ns have pointed out, does not seem to have been
affected by the tradition of isolation. Since the day when the western
frontier was pushed to the Golden Gate, the United States has taken an
active interest in problems of the Pacific. Alaska was purchased from
Russia. An American seaman was the first to open the trade of Japan to the
outside world and thus precipitated the great revolution which has touched
every aspect of Far Eastern questions. American traders watched carefully
the commercial development of Oriental ports, in which Americans have
played an active role. In China and in the maintenance of the open door
especially, has America taken the keenest interest. It is a matter of
pride that American policy, always of a purely commercial and peaceful
nature, showed itself less aggressive than that of some European states.
But the Government insisted upon the recognition of American interest in
every Far Eastern issue that might be raised, and was ready to intervene
with those of Europe in moments of crisis or danger.

A fairly clear-cut distinction might thus be made between American
pretensions in the different parts of the world. In the Americas the
nation claimed that sort of preeminence which was implied by the Monroe
Doctrine, a preeminence which as regards the Latin-American states north
of the Orinoco many felt must be actively enforced, in view of special
interests in the Caribbean. In the Far East the United States claimed an
equality of status with the European powers. In the rest of the world,
Europe, Africa, the Levant, the traditional American policy of abstention
held good absolutely, at least until the close of the century.

The war with Spain affected American foreign policy vitally. The holding
of the Philippines, even if it were to prove merely temporary, created new
relations with all the great powers, of Europe as of Asia; American
Caribbean interests were strengthened; and the victory over a European
power, even one of a second class in material strength, necessarily
altered the traditional attitude of the nation towards the other states of
Europe and theirs towards it. This change was stimulated by the close
attention which American merchants and bankers began to give to European
combinations and policies, particularly to the exploitation of thinly
populated districts by European states. Even before the Spanish War a
keen-sighted student of foreign affairs, Richard Olney, had declared that
th