AP United States History

## Learning Outcomes

- Explain why diplomacy with Britain and Spain became urgent in the 1790s
- Identify the terms and significance of **Jay's Treaty** and **Pinckney's Treaty**
- Understand how **Washington's neutrality policy** shaped foreign relations
- Distinguish between **navigation rights** on the Mississippi and the **right of deposit** at New Orleans
- Analyse why Jay's Treaty divided **Federalists** and **Democratic-Republicans**
- Use these treaties in APUSH causation, comparison, and LEQ/DBQ arguments

## AP United States History Syllabus

For the AP United States History, you are expected to understand diplomacy with Britain and Spain in the 1790s, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that **Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality (1793)** set the framework for U.S. foreign policy during the wars of the French Revolution
- Identify the key terms of **Jay's Treaty (1794; ratified 1795)** with Great Britain, including evacuation of **Northwest posts**
- Explain why Jay's Treaty was controversial, especially its failure to end **impressment** and fully protect neutral trading rights
- Understand the terms of **Pinckney's Treaty (1795)**, also called the **Treaty of San Lorenzo**
- Know that Pinckney's Treaty set the **31st parallel** as the boundary with **Spanish Florida**
- Identify the importance of **Mississippi River navigation** and the **right of deposit** at **New Orleans**
- Compare the domestic reaction to Jay's Treaty with the broader popularity of Pinckney's Treaty
- Understand how these treaties strengthened the new republic without war while also intensifying party conflict

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. Why did Washington pursue neutrality in the 1790s instead of siding with France against Britain?
2. What problems did Jay's Treaty solve, and what major problems did it leave unresolved?
3. Why was Pinckney's Treaty especially important to western settlers and farmers?
4. What is the difference between the **right of deposit** and **navigation rights** on the Mississippi River?
5. How did diplomacy with Britain and Spain help shape the first party system?

## Introduction

In the 1790s, the United States was politically independent but still weak. The Revolution had ended in **1783**, yet Britain still occupied frontier forts, Spain controlled access to the lower Mississippi, and European war threatened to pull the young republic into conflict it could not afford. Diplomacy mattered because the United States needed peace, trade, secure borders, and proof that its new federal government could defend national interests.

This subtopic sits in **Period 3 (1754–1800)** and connects strongly to the AP themes of **America in the World (WOR)** and **Politics and Power (PCE)**. On the exam, these treaties are rarely tested as isolated facts. They are more often used to show causation, comparison, or growing party division in the new republic.

> **Key Term: neutrality**
> A foreign policy position in which a nation stays out of a war between other powers while trying to protect its own trade, security, and independence.

### Why diplomacy became urgent after independence

The United States won independence, but many issues from the Revolution remained unsettled. Britain had promised in the **Treaty of Paris (1783)** to evacuate forts in the **Northwest Territory**, yet it kept troops there. That mattered because those forts helped Britain maintain influence in the fur trade and in relations with Native nations resisting U.S. settlement. The British presence made the republic look weak and limited westward expansion.

Spain posed a different challenge. It controlled **Spanish Florida** and New Orleans, which sat at the mouth of the Mississippi River. For farmers in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the trans-Appalachian West, the Mississippi was the cheapest route to market. If Spain blocked access, western farmers could not easily sell surplus crops. That was not just a regional inconvenience. It threatened the unity of the republic because western settlers might lose confidence in the federal government.

At the same time, the French Revolution widened into war between **Britain and France**. Many Americans sympathised with France because France had aided the American Revolution. But sympathy was not the same as strategy. The United States was militarily weak, financially fragile, and commercially tied to Britain.

> **Key Term: Proclamation of Neutrality**
> Washington's **1793** declaration that the United States would remain neutral in the war between Britain and France.

Washington's neutrality policy was practical, not passive. He did not believe the United States could safely fight a major European power. Neutrality aimed to buy time for the republic to grow stronger. Students often confuse neutrality with isolation. That is a mistake. The U.S. did not withdraw from the world. It negotiated actively with foreign powers to make neutrality workable.

