Foreign Relations in US History

By Brad and Liam
  • Period: to

    Foreign Policy

  • Treaty of Paris

    The Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years War. In it, Britain recieved rights to all of North America east of the Mississippi River.

  • XYZ Affair

    French diplomats demanded $12 million loan and a $250,000 bribe before they would meet with US diplomats. This caused the US to begin preparing for a war, and resulted in British ships begining to protect US merchant ships.

  • John Jays Treaty

    Dealt with treaties with England
    -controvertial frontier forts
    -supplying Native Americans
    -siezing of merchant ships
    -"enslaving" of US sailors

  • Embargo Act

    Stopped all overseas trade/exports. Killed the New England economy and resulted in industrialization of New England.

  • Chesapeake-Leopard Affair

    This was a short incident that involved an attack by a British ship on an American navy ship.

  • Non-Intercourse Act

    Repealed embargo against all but Great Britain and France

  • Macon's Bill No. 2

    Promised exclusive rights to trade to either Great Britain or France, to whichever one respects US shipping.

  • Treaty of Ghent

    Ended the War of 1812. Neither land lost or gained land.

  • Monroe Doctrine

    -Written by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams
    -Regarded Spanish agression in Latin America
    -forbid European agression in Latin America
    -Promised that the United States would remain distant from any wars in Europe

  • Recnition of Texas

    Official recognition of Texas as an independent nation from Mexico.

  • Treaty of Kanagawa

    Opened up Japan to Western trade.

  • Chinese Exclusion Act

    This act was passed into law by Chester A. Arthur to suspend the immigration of Chinese citizens into the United States. The act came as a result of animosity towards Chinese settlers that were believed by many to be causing lower wages and taking jobs from Americans.

  • Spanish American War

    brought the US onto the imperial stage in the world.

  • Annexation of Hawaii

  • Hay-Pauncefote Treaty

  • Platt Amendment

    The US gained the right to intervene in Cuba.

  • Hay‐Bunau‐Varilla Treaty

    The US gained control of the Panama Canal land.

  • Panama Canal

    On this date, construction began on the Panama Canal. Before this could happen, The US had to cause a revolution to free Panama from Colombia. The US worked with the French, who had land in Panama from years before, to get an agreement passed to construct the canal.

  • Treaty of Portsmouth

    Ended the Russo-Japanese War by US controlling the peace process.

  • Roosevelt Corollary

  • US Great White Fleet

    The Great White Fleet was the US Naval fleet. Roosevelt sent the entire fleet on a trip around the globe to demonstrate the power of the Navy. The ships were greeted with excitement everywhere, all over the world. This is an example of Roosevelt's Big Stick Diplomacy.

  • Underwood-Simmons Tariff

  • sinking of the Lusitania

    The passenger ship, RMS Lusitania, was torpedoed by a German U-Boat, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. Though the ship was carrying ammunition to supply the Allied war effort, Americans saw this as an attack on innocents and raised Anti-German feelings.

  • Sinking of the Sussex and the Sussex Ultimatum

    The French passenger ferry, the Sussex, was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in the English Channel. This outraged the American public and government, and led to Wilsons forcing Germany to agree to the Sussex Ulitmatum, in which Wilson threatened to cut all diplomatic relations with Germany if it did not stop its practice of unrestricted submarine warfare. Germany accepted with the exception that America would not support the British blockade of German ports.

  • Zimmerman Telegram

    The British military intercepted a secret cable from the German ambassador to the United States, Arthur Zimmerman, to the German ambassador to Mexico that proposed a German-Mexican alliance. This was the final straw for Wilson and he soon asked Congress for a declaration of war, thus beginning America's official involvement in WWI.

  • President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points Address

    To ensure the nation that U.S. involvement in WWI was for moral reasons, Wilson's presented his 14 goals for the post-war world including freedom of the seas, self-determination for different European ethnicities, end to secret treaties, and most importantly the creation of a League of Nations. Americans and Europeans greeted Wilson's idealism with great joy, but as the Paris Peace Conference began it became evident that the his points would have to settle for compromise.

  • Sacco and Vanzetti Trial

    Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian immigrants that were known anarchists. They were convicted of murder and armed robbery and were executed despite a lack of evidence. Immigrants in the United States saw it as racist and anti-immigrant, while other people all over the world were up in arms over the unfair conviction. Socialists within the Unietd States tried to campaign for a retrial but to no avail. Jurors houses were also bombed, but the pair was eventually executed.

  • Emergency Quota Act of 1921

    This act was passed to try to limit the flow of immigrants into the country. The act said that 3% of the number of residents in the United States from a given country at the time of the 1910 census were permitted to immigrate into the country. The act did not apply to professionals trying to enter into the country.

  • Immigration Act of 1924

    This act further limited immigration by lowering the percentage to 2% of residents from a given country at the time of the 1890 census. The goal of this act was to limit the number of Eastern and Southern Europeans going into the country.

