American Foreign Policy
1789-1920
A Brief Outline
What is a Foreign Policy?
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
• How
active should America
be in world affairs?
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.
What factors guide a nation to be
isolationist or internationalist?
The simple answer 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 its own 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.
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
ISOLATIONISM
Nonentanglement
CONTINENTAL EXPANSION
Manifest Destiny
IMPERIALISM
Great Crusades
Events that Shaped American
Foreign Policy from 1789-1824
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
French Alliance of 1778
Two treaties- one a commercial agreement
and a political and 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.
Washington’s Farewell Address
Established concept of isolation which
would dominate US foreign policy until the
20th century.
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.
War of 1812
Illustrated the nation’s willingness to
violate the policy of neutrality when it
became advantageous to do so.
Demonstrates the difficulty of noninvolvent when trade and neighbors
bring us into contact with European
powers.
The Monroe Doctrine
Stressed the America’s special interests in
the Western Hemisphere and remains,
with some modifications, viable today.
In response to fears that European
powers including Britain might expand its
influence into the Western Hemisphere.
KEY GUIDING STRATEGEM
No permanent friends, only
permanent objectives
Some Key Early Decisions
Jay Treaty
Pinckney Treaty
XYZ Affair
Louisiana Purchase
Embargo & NonIntercourse Acts
War of 1812
Treaty of Ghent
Rush-Bagot Treaty
Adams-Onis Treaty
Trends Over Time 1789-1824
Tendency toward isolation
Creation of more secure borders
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
The Endless Argument
Should American policy be based on our
own national interests (protecting our
independence, borders, security, power
and interests in peace) or should we
take to the “high road” to base our
policies on moral principles that could
serve as a model for others (human
rights, democracy, etc)
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.
John Quincy Adams:
Accomplishments
Adams-Onis Treaty
gives Florida
(strategic
importance) to US,
eliminated Spain
from contention for
Oregon Territory
Architect of Monroe
Doctrine
Adams’ Vision:
expansion of US to
the Pacific, pursuit
of good relations
with newly
independent nations
in Latin America
Westward Expansion evolves into
Manifest Destiny
Movement of the “frontier line” from
the Fall line in the Piedmont, to the
Appalacians (Proclamtion of 1763),
to the Mississippi River is followed
by the call for Continental
Expansion as our Manifest Destiny.
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
Westward Expansion & Foreign
Policy 1783-1853
Original United
States + Northwest
Territory (1783 GB)
Louisiana Purchase
(1803, FR)
British Cession(1818
Rush-Bagot Treaty
Spanish Cession
(1819, FL- from SP)
Texas Annexation
(1845)
Oregon Country
(1846 BR)
Mexican Cession
(1848 Mex War)
Gadsden Purchase
(1853 Mex)
American Progress by Jonathan Gast, 1872
American Indian Policy
Expansion has implications for American
Indians
Resist, co-exist, migrate
Treaty of Greenville, 1795
Jefferson- Trans-Mississippi “reserve”
Jackson- Indian Removal Act 1830
Major Indian Wars
Old Northwest Territory (Tecumseh, The
Prophet, the Fox, etc)
The Creeks (Alabama, Florida, Western
Tennessee
Seminole- in Florida
Mexican American War
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
Northern Boundary
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
Late 19th Century Imperialism:
The USA Enters the World Stage
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 (1st crusade for the U.S.)
Early Non-Contiguous Expansion
Offer to purchase Cuba from Spain in
1848 and 1854
Alaska 1867
Pago-Pago, Samoa 1878
Pearl Harbor 1884
Hawaii 1898
1896 Republican Party Platform
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, T. Roosevelt & Taft
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 USJapanese 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,
RMS Lusitania
munitions trade,
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”. (2nd crusade for the US)
Wilson’s 14 Points & Versailles
Treaty & the “Lessons of War”
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