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American Revolution
The American Revolution mainly between Great Britain and America. America wanted its Independence from Great Britain because of various laws Britain had made for the colonies, which were mainly taxes. -
Washingoton's Farewell Address
Warned Americans not to establish political parties, or to get involved in foreign affairs. -
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Barbaby Wars
This was the first American war against Libya, which was also the first war waged by the United States outside national boundaries after gaining independence and unification of the country.The four Barbary States of North Africa including Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli taken over ships on the Meditteranean for centuries.They ended up allowing trade to
Africa. -
Embargo Act
Thomas Jefferson created this to ban trade between U.S. ports and foreign nations. The Embargo Act was intended to compel England and France to remove restrictions on commercial trading with neutral nations (caused by their warefare with each other). -
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War of 1812
Due to their war with France, the British wanted to limit American trade with France, and began setting restrictions that the U.S. considered illegal. The U.S. declared war on Britain on July 18, 1812 after years of enduring British restrictions and attacks on American shipping, Thousands of American sailors were forced into service with the British navy, increasing anger at British restraints on American trade with France and other European nations. -
Monroe Doctrine
An American diplomatic decision which greatly influenced the world and the way it has developed to present day. It was a policy initiated by President James Monroe which aimed to limit European expansion into the Western Hemisphere. -
Manifest Destiny
Based on the idea that America was destined to expand democratic institutions in North America, which gave the nation a superior moral right to govern areas where other interests would not respect this goal. This was particularly clear with respect to Texas, and the alternative of a Mexican dictatorship, but it was also applied in the Oregon territory. -
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United States Mexican War
The Mexican-American War was the first major conflict caused because of Manifest Destiny, which was the belief that America had a God given right to expand the country's borders wherever they please. Eventually this would cause disputes over the border lines and spark military confrontation. -
Annexation of Hawaii
When war broke out with Spain in 1898, the military significance of Hawaiian naval bases as a way station to the Spanish Philippines outweighed all other considerations. President William McKinley signed a joint resolution annexing the islands, much like the manner in which Texas joined the Union in 1845. Hawaii remained a territory until granted statehood as the fiftieth state in 1959. -
Spanish American-Cuban War
The victory over Spain made the United States a colonial power. The Spanish colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, as well as the formerly independent nation of Hawaii, became American possessions.
The excuse for entering the war was the rebellion by the Cubans against Spanish rule and the explosion of an American battleship. The Spanish colonies in mainland North and South America became independent in the early 1800s, but Cuba and Puerto Rico remained Spanish. -
Roosevelt Corollary
Stated that the United States would intervene as a last resort to ensure that other nations in the Western Hemisphere fulfilled their obligations to international creditors, and did not violate the rights of the United States or invite "foreign aggression to the detriment of the entire body of American nations." As the corollary worked out in practice, the United States increasingly used military force to restore internal stability to nations in the region. -
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World War I
An escalation of threats and mobilization orders followed the incident, leading by mid-August to the outbreak of World War I, which pitted Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire (the so-called Central Powers) against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy and Japan (the Allied Powers). The Allies were joined after 1917 by the United States. The four years of the Great War--as it was then known--saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction, thanks to grueling trench warfare and the -
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Isolationism
National policy of avoiding political or economic entanglements with other countries. It was given expression in the Farewell Address of President George Washington and in the Monroe Doctrine. -
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World War II
It involved the vast majority of the world's nations, including all of the great powers, forming the Allies and the Axis. The most widespead war in history, with more than 100 milion people serving. The major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocost. -
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The Cold War
Sustained state of political and military tension between powers in the Western Bloc, the United States with NATO and other allies; versus powers in the Eastern Bloc. The USSR and the US had profound economic and political differences. This was a time of nuclear warefare that could make both countries end in mutual destruction. -
Truman Doctrine
President Harry S. Truman presented this address before a joint session of Congress. His message, known as the Truman Doctrine, asked Congress for $400 million in military and economic assistance for Turkey and Greece. -
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Marshall Plan
European nations affected by the Marshall Plan achieved great economic recovery. Their economies grew immensely. Trade relations led to the formation of the North Atlantic alliance. Economic prosperity led by coal and steel industries helped to shape what we know now as the European Union. Therefore, the Marshall plan seemed to achieve its purpose. -
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Vietnam War
The U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy of containment. The North Vietnamese government and Viet Cong viewed the conflict as a colonial war, fought initially against France, backed by the U.S., and later against South Vietnam, which it regarded as a U.S. puppet state.Then French Indochina beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement continually excalated until the fall of Saigon in 1975. -
Detente
Is the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation.The term is often used in reference to the general easing of geo-political tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States which began in 1971, as a foreign policy of U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford called détente; a 'thawing out' or 'un-freezing' at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War. -
Carter's Emphasis on Foreign Policy
Carter believed that the nation’s foreign policy should reflect its highest moral principles, a great difference fromt he policy of the Nixon Administration. -
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Engagement
A small group of American conservative activists visited the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries, in the interest both of spreading their own views of free-market capitalism, and in "training" individuals they perceived as potential leaders in sowing the seeds of this credo in the Soviet-bloc states. -
September 11, 2001
A series of four coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. areas. On that Tuesday morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger jets, intending to fly them in suicide attacks into targeted buildings. Two of those planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center. -
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War inIraq/Afghanistan/Global War on Terror
This was an armed conflict in Iraq that consisted of two phases. The first was an invasion of Ba'athist Iraq by the United States and the United Kingdom, and assisted by smaller forces from several other countries, starting on 20 March 2003. It was followed by a longer phase of fighting, in which an insurgency emerged to oppose Coalition forces and the newly formed Iraqi government.The U.S. completed its withdrawal of military personnel in December 2011.However, the Iraqi insurgency continues.