  • Kellog-Briand Pact

    This pact, signed by many countries, renounced aggressive war. The pact prohibited the use of war for any means other than self-defense, though it did not provide for any punishment for breaking the pact. This pact really had no major impact in ending war, as was intended, but it did provide a base for trials such as those of the Nazi leaders that started WWII.

  • Neutrality Act of 1935

    The act established an embargo on trading arms or war materials with any belligerents in reponse to isolationist feelings in America. The act expired after 6 months.

  • Neutrality Act of 1936

    This act renewed provisions of the Neutrality Act of 1935 for 14 months, but also forbade all loans or credits to belligerents.

  • Neutrality Act of 1937

    Restablished provisions set by previous two acts, except that provisions now covered civil wars (in reponse in the Spanish Civil War) and U.S. citizens could not be travelling in areas deemed war zones by the President. This act also came with no expiration date.

  • Neutrality Act of 1939

    In response to the German invasion of Czechoslovakia, this neutrality act was passed, but with a renewal of the cash and carry policy. This policy allowed for the sale of supplies and materials to belligerents, as long as the goods were carried on belligerent ships and goods were paid for in cash.

  • America First Committee

    An isolationist group, it opposed U.S. entry into WWII. Peaking to 800,000 members, it was the largest anti-war organization in American history. The group essentially broke apart after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941.

  • Atlantic Charter

    Signed by FDR and British Prime Minister WInston Churchill and endorsed by Stalin and the USSR, it outlined plans for a post-war world. The Charter called for self-determination, establishment of new government in fascist nations, disarmament, and a permanent peace-keeping force similar to the League of Nations. The Charter was condemned by isolationists, but supported by Ally supporters and liberals.

  • Destroyers for Bases

    In an agreement made by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, the trade of U.S. World War I destroyers to Britain for British bases in the Western Hemisphere was a significant step in American involovement in World War II.

  • Bracero Program

    The Bracero Program was a series of laws and agreements between the United States and Mexico for the US to be supplied with contract laborers. The program was designed to prevent illegal immigration, but it ended up having the opposite effect. This is because illegal immigrans did not need to be paid the minimum wage establish by the program, nor did they require the benefits that braceros were afforded. The prgram was also implemented to increase the amount of available labor during WWI.

  • United Nations

    The United Nations, whose headquarters in located in New York City, is an international peace-keeping force established post-WWII. Contrived in the Atlantic Charter and set-up to avoid a WWIII, it was given much more power and authority than its predecessor, the doomed League of Nations. The UN features a Security Council with 5 permanent members (US, UK, France, China, USSR*) and 10 non-permanent members. The UN's first major decision permitted military force in the Korean War.

  • Truman Doctrine

    In a speech made in March 1947, Truman asked Congress to send $400 million to anti-communist regimes in Turkey and Greece. Fearing the growth of the Soviet fear of influence, what later became known as the Truman Doctrine redirected foreign policy to be the United States support of "free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."

  • NATO

    The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, first created by West European Nations, is an alliance among the democratic states of Europe and North America. The alliance was an uncommon practice during peacetime for America, but the Truman administration saw it as an oppurtunity to bolster defenses against the USSR. NATO became the cornerstone of American foreign policy in Europe and was a significant step in the militarization of the Cold War. Communist nations retaliated and signed the Warsaw Pact.

  • U-2 Incident

    While Eisenhower was President, the US was spying on the USSR through various means, including through planes. One such plane was shot down over the USSR, and the remains and surviving pilot were discovered by the Soviet government. The incident and subsequent anger by the USSR government led to deterioration of relations between the two powers before and East-West summit in Paris.

  • Peace Corps

    The peace corps was developed on the above date because the United States wanted to better relations with Latin America. The Peace Corps goes into third world countries and helps rebuild and better the countries. The peace corps also sought to increase US sphere of influence in the weaker countries.

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

    After Bay of Pigs and other unsuccessful attempts by the US to overthrow Castro, the USSR began to build bases and put nuclear missiles on Cuba. The US discovered the missiles and threatened to attack if the USSR did not remove the missiles. After days of stand of, the USSR removed the missiles and Khruschev was later forced to resign. This was a great triumph for American diplomacy.

  • Detente

    Detente was a period of eased tensions between the United States and the USSR during the Nixon administration. Major milestones during the "relaxed period" include the China and USSR summits and the signing of the SALT I treaty. Later presidents like Carter and Ford tried to continue the detente, but relations broke off after a number of disagreements, most notably Soviet agression in Afghanistan.

  • Vietnamization

    President Richard Nixon's strategy for ending U.S involvement in the Vietnam war, involving a gradual withdrawal of American troops and replacement of them with South Vietnamese forces

  • SALT

    negotiations between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics opened in 1969 in Helsinki designed to limit both countries' stock of nuclear weapons

  • Iran Hostage Crisis

    In November 1979, revolutionaries stormed the American embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage. The Carter administration tried unsuccessfully to negotiate for the hostages release. On January 20, 1981, the day Carter left office, Iran released the Americans, ending their 444 days in captivity.

  • Reagan Doctrine

    Policy that the United States would provide military assistance to anti-communist groups fighting against pro-soviet governments.