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![]() Russia | ![]() United States |
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Diplomatic mission | |
Russian Embassy, Washington, D.C. | American Embassy, Saint Petersburg |
Envoy | |
Ambassador Andrey Dashkov (first) George Bakhmetev (last) | Ambassador Francis Dana (first) David R. Francis (last) |
Relations between the Russian Empire and the United States predate the American Revolution, when the Russians began trading with the Thirteen Colonies in violation of the British Navigation Acts. The Russian government officially recognized the United States in 1803, and the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1809. [1] From the 18th century until 1917, the United States and Russia maintained mostly cordial relations, with occasional cultural and commercial exchanges. Russia remained neutral during the American Civil War, and sold Alaska to the United States in 1867.
However, there were also tensions between the two countries, particularly over pogroms in the Russian Empire between 1890 and 1914. Trade relations were cordial but were never a major factor for either nation. Large-scale migration to the U.S. from Russia began in the late 19th century, mostly attracting Jews, Poles, Lithuanians, and Finns but also a few ethnic Russians. In the late 19th century, the two countries began to cooperate on issues such as maritime law and trade, which continued into the early 20th century. The U.S. was reluctant to become an ally of the undemocratic Russian government in World War I. His abdication in early 1917 facilitated the American entry into the war, which also saw the dissolution of the Russian Empire.
Common name | Russia | United States |
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Official name | Russian Empire | United States of America |
Emblem/Seal | ![]() | ![]() |
Flag | ![]() | ![]() |
Area | 22,800,000 km2 (8,800,000 sq mi) | 9,526,468 km2 (3,794,101 sq mi) [2] |
Population (1900) | 136,305,900 | 76,212,168 |
Density (1900) | 6.0/km2 (15.5/sq mi) | 8.0/km2 (20.7/sq mi) |
Capital | Saint Petersburg (renamed Petrograd in 1914) | Washington, D.C. |
Largest metropolitan areas | Saint Petersburg (2,300,000 in 1917) | New York City (4,766,883 in 1910) |
Government | Autocratic constitutional monarchy | Federal presidential constitutional republic |
Legislature | Governing Senate- Upper House-State Council (Russian Empire)-1810-1917 -Lower House- State Duma (Russian Empire)- 1905-1917. | United States Congress - Upper House- United States Senate- Lower House- United States House of Representatives |
First leader | Peter the Great | George Washington |
Last leader (1917) | Nicholas II | Woodrow Wilson |
Established | November 2, 1721 (empire proclaimed) October 30, 1905 (constitutional monarchy) May 6, 1906 (constitution adopted) | July 4, 1776 (independence declared) September 3, 1783 (independence recognized) June 21, 1788 (constitution adopted) |
Military | Imperial Russian Army | United States Army |
Most common language | Russian | English |
Currency | Russian ruble | US dollar |
GDP (PPP) (1913) | $232.3 billion (~$1,488 per capita) | $517.3 billion (~$5,301 per capita) |
Leaders of the Russian Empire and the United States from 1800 to 1917.
Relations between the two countries began in 1776, when the United States declared its independence from Great Britain.
Earlier contacts had occurred. In 1763, a Boston merchant had anchored his ship at the port of Kronstadt after a direct transatlantic voyage.
Despite being geographically removed from the North American scene, Russia under Catherine the Great significantly affected the American Revolution through diplomacy. While Catherine personally oversaw most Russian interactions with the new country, she also entrusted certain tasks to her foreign advisor, Nikita Ivanovich Panin, who often acted on Catherine's behalf when it came to matters of international diplomacy. Catherine and Panin interacted with the British government through James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, at the Russian court. [3] The decisions made by Catherine and Panin during the Revolution to remain officially neutral, refuse Great Britain's requests for military assistance, and insist on peace talks that linked a resolution of the American Revolution with the settlement of separate European conflicts indirectly helped the Americans win the Revolution and gain independence. [4]
Small scale direct trade between Russia and British North America began as early as 1763. Such trade was a violation of the British Navigation Acts, which allowed the Thirteen Colonies to trade only with Great Britain. Russian products such as hemp, sail linen and iron had started arriving in colonial ports years before the American Revolutionary War began and did not stop when the war started. [5] America and Russia saw each other as trading partners.
