Reference no: EM133322846

Assignment:

Prompt Atlantic World Chaos and Foreign Entanglements, 1787-1815

In 1796 President Washington famously warned against U.S. involvement in the political affairs of Europe, stressing to Americans that, "Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence...the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake." Yet as much as Washington and many of the Founders talked about neutrality, the United States found itself almost constantly involved in European warfare and political intrigue (not to mention continual conflict with Native American tribes and wars against North African pirates!) between 1787 and 1815.

Why was it that the United States was essentially unable to avoid foreign entanglements? Were Americans being hypocrites when they called for peaceful isolation in North America; did they in fact see gain or advantage in aligning themselves with various European powers, or involving themselves in European and/or local (i.e. the American frontier and the Caribbean) conflicts? Did the Europeans or hemispheric powers simply force war upon the United States? Or, did domestic partisanship necessarily parlay itself into international partisanship? Was there some combination of these factors? Be sure your response includes a clear set-up of the problem (i.e. a clash or synthesis between different visions of the American future), a clear thesis, and supporting evidence drawn from the textbook and the below readings.

Primary (and Supplemental) Sources:

• "President George Washington's Parting Advice to the Nation," 1796 (on Blackboard)
• Tecumseh Urges Unity among "Red Men"
• The Creeks Call for an Alliance with Spain (Document in textbook Chapter)
• Congress Debates Going to War (Document 6 in textbook Chapter)
• The United States and the Haitian Revolution
• The First Barbary War
• Macon's Bill No. 2

It will be important to choose a topic of interest to you. While all of the below topics are fair game, it will generally be easier if you engage with a prompt that you find appealing intellectually.

• Approach this assignment with an open and skeptical mind, then form an opinion based on what you have discovered.
• You must suspend beliefs while you are investigating and let the discoveries shape your opinion. (This is a thesis-finding approach.)
• Once you have found your thesis, write the paper to support it.

You will use some of the following critical thinking skills in this process:

1. Choosing an appropriate topic, limiting the topic.
2. Gathering information, summarizing sources.
3. Analyzing and evaluating sources.
4. Defining key terms.
5. Synthesizing information, comparing and contrasting sources.
6. Testing a thesis, making a historical argument, using refutation.
7. Amassing support for a position.
8. Documenting sources.

Because this may be a longer paper than you have written before and a complex process is involved, it is recommended that you complete this paper using the following steps:

1. Choose a topic below, related to the chapters covered in The American Yawp, (Chapters 1-15) that you would truly like to explore and that you are willing to spend some time on. You may want to begin with more than one topic in mind.

2. Do some preliminary reading on the topic(s). You may begin with the textbook, then further explore the information available, including the primary sources provided with the historical question. Refine your topic. Summarize your topic, your interest in the topic, the questions you want to answer, and a hypothesis you want to test.

3. Gather information from a variety of sources. Use a minimum of four sources for your paper, including the textbook and relevant primary sources (including the ones listed below the prompts).

• Primary sources are contemporary to the times under investigation.
• An example of a secondary source is our textbook, though the textbook also contains excerpts of primary sources, which you may use as a source in your paper.

4. Outline the results of your research and the plan for your paper (you are not required to submit the outline).

5. Write the final draft and be sure to include a Works Cited List, and use the correct MLA documentation style.