alliances ” to include “ entangling alliances ” and reinforced the principle of noninvolvement in European wars

1. Willingness to violate neutrality when advantageous
2. Difficulty of non-involvement a. Trade with Europe & colonies b. European powers in Americas

In response to fears that European powers
(including Britain) might expand influence in the Western Hemisphere
Stressed the special interests of the U.S. in the Western Hemisphere
Remains (mostly) viable today

No permanent friends, only permanent objectives

Jay’s Treaty (1794)
Pinckney’s Treaty
(1795)
XYZ Affair (1797)
Louisiana Purchase
(1803)
Embargo & Non-
Intercourse Acts
(1807)
War of 1812
Treaty of Ghent
(1814)
Rush-Bagot Treaty
(1817)
Adams-Onis Treaty
(1819)

John Quincy Adams: Secretary of
State to James Monroe 1817-1825
One of the most successful Secretaries of
State in American history.
Had a clear vision of what US policy should be and where it should be headed.
Philosophy: National interests should determine foreign policy.

Adams-Onis Treaty gives Florida
(strategic importance) to US, eliminated Spain from contention for
Oregon Territory
Adams ’ Vision: expansion of US to the Pacific, pursuit of good relations with newly independent nations in Latin America
Architect of Monroe
Doctrine

Westward Expansion evolves into
Manifest Destiny
Movement of the “ frontier line ” from the Fall line in the Piedmont, to the
Appallacians (Proclamation of
1763), to the Mississippi River is followed by the call for Continental
Expansion as our Manifest Destiny.

“ And that claim is by right of our manifest destiny to overspread and possess the whole of the continent which providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us… The God of nature and of nations has marked it for our own… ”
John L. Sullivan, Dec. 1845
John L. Sullivan

 Original United
States + Northwest
Territory (1783 GB)
 Louisiana Purchase
(1803, FR)
 Texas Annexation
(1845)
 Oregon Country
(1846 BR)
 British Cession(1818
Rush-Bagot Treaty)
 Mexican Cession
(1848 Mex War)
 Spanish Cession
(1819, FL- from SP)
 Gadsden Purchase
(1853 Mex)

American Progress by Jonathan Gast, 1872

 Expansion has implications for American
Indians
 Resist, co-exist, migrate
 Treaty of Greenville, 1795
 Jefferson- Trans-Mississippi “ reserve ”
 Jackson- Indian Removal Act 1830

 Old Northwest Territory (Tecumseh &
The Prophet of the Shawnee, as well as the Fox Indians)
 The Creeks (Alabama, Florida, Western
Tennessee)
 Seminole- in Florida

Tendency toward isolation
Creation of more secure borders & push West
Navigation of waterways (Mississippi and later seas)
Increased respect from foreign nations
Increased boldness of some American policymakers
Links with newly established Latin American nations

YOUR VIEW: From 1789-1824, which goal did the U.S. put first?
1. Preserve independence
2. Maintain security for the nation
3. Seek prosperity for the nation
4. Seek revenge or prestige
5. Spread ideals or ideas

Should American policy be based on our own national interests (protecting our independence, borders, security, power and interests in peace) or should we take the “ high road ” and base our policies on moral principles (such as human rights, democracy) that could serve as a model for others?

 James K. Polk and Manifest Destiny
 Was this war consistent with previous
US foreign policy?
 Who supported War with Mexico?
 Henry Thoreau and Civil Disobedience
(jailed because he refused to pay a federal taxes which he believed paid for an unjust war)

Aftermath of the Mexican American
War for Indians
 Continual Warfare on Great Plains &
West
 1870 ’ s movement to Reservations
 Battle of Little Big Horn (1876) - one of the few Indian “ victories ”
 The Massacre at Wounded Knee 1890one of the last of many brutal defeats
 Dawes Severalty Act, 1887

 Warhawks
 Rush-Bagot Treaty 1817
 Convention of 1818
 Caroline Affair 1837-8
 Aroostook War 1839
 Webster-Ashburton Treaty, 1842
 Buchanan-Pakenham Treaty, 1846
 Alaska Purchase and Seward, 1867

th
Economic motivations: new markets, new resources
Ideas about racial supremacy driven by Social
Darwinism
Manifest Destiny-extended
Military considerations (strategic, defensive)
Alfred Mahan & “ The New Navy ”
US exceptionalism (1 st crusade for the U.S.)

Offer to purchase Cuba from Spain in
1848 and 1854
Alaska 1867
Pago-Pago, Samoa 1878
Pearl Harbor 1884
Hawaii 1898

Strong imperialist platform
Economic expansion guides position
Overseas expansion good for US industry
“ sympathy for Cuba ”
Nicaraguan Canal and purchase of
Danish West Indies
Annexation of Hawaii
Queen Liliuokalani

Spanish American War 1898-1900
Cuba
“ Maine ” incident, yellow journalism, jingoism & war fever
Rough Riders & Theodore Roosevelt
US acquires Philippines, Puerto Rico,
Guam

McKinley: Open Door Policy
Roosevelt: Panama Canal, Roosevelt
Corollary to Monroe Doctrine, “ Walk
Softly and Carry a Big Stick
Taft: Dollar Diplomacy (private funds to pursue diplomatic goals

Pre-WWI Imperialism Focal Points
Philippine Revolution
Cuba (Platt Amend)
Latin American interventions
(numerous)
Balancing Japan ’ s growing dominance in Asia with US-
Japanese economic ties
Panama Canal
China: getting a toehold in China trade

WW I: From Neutrality to Versailles
Traditional neutrality
Challenges to neutrality: u-boats, US business loans, munitions trade,
RMS Lusitania propaganda, some pro-war advocates (TR)
Wilson ’ s 1916 Pledge: To keep us out of war
Wilson ’ s 1917 statement to “ make the world safe for democracy ” . (2 nd crusade for the
US)

14 Points largely disregarded
Fight for Ratification of the Treaty
Henry Cabot Lodge and American
Isolationists prevail-reject League of Nations
US returns to its “ isolationist ” position vis a vis Europe
“ Lessons ” of WWI, Red Scare & Peace
Movement

Sources:
American Foreign Policy by Leonard James
American Foreign Policy by Thomas Fitzgerald
American Foreign Policy.ppt by Joyce Williams & Justin Hill, RCPS
(h t t p:// sp.rpcs.org/faculty/HillJ/ AP US History/
American Foreign Foreign Policy.pdf