U.S. Diplomatic History Essay

Introduction

The 1890s finally marked the critical change from the priority of isolationism to the new beginning of the Century when the world embraced the United States as one of its leading powers. Historians, however, are in a dilemma on whether the aftermath of this ambush marked a period of continuity or discontinuity for the United States’ international involvement. Every critical issue, be it a change in the worldview, a new political stance, or a policy decision, points towards the fact that the tales of the old days still lingered in the 1890s. However, this decade was the springboard for something radical new, a deeply interventionist and expansive foreign policy. In as much as in a short span of ten years, industrialization and the establishment of multinational companies changed the country’s economy, being geared towards the international market. These marine currents are less strong here than we perceive at their peak due to the speed and magnitude of the changes that occurred. While there has been some content-wise continuity, the meaning and scale of the U.S. global posture have shifted from limited to unlimited. Therefore, discontinuity more accurately explains the transitional volatility of 1890s foreign policy. The scale at which changes smashed the old isolationist thinking and provoked an age of assertive new American power and prowess abroad has provided evidence. To a great extent, the break-up became a turning point in growing the country’s identity and posture in the global arena.

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The Emergence of Discontinuities

The apparent persistence of isolationism hid under the surface significant changes in the outlook and the country’s policies at that time, constituting a vital discontinuity. With industrialization accelerating and the country becoming a key economic player in the world economy, the growing appeal of international trading undermined her capacity to remain economically autonomous. These American companies, which were mainly in the revolving crisis in heavy industries and agriculture sectors in the late 1800s, were looking for overseas markets as they were one primary source of their new profits. The bigger competitors of that time, Standard Oil Company and big farming powers could find their way out of the economic pressures and lack of space by addressing and searching markets abroad. These discontinuities indicated a significant split from nineteenth-century restraint. Economically, the depression of 1893 strengthened the voices of the expansionists demanding access to new markets abroad. Despite the Monroe Doctrine prohibiting Old World interference, investment and trade by the U.S. into Latin America was propelled, breaking the illusion of separation from global issues.

Beisner’s supporting arguments for discontinuity in 1890s foreign policy are as follows: “The deepest depression from 1893 turned the forthcoming restless desire for markets beyond the national borders.” (Beisner 174).”The administration began constructing the four battleships in 1894, representing a significant departure from the earlier domestic defense policy and was more tailored towards warfare on the high seas.” (Beisner 289). America’s newly found industrial power left it in economic isolation. The socio-Darwinist theories supporting Anglo-Saxon civilization as innately superior and fated to rule thus nourished a racial consciousness that rationalized a civilizing agenda abroad. This reflected a sudden departure from the ones that had been founded and put in place, which had seen foreign entanglements with suspicion. These new ideological constructs replaced the declared ideologies centered inward (Miscamble, 2011).

The emergence of the modern Navy focused on steam-powered steel battleships, which embodied how the innovation of arms completely changed the old approaches to national security issues. By 1890, the New Navy, proposed in the theories of Alfred Thayer Mahan, ceased to consider coastal defense as the core of the strategy and preferred a projection power capability, allowing more reach. This gap gave rise to the imperial dreams overseas. The naval strategy of the 19th Century employed independent coastal fortifications along with small wooden sailing ships designed to defend only continental confines rather than open seas, the external/isolationist tendency. However, the old Navy partially consisted of wood ships and windmill-powered sailing squares with long-range or powerful guns, heavily armored against naval cannons, and steam propulsion (instead of windmill), which enabled not only power projection but also warfare on the high seas and reach to distant shores. The newly gai