History concepts and development

¶ … United States of America initially adopted an isolationist stance After the American War for Independence in 1781.

Why did the United States of America initially adopted an isolationist stance After the American War for Independence in 1781.

In 1775 the thirteen British colonies in North America rose up against their parent country Great Britain. The war was known as the American Revolution and was seen by the British Crown as an affront to its rule, as a result it increased its strangle hold upon the colonists (Anonymous, 2002).

From this attempt to rule by an iron hand forced the colonists to officially declare war upon the British and form a new government with their own Constitution. The war ended in 1781 and America was recognized as an independent nation by the British Government in 1783 (Anonymous, 2002).

However, in 1778, before the end of the war America had already signed treaties with Spain and France. One of the Treaties with France was the "Treaty of Amity and Commerce" although this was not a treaty of war it was in many ways more important as at this time commerce was badly needed to support the new Americas (Anonymous, 2002).

The Treaty gave the United States of America the special privileges in trade with the French and they would also be granted the status of what is known as a "most favoured nation" this in essence gave the United States of America a full status in all trade with France.

With the War of independence over the Americans could begin to rebuild their economy, however, they could not trade with just the French and Spainish, the British were still officially at war with them and therefore would not recognize any independent trade as such they Americans were forced to look inwards for an economic stability (Anonymous, 2002).

Sadly the isolationist attitude and the refusal of many British merchants to handle American goods forced the United States into a recession that lasted for nearly two decades new tariffs were imposed by the American traders which in-turn caused more conflict amongst those competing for economic stability (Anonymous, 2002).

When Washington left the post as President he urged his fellow countrymen to remain free from any other country, to prevent any influential rise of any political parties that could ruin all that the American people had fought and died for, the run of isolationism continued for many years until America was strong enough to defeat any country that attempted to have an influence upon its affairs (Cole, 1991)

Furthermore they withdrew from any political arena in the official capacity, it must be remembered that American Privateers still helped the French during the Peninsula Wars with Great Britain (Cole, 1991)

When the United States of America decided to take on an Isolationist role they took it upon themselves to step out of the world, they took a non-involvement attitude towards all affairs that concerned the Old world of Europe, its wars and petty entanglements. (Cole, 1991)