In this session we are going to be talking about diplomacy In the aftermath of the War of 1812. After this conflict the United States resolved a number of boundary questions, among other diplomatic issues, through four agreements with British, Russian, and Spanish governments. The ways in which these questions and issues were resolved reflected the nature of the relationship that the U.S. had with each country. The U.S. and the British governments negotiated with each other, more or less as equals. By way of contrast the U.S. negotiated with the Russian and the Spanish governments from a clear position of strength, getting the better end of the deal in each case.
The first issue resolved with the British concerned the naval presence each country had to maintain on the Great Lakes. You can see that your map in the upper left hand corner just under Canada. both governments worried that after the war each would have to maintain an expensive naval presence on the Great Lakes, at the least as a defensive measure. The Great Lakes had been a major theater of war during the war of 1812, And both countries had spent a great deal of money not just building naval craft, small as they may be, on the great lakes, but also moving men and materials to the great lakes. This is not the 21st century great lakes where one can go wherever they want along the shores. Back then it took weeks if not months to go from a major city to the great lakes. And thus, Moving men and materials was an extremely expensive endeavor that was actually more expensive than the battles themselves. The British and the U.S. government’s resolved this question through the 1817 Rush-Bagot Convention. Named after the principal negotiators, British minister to the U.S. Charles Bagot and Acting Secretary of State Richard Rush, this convention limited the number and size of naval vessels that each country could station on the Great Lakes. Specifically this convention limited each nation to one naval vessel displacing no more than one hundred tons and armed with no more than one 18-pounder cannon on Lake Champlain and Lake Ontario. (An 18 pounder cannon is a cannon that fired a shell weighing about 18 pounds) No more than two such vessels on each of the other Great Lakes would be permitted. this was to ensure that neither country had to spend a great deal in terms of arming their naval forces on the great lakes. It benefited britain and the US in this way. It also benefited the British North American province of Upper Canada, today the Canadian province of Ontario, by reducing fears about the possibility of a U.S. invasion of Upper Canada. In this way this convention was also a step toward the demilitarization of the U.S.-Canadian border and, ultimately, the friendship that exists between Canada and the U.S. today.
The following year, 1818, the British and the U.S. government’s resolved the larger question of the boundary between the U.S. and British North America through the Convention of 1818. and you can see that in the slide in front of you. This agreement established the 49th parallel as the boundary from the Great Lakes all the way westward to the Rocky Mountains. The line became the basis of the U.S.-Canadian border and a foundation of friendship between the two nations.
One area that was still in dispute, the Oregon country, would be jointly occupied by both countries until they could resolve their disagreements as to where the boundary lines would be. that is the area in yellow, its an area that was claimed by both countries and that both countries would be able to send their nationals into.
This negotiation of the border between British North America and the U.S. also marked a step in the normalization and standardization of relations between the British and the U.S. government’s. This process continued throughout the nineteenth century with the result that while Great Britain and the U.S. did not become friends, until at least 1914, l the two governments were able to resolve a series of disputes and avoid another self destructive war.
In 1819 U.S. and Spain resolved their own boundary disputes to the advantage of the US by signing the famous Transcontinental Treaty of 1819, although it wouldn’t actually be approved until 1821. This Map shows the transcontinental treaty and the boundaries that it established between spanish and north america. . the Treaty was informally named after the two principal negotiators who worked out the details Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and Spanish Minister to the U.S. Don Luis de Onis. John Quincy adams is famous as out 6th president but he was arguably one of our most if not our most successful secretary of state. Participating in a number of the negotiation of a number of treaties with other nations that greatly advantaged the United states in terms of its territorial expansion. Also he participated in the articulation of the monroe doctrine which I will talk about in a few minutes. The boundary articulated in the Transcontinental Treaty followed a northwesterly direction along first the Red River, then the Arkansas River, and into the Rocky Mountains all the way out to the 42nd Parallel. In this treaty Spain also ceded to the U.S. Florida and the Gulf coast all the way to the mouth of the Mississippi River, this part of the agreement recognized U.S. control over Florida and the gulf coast. The United States had sought florida since at least the late 18th century and was able to secure control over Florida effectively speaking through the first seminole war. In 1821 the United states senate ratified this treaty and that established the new border between the two nations.
In 1824 the U.S. concluded the last of these border agreements with Russia over the question of the location of the southern boundary of Russian North America. and you can see that right there on your map. The 1824 Russo-American Treaty set this boundary at 54o 40’, halting Russian expansion southward and southeastward into areas of North America claimed by the U.S. The U.S. government sought this boundary in response to the establishment of Fort Ross in present-day northern California by the Russian-American Company in 1812 The Establishment of fort Ross was part of a russian program of expansion southward and eastward into north america at the expense of the united states and the Spanish american empire in north america. Czar Alexander I had issued an assertive imperial edict concerning the Russian presence in North America and his own ambitions for Russian expansion into north america. In 1825 the British government negotiated a similar agreement with Russia. While the Russian government would have preferred the 42nd Parallel (Which you can see right there at the southern end of the oregon country), as the southern boundary of Russian North America, did not have the resources to pursue that claim. Because of difficulties that russia was experiencing during the 1820s, and also because of it’s expense of maintaining its presence in North AMerica the russian government reluctantly accepted this boundary of 54o 40’.
Overall the resolution of these boundary questions paved the way for U.S. settlers to move into the trans-Mississippi West, that is the west beyond the Mississippi River, eventually all the way to the Pacific Coast, constituting a series of important steps in the emergence of the U.S. as a continental power. These agreements also reflected the growing respect that the U.S. enjoyed in the international community, which the U.S. government had bolstered with the articulation of one last statement during this period the Monroe Doctrine in 1823. Although the presentation of the Monroe Doctrine preceded the 1824 Russo-American Treaty, this foreign policy statement in which the U.S. guaranteed the independence of the new nations of the Americas represents the culmination of a process by which the the U.S. disentangling itself from European affairs. You can see right here in this rather blurry map of the Americas the United States was promising to guarantee that all of these nations would remain independant regardless of any ambitions of european powers, and this is at the heart of the Monroe Doctrine. This articulation of the Monroe Doctrine, along with these other treaties would allow the United states to pursue its own westward oriented agenda for 99 years until the beginning of world war I. Thank you.