HIST 011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Seward, Alaska, Monroe Doctrine, Josiah Strong
Document Summary
William h. seward of ny served as secretary of state under lincoln and johnson. Most influential since q. adams; prevented gb and fr from entering the civil war w/ confederacy, led the drive to annex midway island in pacific, gained rights to build a canal in nicaragua and purchased alaska. Failed to convince congress to annex hawaii and purch danish west indies. Napoleon iii takes advantage of us involvement in civil war by sending french troops to occupy mexico. After cw ends, seward invoked the monroe doctrine and threatened us military action unless the withdraw. Napoleon iii backs down and french troops leave mexico. The purchase of alaska for decades, russia + gb both claimed alaska russia controls and establish a sm colony for seal hunting territory becomes econ burden bc threat of gb takeover. Russia sells it to america in 1867 for . 2 million; americans saw no value really though.
