Although not well known to students of American history today, General John Armstrong was, in his day, a prominent and colorful public figure. From 1804 to 1810, he held the difficult position of United States Minister to France at a time when the world was in upheaval resulting from the Napoleonic Ware. As Great Britain and France struggled for supremacy, the United States--the world's foremost neutral commercial power--was slowly, but inevitably, drawn into this struggle, becoming the victim of the hostile edicts of the two major belligerents, as they wantonly violated established practices of international law.

Abstract not available

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

This dissertation investigates Taiwan's role in the twists and turns in its relationship with China from 1987 to 2004. It employs the methods of both case studies and the VAR (vector autoregression) time-series analysis to assess the impact of the following four factors on Taiwan's actions toward China: (1) the democratic transition in Taiwan, (2) Taiwan's electoral politics, (3) cross-Strait economic exchanges, and (4) U.S. Taiwan Policy. The research conclusions are as follows. First, President Lee Teng-hui's rational calculation in the late 1980s guided him to launch domestic political reforms while continuing former President Chiang Chingkuo's liberalization of Taiwan's China policy. Consequently, Taiwan's democratic transition was accompanied by the appearance of a peaceful policy toward China. Second, in order to win votes from the electorate, which increasingly embraced a Taiwanese identity after the mid-1990s, Taiwanese politicians tended to launch aggressive electoral campaigns against China. Accordingly, domestic elections turned out to be a conducive factor for Taiwan's conflictual actions toward China. Third, politicians' electoral consideration also overrode Taiwanese businessmen's preference for crossStrait stability. As a result, cross-Strait economic interdependence was unable to restrain Taiwan from taking aggressive policies toward China. Fourth, because Taiwanese politicians tended not to give in to U.S. pressures during Taiwan's elections, the U.S. could not successfully stop Taiwan's provocative actions toward China as elections neared in Taiwan. It was only when Taiwanese leaders sought to strengthen U.S.-Taiwan relations after election seasons ended that the U.S. could induce Taiwan to act cooperatively toward China. / text

This dissertation proposes to explain how militarization during the turn of the twentieth century affected relations in the transnational West Texas region between Mexicans and Anglos and between the United States and Mexico. The study seeks to demonstrate that militarization complicated these relations and deepened racial and international divisions. Within this discussion, the study will also demonstrate that the "border troubles" of the early twentieth century gave shape to an authority structure that was composed of border institutions that sought to pacify the region with ever-increasing vigilance and punitive measures. The result of such measures was a disciplined society that reinforced racial segregation in towns and cities along the border, specifically El Paso. A case study approach is utilized to highlight specific events, institutions and public figures that contributed to the formation of authority in El Paso. They include the National Guard, the 1916 El Paso race riot, the Texas Rangers, and the Border Patrol. The affects of developing authority and their institutions on race relations along the U.S.-Mexican divide are addressed. Historians have discussed various aspects of the history of immigration, race, and labor in the border region. However, they have given little attention to militarization and the emergence of authority in the integration of Mexicans and Mexican Americans into American society in the border region. Militarization of the U.S.-Mexican border between 1890 and 1924 contributed to the definition of racial and ethnic relations. This study examines the history of the West Texas region while focusing on the changing relationship between the Mexican-origin community and larger society. The general intent is to demonstrate that the militarization of the region complicated relations at the same time that it established institutions that defined the new political structure in the border region. The dissertation also studies how the history of Mexican Americans was tied to the special relations between the communities along the border. This transnational relationship serves as a vantage point from which to study national and regional histories and an emphasis on race allows this study to explain the extent to which militarization affected social relations in the border region.

