Reviews for Back to Africa

The average rating for Back to Africa based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-12-09 00:00:00 Michael D Roderick When considering the period between the US Civil War and the Spanish American War, many choose to turn to domestic issues. Charles S. Campbell, however, sees the period as a crucial one for US foreign relations. Campbell asserts that this time was noteworthy in history as it saw the American economy rapidly transforming through industrialization. While the American frontier had closed up, ideas of manifest destiny still inspired Americans. A nation at one time opposed to imperial pursuits became open to expanding its territory and markets for its industrial surplus. Campbell argues that in order to meet the needs of a rising power, the United States looked outward and that three necessities consumed American foreign policy: acquiring holdings in the Pacific, in the Caribbean, and an isthmus canal. In the 35 years that it took to acquire all three, the United States ended up reinventing itself by becoming an empire and as Campbell indicates, as an unintended circumstance, the United States became with its former rival Great Britain. The Transformation of American Foreign Relations begins in a period of animosity between the United States and Britain. Britain’s violation of neutrality in harboring and assisting in the Confederate ship The Alabama, contested fishing waters flanking Canada, concerns over protecting their economic interests in the Far East, and British interventions in Central and South America all placed the two countries at odds. Although many Americans considered some of these issues to be insurmountable and enough to go to war over, such as Britain’s seizure of the town of Carinto, Nicaragua in 1895, most problems were settled through arbitration. Campbell wonderfully expresses the remarkability that despite these problems, the United States, was able to not only refrain from major war through diplomacy with Britain, but that it gained stature by challenging the world premier power Great Britain and even came out ahead. The United States managed to stay out of armed conflict until it willingly waged one against Spain to fulfill its three objectives in 1898. Of the three objectives, trends within the period saw a warming to the ideas of expansion. Campbell states that the Civil War made the need for a Caribbean base a defensive necessity. However, early racial ideas and reluctance for expansion in the era of Reconstruction trumped these desires. Disturbances within the crumbling Spanish empire, particularly in Cuba, troubled the United States and a conflict between the two powers over Cuba seemed inevitable. Equally pressing, were the commercial needs in the Pacific. The United States responded by slowly tightening its control over the Hawaiian Islands, through reciprocal treaties in 1875 and a slow process of annexation (it was rejected, partially for political reasons by the Cleveland administration for in 1893, but annexed after the Spanish-American War). The Spanish American War would also usher in a new level of comfort with overseas possessions, as the United States acquired Midway Island, Wake Island, Guam, part of the Samoan Islands, and the Philippines, creating stepping stones across the Pacific. The islands were relevant because they assisted in protecting American business interests in China and created a military presence to balance Japan’s, though Campbell does not spend much time on either. Equally slow in coming was the building of the isthmian canal. Campbell spends several chapters on this event and ties it in with the commercial and defensive needs of the growing nation. Campbell states that the effects of the Panic of 1893 and the need to move surplus and the can do era after the Spanish American War and the establishment of an empire that would finally bring about a compromise on the Central American canal, an acquisition of the failed French project in Panama in the 1880s. The Transformation of American Foreign Relations is an insightful book that gives enough details on the major issues relating to the United States becoming a global force without the minutiae that make similar books less readable. Campbell weaves all the topics together in a way which makes American foreign policy for the time coherent. He also pays homage to the opposing political views in the turbulent era of Reconstruction, reflecting on some of the patterns of thought in the time. It is with this that the book becomes essential for understanding foreign relations in a historical period which many mostly consider purely domestic issues.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-07-25 00:00:00 Adam Krier Excellent examination of relationship between America's rise first as an economic power and then as a colonial power. LaFeber re-evaluates McKinley. He's was far from a tool used by the powerful, but a very sharp politician he was fully in command of his administration. This book is justifiably famous, and is required reading for anyone wanting to understand America's entry into global politics.