Historical Dictionary of US Diplomacy from the Revolution to Secession

摘要

It is often thought that the first period of the republic, from independence to the civil war, was diplomatically uneventful. But in those 75 years the adolescent US acquired a considerable foreign relations history of its own. It fought two wars with modern states and opened political posts across the world. Immigrants from Europe came to its shores in droves, a process which required a wide range of diplomatic contacts. It also maintained a sizeable foreign commerce, trading with the Americas in a small way and much more extensively with old monarchies of Europe. It clashed repeatedly with the Indian tribes - a relationship we must class as "foreign" since they were in no sense part of the union. Whatever else it was, the diplomacy of young America was hardly uneventful.