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EUROPEAN - US DIPLOMATIC HISTORY
In his farewell address, Pres. Washington warned of
“entangling alliances”. He saw the political turmoil that already existed
in Europe and felt that the less involved Americans were in those battles,
the better off they were. His words were largely heeded. However, this did
not mean that the United States isolated itself from Europe, on the contrary,
the U.S. sent out representatives to many European countries.
To do anything less would have been unlikely, for America was born in political intrigue and complex alliances. During the colonial period dynastic, religious, and ethnic rivalries frequently produced bloodshed between Protestant British and French Catholic settlers, The fighting did not entirely stop until the French were largely evicted from North America after the French and Indian War (Seven Years’ War). When the British colonies revolted, France retaliated by secretly supplying the rebels with guns and other supplies.
After Congress declared independence in July 1776 it sent agents to Europe to recruit officers for the Continental Army, such as the Marquis de Lafayette. Despite a lingering distrust of France, the agents also requested an alliance. After readying their fleet and being impressed by the American victory at Saratoga in October 1777, the French in the following February concluded treaties of commerce and alliance that bound them to fight Britain until American independence was assured.
During the peace negotiations between the Americans and the British in Paris a final agreement was delayed by French diplomatic maneuvering and Spanish insistence that Gibraltar be taken before any negotiations were made (Gibraltar was never taken.). When it appeared likely that the American “allies” would negotiate a treaty extremely unfavorable to the U.S., the Americans negotiated a separate treaty. Nevertheless the European contribution to American independence was decisive.
After the end of the Revolutionary war, relations with Britain continued to deteriorate. Britain would not evacuate forts in the Northwest that it had previously pledged to do. Hostility reached a zenith with the signing of the Jay Treaty, which did little to solve the issues between Britain and the United States.
At the same time, the bloody French revolution was dividing the United States into pro-French and pro-British camps. In February 1793, at war again with Britain, France viewed George Washington’s policy of neutrality as a sign of belligerence. To overcome this resentment John Adams in 1797 sent a special mission to Paris. When Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, the French foreign minister, demanded a bribe, Adams exposed the episode, which became known as the XYZ Affair, and two years of hostilities at sea, or the Quasi-War, followed. It ended in September 1800 with the Treaty of Morfontaine which ended U.S. treaty obligations to France.
In 1803, the United States negotiated the purchase of Louisiana from the French. Though France had wanted to build a new North American empire, Napoleon was unable to suppress a rebellion in Santo Domingo. This defeat, as well as a desire to increase the French treasury for his European wars led Napoleon to authorize its sale to the Americans for $15 million.
The Napoleonic wars had other consequences for the United States as well. After the French defeat at Trafalgar against the British, Napoleon realized he would never be able to invade Great Britain. Instead, Napoleon tried to put the country in an economic vice by prohibiting all European trade with England. This policy was known as the Continental System. To enforce it, the French sent ships into the Atlantic. These ships would attack any American ships bound for England.
The British retaliated by issuing their “Orders in Council”. This prohibited trade with France. Britain too sent out ships to enforce its policy, and these ships also seized American merchantmen bound for France. The British also made a practice out of impressing, or forcing, American sailors that the British thought to be British, to serve with the British navy.
American outrage finally bubbled over in 1807, after the H.M.S. Leopard, a British ship, stopped the U.S.S. Chesapeake, an American naval vessel, and took off four alleged “deserters”. President Jefferson responded by the Embargo Act which New England merchants cynically referred to the O grab me Act (Embargo spelled backwards), because it prohibited American ships from trading abroad.
Though the Embargo Act was eventually replaced, the British continued to impress American sailors. This, and the belief that the British were inciting Indian attacks in the Northwest, led the United States to declare war in 1812.
The war ended in a stalemate in 1815 with the Treaty of Ghent. However, the end of the war marked an improvement in Anglo-American relations. In 1817, both countries agreed to demilitarize the Great Lakes, and in 1818, the northern limit of the Louisiana Territory, at the 49th parallel, was agreed upon.
In 1819, the Americans signed the Adams-Onis treaty with the Spanish. This treaty delineated the American border with Mexico as well as gave Florida to the Americans for $5 million.
In 1834 when Andrew Jackson demanded payment for property destroyed during the Napoleonic Wars, France severed diplomatic relations. Over time, though, relations improved, and cultural exchanges between the two countries resumed, members of these exchanges included Alexis de Tocqueville, the author of Democracy in America (1835).