My dissertation examines the cultural, political, and economic relationship between Haiti and the United States in the early nineteenth century--a key period in the development of both young nations. Most scholarship on this relationship has revolved around either the Haitian Revolution or later periods, from the mid-nineteenth century onward. Through trade, migration, and politics, the two countries had a more substantial role in one another's formative years than the literature currently suggests. Haitian leaders actively sought to attract African Americans to the island and believed they were crucial to improving Haiti's economic and political standing. African Americans became essential players in determining the nature of Haiti and U.S. relations, and the migration of thousands to Haiti in the 1820s proved to be the apogee of the two countries' interconnectedness. Drawing on a variety of materials, including emigrant letters, diary accounts, travelers' reports, newspaper editorials, the National Archives' Passenger Lists, Haitian government proclamations, Haitian newspapers, and American, British, and French consulate records, I analyze the diverse political and social motivations that fueled African American emigration. The project links Haitian nation building and Haitian struggles for recognition to American abolitionism and commercial development. / text

No description available.

This dissertation is an examination of the American oil industry in Saudi Arabia and its influence on United States foreign policy. The study examines the Americans who went to Saudi Arabia, the effect of the oil companies on Saudi- American relations, and the American government's response to oil company actions. There is an attempt to answer such questions as: Did the oil companies exert pressure on the American government to influence governmental policy? How effective was this pressure? And, what benefits did the oil companies have from their relationship with the government? The study concludes that Aramco was instrumental in bringing official and nonofficial contact and representation between Saudi Arabia and the United States. Moreover, Aramco was instrumental in involving the American government directly in Saudi Arabia through the extension of lend-lease aid to that country. American government involvement thwarted potential British ambitions in the Saudi oil resources and resulted in the American dominance of oil interests in that kingdom. In addition, Senate investigations showed that the oil companies grossly overcharged the United States Navy on oil purchases and that the financial assistance to Saudi Arabia was made for the protection of Aramco's oil concession.

The purpose of this comparative and historical study is to consider a reconceptualization of the notion of educational policy transfer, based on an analysis of how the reforms made during the Soviet and US military occupation in the two Koreas influenced the educational development of North and South Korea from 1945 to 1959. The conceptual framework for the research drew on a definition of 'policy' as a comprehensive concept comprising of policy process and practice 'on the ground,' and going beyond a rigid definition of it as a formally recorded and proclaimed statement by a government. This concept of policy enabled me to analyze the process and practice of the educational reforms from a multi-dimensional perspective, incorporating the beliefs of local actors and the bureaucracy of domestic institutions. For this purpose, historical sources including South Korean, North Korean and US government documents, magazines, newpapers, teachers' resumés and guides and the memoires and diaries of important policy-makers were analyzed; historical documentation was complemented by expert interviews with eleven South and North Korean policy-makers and academics. In South Korea, educational reforms were implemented to promote liberal democratic ideals in the education system. Curricular and systemic changes were made to teach democratic procedures and concepts, such as the introduction of the subject social studies, the establishment of a single-track school system, and the introduction of a student-centered pedagogy to primary schools. In North Korea, a socialist-communist ideology, along with an attraction to the Soviet Union as a model state to follow, was extensively promoted through a series of educational reforms as political indoctrination intensified in the adult education and school curricula. In both contexts, the localization of the reforms was affected by cultural and social factors unique to Korea: the authoritarian legacy of Confucianism and Japanese colonization, and the nationalism that had been fostered for the purpose of state-formation. The Korean case indicates that the state-centric, linear and static view of educational policy transfer should be replaced by a new conceptualization which includes the complex web of decision-making and implementation processes that involve negotiations and compromises among various politicians and administrators who are driven by national as well as personal interests and goals. For example, although the educational reforms in the two Koreas were developed by Soviet and US military in order to maximize their long-term security interests in the Korean peninsula, the key actors who implemented the reforms were Korean policy-makers, who had been appointed to key positions of the educational administrations through the bureaucratic politics between the military authorities and the Korean polity. Although the overall objective of the educational reforms was to extend the ideological influences of the Soviet Union and the USA in the Korean peninsula, specific programs and policies for the reforms depended on the Korean policy-makers' understanding and interpretations of different ideologies.