American Foreign Policy

AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY

FROM ISOLATION TO WORLD POWER

By Matt Dummeldinger, Luke Bradshaw and Dan “Dirty” Murt

WASHINGTON AT THE HEAD• War breaks out between Britain and France

• Washington declares the Neutrality Proclamation of 1793 despite greatly offending Jeffersonians

• Genet is sent over to America and deported after trying to gain support for the French cause

• Britain occupies land given to America in Treaty of 1783 and incites Native Americans to riot. Britain also impresses U.S. sailors• Jay Treaty – British “evacuate” and pay for ships

THE PRECEDENT• Washington issues his Farewell Address

• Avoid permanent political alliances; use temporary economic ones – sets tone of American politics for following years

ADAMS MOVES IN

FOREIGN PROVOCATION• XYZ Affair, and naval warfare with France

• Despite the outrage of the XYZ Affair and intense popular opinion to fight with France, Adams follows the Farewell Address signs the Convention of 1800 and ends the Franco-American Treaty

• Louisiana Purchase• Jefferson shrewdly plays into the French and British rivalry

and purchases a vast amount of territory

EVEN MORE FOREIGN PROVOCATION!• Barbary Pirates raid merchant ships and blackmail

countries for safety• Jefferson gets involved, the first official American offensive• Once it’s over, he creates the mosquito fleet in order to

avoid future conflict on the high seas

• British frigate opens fire on Chesapeake and impresses sailors – country in uproar• Jefferson uses the Non-Importation Act and the Embargo

Act just so that America can remain in isolation. Later replaced with the Non-Intercourse Act.

• Shows attempt to avoid war with economic measures

WAR OF 1812 – AMERICA’S FIRST “BIG ONE’• British were arming Indians, impressing sailors and

violating America’s rights as a neutral• After a lousy war, save for the Battle of New Orleans, the

Treaty of Ghent restores pre-war boundaries• Last conflict with Britain

MINI DISPUTES WITH BRITAIN• Arms race on the Great Lakes with Britain

• Leads to Rush-Bagot Agreement, which created friendly relations between America and Canada and the longest unfortified border in the world

• Caroline Affair ends with an American ship plunging over the Niagara Falls• Solved by Webster-Ashburn Treaty

• Oregon Dispute settled by Americans and British• Americans compromise on the boundary

but essentially obtain Oregon to avoid two wars

MONROE DOCTRINE• Russia was moving in on Alaska and Britain was trying to

tie America’s hands with the Cuba situation• MONROE DOCTRINE IS BORN• Monroe declares noncolonization and nonintervention to

the European powers• Latin America is the United State’s area – the republics

should be allowed to thrive

• GUIDES AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN LATIN AMERICA

TANTALIZING TEXAS – MANIFEST DESTINY • After receiving Florida, Americans were still greedy for

land and set their eyes on Texas• Americans become unofficially involved in the Texas War

for Independence• Jackson recognizes the Lone Star Republic but doesn’t

admit them to the Union because it would ignite the salve issue

• Polk has no such quarrel and provokes war with Mexico on account of Manifest Destiny• In a brilliant campaign America gains both California and

Texas and pays Mexico (as pity)

NEW ADVENTURES• The continuous waterway from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean

appeals to many and eyes turn towards Latin America• Britain and America make the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty

saying that neither would control the waterway• Matthew C. Perry cracks the Japanese shell and opens

Japan to American markets• Signs Treaty of Kanagawa, which provides for fair

treatment of shipwrecked sailors and American coaling rights

• Sets Japan up for industrialization and the future Japan-America conflict

SYNOPSIS OF FOUNDING TO LINCOLN• Foreign Policy was first dictated and shaped according to

Washington’s Farewell Address. While it still has impact on later American history, it is most felt during this time period

• The Monroe Doctrine was the next major influence on American foreign policy. It essentially stated that North America and South America were the United States’ concern and that the Europeans powers are not to interfere. Later leads to the Roosevelt Corollary.

• The issue of slavery becomes more and more pressing with the addition of more territory – as a result, American foreign policy gets put on the back burner and domestic issues and conflicts among states come to the forefront.

