Question

How did divisions over foreign policy, especially the French Revolution, poison American politics and threaten the fledgling nation’s unity in the 1790s?

Answer 1

The French Revolution brought about a great division between the parties of Thomas Jefferson and Hamilton, already affected by the subject of banks and debts. Washington's foreign policy caused a great division, since the Federalists intended to support the British, while the Jeffersonians were in favor of France and its revolution. When the war between France and England began in the year 1793, the Jeffersonians took the decision to maintain the alliance that was made with France during the American Revolution. But Washington, trying to avoid a new war that the country could not resist, decided to support Hamilton and thus maintained a policy of neutrality, which most Jeffersonians saw as favoritism towards Britain: this was the division that later became the birth of political parties, in the United States, indirectly caused by the Revolution of France.