Post Civil War Foreign Policy Analysis

Throughout the history of the United States, America had a desire to expand its boundaries. The United States acquired most of it's land during the nineteenth and early twentieth century with a brief break during the Civil War and Reconstruction. However, the way America went about graining new lands drastically changed from non-aggressive means in the beginning to extremely aggressive means towards the end. This essay will depict the extent to how late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century United States expansionism was a continuation

Throughout the years, the United States government had made drastic changes in its foreign policies. The few decades from 1880 to 1910, which saw five different presidents all with very distinct foreign policies, were no exception. As a country, the United States progressed from being a country only concerned with expanding its territory out west, to being a country on the verge of becoming involved in the First World War.

The Monroe Doctrine was established by U.S. president James Monroe and the U.S. secretary of state John Quincy Adams. Their plan of the Monroe Doctrine represented a solid line where the Americans will no longer tolerate interference from European powers in any way shape or form. For the most part, America was minding its own business until Imperialism started booming in the late 1800’s. Latin America was less developed and America saw South and Central America as perfect candidates to extract resources and sell U.S. goods. The culture of capitalism was on the rise. The start of Manifest Destiny began to construct U.S. foreign policy which led to America reaching towards the Caribbean and Latin America to expand.

1d) monroe doctrine: stated the United States would not get involved in the internal affairs of European countries, the United States would recognized the existing colonies and states in the Western Hemisphere and would not interfere with them, the United States would not permit any colonization of the Western Hemisphere, and any attempt by European power to control the nation in the Western Hemisphere would be viewed as a hostile act towards out country.

When the Monroe Doctrine was first implemented many Americans felt a sense of duty. They felt obligated to protect lands near their country who also wanted the same dream Americans once had. Independence. However as time went on America slowly became a country hungry for power, materials, and most of all land. Resorting to using cheap tricks and methods to provoke another country to go into a war that they will surely lose against the United States. Due to this, the foreign policy actions the United States implemented did reflect the selfish imperialist ambitions they had due to the wars they got into, America’s belief that it was their “destiny” to gain land, and the cunning tricks they used to take land from an independent nation

When America was just starting out, they needed a way to protect their land from the colonization of other countries. President James Monroe devised a policy that would not only warn Europeans not to interfere with American land, but would also show that America was powerful. This policy is known as the Monroe Doctrine.

In the 1860s and early 1870s, the U.S. focused primarily on domestic issues, such as settlement of the American West. Apart from acquiring Alaska from Russia in 1867, the U.S. achieved little in the area of foreign expansion at this time. However, by the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, United States expansionism looked abroad with new interest, because, as a rising industrial power, the U.S. needed to find foreign markets in which to sell its manufactured products and from which to acquire raw goods. This new age of United States expansionism was a continuation of past expansionism. America 's hunger for land and power led it to depart from its original foreign policies and expand worldwide, such as large parts of South America and the Caribbean.

While the foundation of America was rooted on religious freedom and the ability to coexist peacefully with different cultures, races, religions and ideologies after the Revolutionary war Americans became to sing a different tune. Manifest destiny is the belief that it is God’s blessing for your country and that your races is superior to all the rest already inhabiting the territory. One fundamental belief of manifest destiny is that society as a whole is pushing towards a greater society. This ideal puts the white American culture on a pedestal and makes this the ideal culture the country is centered and built around. Another idea of manifest destiny is that expanding the country’s borders will help to protect the country. These two ideas where the case for manifest destiny is based around. Many people of that time believed that the Christian culture of that day was more advanced and that they were more enlightened than the surrounding cultures. This belief

At the turn of the century, and after gaining our independence, the United States land mass more than doubled through the use of purchasing, annexing, and war. However, the foreign policy of our government took a predominately isolationist stand. This was a national policy of abstaining from political or economic relations with other countries. General Washington shaped these values by upholding and encouraging the use of these principles by warning to avoid alliances in his farewell speech. The reasoning behind these actions was that the Republic was a new nation. We did not have the resources or the means to worry about other

Manifest Destiny is a term that was first coined in 1845 by a journalist named John L. O’Sullivan, and was described as America’s destiny to expand, and that it was God’s will that America was to expand. According to Genovese, “The notion of westward expansion and domination of the white races struck a responsive chord in many Americans” (Genovese, 2017). The idea of expanding America’s territory was so popular that is was even later used in Congress to justify the claiming of Oregon’s territory. While the idea of expanding America seemed great to the Americans, it was not so great for those who were living on the land that the Americans would later claim. According to Hastedt, “The failure to assimilate and prosper was the fault of those receiving America’s goodness” (Hastedt, 2016). The Americans felt that they were superior to those whose lands they were trying to take, such as the Native Americans and Mexicans, and that they should be the ones to adopt American culture, even if they were there before the Americans claimed the land. The Americans even thought that those whose lands they were taking would be happy to convert to their way of living, as is stated by Hastedt, “The inherent superiority of American Values was sure to be recognized by those with whom they came in contact and would gladly be adopted” (Hastedt, 2016). This mindset would ultimately lead to the expansion of America, turning it into what we know today, but it would also ultimately result in conflict with those that the American’s were attempting to take the land from for the sake of expansion.

