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American Revolution
The American Revolution is significant to America's current foreign policy because we developed relations with foreign countries. We developed poor relations with the English, but good relations with the French and the Spanish. -
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Isolationism
This was the American mindset of not getting too invovled with foreign affairs and protecting America's interests primarily. This continued from the beginning of the country until the Truman Doctrine. -
Washington's Farewell Address
In George Washington's farewell address, he warned against serious involvement with any country. Either positive or negative, getting too involved will result in implacable enemies or dubious friendships. -
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Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the commonly held belief during this time period that the United States was destined to stretch from the east coast to the west coast. Over time this has obviously come to be. -
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Barbary Wars
The United States did not want to pay the Barbary soldiers' bribe. They wanted to pass through a channel and would only do so peacefully if we paid them. We decided to employ the navy, which didn't work too well for us but did send a message to other countries. -
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Embargo Act
This Act made all exports and imports from any country to the United States illegal. The main goal was to make other countries respect our rights. -
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War of 1812
The United States fought against Great Britain, Ireland, and Canada in order to stop impressing United States' citizens into the British Navy and to stop blowing up our ships. This did not really improve our relations with Britain or France. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a policy that viewed any act by Europeans to try to colonize in North or South America would be viewed as threatening. It would also require military intervention. -
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U.S. / Mexican War
During this war, the United States took over land from Mexico that is now the area around/in Texas. -
Annexation of Hawaii
Americans owned many of the products grown and produced in Hawaii. When their Queen started giving people ideas about taking back this land, the United States just annexed it and made it a state instead of working out a compromise. -
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Spanish-American-Cuban War
This was the war in which Cuba fought for its independence from Spain. America basically joined in at the very end so that we could benefit from it. -
Roosevelt Corollary
This was an addition that President Roosevelt made to the Monroe Doctrine. It's summarized by the saying, "speak softly and carry a big stick." -
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World War I
The United States didn't get involved until 1917 because we were too isolationist. The only reason we got involved was because of Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare. -
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World War II
This war was a time when the United States, after being bombed at Pearl Harbor, had no choice but to abandon its isolationist ways and once again get involved in a global conflict. We did establish new friends and enemies, which caused problems later. -
Truman Doctrine
This doctrine is the one that shifted the isolationism policy that America had been subscribed to for so many years. This policy states that the United States woud be directly invovled preventing the spread of communism. -
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Engagement
This ideal is the opposite of isolationism; now America gets involved in conflicts all over the world. There is, of course, disagreement on when and where to get involved, but it differs from isolationism in that we get invovlved in foreign affairs much more often than before. -
Marshall Plan
This plan authorized $13 billion to aid in the recontruction of Europe after World War II. The main reason we did this was so that the European countries wouldn't be impoverished and turn to communism. -
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The Cold War
This "war" is described as tensions between Capitalist and Communist countries. Both sides spent large sums of money on nuclear development, but no real fighting (besides the Vietnam and Korean wars) occured. -
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Vietnam War
During this war, the United States wanted to help the southern part of Vietnam become capitalist and democratic. We set up an election so that southern Vietnam could vote whether they wanted to be a part of northern Vietnam or become independent, but when the United States feared that they would vote to become communist, we cancelled the election and basically accomplished nothing. -
Détene
This was known as the relaxing of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Cold War, Presidents Nixon and Ford decided that it was time to stop having such strict precautions against the Soviet Union, but this didn't have to last for long since the Soviet Union had already begun its decline. -
Carter's emphasis on foreign policy
Jimmy Carter was of the opinion that the United States should get along well with other countries and respect more what they do. He gave Panama back the Panama Canal and also had a big push for worldwide human rights. -
9/11
The terrorist attacks that took place on September 11th were cause for a drastic shift in the United State's then-current foreign policy. We immediately took much stricter measures for immigration and public transportation, and of course began the War on Terror. -
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War on Terror
This war was declared by President Goerge W. Bush following the terrorist attacks on Septemebr 11th. There is much debate over where the war should or shouldn't be and when we should or shouldn't be there.
