Republican Versus Federalist
Shows the distinct differences of the Republican and Federalist armies at the turn of the 19th Century.
The Republicans had an extremely wiser view in the retrospect of foreign policy by not mingling in European business at the turn of the 19th century, due to their knowledge of their new political system, their fragile army, and the divisions that were to occur internally if they picked sides. The Republicans and Federalists were the two primary political parties during the turn of the 19th century. Each party had their fair share of noble leaders, and the nation was split right down the middle.
The United States Government was a mere twenty-five years old and mingling in foreign affairs with their young government could have been costly to the establishment of their nation. Great Britain and France were at war, each wanting the United States as an ally, but George Washington kept the United States neutral during this time of the harsh French Revolution. In order to be successful in aiding a country over seas, the United States Government would have to have had a strong central government that had an impressive foreign track record. The only record the Federal Government had at this point was the Constitution, which was newly put into place. The political atmosphere was built during this time to handle mainly domestic affairs and foreign trading, but definitely not foreign policy.
The Continental Army, under General George Washington, had tremendous help from the French during the American Revolution. The American Army, at the time of the French Revolution, was not anywhere near a world class army. To be successful in any sort of over-water military attempt, a country must have a navy, which the United States, at that time, did not. The fragile army that the United States did have did not have the ample training, or supplies to fight in a struggle away from home. For over a hundred years the Militia of the United States was only trained with domestic fighting experience, and the French Revolution was not a good fight to get their foreign fighting feet wet with. During the nineteenth century, the Republican view of domestic war policy seemed to prevail, only because the conditions were necessary, when you think about the War of 1812, and the Civil War. Both wars were internal affairs fought on home soil. During the 20th Century, however, The Federalist view of foreign policy seemed to work better, because our army was established with different branches of the military, and we could financially afford strict foreign policy.
The biggest decision in the United States moving west instead of venturing to Europe, was that the United States would’ve been divided had they gone to Europe. If they would have gone to Europe, they would have needed to pick a side during the war. At this time, half of the Americans were loyal to the French, while the other half were loyal to the British. Had the American Government formally picked a side, the hard work of the founding fathers would have gone to waste. The expansion of the West was a neutral agreement that seemed not to offend anyone, except the Native Americans.
George Washington’s decision not to enter into European Conflict saved the foundation of our nation that he and his fellow founding fathers spent their lives doing. His wise decision, and genius background in his successful military career, allowed him to make one of the wisest executive decisions in our country’s history. The Republican’s view of how America should handle the European Conflict prevailed over the Federalist’s because of how young the United States was. Had it been two-hundred years later, the outcome would have been significantly different.
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