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23 results

Page 1 of 2

  • 9 - The Imperial Crisis
  • William Earl Weeks, San Diego State University
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations
  • Published online: 05 February 2013
  • Print publication: 28 February 2013, pp 239-272
  • View abstract

    Summary

    France, led by Napoleon, vindicated Adams's limited war policy by agreeing to settle the commercial policy dispute. The Convention of 1800 with France and the temporary cessation of hostilities in Europe combined to create a period of calm before the accession in March 1801 of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency. Some Federalists at the time and some historians since have portrayed the Louisiana Purchase as a stroke of diplomatic luck that owed little to Jefferson's presidential leadership. Jefferson's war on Barbary piracy represented a similar expansion of both the imperial reach of the United States and the power of the executive to make war. On June 22, 1807, the British warship HMS Leopard, patrolling the lower Chesapeake Bay, overtook and broadsided an American frigate, which was en route to the Mediterranean to take part in the Barbary War. Jefferson saw the embargo as a means of bringing back the self-sacrifice and patriotism that epitomized 'the Spirit of 76'.
  • 5 - Freedom’s Empire, at Home and Abroad
  • William Earl Weeks, San Diego State University
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations
  • Published online: 05 February 2013
  • Print publication: 28 February 2013, pp 121-149
  • View extract

    Summary

    The dynamic process of commercial expansion, dramatic technological change, and outsized accomplishment gave rise to an outlook known as Manifest Destiny, the dominant ideology of the period 1815-61. Any history of the antebellum American Empire between the end of the War of 1812 and the beginning of the Civil War must emphasize the critical importance of cotton. The explosion of cotton production and its importance to national prosperity were boosted by revolutionary developments in transportation and communication. The creation of an American empire of commerce depended upon the creation of an American empire of the seas. American whaling reached the peak of its profitability in the 1850s, before new sources of lamp oil and the Civil War decimated the fleet. The origin of the American missionary movement is to be found in a prophetic vision experienced by a Massachusetts college student. Americans missionaries and whalers came together to secure the Hawaiian Islands as an American outpost.
  • 8 - Disunion
  • William Earl Weeks, San Diego State University
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations
  • Published online: 05 February 2013
  • Print publication: 28 February 2013, pp 210-238
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Victory over Great Britain brought forth a wave of proto-nationalist literature, much of it emerging from the nation's few institutions of higher learning. The immediate postwar period found the United States facing imposing challenges, both domestic and foreign, which threatened to shatter the unity essential to the nation's future. Americans did not let concerns about the French revolutionary experiment prevent them from attempting to profit from the European war. Facing challenges to their economic interests on the high seas, Americans also confronted an ongoing war with the Indians on the western frontier, especially in the Ohio Country. Wayne's defeat of the Miami Confederacy in August 1794 had paved the way for the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, finally securing the Ohio Country for the United States. The crushing of the whiskey rebels in November 1794 had served notice far beyond western Pennsylvania that the new sovereignty established by the Constitution had teeth and was not to be taken lightly.
  • 7 - Bullying Britain, Conquering Mexico, Claiming the Canal
  • William Earl Weeks, San Diego State University
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations
  • Published online: 05 February 2013
  • Print publication: 28 February 2013, pp 178-209
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Franklin's vision of an expanding British North American empire required a colonial union. The lesson, Franklin learned from the example of the Six Nations Confederacy was about the importance of union to the establishment of the imperial control of North America. The most radical aspect of Franklin's vision was his conception of an emerging parity between England and the colonies. Washington's and Franklin's efforts to spur unity suggest that the move toward the creation of an American union is best understood as a 'grasstips' movement. Franklin and Washington's participation in the expansionist thrust reflected both the personal and the public interests each had in acquiring control of the Ohio Country. The revolutionary faction in the colonies wouldn't accept political subordination or limitations on its territorial and commercial expansionism. The bloody battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 marked the beginning of a de facto war of independence for the colonies.
  • Bibliographic Essay
  • William Earl Weeks, San Diego State University
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations
  • Published online: 05 February 2013
  • Print publication: 28 February 2013, pp 273-290
  • View abstract

