| Following a trail blazed by Felix Gilbert, this thesis contends that, contrary to perceptions commonly held by historians and political scientists, the ideology of early American foreign relations included a radical perspective contrary to the norms of traditional diplomacy. An examination of the writings of Thomas Paine and a wide range of secondary sources on Paine, early America, and the ideology of American foreign policy makes clear that Paine in particular believed that the American Revolution had launched a new world order of democracy, peace, and unrestricted international commerce that had spread to France by 1789 and would soon sweep the world.; Paine's vision changed over time from an emphasis on global transformation by example to reformation by the sword. In his early writings, such as Common Sense (1776), he supported an anti-colonial war so that America could trade freely with other nations and create a liberal exemplar for other nations to emulate. In the 1790s, however, in the second part of the Rights of Man (1792) and other writings, he began to advocate colonialism and wars of conquest to bring about his international vision. After returning to America in 1802, in the name of spreading liberty abroad he inflamed party hatreds at home, abraded the Constitution on the Louisiana question, and encouraged war against England. Until his death in 1809, he tragically defended in the name of democracy and international peace the dictatorial warmongering of the Directory and Napoleon Bonaparte that had killed millions and violated the liberal values he had once so powerfully championed. |