U.S. Foreign Policy: From Lincoln to the

Brink of WWII1861-1933

Lincoln and Johnson: Civil War and Diplomacy

Although Lincoln’s presidency revolved dominantly around domestic upset, his presidency also affected Anglo-American and Franco-American relations as well.

Johnson’s presidency saw both expansion and foreign upset as well

•Trent Affair•Union Naval

Blockade against

Confederates

Union interception of

Confederate diplomats:

Prevention of European

Recognition of Confederacy

Lincoln and Johnson Continued

• French Intervention in Mexico (Mexico

supported by U.S.; France Withdraws)

•Transatlantic cable (Cyrus Field)

•Purchase of Alaska: “Seward’s Folly”

Foreign Policy During The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age continued to revolve around domestic policy and federal corruption within America at the time,

but American foreign policy (especially toward Indians) also laid the foundation for future political engagements to

bring America to the world stage• Sioux and

Apache Wars (Little Big

Horn; Custer)• Dawes

Severalty Act

American Victory; Sioux moved to

Reservations

Allocated Indian lands among tribes

Foreign Policy During The Gilded Age Continued

• Chinese Exclusion Act• Wounded Knee Massacre;

153 dead Lakota• Venezuelan Boundary

Dispute (U.S. intervention in Latin America begins)

• First Pan American Conference

Ban on Chinese labor

immigration

Progressive Foreign PolicyAmerican foreign policy during the Progressive

Era brought America to the world stage and opened America up to imperialist ventures and

international agreements

Spanish-American War•DeLome Letter

•Teller Amendment•Platt Amendment

•Treaty of Paris

Cuban And Philippine occupation

Progressive Foreign Policy Continued• Hawaii Annexation

• Open Door Policy (Boxer Rebellion)

• Panamanian Revolution and Canal construction• Roosevelt Corollary

• Gentlemen's Agreement•Root-Takahira Agreement• Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy

• Lodge Corollary (no strategic foreign territorial

holdings)

U.S. intervention in Latin American conflictsNo Japanese immigrants

Japanese isolation over

Securing U.S. interests in Latin America financially

Foreign Policy During WWIWWI set the stage to prove America’s

competence to the world and provided America with the opportunity to rise to the diplomatic

challenge

Pre- WWI: Mexico Foreign

Policy

• “Watchful Waiting” Policy (non-interventionist for undemocratic Mexico)

• Tampico incident• Veracruz Occupation

WWI Foreign Policy Continued•Neutrality

Proclamation•Sussex Pledge•Zimmerman

Note•Fourteen Points

•League of Nations

•Versailles Treaty

No more unrestricted submarine warfare (broken)

German-Mexican alliance against U.S.; public outcry

against Germany

Wilson’s Peace PlanU.S. didn’t join (irreconcilables)

Heavy German war debt

Foreign Policy from the Great Depression to the brink of WWII

After WWI, foreign policy shifted from Latin America and the European warfront to immigration, disarmament, and reparations plans that would leave America separate from

WWII until 1936

The 1920’s: Limited

Immigration Policy

• Emergency Quota Act of 1921 (strict restrictions on Southeastern

European immigrants)• Immigrant Act of 1924 (more restrictions on “undesirable”

immigrants)

Foreign Policy from the Great Depression to the brink of WWII Continued

• Dawes Plan• Young Plan

• Hoover Moratorium on War Debts• Washington Disarmament

Conference • London Naval Conference

• Kellogg-Briand Pact• Stimson Doctrine

• Good Neighbor Policy (non-intervention in Latin America with

beneficial reciprocal trade agreements)

Attempts to ease German

war debt

Attempts to reduce armaments proportionally

among powers

Weak attempt to “outlaw war”

Non-recognition of Chinese Manchuria

By and large, American foreign policy from Lincoln to the dawn of WWII showed a shift from attempts to secure foreign interests to the benefit of a country in the midst

of a Civil War, to attempts to secure international peace from a country who effectively used foreign policy to not only earn foreign influence and territory, but to

maintain it as well. American foreign policy was revolutionized between 1861 and 1933, in that the U.S. left North America to annex territory like Hawaii and Alaska, as well as taking charge in the Caribbean under Roosevelt, and taking charge in Europe

under Wilson. The term to best describe American foreign policy during this time period would be “globalization”, in that by 1933, the U.S. had become a dominant

world force in not only democracy, but diplomacy as well.

