Adams Dbq Essay

Similarly, the Adams administration also dealt with many foreign affairs, although these more often than not had a unifying effect in America. Similar to the Spanish reaction of Jay’s Treaty, the French were very skeptical of the unexpected agreement between the Americans and Great Britain, causing the French to take action. Seeing the treaty as a violation of the Franco-American Treaty, the French began impressing many American merchant ships just like the British had. Adams, infuriated by the actions of a supposed ally, sent representatives to fix the relations between these two nations, a meeting commonly known as the XYZ Affair. During this meeting, the Frenchmen dubbed “X”, “Y”, and “Z” demanded a huge bribe to allow the Americans to

In addition, this request caused the Americans to enter into an unofficial war with France known as the Quasi War. In this war, the Americans laid an embargo on all trade and allowed naval vessels to attack armed French ships that were capturing American vessels. This sudden need for ships caused many people to see the importance in the Federalist cause of having a strong central government with the power of raising an army (McCullough 241). Furthermore, this war jumpstarted the plans for building a navy, as congress authorized $1.4 million for the building of naval warships to protect the Americans (Wood 245). After roughly 2 years of fighting, both sides signed a treaty, the Treaty of Mortefontaine, ending the war and the Franco-American alliance. This, surprisingly, was a very good move as now the Americans could support the French commercially against their war with England and the Americans maintained their policy of neutrality and not having alliances. Interestingly, as Gordon Wood further explains, this treaty would have most probably won Adams his reelection had Thomas Jefferson not the presidency right before the treaty was signed (Wood