Isolationism

ISOLATIONISM IS THE 20th-century term used to describe America's traditional noninvolvement in political and military affairs, particularly in Europe, as well as America's avoidance of entangling alliances, collective security commitments, and international organizations such as the League of Nations. Isolationists, those advocating unconditionally for a policy of isolationism, did not wish to alienate the United States from the rest of the world, nor did they oppose all American activity abroad. Rather, isolationists believed that the United States could lead the world much more effectively by building and sustaining democracy, freedom, and prosperity at home as opposed to diplomatic and military involvement in Europe. Moreover, isolationists favored building and maintaining military forces for the defense of the United States and opposed any attempt to police or rebuild the world in an American image.

Although it is a 20th-century term, the roots of isolationism can be traced back to the colonial period. Beginning with Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop's declaration that Americans dwelt in a “city upon a hill” and Thomas Paine's famous pamphlet Common Sense (1776) urging America to “avoid political connections with any European state,” the American people were inculcated very early on with the belief that they could choose whether and when to participate in world affairs. President George Washington expressed similar beliefs in his farewell address of 1796, in which he [Page 710]urged his countrymen “to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” President Thomas Jefferson further reinforced the isolationist sentiment in America during his first inaugural address of 1801, in which he sought “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.” In 1823, President James Monroe further sought to limit America's political and military commitments to Europe while protecting its predominance in the Western Hemisphere, in what later became known as the Monroe Doctrine.

The isolationist sentiment displayed during the early 19th century fostered an intense belief that America was “a favorite child of God, Nature, and History.” This consequently contributed to the development of American nationalism during the second half of the 19th century, further solidifying the isolationist sentiment. During this period, Americans believed “that the United States was so strong, so vigorous, so dynamic—so morally superior—that it could ignore all other countries.” In 1863 during the American Civil War, for example, President Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state, William Henry Seward, rejected France's request for American assistance to pressure Russia to deal leniently with revolutionaries in Poland. Seward asserted, “our policy of nonintervention, straight, absolute, and peculiar as it may seem to other nations has become a traditional one, which could not be abandoned without the most urgent occasion, amounting to a manifest necessity.”

Moreover, in the midst of the Civil War, Americans began focusing on Reconstruction, industrialization, the settlement of the west, and the development of the new south. Consequently, Americans established a greater sense of security, superiority, and power, which in turn made events in the rest of the world appear even less important than before. According to President Andrew Johnson, America's geographic location, territorial size, and growing industry made America “singularly independent of the varying policy of foreign powers” and protected Americans “against every temptation to enter entangling alliances.”

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