PRE-WWII• GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY IS SET IN TO

MOTION TO IMPROVE RELATIONS WITH LATIN AMERICA.

• PAN-AMERICAN CONFERENCE HELD TO DISCUSS TRADE BETWEEN THE SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES AND THE US.

PRE-WWII (CONT.)US tries to remain isolated from European problems and avoid involvement once Germany invades Poland.The First Neutrality Act is passed to avoid a repeat of WWI. It banned the shipment of war materials to belligerents and forbade U.S. citizens to travel on belligerent vessels.Subsequent Neutrality Acts are passed, but they become progressively weaker.The US eventually allowed trade on a “Cash and Carry” basis, warring nations had to come to the US with cash in hand if they wanted to trade.Lend Lease and Destroyer Acts make the US look not so neutral.

ENTRY INTO WWIIUS declares war on Japan immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor.Allies invade North Africa and move up towards France and Germany through Italy.Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin regularly hold conferences to discuss the aims and progress of the war (Cairo, Tehran, Yalta)

END OF WWIIUS makes the decision to drop the first atomic bomb to end WWII. This leads to every other nation funneling resources into creating their own WMD.Potsdam Conference divvies out portions of Germany for reconstruction.San Francisco Conference created the UN, in which the US is one of 7 nations that has veto power.

COLD WARUS policy becomes aggressively interventionist.The US takes a stand against the USSR’s communist regime with the famous proclamation “Not another inch”.Truman doctrine promises to aid any country that attempts to dispel or defend against communists.The US “fights” communism in China, Cuba, Korea, etc.The space race and arms race are byproducts of the Cold War.The Cold War also results in American paranoia of the communists

50’SUS plays negotiator in the Suez Crisis.US supports Batista in the Cuban Revolution, opposing the Communist Fidel Castro.Satellites begin to enter space as a result of the space race and both the US and Russia come to possess hydrogen bombs.Eisenhower sends CIA agents to Guatemala to overthrow Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán.

KOREANorth Korea invades South Korea unprovoked, which is followed by an immediate call to action of the UN by the US and South Korea.The North Korean Communists were supplied and trained by the Soviets while receiving extra support from the newly communist Chinese.The conflict is still active to this day although subdued by armistice.

US INVOLVEMENT IN CUBA

As a result of Castro’s victory in the Cuban Revolution leads to a group of CIA trained Cuban exiles enlisted by the US to invade Cuba.US demands that Cuba not have missiles after reconnaissance show Soviet missile bases under construction in Cuba.US U-2 spy plane is shot down in the USSR, the US is forced to admit that it had been spying on the Soviets, embarrassing itself on an international scale.The crisis brings the world the closest it had ever been to nuclear war.The crisis ends with the removal of missiles from both Cuba and Turkey.

VIETNAMUS fights with the democratic South Vietnam against the communist North Vietnam (Vietcong).The US destroys North Vietnamese cities with strip bombing, while the Vietcong turn the tide with the use of surprise attacks (Tet Offensive).The US eventually withdraws after 20 years of occupying Vietnam.

LATE 70’SUS plays negotiator once more with the Camp David Accords.The US creates legislation that will give the Panama Canal to the Panamanians.Carter refuses to negotiate with the Iranian terrorists who hold US citizens hostage.Aid given to the Boat People of Vietnam.US recognizes mainland China.Boycott of 1980 Olympics shows that the anti-communist feeling is still alive in the US.

CONCLUSION• America became much more heavily involved in foreign

affairs as a result of WWII. The leaders recognized that a conflict the like of WWII needed to be avoided, and as a result, many treaties and checks on world powers are formed

• The United States certainly has strayed from Washington’s Farewell Address and become a major force in the modern world.