The genesis of America : US foreign policy and the formation of national identity 1793 1815 Political Ideologies and American Identity in the Era of the French Revolution Foreign Policies of Unneutrality and the Jay Treaty Federalists and the Origins of the Quasi War Disentangling America from France Republicans and the Origins of the War of 1812 Disentangling America from Great Britain Machine generated contents note: Introduction; 1. Political ideologies and American identity in the era of the French Revolution; 2. Foreign policies of unneutrality and the Jay Treaty; 3. Federalists and the origins of the Quasi War; 4. Disentangling America from France; 5. Republicans and the origins of the War of 1812; 6. Disentangling America from Great Britain; Conclusion The Genesis of America investigates the ways in which US foreign policy contributed to the formation of an American national consciousness. Interpreting American nationalism as a process of external demarcation Jasper M. Trautsch argues that for a sense of national self to emerge the US needed to be disentangled from its most important European reference points: Great Britain and France. As he shows foreign policy makers could therefore promote American nationalism by provoking foreign crises and wars with these countries hereby creating external threats that would bind the fragile union together. By reconstructing how foreign policy was thus used as a nation building instrument Trautsch provides an answer to the puzzling question of how Americans lacking a shared history and culture of their own and justifying their claim for independent nationhood by appeals to universal rights could develop a sense of particularity after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War On July 1 1776 John Dickinson a member of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Continental Congress explained to the assembled convention why he was opposed to a declaration of independence. To escape from the protection we have in British rule by declaring independence would be like Destroying a House before We have got another In Winter with a small Family he told his colleagues. Before seeking separation from the mother country We should know on what Grounds We are to stand with Regard to one another he suggested but found that Some of Us totally despair of any reasonable Terms of Confederation. Dickinson therefore came to the conclusion that PARTITION of these Colonies will take place if Great Britain cant conquer Us. Not only did the revolutionaries take the risk that they might lose the War of Independence against Great Britain; they also had to expect the union to fall apart if they were indeed successful so Dickinsons argument went. Since no American collective sense of self had yet de veloped their attachment to Great Britain was all that tied colonists to each other. Once they severed the connection to the mother country Americans not yet having developed a national identity would lack the foundation for maintaining their union