How Did The Domestic Affairs And Foreign Policies Affected American History?

In the 1700s, there were many events that impacted the American way of life. Domestic affairs and foreign policies were major factors. These events mostly changed the politics of America. The domestic affairs and foreign policies impacted American history to a great extent. They totally changed America and helped it become more of what it is today. The domestic affairs and foreign policies that impacted American history were the French Revolution, Jay’s Treaty, and the Alien and Sedition Acts. The French Revolution (1789-1799) was a domestic affair. It was brought on by the Enlightenment philosophy which desacralized the authority of the monarchy and the Catholic Church, the development of the bourgeoisie, France’s debt due to their involvement

The French saw it as a violation of the Franco-American treaty. So the French started to attack American merchant ships and harass the ships on the American trade routes. This anger led to the Quasi-War (1798-1800), an undeclared war between America and France. The war got more violent after the XYZ Affair in 1798. The XYZ Affair happened, because President John Adams sent American delegates over to France to meet with a French minister to fix the problems that were present. In this meeting, Talleyrand, the minister, did not show up in person. Instead he had three agents that tried to get the American delegates to bribe them into having a meeting with Talleyrand. The delegates did not pay this bribe, and they came back to America with this information which was released by President Adams and was called the XYZ Affair. The Quasi-War had a negative effect on the relations between the Federalist and Republican parties politically. During the Quasi-War, the Republicans tended to give their opinions through writing and speeches, and the Federalists reacted to this by passing the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1789. The Alien and Sedition Acts were to make it harder for an immigrant to become a citizen of America, allow the president to deport and imprison people who are not citizens of America and were deemed dangerous or from a nation in which there was violence, and made making false statements against the government illegal. These acts set off conflicts. The Republicans claimed that the Sedition Act went against the First Amendment, which is the freedom of speech and of press. When they went to the Supreme Court with this, The Supreme Court, did not have a certain power to be able to review congressional legislation, because of the amount of Federalists that were justices. Instead, the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were made. These resolutions set forth a states’ rights interpretation of the Constitution, and that the states had