History of Foreign Policy

Study US Foreign Policy using Online Video

Use these 4 online educational video titles to follow America's transformation from a new comer on the international scene to a leader in world affairs. These video presentations reveal both the young nation's isolationism through the mid-19th Century and the reasons for its gradual shift to imperialism and a world leadership role around 1900.

Learning Objectives:

• Examine U.S. foreign policy from the adoption of the Constitution in 1788 to America's retreat into isolationism during the early years of the Great Depression.
• Explore how the cautionary vision of the Founding Fathers, the westward expansion implicated by Manifest Destiny, and the "big stick" outlook championed by Theodore Roosevelt limited or influenced America's involvement in international affairs.
• Understand the reasons for America's neutrality at the outbreak of World War 1 and the forces that eventually compelled the nation's entrance into the First World War.
• Gain insight to the ways in which the idealism of Woodrow Wilson and the outcome of World War 1 impacted American society and U.S. foreign policy, while probing the reasons why the Senate did not approve U.S. membership in the League of Nations.

• History > American History > US Foreign Policy 1788 1933
• Entering the World Scene - To 1913 (Runtime: 11:56)
• The Road to War - To 1917 (Runtime: 13:13)
• The War and the Treaty 1917-1919 (Runtime: 08:15)
• Aloof from World Affairs 1919-1933 (Runtime: 09:04)