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The Barbary states were a collection of Muslim North African states infamous for piracy and slavery. Their location in the mediterranean meant that many European powers paid them protection money. Upon the United States rebelling from the British Empire they became unprotected, and as American merchantmen began to get robbed constantly the government decided to solve the problem by declaring war on the Barbary states, to great success.
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The war of 1812 was the North American theater of the Napoleonic wars, and was started because of British embargos and pressganging on the American merchant marine. It is controversial due to there being no obvious victor, but of course both sides think that they won.
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In the early 1800s citizens of Spanish West Florida rebelled and joined the United States. Over the following decade the Americans pressured the Spanish to renounce all claims to both East and West Florida and cede them to the young nation.
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The guidelines for American policies for most of the 1800s was stated by President James Monroe in 1823. The main ideas were that Europe and the Americas were two separate diplomatic spheres, and that while America wouldn't interfere with existing colonies in the Americas, they wouldn't allow any new ones, as well as warning against European interference in independent American nations.
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The Mexican-American war was caused by the American annexation/incorporation of the state of Texas, a ex-Mexican holding, and the American request to purchase Mexican California. The Mexicans felt that both of these occurrences were acts of war, resulting in, of course, war.
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Commodore Matthew Perry was ordered to reestablish western contact/trade with Japan (Japan had be under a "no foreigners allowed" policy for two centuries) and on July 8, 1853, he lead a squadron of four American warships into Tokyo Bay as a show of force.
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The annexation of the Sandwich Islands (more commonly referred to as the State of Hawaii, or just Hawaii) by the United States in 1898 was caused by two main things. Firstly it expanded Americas influence into the Pacific and secondly it resolved the threat of European powers colonizing the Islands and having a terrifyingly strategic and nearby naval base.
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Resulting from the American interest in the Cuban war for independence, and starting thanks to the sinking of the armored cruiser USS Maine, the Spanish American war was a dominate US victory, cementing the young nation as a world power.
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Secretary of State John Hay was responsible for the creation of Americas "open door" policy towards the far east that would remain an official U.S. policy for the early half of the 19th century. The idea was that in order to protect western interests in China it was best to maintain unrestricted trade and immigration, as not doing so may sour Euro-Chinese relationships.
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The US long wanted to construct a canal in central America, and when a treaty with Columbia turned sour in 1902, the US dispatched a fleet to secure Panamanian independence, getting a deal for land to construct the canal through thanks to it.
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The Roosevelt corollary to the Monroe doctrine has been nicknamed by some as the "big stick" policy. Simply put, where the Monroe doctrine was more passive, Roosevelts corollary was much more active, meaning that instead of warning off colonial powers from the Caribbean/Central America, the United States would directly intervene in any nations in the region which were in a state of unrest/unfavorable towards America in such a way that threaten American interests and security.
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Stemming from the belief that the goal of diplomacy was to strengthen/grow financial interests overseas via maintaining stability and order. This idea was directly responsible for the many American interventions in the time period, all caused by the need to protect American financial interests in nations in unrest. Though having many successes, Dollar Diplomacy was considered a failure.
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As Americas "dollar diplomacy" was in full swing in the early 1910s, the United States interests in Nicaragua were so major that they twice intervened (militarily) in the Central American nation to establish governments which were favorable towards American diplomatic and economic interests, as well as to establish stability in the region.
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The United States had interests in Haiti (i.e. they saw it as a potential economic & military boon) so when the Haitian president was assassinated in July 1915 the United States deployed forces to the nation to restore order and "maintain political and economic stability in the Caribbean." The occupation lasted until 1934.
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The American entry into WWI was caused by public outrage at Germanies "unrestricted submarine warfare" and the infamous "Zimmermann Telegram."
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The good neighbor policy was a major change from Americas previous methods of maintaining Stability in the Caribbean, Central and Southern America. Instead of using military force and strong arming, the good neighbor policy took the approach of diplomatic cooperation and trade to maintain regional stability and protect American interests.