The Civil War marked a time of delicate diplomatic relations with Europe. England was sympathetic to the Confederacy, while France sent troops into Mexico, a clear violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Initially diplomatic relations with Britain were severely strained when American ships stopped the British steamer Trent and arrested two Confederate officials the ship was carrying. Americans were also angry that the British were building ships for the infant Confederate navy. In the end though, the Americans were able to finally convince the British that interference in the conflict would lead to war with the United States, while the British government became more and more wary of participating in a conflict that was becoming more and more focused on the issue of slavery (Britain had freed all of the slaves in its empire in 1833.) The French problem was solved when President Johnson sent thousands of troops to the Mexican border in 1866, and the French decided to withdraw their troops.
In 1866, Russia approached the United States eager to sell Alaska, whose fur supplies had largely disappeared. The Americans bought the territory for $7.2 million, though many Americans believed the purchase was a mistake.
The years after the Civil War marked a period of tremendous economic growth in the United States. This growth also brought the United States a larger role in international affairs. This new status also changed relations with Europe. During this period relations with France were generally friendly, a friendship symbolized by the French gift of the Statue of Liberty to the United States in 1884.
Anglo-American relations however were not as cordial. In the 1890s, serious conflicts developed when America became involved in a British border dispute with Venezuela, and over a disputed section of the Canada - Alaska border. Both situations were solved through mediation though, and relations between the two countries improved. Britain began to follow American policy in Latin America, while both countries became united behind curbing Japanese power in China.
Relations with Germany during this period were much worse. Both countries were rapidly industrializing, and Germany became a major rival of the United States. After the United States made a treaty with the Samoans in 1878 which gave the U.S. access to the fine harbor at Pago Pago, the Germans attempted to overthrow the Samoan government and claim the islands for themselves. The threat of a fight loomed until a timely cyclone hit the islands destroying most of the German fleet in the area. Samoa was partitioned between the United States., Britain and Germany in 1899, but the United States continued to distrust Germany.
During the First World War the United States again sympathized with France and Britain, joining the Allies as a cobelligerent. During the drafting of the peace treaty, though, the United States clashed with the Allies over acceptance of Wilson’s Fourteen Points. Disillusioned by their less than successful struggle to enact these points, America began to withdraw from regulating world affairs - a withdrawal best symbolized by the United States Senate’s rejection of the Versailles Treaty in 1919.
During this period the United States was also establishing its policy in Russia, which was racked by the Russian Revolution. The United States, under Wilson, refused to recognize the Bolshevik regime, and sent aid to the “whites”. This support went as far as sending troops into Vladivostock and Archangel in 1918 - 1920.
The isolation of the United States during the 1920s was interrupted several times. In 1921-1922, Washington sponsored a Naval Disarmament Conference that led to restrictions on capital ships. In 1928 France and the United States led a conference of many nations that signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawing war.
Though relations were strained over Europe’s forfeiture of
the World War debt it owed the U.S., in the Second World War Americans again
favored the Allies, which included not only France and Britain, but in 1941,
the Soviet Union, in opposition to Germany. Franklin D. Roosevelt aided the
Allies with money, munitions, and supplies. However, when France capitulated
to the Germans in 1940, the United States
became hostile to the new French fascist government set up in Vichy. American
weapons and troops played a lead role in defeating the Nazis.
In the postwar years cooperation persisted. The United States helped revive the European economy through the Marshall Plan, which provided aid to rebuild the devastated countries of Europe - allies and antagonists alike. With American guidance, West Germany was united to form the Federal Republic of Germany in 1948.
The end of the Second World War also marked a changing of the guard - in 1947, Great Britain ceded its supremacy in world affairs to the United States when it asked for help in supporting the Greek and Turkish governments against Communist rebels. The Soviet Union had also risen from the ashes of the Second World War to become the major rival to the United States, both militarily and ideologically.
In 1949, the United States in responed to the perceived Soviet threat from Eastern Europe the by formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with many Western European countries. However, troubles within the alliance arose when France attempted to regain control over former colonies in Africa and
Southeast Asia. The rift widened in 1956 when the French, British and Israelis attacked Egypt, and international pressure forced those countries to withdraw. After Charles de Gaulle became president he clashed with Americans over France’s building of her own nuclear weapons, Britain’s admission to the European Economic Community, and France’s role in NATO.
Relations with Britain and Germany though continued to improve. Britain became a major European ally, though it was unhappy about American policies with respect to the third world.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s France and the U.S. remained allies and cooperated on most international matters, though in the early 1990s, the countries took opposite stances on German unification. However, the French were not able to muster enough support to prevent unification. Despite these problems, the relationship between France and the United States has remained friendly.
The bond between the United Kingdom and the United States was also strengthened during this period, with Britain continuing to be one of America’s strongest European allies.
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Confederation of Independent States was formed. Led by Boris Yeltsin, Russia continues to struggle to adapt to the free market. Corruption is rife, and the country is embroiled, for the second time in ten years, in a conflict in the breakaway province of Chechnya.
[Adapted from Texst By Alexander DeConde and Lloyd C. Gardner]