Throughout the Revolutionary War, Catherine believed an independent American nation would be ideal for Russian business interests. While some Russian leaders worried that an independent America might interfere with Russia's trade with other European nations, Catherine saw direct Russian-American trade as an excellent opportunity to expand commerce. Catherine knew that after the war, a free America could trade directly with Russia without interference. Moreover, if the Americans gained their independence, Britain would have to turn to other countries such as Russia to supply it with the resources that could no longer be acquired from North America, such as timber for the Royal Navy. [6]
Catherine chose to have Russia remain officially neutral during the Revolution and never openly picked sides during the war. [7] On an unofficial basis, however, she acted favorably towards the American colonists by offering to provide them all that she could without compromising Russia's neutrality and her eventual desire to act as a mediator.
In March 1780, the Russian ministry released a "Declaration of Armed Neutrality." That set out Russia's international stance on the American Revolution and focused on the importance of allowing neutral vessels to travel freely to any Russian port without them being searched or harassed by the Navigation Acts. While the declaration kept Russia officially neutral, it supported many of France's own pro-American policies and resisted Britain's efforts to defeat the Americans via naval blockades. The declaration also gave the North American rebels an emotional lift, as they realized Russia was not solidly aligned with Great Britain. [8] With Russia as a potential, powerful friend, Russian-U.S. connections and communications continued to improve. Nevertheless, Catherine refused to recognize the United States openly as an independent nation until the war had ended. [7]
As the Revolutionary War continued into the late 1770s, a growing list of European powers took sides against Great Britain. The British saw a need to solidify an alliance with Russia to bolster its North American war. As a world power that had allied with Great Britain, Russia was an obvious choice to assist with logistical and military support, as well as diplomatic efforts. [9]
While Catherine seems to have admired the British people and culture, she disliked George III and his ministers. She was particularly disturbed by the Seven Years' War during which Catherine observed Great Britain's efforts to exit the conflict discreetly, which left Russia's ally Prussia vulnerable to defeat. She considered those efforts immoral and disloyal and saw Great Britain as an unreliable ally. She also viewed the American Revolution as Great Britain's fault. Citing the constant change in Great Britain's ministries as a major reason, Catherine understood the Americans' grievances. [10]
Despite Russia's official neutrality, Catherine's negative opinions of the British government and her view that Great Britain had caused the revolution weighed on her decisions when Great Britain began to request Russian support. In the summer of 1775, Great Britain sent diplomats to Russia in an attempt to learn whether Catherine would agree to send troops to North America to aid Great Britain's forces. Although her initial response seemed positive, Catherine denied Britain's formal request for support. While her dislike of the British ministry likely influenced her decision, Catherine formally cited the fact that her army needed rest after it had just finished more than six years of war. [11]
In November 1779, Great Britain made another plea for Russian assistance. Swallowing their pride, the British acknowledged to Catherine the collective power of Great Britain's enemies, as well as George III's desire for peace. The British letter to Catherine explained those concerns and offered to "commit her [Britain's] interests to the hand of the Empress." [12] The British included a specific request for Russia to use force against all British enemies, including other European countries, to stop the American Revolution. After waiting several months, Catherine decided to refuse Great Britain's request. [12]
In 1781, distressed and realizing that the British were close to losing the war, James Harris asked if a piece of British territory could convince Russia to join the fight. Offering the island of Minorca, Harris did not request soldiers in exchange. This time, Great Britain simply asked for Russia to convince France to exit the war and to force the American rebels to fight alone. Perhaps revealing her secret desire to have the U.S. gain its independence, Catherine used Harris's proposal to embarrass the British government. She declined Harris's offer and publicized it to the French and the Spanish. [13]
Catherine played a significant role in peacemaking efforts during the Revolutionary War. In October 1780, she sent a proposal to each of the European powers involved in the conflict. The proposal requested for the countries to meet to discuss what could be done to create peace. The powers met in Vienna after Great Britain requested for the Austrian ministry to co-mediate the peace talks. Catherine sent Prince Dimitri Galitzin to act on her behalf as the Russian mediator. She sent him with a proposed set of peace guidelines that included a multi-year armistice between the countries and a requirement for negotiations between Great Britain and its European enemies as well as between Great Britain and the Americans. Catherine chose not to include a proposal concerning whether the U.S. would become autonomous. Since the British would not accept U.S. independence, and the French would not accept anything short of it, Catherine realized that explicitly providing for either outcome would lead to an immediate breakdown in the talks. [14] Catherine's ambiguous negotiation efforts ultimately fell through.
