Foreign Affairs (College Board AP® US History)

Timeline

Summary

President Washington’s policy of neutrality was tested by the French Revolution and the war between France and Great Britain that followed. France ultimately respected Washington’s wishes, but the British did not. They interrupted American trade and forced American soldiers into the British navy. The resulting peace treaty addressed neither of those issues, but it did force the British out of the Northwest Territory.

Spain felt threatened by the United States’ new treaty with Great Britain. Its leaders were afraid of losing their territory to both the British and the Americans, so they expanded Spain’s reach in California by building a network of missions. Hoping to avoid conflict, Washington authorized a treaty between the two countries, the terms of which included the opening of the lower part of the Mississippi River to American ships.

Trying to Remain Neutral after the French Revolution

• President George Washington thought the United States should not take sides in disagreements between foreign countries

  • He did not think the United States was stable enough or strong enough to survive another war

  • This stance of neutrality was hard to maintain during and after the French Revolution (1789–99)

    • American opinion was split about the French Revolution

    • Many people, mostly Democratic-Republicans, sided with the revolutionaries and wanted to support them

  • Washington issued the Proclamation of Neutrality when France went to war with Great Britain and Spain in 1793

    • It barred Americans from fighting for either side

    • Washington was trying to avoid war at all costs

    • It banned French and British warships from using American ports

Edmond Charles Genêt

• France sent Edmond Charles Genêt to the United States to talk to Congress and raise volunteer soldiers to fight against Great Britain and Spain

  • He thought Americans did not want to be neutral, so he recruited American men to invade Spanish Florida, Louisiana, and British Canada

  • Jeffersonian Republicans, who supported the French Revolution and the war, believed in Genet's mission at first

    • But they did not like the way he behaved

  • Washington demanded a new French emissary who would be more respectful of the United States neutral stance

Great Britain and neutrality

• Great Britain ignored the Proclamation of Neutrality

  • The British navy captured American trading ships, then forced the ships’ crews into the British navy

  • Tensions were also high because Great Britain still had not left the Northwest Territory despite the Treaty of Paris (1783)

  • The United States and Great Britain were on the verge of war

• Washington sent US Chief Justice John Jay to make a treaty with the British in 1794

• The Jay Treaty heavily favored Great Britain

  • This upset Democratic-Republicans and the French

    • They both saw it as a violation of the 1778 Franco-American Alliance treaty between the United States and France

  • Impressment and British interference with American trade were not mentioned in the treaty

• The British finally agreed to leave American soil

Territorial Diplomacy with Spain

• The Treaty of Paris (1783) said that the Mississippi River was the western border of the United States

• Spain closed the lower part of the river to American shipping in 1784 because they wanted to:

  • control the port of New Orleans

  • limit American westward expansion

  • be the dominant trading force in the region

• Spain and the United States disagreed on the location of the US southern border

• The Jay Treaty worried the Spanish

  • They thought the United States and Great Britain would try to take away Spain’s territory in North America

• Spain began expanding its missions into California

  • It had held California for a long time but had not made a great effort to instil Spanish culture there before the late 1700s

  • Missions were designed to spread Catholicism to Indigenous people

    • They were also meant to prevent other countries from claiming Californian territory

  • Spain built 21 missions in California between 1769 and 1833

  • Each mission was the center of a community

    • They served as shelters, schools, and places of rest

    • Indigenous peoples learned European cultural practices, such as new ways to farm and build structures

      • This led to a blending of Spanish and Indigenous cultures

    • Spanish soldiers who protected the missions had a greater chance of moving up in the social hierarchy than if they had stayed in Spain

      • So did people of mixed heritage

Pinckney’s Treaty

• To avoid conflict with Spain, Washington sent Thomas Pinckney to negotiate in 1795

  • Pinckney’s Treaty allowed the Spanish and Americans to use the lower Mississippi River

  • It gave Americans tax-free access to the port at New Orleans

  • It made 31° N the southern border of the United States

    • This latitude line was the northern border of Spanish Florida

  • It ended the military support Spain had promised to nearby Indigenous groups who were trying to resist Anglo-American settlers

• Pinckney’s Treaty helped expand the US economy and allowed Americans to move westward

Image: Map of United States in 1790