Belgian American Diplomatic and Consular Relations, 1830-1850: A Study in American Foreign Policy in mid-nineteenth Century

This book will help to establish the fact that it has been erroneous to teach American diplomatic history as a series of incidents belonging to a particular administration, a particular President, a particular Secretary of State or a particular diplomatic agent. Rather, American diplomatic history should be understood as a continuum of interests centered about the North Atlantic and always essentially related to a European context.
Americans and the American government were not isolationist minded in their policies in the mid-nineteenth century. There were broad outlines and objectives for which the American government and its representatives abroad constantly worked ; these activities did involve the United States in the affairs of other nations ; and these objectives can be discerned in studying the daily activities of the Belgian Legation from 1830 to 1850.