US Foreign Policy

US Foreign Policy in the 19th Century

Michael Flynn

Professor

Department of Political Science

115 Calvin Hall

meflynn@ksu.edu

2026-09-02

Lecture Overview

  1. Early Years (1783-1870)

  2. Transitional Period (1870-1945)

  3. Hegemonic Period (1945-2025)

  4. Post-Hegemonic Period (2025-Future)

Key Questions

  1. What are the major periods in US foreign policy?

  2. What have been some of the key political and economic divides in each time period?

  3. What elements of US foreign policy are common across time period? What changes substantially?

  4. How do we reconcile the process of US expansion with popular rhetoric about democracy and (more recently) human rights?

  5. How does popular historical memory of these earlier time periods shape views on policy today?

Why do we care?

  1. Try to obtain a basic level of descriptive accuracy

  2. Find out if reality matches our basic assumption

  3. Identify, or rule out, potential causal factors

The Basics

The Basics

  • US is territorially much, much smaller

  • US interactions with other nations were limited

  • World is a bigger place

  • US had no alliances with other states until the 20th century

  • Military was very small

  • Low defense expenditures

  • US and global trade were very low through 1970s

The Early Years

The Early Years

  • Treaty of Paris: September 3, 1783

  • Officially ends war with Great Britain

  • Freedom!

The Early Years

  • Treaty of Paris: September 3, 1783

  • Officially ends war with Great Britain

  • Freedom!

  • But there were new enemies…DUN DUN DUN!

The Early Years

  • America still relatively weak

  • Small population, no military, not economically developed/diversified

  • Still vulnerable to attack and economic exploitation

  • Key Conflicts:

    • Managing relations with major powers

    • English and Spanish territories in Canada and Florida

    • Territorial conflicts with Native Americans on frontier

    • Access to the Mississippi

    • Access to foreign markets and shipping rights

The Early Years

Mercantilism: An economic doctrine based on a belief that military power and economic influence complemented each other; applied especially to colonial empires in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Mercantilist policies favored the mother country over its colonies and over its competitors. Frieden, Lake, and Schultz p. A-4.

Zero-sum game: The idea that for one player or group to gain something another player or group must lose something.

The Early Years

Washington’s Farewell Address:

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connexion [sic] as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.

The Early Years

Alexander Hamilton

Thomas Jefferson

The Early Years

Napoleon Bonaparte

Robert Livingston

The Early Years

The Monroe Doctrine

  • Laid out by President James Monroe in 1823

  • A response to European efforts to re-establish monarchical governments or colonies in the Western Hemisphere

  • Also spurred on by conflict with Russia over Northwestern territories

  • Asserts the US will continue to respect sovereignty of European governments

  • Also says that any attempt by European governments to interfere in Western Hemisphere will be regarded as a threat to US security and interests.

The Early Years

Slave Trade

  • A major issue that tied into conflicts over expansion and foreign relations

  • British abolish slave trade within the Empire in 1807

  • It’s not until 1830s and 1840s that most enslaved peoples are actually freed within the British Empire

  • But early British efforts to police the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade lead to conflict with the United States

  • Expansion into Western territories also exacerbates domestic conflicts over slavery

The Early Years

The Nullification Crisis

  • Tariffs represent a major source of conflict in the early US

  • New tariffs passed in 1828 and 1832

  • Tariffs affect different segments of the population…differently

  • Conflict over tariffs for revenue vs tariffs for protection

  • South Carolina state convention adopts Ordinance of Nullification in 1832

  • President Jackson threatens to send troops to enforce the tariffs

The Early Years

The Aroostook War (aka the Pork and Beans War)

  • The border between Maine and Canada/New Brunswick was disputed.

  • Canadian loggers entered the territory, evoking the anger of American counterparts

  • No actual fighting, though military forces on both sides were mobilized.

Satirical cartoon about the escalation of tensions between the United States and the British Commonwealth during the Aroostook War. U.S. Pres. Martin Van Buren, atop an ox with the head of Maine Gov. John Fairfield, confronts England’s Queen Victoria, who is riding a dog with the head of the duke of Wellington. The ox’s tail is pulled by Virginia congressman Henry A. Wise. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (file no. LC-USZ62-84451)

The Early Years

Mexican–American War (1846–1848)

  • Southwest territory is attractive for several reasons

  • California has valuable ports for commerce with Asia

  • Texas presents opportunities for new land and territory

  • Both territories are viewed as helpful in defending against European aggression

The Early Years

Capture of Monterey (1842)

  • Tensions between United States and Mexico were high before the Mexican–American War erupted in 1846

  • Capture of Monterey in 1842

  • US Navy Commodore Thomas Catesby decided to act on rumors that US and Mexico were at war

  • Upon realizing that the US and Mexico were not at war, Catesby apologized, returend the fort to Mexican troops, held a banquet for the garrison, and sailed away.

