Security and Expansion.

American foreign policy before the mid twentieth century was generally isolationist. The United States avoided alliances or entanglements with other nations. This does not mean that diplomacy was passive. Rather than asserting power overseas, which was impossible with a small navy, American diplomats sought to secure the nation's northern and southern boundaries and to expand westward to the Pacific Ocean.

Great Britain.

The Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, failed to address the causes of the war. Immediately after James Monroe won the presidency in 1816, his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, negotiated a series of treaties with Great Britain that resolved several outstanding issues. The Commercial Convention of 1815 opened England and much of the British Empire to American ships. The Rush-Bagot Treaty (1817) averted tensions on the Great Lakes by limiting the number of naval vessels, setting the tone for...