Lesson 4: Foreign Affairs

Lesson Focus

President Jefferson sought neutrality, but America's economy was tied to Europe. As Britain and France manipulated U.S. trade as a weapon, the young nation struggled to defend its rights and freedom on the high seas.

People to Know

Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon Bonaparte, James Madison

Learning Objectives

• Identify challenges the U.S. faced while trying to stay neutral in the conflict between Great Britain and France.
• Identify three ways the United States attempted to protect its freedom of the seas through diplomacy and economic pressure.
• Explain why calls for war against Great Britain grew, eventually leading the nation toward conflict.

President Jefferson’s goal of peace was challenged by pirates from the Barbary Coast states like Tripoli.
These pirates practiced piracy by demanding tribute (payment) to not attack American ships.
Instead of paying, Jefferson waged a four-year war. Though it had some success, the piracy was not fully stopped until a later naval action led by Stephen Decatur in 1815. Pay special attention to this as Jefferson’s first foreign conflict.

When Britain and France went to war again in 1803, American neutrality was threatened.
Napoleon issued the Berlin and Milan decrees to block trade with Britain, while Britain issued Orders in Council to block trade with France.
This trapped American ships in the middle. If a ship followed one nation's rules, it was at risk of being seized by the other, violating America’s freedom of the seas.

The British navy desperately needed sailors, so it relied on impressment, or kidnapping sailors from other ships.
In June 1807, the British ship Leopard attacked the American warship Chesapeake when it refused a search for deserters, killing and wounding sailors.
This attack on a US military vessel caused extreme anger among Americans. Note that this event pushed many citizens to demand war against Great Britain for the first time.

To avoid war after the Chesapeake affair, Jefferson tried economic pressure.
He convinced Congress to pass the Embargo Act in December 1807, which banned all American ships from sailing to foreign ports.
The act was a disaster for the U.S. economy, causing exports to collapse and widespread unemployment. It failed to change British or French policy, showing the limits of using trade as a weapon in this case.

After the Embargo Act failed, Congress tried weaker trade restrictions like the Non-Intercourse Act and Macon's Bill No. 2.
These new laws also failed to make Britain or France respect American rights. At the same time, a group of young congressmen known as War Hawks began demanding war with Britain to gain land in Canada.
With diplomacy failing and war fever rising, the United States drifted closer to conflict.