Commodore Thomas Catesby

The Early Years

Manifest Destiny

  • The term is attributed to John L. O’Sullivan in 1845

  • A succinct way of saying that America’s westward expansion was clearly and divinely mandated.

  • Deployed in different ways by different coalitions, but ultimately used as a slogan to justify various policies associated with Westward expansion.

The Early Years

Civil War

  • North-South split very deep (slavery, economics, expansion, trade, etc)

  • In reality, these are all very closely connected

  • Economic interests of the North and South were fundamentally different

The Early Years

Civil War: International Dimension

  • European attitudes are mixed (oppose slavery, but want weak America)

  • Some British politicians supported the North, but many favored the South in an effort to keep the United States divided

  • Weakened United States would pose less of a threat to British hegemony

  • Independent Southern states would change dynamics of international trade in Britain’s favor

Transition

Transition

  • US emerges from Civil War as a major power

  • US economy grows rapidly, surpassing Great Britain somewhere in the 1870s

  • Policymakers start thinking about the US’ role in the broader world

  • Attention turns to acquiring overseas territories (i.e. colonies)

  • The Spanish American War presents the first opportunities for the US to acquire overseas territories

  • Spain loses; US walks away with the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba (sort of)

Transition

Supporters of expansion cite:

  • Need for a strong navy
  • Economy benefits and secure trade markets
  • National pride
  • Monroe Doctrine
  • Religion

Opponents of expansion cite:

  • History
  • Washington’s Farewell Address
  • Costs of empire
  • Monroe Doctrine
  • Religion

Rise to Great Power Status

Rise to Great Power Status

World War I

United States enters the war in 1917

  • Initially neutral

  • German submarine warfare targets American merchant shipping

  • Sinking of the Lusitania

  • Stalemate in Europe as war drags on

Rise to Great Power Status

Consequences of the war:

  • Breakdown of old imperial powers
  • Austo-Hungarian Empire collapses
  • Ottoman Empire collapses
  • German Empire defeated
  • Creation of several new states
  • Nationalism as a driving force in European politics
  • Partition of Middle East
  • Russian Revolution
  • US rejects global leadership role
  • New forms of warfare emerge
  • League of Nations created
  • Reparations imposed on Germany
  • Turkey stripped of territory, resources

Rise to Great Power Status

Treaty of Versailles

  • Often viewed as unfair/unreasonable

  • France aimed to punish Germany

  • Severe reparations imposed on Germany

  • Industrial resources seized

  • US Senate rejects Treaty of Versailles Twice

League of Nations:

  • Viewed as a contrast to previous international orders

  • Provides for collective security

  • Emphasizes self-determination

  • Free trade

Henry Cabot Lodge

Henry Stimson

Rise to Great Power Status

German domesic politics

  • Germany recovering from initial economic woes, but hit hard by the depression

  • Radical political parties benefit from economic crisis

  • Hitler rises to power in 1933

Rise to Great Power Status

German foreign policy actions

  • Germany, Italy, and Japan sign a series of treaties between 1936 and 1937

  • March 1938 Germany annexes Austria by “request”

  • September 1938 Germany annexes Sudentenland (part of Czechoslovakia)

Rise to Great Power Status

Steps to war

  • September 3, 1939 Germany invades Poland

  • British and French declare war by day’s end

  • By July 1940 France falls to Germany forces

  • Battle of Britain begins in August 1940

Rise to Great Power Status

Japanese foreign policy actions

  • Japanese military occupied Manchuria in 1931

  • Extends control of China through early 1940s

  • Japanese seeking to secure access to materials like oil and rubber

  • Expansion brings Japan into conflict with Western powers throughout the Pacific

Japanese imports of raw materials as percentage of consumption
Resource Percent
Steel 40%
Nickel 100%
Aluminum 60%
Iron Ore 85%
Oil 80%
Note: Data obtained from John Keegan. The Second World War.

Rise to Great Power Status

The US in the 1930s

  • US resists-ish steps to mobilize for war

  • Congress imposes arms embargo on belligerent nations

  • Congress passes Neutrality Acts 1935-1939

  • December 7, 1941 Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor naval base