America’s Hunger for Land through Nationalism and War

In the late 1700s and early 1800s the United States was stuck in between the conflicting powers of France and Britain. These two sides were heavily at war with one another and both disliked the idea of American trade with the other one. Both groups had instituted decrees that prevented the United States from trading with other nations. This included the Orders of Council which was put into effect by Britain which essentially prevented any neutral nations from trading with Frances as well as its allies. France responded to this in 1807 with the Milan Decree proclaiming that all ships that obeyed the Orders of Council would be seized by France. This was tremendously devastating to America’s economic system and due to extreme provocation resulted in the War of 1812, giving up all American hope for neutrality. America’s nationalism played a remarkable role in the formulation and application of the United States’ foreign policy in the early nineteenth century economically, politically, and imperialistically through the national unity created with hatred for Britain, the nationalism created by political leaders when declaring war on other nations, and the quests to acquire new land from additional nations.

The American economic structure during the French revolution was in ruin. This would ultimately cause a wave of nationalism. In the eyes of many American’s Britain was responsible for their economic situation. This was because of the numerous American merchant ships being denied trade by Britain to other nations, and the crews of the ships often being seized and impressed into service. Nationalism is often created when a nation has a common enemy, in this case, Britain. Due to the fact that many Americans were infuriated because of the devastating economy Americans united all with a common goal to strike back at Britain. This would lead to the War of 1812 which greatly increased nationalism in America against their common enemy, Britain. American nationalism also helped the economy due to new lands acquired by war with other nations, thereby giving America more farmland.

America also greatly altered politically when it came to foreign policy due to nationalism. It began to greatly increase an individual’s political favor to support war. This was because war united a country together against a common foe. The main foe was Britain in the war of 1812 and later Mexico during the Mexican-American war. Great examples of political leaders using war and nationalism to their advantage are James Monroe and James Polk. Monroe, for instance, based his foreign policy positions on the idea of American hegemony, or that the United States was dominant over the rest of the world, which in turn led to nationalism, all uniting under common belief that Americans were superior to the rest of the world and that they deserved other peoples land. James Polk also received political support during the Mexican-American war, because it once again unified America against a common ally, Mexicans.

Nationalists, over time, have tended to demonstrate imperialistic ideals. In the process of less than 100 years, from 1783-1853 America more than tripled its size. This was based on a nationalistic and imperialistic foreign policy entailing that the United States should unify together to bring the rest of the world under their control. This was also partially based on the idea that the United States had a superior and democratic system and it was obligated to share it with the rest of the world. Nationalists sought to make America’s foreign policy an imperial one. In this nationalists grandly succeeded due to the great expanse of newly acquired territories by the United States.

To conclude, American foreign policy was grandly altered due to nationalist ideals. The United States was significantly changed economically by the increase in nationalism. Politicians also changed their foreign policies because of the advantages of nationalism offered. The United States became extremely imperialistic because of nationalism as well, illustrating how nationalism and imperialism have often gone hand and hand historically. In general, nationalism played a large role in the formulation and function of American foreign policy in the early 1800s.