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The UN is the successor of the interwar league of Nations, and whose purpose is "To maintain international peace and security... develop friendly relations among nations... and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace... achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character... be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends."
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NATO is a alliance of (mainly western) nations which was created to rival the ever growing Soviet bloc in the east, and to protect the vital north Atlantic trade routes, protect Europe and generally create cooperation between/protect member nations.
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During the late part of WWII the USSR and the USA split the Korean Peninsula in half to make conquest easier. However, after WWII neither nation wanted their Korean puppet to potentially lose power if Korea was unified, and as a result North and South Korea were created. When in 1950 North Korea nearly took the entire peninsula over, the United States and it allies intervened to not only save South Korea but also slow the spread of communism in Asia.
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The four day Iranian coup d'état of 1953 was orchestrated by the CIA and pro-British Iranians due to Anglo-American fears that Iran may become communist.
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The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) was created in 1954 to combat the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. However, due to low number of members actually from the region, as well internal disputes relating to American intervention in Vietnam, SEATO disbanded in 1977 after many members had left the treaty.
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The Vietnam war is the most famous example of the Cold war going "hot", stemming from civil war in ex-Indochinese territory, the United States intervened as the communist backed North Vietnamese successes over the pro-west Southern Vietnamese were seen as a threat to democracy, America, and an example of Communist aggression.
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The Eisenhower Doctrine was a direct response to the Soviet threat that any nation could request economic and military aid if under threat of armed aggression.
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Soon after the Congo was granted independence in 1960 the was major civil unrest. The United States, worried about the nation radical communist president, and his requests for aid from the USSR, launched a covert operation to replace the Congo's communist government with a less radical, pro-western leader. The operation lasted until 1967 and featured multiple assassination attempts as well as attempts to start a military coup.
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The Bay of Pigs incident was a failed CIA attempt to invade Cuba and assassinate its president Fidel Castro.
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The Cuban missile crisis was a American and Soviet confrontation caused by the shipment of Soviet ballistic missiles to Cuba, where they would be well in range of the American mainland.
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The United States had interests in Chile since 1960 and when, in 1970, a communist candidate had a chance at winning the Chilean presidential election the Americans supported every non-communist party and did everything they could to stop a communist from gaining power. They failed, however in 1973 a series of attempted military coups resulted in the death of the president. Following this Chile banned communist parties and became a loyal ally of America.
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The Camp David Accords was the framework for Arab-Israeli peace arranged by the United States government and signed by dignitaries from Israel and Egypt.
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The Iran-Contra affair was a scandal in the 1980's regarding a NSC & CIA covert operation to stop the spread of communism in central America by supplying anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua (a policy previously "stopped" by congress) by covertly moving money made by supplying Iran arms in return for the release of hostages.
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In 1989 a General Manuel Noriega, of Panama, appointed a (unjustly elected) new government, which then proceeded to "declare war" on the United States and killing unarmed American servicemen. The U.S. was outraged by this and proceeded to launch an invasion of the country, seizing control and disposing of the government within hours. While at first there was international outcry (the UN declared it against international law) these complaints were later withdrawn.
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The first Gulf war was between the American lead coalition and Iraq caused by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Notable events during the conflict were the Highway of Death and SCUD attacks on Israel.
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After the fall of the Soviet Union the Balkan region became a hot spot of genocide, war and unrest. NATO originally acted as a peace keeping force in the region and established a no-fly zone over the Balkans. This would result in NATO's first combat actions, with air combat, ground strikes and boots on the ground combat. In 1996 peace had been established but NATO kept a military presence in the region to maintain peace. In 2004 NATO handed these duties over to the EU.
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Following the 9/11 terror attacks on the Twin Towers, the United States declared a war on terror and launched an invasion on the Taliban controlled, Al-Qaeda safe haven of Afghanistan.
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Spurred by intelligence reports stating that Saddam Hussein's government was manufacturing chemical WMP's, and his refusal to stop production/destroy them, the United States and its allies invaded Iraq to both destroy the WMP's and dispose of Saddam Hussein.