​Part 1

​Foreign policy is a government’s strategy for dealing with other countries. As a young nation in the 1790s, America’s approach to foreign policy had largely been to stay out of other countries’ affairs and to not form alliances. When President Washington negotiated a trade agreement with Great Britain in 1794, other nations in the world were surprised - especially France. France felt America owed loyalty to the French, as they had come to the aid of Americans during the revolutionary war against Britain. Additionally, as a result of many lengthy wars with Great Britain and the French Revolution, France was in deep debt.

​Part 2

To support their economy, starting in approximately 1795, French navy and French privateers began the practice of impressment: seizing and stealing American trading vessels, their goods, and their sailors. This angered many Americans and left them afraid of France. Hoping to avoid war, President John Adams sent diplomats to France. During the meetings, French representatives known as X, Y, and Z demanded a bribe of $10 million. They also threatened the United States with the “power and violence of France.”

​Part 3

Many Americans feared that war with France was around the corner. According to the 1790 census, there were approximately 11,200 French citizens living in the United States. By 1798, the French Revolution had taken hold in France causing many French citizens to flee to the United States; the number of French citizens living in the United States was estimated to have grown to 25,000. As rumors of French invasion and enemy spies living in the United States spread, fear took hold of the young American nation. In order to calm the fears of American citizens, Congress quickly passed laws in 1798 to make the United States more secure; these were known as the Alien and Sedition Acts.

​Alien and Sedition Act

​SECTION 1. Whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion...attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States, by any foreign nation or government...all natives or citizens of the hostile nation or government, being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be residing within the United States, and not American citizens, shall be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies….