![]() He also pushed through the annexation of the Midway Islands in the Pacific Ocean, which subsequently opened a more stable route to Asian markets. A treaty with Nicaragua set the early course for the future construction of a canal across Central America. He pursued these goals through a variety of actions. Secretary of State William Seward, who held that position from 1861 through 1869, sought to extend American political and commercial influence in both Asia and Latin America. While the navy had introduced the first all-steel, triple-hulled steam engine vessels seven years earlier, they had only thirteen of them in operation by 1890.ĭespite such widespread isolationist impulses and the sheer inability to maintain a strong international position, the United States moved ahead sporadically with a modest foreign policy agenda in the three decades following the Civil War. Navy significantly reduced in size, a majority of vessels were classified as “Old Navy,” meaning a mixture of iron hulled and wholly wooden ships. Additionally, as late as 1890, with the U.S. Further limiting American potential for foreign impact was the fact that a strong international presence required a strong military-specifically a navy-which the United States, after the Civil War, was in no position to maintain. Instead, only two dozen American foreign ministers were located in key countries, and those often gained their positions not through diplomatic skills or expertise in foreign affairs but through bribes. State Department had barely sixty employees and no ambassadors representing American interests abroad. On the eve of the Civil War, the country lacked the means to establish a strong position in international diplomacy. Figure 22.2 AMERICA’S LIMITED BUT AGGRESSIVE PUSH OUTWARD ![]() Countries in Europe were building their empires through global power and trade, and the United States did not want to be left behind. ![]() As the century came to a close, however, a variety of factors, from the closing of the American frontier to the country’s increased industrial production, led the United States to look beyond its borders. ![]() Western expansion and the goal of Manifest Destiny still held the country’s attention, and American missionaries proselytized as far abroad as China, India, the Korean Peninsula, and Africa, but reconstruction efforts took up most of the nation’s resources. government showed no significant initiative in foreign affairs. Identify the contributions of Frederick Jackson Turner and Alfred Thayer Mahan to the conscious creation of an American empireĭuring the time of Reconstruction, the U.S.Explain the evolution of American interest in foreign affairs from the end of the Civil War through the early 1890s.By the end of this section, you will be able to: ![]()
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