ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the themes, shows the interrelationships between them, and develops the influence of American expansionism upon the post-war military program. Historians have interpreted the military build-up of 1815–1816 as the product of hard learning gleaned from recent experience, or as the manifestation of apprehensions concerning post-war international relations. American expansionism –specifically, the pressure applied by the United States against the Spanish borderlands after 1808—aroused an unprecedented interest in foreign policy on the part of the other European powers, Great Britain, especially. America's navy basked in the afterglow of victory in the War of 1812, but the reward for performance well-done in the form of fleet expansion would have to wait the next session when legislators found more time. The interview's most disastrous effect upon American expansionism, however, lay in its impact upon Spanish policymakers. The prime force behind American diplomacy would be the navy.
