American-Isolationism

The term in the title of this post has a hyphen for a reason, which is that Americans have a particular brand of isolationism. I have a post planned about Warren Harding and  Calvin Coolidge, and as their presidency deals with the inter-war period you read a lot about America's isolationism. Wilson dragged Americans into WWI despite it being an isolationist country, after WWI America wished to return to its isolationism, America was reluctant to join WWII because it is isolationist, etc. The problem with this is that it is pretty false.

Americans aren't isolationists, they're American-Isolationists, which is another instance of Americans putting their own brand on things. Isolationism means non-interference or non-intervention in the affairs of other nations, essentially keeping to yourself. American-Isolationism means, roughly, don't intervene or interfere beyond an ocean. If you are not beyond an ocean, however, then Americans have no problem projecting themselves into other countries.

In 1812 the United States, under James Madison (one of those "Founders" you have doubtless heard about), declared war on the British Empire, with specific aims at British controlled Canada.

James Madison

While there were several reasons for the war, such as trade restriction, an important part of the war was US expansionist interests and an idea that the US could takeover Canada. Now, this takeover of Canada was not specifically with the goal of annexing Canada into the US, although some had that interest, but rather as a method to rid the continent of the British. As former President Thomas Jefferson said at the time:

The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us the experience for the attack on Halifax, the next and final expulsion of England from the American continent.

With Jefferson in mind we also have the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, showing that the US was neither isolationist to the west or the north. In fact, during and after the Presidential election in 1844 of James K. Polk, the expansion west and north combined in the issue of the annexation of the Oregon territories. The issue wasn't just should the US expand further west, but just how far north it should stake it's claim, taking land from the British. This led to the creation of the famous slogan "Fifty-four forty or fight", referring the the longitudinal demands of some US policy makers.

The Disputed Territories Leading to the Famous "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight"

Nor was the US isolationist towards the south. Starting with the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, the US declared that the American continents (north and south) were in its sphere of influence. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans represented a barrier, within which America felt it was its right to intervene. Beyond those oceans, however, Americans wished to be non-interventionist.

As an example of the intervention to the south, consider William Walker in the 1850s. In 1855 William, with about 60 men, sailed from San Francisco to Nicaragua and took it over. This was called filibustering, when non-governmental military expeditions simply went into foreign countries. After talking over, Walker originally ruled through a puppet but in 1856 declared himself President of Nicaragua. Walkers regime was considered legitimate by the US under President Franklin Pierce.

William Walker, filibuster  

(Interesting trivia: in order to gain support from southern Americans, Walker reintroduced slavery to Nicaragua, revoking the emancipation of 1824.)

But when it came to things like WWI and WWII and involvement in Europe in general, there was greater reluctance, which is why I said that a better description of American policy is really that its alright to mess around, just not as far as an ocean away.

So when reading about the US and seeing descriptions about Americans being isolationists, just remember that in 1855 a guy and some of his friends walked into a Central American country and just took it over. And that this was a thing people did. Because Americans aren't isolationists, they're American-Isolationist, which is really more like aquaphobic.