One foreign policy action that the US was involved in was during the early 1800s when France was at war and in desperate need of money, Napoleon offered the United States the Louisiana territory for $15 million. Thomas Jefferson, decided to accept the deal and bought the Louisiana Territory. Jefferson’s decision caused numbers of disputes amongst the people of the United States. However, Jefferson’s decision resulted in differences of opinion among the American people. Many people supported the decision Thomas Jefferson made because it doubled the size of the US, but many thought it was a waste of money. Most of the people who resided in the United States were happy with the idea of the US gaining more territory. This land was twice the size of what the US originally was and it was sold for a fairly cheap price. The Louisiana Purchase had many positive effects on the US as negative. For example, the Louisiana Purchase gave the US more trading routes and more access to resources like minerals, whole control of the Mississippi River, and more wood. This deeply helped the US because now that they owned the Mississippi River because they can have access to all the fish and have the whole river for trading. Having the whole river for trading meant that the US could get more imports and export whatever they wanted. Also they didn’t have to deal with the disputes for the river. Another example of a benefit from purchasing the Louisiana territory was fulfilling manifest destiny. This was a concept where American settlers believed that it was destined America would expand west and grow the country. Due to the Louisiana Purchase, this came true and the United gained land and expanded west. After the purchase, Thomas Jefferson put Lewis and Clark in charge of exploring the new land. After many months, they mapped uncharted land, rivers, and mountains. They also wrote about the Natives, new plants, new animals, and about the land(like if there were rich soil, mining areas, etc). Most people supported the Louisiana Purchase because the US grew in size, there were more trading routes, and the US had full control of the Mississippi River. In this case being involved in the foreign affair had many beneficial outcomes. These may all seem good, however, people like Federalists opposed the purchase of the Louisiana territory. They believed that the president did not have the power to buy territory and spend money on land that could be useless. To further explain this, when President Jefferson bought the land, he didn’t know what the terrain was like. He didn’t know if it had rich soil, rocky terrain, minerals, mountains, etc. This disturbed many people because for all they know, this could be a worthless piece of land and the US just wasted $15 million. To add on to that, many people believed that a piece of land that large would be harder to govern and look over. This would be due to the fact that the president or governor wouldn’t be able to see the whole country without travelling many miles. Also it would take a long time to get to each state because it is such a big piece of land. Some people opposed the Louisiana Purchase because it was not the president’s position to buy land, it had a possibility of being worthless, and it would be hard to govern. Another reason why many people didn’t approve of this was because they didn’t want the US to be involved in foreign affairs because this could show favoritism and cause disputes. Disputes on who America helped would cause trouble because other nations could think that the US was only helping France. Also the US barely helped out other nations because of Washington’s speech, so this wouldn’t pass by the other nations. Although people had their differences on the Louisiana Purchase, it had a big impact in the history of the United States. The Louisiana Purchase had many benefits in the US. Even though there were positive and negative aspects of the Louisiana Purchase, in the end, this foreign policy action was worth all the trouble. So this foreign policy action ended peacefully and with everyone satisfied.
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Another foreign policy action the US took was also during the early 1800s. This however had to do with the cause of a war and the result of the war. The Spanish American War was a brutal war that was caused by many things such as: the Americans supporting Cuba and the Philippines, the influence of Yellow Journalism, and the explosions of the battleships. Before explaining the effects of the war, background information is required. The Spanish American War was a brutal war fought against the Spanish and Americans. The Americans were influenced to go to war by yellow journalism, which was a style of newspaper reporting, and it is based on sensationalism and crude exaggeration. This pushed the Americans to go to war and got the Americans to fight the Spanish. Another reason why the Americans went to war is to support Cuba and the Philippines for their independence from Spain. This foreign affair was a vital cause in the war and many people died from it. Also Spain was blamed for the explosions of the battle ships, with these three reasons, the Americans had no reason to not go to war. At the end of the war, the Americans won and Spain relinquished their claims on Cuba and also owned Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. The US also annexed Hawaii during the war. Although this war was started with manipulation, foreign affairs, and exaggerations, there were a few good results that came out of it. For example the US got one step closer to owning the whole piece of land now known as America and the US got a lot of land during the war. This is a good thing because it is fulfilling manifest destiny and the US gets more land that they control. This means that the US has access to the new land’s resources and trade routes. Some resources they could gain is the produce, the land for growing crops, and if there are any, essential minerals. Another example of the US gaining from this foreign policy action is Cuba being free from Spain. This means that the people who fought in the war have not died in vain. To add on, Cuba and the US could be allies. This would mean that Cuba would help the US out with trading, resources, and more to pay back their debt to the US. So the US being involved in this foreign affair resulted in the US gaining a lot more and Cuba being an ally. However, this foreign affair had more casualties and bad results than good. This is because the US was not ready to fight in the war with Spain. This meant that the war could have had a different result, one ending in the US losing and getting severly injured. To help Cuba, the US could have caused a lot of deaths for American soldiers and it was very risky. Since the US took land from the Spanish, the Spanish lost a lot of land and they were not happy. To add on to Spain's misery, they were blamed for all the deaths because they were blamed for starting the war. In the war many people, from both America and Spain, got injured or died. Everyone blamed Spain for the deaths mainly because all of them believe that it was all Spain’s fault the war even started. The cause of the Spanish American War was helping Cuba become independent, but it led to a lot of deaths. In this case, the US should not have been involved in this foreign involvement, it only led to death and Spain losing a lot of their property and dignity. Even though the US gained a lot more land from the war and Cuba became independent, the Spanish lost a lot of land. In this particular case, the foreign policy action taken caused a lot more harm than good. It also led to not only the American’s despair but also the opposing nation. So, foreign policy actions could go wrong in cases like this.
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