The chain of causation is important:

- European war disrupted U.S. shipping and diplomacy
- Britain and Spain both held influence over U.S. trade and borders
- Washington chose neutrality to avoid war
- Neutrality required treaties to reduce danger on both the northern and southern frontiers
  > **Test Tip:** In an SAQ or LEQ, do not say the United States was simply "isolationist" in the 1790s. A stronger answer says Washington pursued neutrality while still using diplomacy to protect commerce and borders.

### Jay's Treaty: limited success with Britain, major political controversy

By **1794**, tensions with Britain were serious. Britain still held the Northwest posts and interfered with American shipping. There was real fear of war. Washington sent **John Jay** to negotiate because avoiding conflict mattered more than winning every demand.

> **Key Term: Jay's Treaty**
> A **1794** treaty between the United States and Great Britain that sought to avoid war and settle unresolved issues from the Revolution.

Jay's Treaty achieved several concrete results. Britain agreed to evacuate the **Northwest posts** it had continued to occupy. The treaty also created commissions to settle disputes over **pre-Revolution debts** and over compensation claims related to seized American ships. These were not dramatic gains, but they mattered because they used negotiation rather than war.

However, the treaty had major weaknesses. It did **not** end **impressment** of American sailors. It also failed to fully protect U.S. neutral trading rights during the British war with France. This mattered because those were exactly the issues many Americans most cared about. The treaty also gave only limited commercial access to the **British West Indies**, and even that provision was controversial enough that the Senate ratified the treaty in **1795** only after suspending **Article 12**. The Senate vote was **20–10**, exactly the required two-thirds majority.

Why was this treaty so divisive? Because Americans judged it by different priorities.

**Federalists** tended to support Jay's Treaty because:

- Britain was America's main trading partner
- war would threaten commerce and public credit
- a weak republic should accept compromise to preserve peace

**Democratic-Republicans** attacked it because:

- it seemed too friendly to Britain
- it ignored France, which many still saw as a sister republic
- it failed to protect sailors and neutral rights
- it made the U.S. look weak rather than sovereign

So Jay's Treaty was a diplomatic success in one sense and a political failure in another. It prevented war and removed British forts, but it also sharpened the first party system.

This is exactly the kind of complexity APUSH rewards. A high-level answer does not call Jay's Treaty a total victory or a total disaster. It explains that it strengthened the republic externally while dividing it internally.

> **Key Term: impressment**
> The British practice of seizing sailors, including some from American ships, and forcing them into British naval service.

Washington's handling of the treaty also mattered constitutionally. When critics in the House sought related diplomatic papers, Washington refused, helping establish the precedent of **executive privilege** in foreign affairs. That is useful evidence if an essay asks about the growth of federal power in the new republic.

> **Test Tip:** If an APUSH question asks why Jay's Treaty was controversial, do not stop at "people disliked Britain." Add specific evidence: it failed to end impressment, did not fully secure neutral rights, and appeared too conciliatory toward Britain.

### Pinckney's Treaty: a clearer diplomatic victory with Spain

If Jay's Treaty was controversial, **Pinckney's Treaty** was far more popular because its gains were clearer and more immediate, especially in the West.

> **Key Term: Pinckney's Treaty**
> A **1795** treaty between the United States and Spain, also called the **Treaty of San Lorenzo**, that settled the southern border and opened the Mississippi River to American trade.

Negotiated by **Thomas Pinckney**, the treaty did three major things students must know.

First, it fixed the boundary between the United States and **Spanish Florida** at the **31st parallel**. This reduced uncertainty on the southern frontier.

Second, it granted Americans **free navigation of the Mississippi River**. That meant western settlers could legally use the river to transport goods southward.

Third, it granted the **right of deposit** at **New Orleans**.

> **Key Term: right of deposit**
> The right of Americans to store goods at New Orleans duty-free while waiting to transfer them onto ocean-going ships.

This final point is often tested because students confuse it with navigation rights.

