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Difficulty: MediumThe Revolutionary War: Military and Diplomacy

“We are very far from agreeing with the French court in their view of our western boundary. It is their interest to keep us back, and to prevent our becoming too powerful... They would rather see the country north of the Ohio in the hands of the English, and that to the south in the hands of the Spaniards, than in ours. For these and other reasons, we have thought it best to proceed to negotiate a separate peace with Great Britain, without communicating our measures to the French minister.”

— John Jay, American peace commissioner, letter to Secretary of Foreign Affairs Robert R. Livingston, 1782

Which of the following best explains why the American commissioners chose the course of action described in the excerpt?

  1. They believed that European allies might negotiate to limit the western borders of the United States to protect their own imperial interests.Answer
  2. B
    They sought to exercise the federal treaty-making powers newly established by the ratification of the United States Constitution.
  3. C
    They hoped to leverage the negotiations to force the British Parliament to repeal pre-war colonial tax policies like the Townshend Acts.
  4. D
    They were acting on instructions from the newly formed Federalist Party to prioritize a trade alliance with Great Britain over relations with France.

Answer

They believed that European allies might negotiate to limit the western borders of the United States to protect their own imperial interests.
The correct option is correct because the American commissioners (John Jay, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin) recognized that France and Spain had their own imperial and strategic interests that conflicted with American ambitions. Spain wished to limit the expansion of the United States to protect its territorial interests in the Mississippi River valley, and France supported Spain's stance to keep the new nation relatively weak and dependent on the French alliance. Consequently, the commissioners broke their instructions to consult with France at every step and instead negotiated directly with Great Britain, securing highly favorable borders.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the historical context of the stimulus.
The letter was written in 1782 by John Jay, one of the American commissioners negotiating the peace treaty in Paris to end the Revolutionary War.
This establishes the temporal and political setting of the negotiation phase of the war.
2
Examine the specific concerns raised by John Jay in the letter.
Jay explicitly states that France ('the French court') wishes to limit American western expansion, preferring that Britain or Spain control lands north and south of the Ohio River.
This explains why the American commissioners distrusted their European ally's role in the peace talks.
3
Determine the outcome of these concerns on the negotiations.
To bypass French and Spanish influence, the American negotiators chose to negotiate a separate peace directly with Great Britain, securing the Mississippi River as the western boundary in the Treaty of Paris (1783).
This directly links Jay's observations to the final diplomatic strategy adopted by the United States.

Key Concept

The Treaty of Paris (1783) and the diplomatic strategies used by American commissioners to secure favorable terms, including expansive western borders, by negotiating independently of their European allies.
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Topics

The Revolutionary War: Military and Diplomacy

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