Feb. 20 Handout

18^th and 19^th Century Contacts

20 February 2008

I. Strategic Uncertainty

1. The United States, the Middle East, and the 18^th Century World (Euroecentric world: France and Britain as superpowers; US independence and importance of international assistance, U.S. and Western Hemisphere—race, religion, economic ties, intellectual exchange; Ottoman Empire and “imperial overstretch”: European difficulties, Russian and Austrian rivalries; Napoleonic wars and Egypt, difficulties with North Africa)

2. The Barbary Wars (independence, the Treaty of Paris, and post-independence trade disruptions; strategic weaknesses of Articles government; early debates and anti-militarist attitudes; the First Party system and the Navy; diplomatic incompetence; tensions with Tripoli and Tunis; Jefferson and tension between realism/idealism; Jefferson and presidential power; nature of war and aftermath; growth of British power in the Mediterranean)

II. U.S. Expansion

1. Commerce and the Levant (commerce and the Northeastern economy; role of East Asia; United States as counterpoint to Britain; interest in Turkey Persia, Egypt; limited nature overall commerce)

2. The United States Encounters the Ottoman Empire (image of the infidel; origins of Greek revolt; American sympathy and sectional divisions; J.Q. Adams, presidential ambitions, and origins of Monroe Doctrine; Turkish strategic needs; road to commercial treaty; signing of 1830 treaty and secret codicil; Persian treaty)

3. Missionaries (the Ottomans and religious minorities; creation of ABFM; fundraising and the Second Great Awakening; American interest in the Holy Land, Smyrna, Beirut; beyond religion: printing press, education; emergence of Armenia; gradual expansion; other forms of cultural influence: Kossuth and Americanism)

III. U.S. Withdrawal

1. Civil War and U.S. Foreign Policy (sectional divisions and constitutional debates; emergence of Congress and turn inwards; termination of Mediterranean Fleet; U.S. irrelevancy and European imperialism; United States and Armenia—decline of the missionary impulse, Chinese temptation)

2. The Path to World War I (Congress of Berlin and redefining Balkan boundaries; Algeciras and looming British-French-German battles; Ottoman crisis—1908 Young Turks, Bosnian annexation; First and Second Balkan Wars and decline of Turkish power; expanding British presence)

Year	1865	1875	1890	1900
US exports/OE	$614,187	4,224,918	4,624,818	7,743,676
US imports/OE	$326,958	579,947	129,833	573,012