I always read Washington's warning about entangling alliances as a warning against linking foreign policies to other nations in such a way as to lose control over events. I suppose I always saw WW1 as the ultimate example of this. A cascading mess that was almost made inevitable by the various alliances that the nations of Europe had entered in to.
I agree. Washington saw America being tossed around between Britain and France, in part because of America's lingering alliance with France, a country Washington distrusted after its revolution. He thought America should steer its own course. It helped that the Atlantic was very wide in the days of sailing ships. Possibly Washington would have modified his advice had he lived after steam made the Atlantic much smaller. On the other hand, the shrinking ocean might simply have reinforced Washington's skepticism of foreign entanglements.
I always read Washington's warning about entangling alliances as a warning against linking foreign policies to other nations in such a way as to lose control over events. I suppose I always saw WW1 as the ultimate example of this. A cascading mess that was almost made inevitable by the various alliances that the nations of Europe had entered in to.
I agree. Washington saw America being tossed around between Britain and France, in part because of America's lingering alliance with France, a country Washington distrusted after its revolution. He thought America should steer its own course. It helped that the Atlantic was very wide in the days of sailing ships. Possibly Washington would have modified his advice had he lived after steam made the Atlantic much smaller. On the other hand, the shrinking ocean might simply have reinforced Washington's skepticism of foreign entanglements.