After the War of 1812, America gained a sense of “national identity.” America was no longer a ‘baby nation’ that relied on the British. This idea of national identity lead to the expansion of the United States. People began to believe that it was America’s destiny to expand and conquer more territory. This became known as Manifest Destiny, and it was a belief that the United States should expand westward. Back then, the west was a wild and unknown place. However, in the 1840’s and 1850’s, thousands of Americans migrated west in hopes of new opportunities and a better life (Texas). There was, however, a small problem with expanding west; some of this land was controlled by other strong nations, such as the Spanish, in current-day Texas. The

Through the strong foundation of Isolationism and the policies enacted such as The Monroe Doctrine, the United States played a largely neutral role in foreign affairs. The Monroe Doctrine passed in 1823 was to forbid European nations from colonizing any territory in the Western Hemisphere. Although the United States didn’t have the authority or firepower to back this up, it resulted in almost four decades of compulsory US involvement in any foreign affair. After the Civil War, Isolationistic practices grew stronger as the government had to find a way to re-unite the torn nation. President Grover Cleveland promised to avoid committing the nation to form any alliances with other countries while also opposed to the acquisition of new land. The climate of post Civil War US prevented us from deep involvement in foreign affairs. Our navy was also weakened by the war. Our natural resources were scarce and our diplomatic relations with other countries had been neglected. With the attention of our government focused solely on our nation, we proceeded to develop our interior. One of the biggest reasons for growth in US land mass was the public idea of Manifest

In their book American Foreign Policy since World War 2, Steven W. Hook, and John Spanier take a historical look at American foreign policy. Since its independence, all through to the start of the 20th century, the United States had a policy of detachment. This was rooted in the believe that Europe, the only other meaningful powerful in the world in the 18th and 19th century, had intrinsic issues related to feudism that kept the continent in a constant state of war (Hook & Spanier, 2015). The U.S on its part was far away from Europe and had a unique chance to chart a different course, one free from the troubles of Europe. As a democracy free from the class systems of Europe and hence maintain peace and stability (Hook & Spanier, 2015). To maintain this peace and stability, it was in the United States interests to maintain detachment from Europe. In fact, Monroe wrote that Europe and its flawed system was evil and America should strive as much as possible to stay away from it (Hook & Spanier, 2015). However, in the 20th century, this policy of detachment was put to the test when the United States was drawn into the first and second world wars by external factors. This led the United States to get more engaged in global affairs. The idea behind engagement was to promote the ideals of democracy which, the U.S believed were the pillars of peace, as well as to protect itself from aggressors like Japan in the Second World War. After the

During the mid-nineteenth century, the rise of new territories increased the desire of Americans to expand into new territories in the western region. The term “Manifest Destiny” was first introduced by a magazine editor, John O’Sullivan, written in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review in 1845 to express the idea that the United States had a unique role in expanding the nation (OpenStax College 316,483). Manifest Destiny is widely defined as a justification of continental expansion as a calling to the American citizens to unify the land into the Union. I view Manifest Destiny as white males expressing their ideals of white supremacy unavoidably expanding new territories not yet defined by others (). With the new western land came the revival of the issue of slavery, should new territories become free or slave states? In several cases, the white settlers inflicted their morals about their policies and views of slavery in new territories acquired and bypassed all other principles of different races. They saw that their morals were above all and that they received a message from God to colonize the new land for themselves. Although Manifest Destiny posed conflict against Native Americans and slaves, new land and trade routes steered the United States to enter a realm of economic prosperity.

     Throughout American History the U.S. has sought to expand its boundaries. This need increased greatly during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century with the start of the industrial revolution. This Expansion was a big departure from earlier attempts to expand the boundaries of the U.S. The needed for Natural resources forced the U.S to look for places that could supply them with the natural resources they needed and markets where they could sell their goods in. The need to imperialize caused the U.S. to look to foreign places to gain resources to better the nations industries.