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How Did The Civil War Change The Us Foreign Policy

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After the Civil War, the nation was rebuilding itself, and with that came a new change in foreign policy different from before the war. The nation was building itself back up from ashes and with this transition came new policies. Before the Civil War, the US was a very peripheral nation, usually staying away from foreign affairs. After the Civil War, this was a different story. The nation started to focus more on the global sphere, and it started to open up more trade with the world. It began to trade with other countries, set up army bases around the world, and expanded its influence and protection across the rest of the Americas. However, once the Spanish-American War came to fruition, the US's foreign policy changed from one of peaceful …show more content…

When the war ended, it was a grand victory for the US, and allowed them to expand their acquisitions and create an ‘empire’. With the war, they were able to take Cuba, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. With these new colonial holdings, the mindset of the American government started to change: they now were interested in the global sphere and wanted a large stake within it. They're defeating this once massive power and taking this much land showed to them and the world that the US is not just some puny nation on the other side of the world, but rather a force to be reckoned with --the same kind of idea that will happen again after WW2. This kind of thought played well with the US's belief in exceptionalism. The US now controlled a huge swath of land as colonies and this got them to be among the ranks of the grand European nations. Now with this victory, the US could go against the other powerful nations, and that was what they did. The US has started to influence many areas around the world, most especially China. Before the US intervention, China was controlled by spheres of influence by many European nations --which was more biased towards some nations than others. The US started to influence these nations for their land in China with the Open Door Policy – a policy within China to stop one power from influencing too much land in the area. As …show more content…

However, come the war, the US needed new sources of raw materials and new markets to trade any goods made in the country. For these reasons, the war seemed to be quite beneficial for the American cause, where they could get prestige and economic opportunities out of it. With the new annexation of these Spanish colonies, it allowed America to expand its interests that needed to be quelled. They were able to get raw materials from these lands (i.e. wood, stone, metal) and have access to their trading areas and cities to trade American goods to more people. This new kind of access changed the government's mind, and they started to go more and more to other nations to trade with them. As well, with this newfound hunger for economic stability, the US did everything possible to protect their markets and economic interests in other countries; so much so, that they even invaded these areas. Examples such as Nicaragua, China, Panama, and many more, that invaded or set up influences to have their mark on the land. They needed this area to be stable so that they could trade peacefully, so they invaded for their interests at heart --such as with Panama and their canal, or China and the spheres of influence. With all of these instances, the US expanded and most likely radically changed its foreign policy in regards to

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