    Summary

    Taylor sees four intertwined dimensions to the Civil War of 1812. First, a struggle between Loyalists and Americans for control of the new province of Upper Canada. Second, the efforts of Irish immigrants to the United States, many of them recent, to continue their ongoing struggle against British colonialism, this time in Canada under the American flag. Third, the involvement of Native American tribes on both sides of the conflict, pursuing their individual agendas, often against other Indians. Fourth, an intense domestic partisanship that spilled into outright treason as some members of the Federalist party served as spies and smugglers for the British. The War of 1812 stands as an important victory for the American Empire. The return of peace and the end of the high seas controversies caused by the Napoleonic Wars did much to change the national mood after 1815. James Monroe is the least renowned of the three Virginians elected to the presidency between 1800 and 1820.
  • 2 - A Perilous Union
  • William Earl Weeks, San Diego State University
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations
  • Published online: 05 February 2013
  • Print publication: 28 February 2013, pp 34-63
  • View extract

    Summary

    Victory over Great Britain brought forth a wave of proto-nationalist literature, much of it emerging from the nation's few institutions of higher learning. The immediate postwar period found the United States facing imposing challenges, both domestic and foreign, which threatened to shatter the unity essential to the nation's future. Americans did not let concerns about the French revolutionary experiment prevent them from attempting to profit from the European war. Facing challenges to their economic interests on the high seas, Americans also confronted an ongoing war with the Indians on the western frontier, especially in the Ohio Country. Wayne's defeat of the Miami Confederacy in August 1794 had paved the way for the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, finally securing the Ohio Country for the United States. The crushing of the whiskey rebels in November 1794 had served notice far beyond western Pennsylvania that the new sovereignty established by the Constitution had teeth and was not to be taken lightly.
  • 6 - Expansionist Vistas
  • William Earl Weeks, San Diego State University
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations
  • Published online: 05 February 2013
  • Print publication: 28 February 2013, pp 150-177
  • View extract

    Summary

    Antebellum American expansionism encompassed nearly the entire globe, influencing the course of continental expansionism by introducing global concerns into North American territorial questions. The original American interest in the Oregon Country occurred from west to east, informed by Oregon's potential role in trans-Pacific commerce. California represented an emerging expansionist vista for Americans. By the mid-1840s and notwithstanding the distinctly dubious claims held to both places, California, like Oregon, seemed destined under the will of Heaven to become a part of the United States. A major part of the extensive borderlands between the United States and Hispanic America, Texas constituted a thinly populated area of indeterminate boundaries with tenuous ties to the capital in faraway Mexico City. Thrust upon the biggest stage in American politics, Polk entered the presidency with one of the clearest agendas in American history. Polk first focused on acquiring Oregon, threatening the British with war if an agreement satisfactory to U.S. aspirations could not be worked out.
  • 3 - Expansion, Embargo, and War
  • William Earl Weeks, San Diego State University
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations
  • Published online: 05 February 2013
  • Print publication: 28 February 2013, pp 64-87
  • View extract

    Summary

    France, led by Napoleon, vindicated Adams's limited war policy by agreeing to settle the commercial policy dispute. The Convention of 1800 with France and the temporary cessation of hostilities in Europe combined to create a period of calm before the accession in March 1801 of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency. Some Federalists at the time and some historians since have portrayed the Louisiana Purchase as a stroke of diplomatic luck that owed little to Jefferson's presidential leadership. Jefferson's war on Barbary piracy represented a similar expansion of both the imperial reach of the United States and the power of the executive to make war. On June 22, 1807, the British warship HMS Leopard, patrolling the lower Chesapeake Bay, overtook and broadsided an American frigate, which was en route to the Mediterranean to take part in the Barbary War. Jefferson saw the embargo as a means of bringing back the self-sacrifice and patriotism that epitomized 'the Spirit of 76'.
  • 1 - Origins of the American Empire and Union
  • William Earl Weeks, San Diego State University
  • Book: The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations
  • Published online: 05 February 2013
  • Print publication: 28 February 2013, pp 1-33
  • View extract

    Summary

    Franklin's vision of an expanding British North American empire required a colonial union. The lesson, Franklin learned from the example of the Six Nations Confederacy was about the importance of union to the establishment of the imperial control of North America. The most radical aspect of Franklin's vision was his conception of an emerging parity between England and the colonies. Washington's and Franklin's efforts to spur unity suggest that the move toward the creation of an American union is best understood as a 'grasstips' movement. Franklin and Washington's participation in the expansionist thrust reflected both the personal and the public interests each had in acquiring control of the Ohio Country. The revolutionary faction in the colonies wouldn't accept political subordination or limitations on its territorial and commercial expansionism. The bloody battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775 marked the beginning of a de facto war of independence for the colonies.

Page 1 of 2