- **Navigation rights** meant Americans could travel and ship goods on the Mississippi River.
- **Right of deposit** meant they could temporarily store those goods at New Orleans without paying duties.

That distinction mattered economically. River access alone was not enough. Farmers also needed a place to unload, store, and transfer produce to larger vessels for world markets. Pinckney's Treaty therefore helped turn western settlement into profitable commercial agriculture.

Why did Spain agree? Several reasons worked together. Spain was overstretched, wanted to stabilise its borderlands, and faced wider pressures from the wars of the 1790s. Jay's Treaty also alarmed Spain because improved U.S.-British relations raised the danger that Spain could face diplomatic isolation or even Anglo-American cooperation. Settling with the United States now seemed safer than confrontation later.

Pinckney's Treaty is often described as the high point of Washington's foreign policy because it offered obvious benefits with less political backlash. Western farmers and settlers could see direct gains. Border security improved. Trade expanded. Unlike Jay's Treaty, it did not look like an embarrassing compromise with an old enemy.

### Comparison and exam strategy: Britain vs Spain, peace vs party conflict

The best way to master this subtopic is to compare the two treaties directly.

Jay's Treaty

- Nation involved: **Great Britain**
- Year signed: **1794**
- Main purpose: avoid war and settle unresolved Revolutionary issues
- Major gains: British evacuation of Northwest posts; arbitration over debts and seized ships
- Major limits: no end to impressment; no full neutral rights; limited West Indies trade
- Political impact: highly controversial; intensified Federalist–Democratic-Republican conflict

Pinckney's Treaty

- Nation involved: **Spain**
- Year signed: **1795**
- Main purpose: settle border and western trade disputes
- Major gains: **31st parallel** boundary, Mississippi navigation, right of deposit at New Orleans
- Major limits: fewer obvious weaknesses from an American viewpoint
- Political impact: broadly popular, especially in the West

This comparison helps with several APUSH skills.

For **causation**, show how European war and frontier problems pushed Washington toward negotiation.

For **comparison**, contrast a limited peace-preserving treaty with Britain and a stronger commercial treaty with Spain.

For **continuity and change over time**, show that the U.S. still faced old imperial powers after independence, but now used federal diplomacy rather than colonial protest.

A strong LEQ or DBQ paragraph might argue:

- diplomacy strengthened the republic by avoiding war and improving trade
- but foreign policy also deepened domestic division, especially over Britain and France

That "both/and" structure is exactly what AP readers like.

If you are asked to assess the extent to which diplomacy strengthened the new republic, a good judgement would be:

- to a significant extent, because the treaties secured borders, trade routes, and peace
- but not completely, because Jay's Treaty left serious issues unresolved and inflamed partisan conflict

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- Washington's **Proclamation of Neutrality (1793)** aimed to keep the weak new republic out of war between Britain and France
- Neutrality did not mean isolation; the United States continued active diplomacy
- Britain still occupied **Northwest posts** after the **Treaty of Paris (1783)**
- **Jay's Treaty (1794; ratified 1795)** helped avoid war with Britain
- Jay's Treaty secured British evacuation of frontier forts and set up arbitration over debts and ship seizures
- Jay's Treaty did **not** end **impressment** or fully protect neutral trading rights
- Jay's Treaty was supported mainly by **Federalists** and criticised by **Democratic-Republicans**
- **Pinckney's Treaty (1795)**, also called the **Treaty of San Lorenzo**, was negotiated with Spain by **Thomas Pinckney**
- Pinckney's Treaty set the U.S.-Spanish Florida boundary at the **31st parallel**
- Pinckney's Treaty gave Americans navigation rights on the **Mississippi River**
- The **right of deposit** at **New Orleans** allowed Americans to store goods duty-free for transfer to ocean-going ships
- Pinckney's Treaty was especially important to western farmers and settlers and was more popular than Jay's Treaty

## Key Terms and Concepts

- neutrality
- Proclamation of Neutrality
- Jay's Treaty
- impressment
- Pinckney's Treaty
- right of deposit


Shaping a New Republic - Diplomacy with Britain and Spain