In 1801 Thomas Jefferson appointed Levett Harris as the first American consul-general to Russia (1803–1816). Russia attempted to join as a third-party mediator of peace in the War of 1812, but this idea was rejected by British officials. [15] [16]
The Monroe Doctrine was partly aimed at Holy Alliance support of intervention in Latin America which Russia several times tried to get the United States to join, as well as the Ukase of 1821 banning non-Russian ships from the Northwest Coast. The Russo-American Treaty of 1824 set parallel 54°40′ north as the boundary between Russian America and the Anglo-American Oregon Country.
During the American Civil War, Russia supported the Union, largely because it believed that the U.S. served as a counterbalance to its geopolitical rival, the United Kingdom. In 1863, the Russian Navy's Baltic and Pacific fleets wintered in the American ports of New York and San Francisco, respectively. [17] The Alexander Nevsky and the other vessels of the Atlantic squadron stayed in American waters for seven months (September 1863 to June 1864). [18]
1865 saw a major project attempted: the building of a Russian-U.S. telegraph line from Seattle, through British Columbia, Russian America (Alaska) and Siberia. An early attempt to link East-West communications, it failed and never operated. [19]
Russia operated a small fur-trade operations in Alaska, coupled with missionaries to the natives. By 1861, the project had lost money, threatened to antagonize the Americans, and could not be defended from Britain. It proved practically impossible to entice Russians to permanently migrate to Alaska; only a few hundred were there in 1867. In the Alaska Purchase of 1867, the land was sold to the United States for $7.2 million. [20] [21]
The Russian administrators and military left Alaska, but some missionaries stayed on to minister to the many natives who converted to the Russian Orthodox faith. [22]
From 1880 to 1917, about 3.2 million immigrants arrived in the U.S. from the Russian Empire. Most were Jews or Poles, and only 100,000 were ethnic Russians. [23] There were many Volga Germans or Russian German immigrants to the United States. [24] Meanwhile large numbers of minorities, especially Jews, Poles, and Lithuanians, emigrated to the United States before 1914. [25] Relations remained cool, especially because of the repeated pogroms in the Russian Empire.
After 1880, repeated anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia alienated U.S. elite and public opinion. In 1903, the Kishinev pogrom killed 47 Jews, injured 400, and left 10,000 homeless and dependent on relief. American Jews began large-scale organized financial help and assisted in emigration. [26] More violence in Russia led in 1911 to the United States repealing an 1832 commercial treaty. [27] [28]
In 1900, Russia and the United States were part of the Eight-Nation Alliance suppressing the Boxer Rebellion in China. Russia soon afterward occupied Manchuria, and the United States asserted the Open Door Policy to forestall Russian and German territorial demands from leading to a partition of China into closed colonies. [29]
President Theodore Roosevelt played a major role in ending the Russo-Japanese War. During the war, Roosevelt had tacitly supported Japan. The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed in 1905 on the conditions favorable to the Russians. Roosevelt subsequently received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in mediation.
During World War I, the United States declaration of war on Germany (1917) came after Nicholas II had abdicated as a result of the February Revolution. When the Tsar was still in power, some Americans resisted fighting a war with him as an ally. With him gone, the Wilson administration used the new provisional government to describe how the democratic nations were fighting against autocratic old empires of Germany and Austria-Hungary. During the war, the American Expeditionary Forces were just starting to see battle when the October Revolution happened in which the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian Provisional Government in Petrograd and removed Russia from the war.
Before the armistice in November 1918, the Americans had helped the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War with the Polar Bear Expedition and the American Expeditionary Force Siberia. The Americans' goal was not necessarily ideological but rather to prevent the German enemy from gaining access to war supplies controlled by the Bolsheviks, though the United States also tacitly supported the White movement against the Bolsheviks. [30]
The diplomatic history of the United States oscillated among three positions: isolation from diplomatic entanglements of other nations ; alliances with European and other military partners; and unilateralism, or operating on its own sovereign policy decisions. The US always was large in terms of area, but its population was small, only 4 million in 1790. Population growth was rapid, reaching 7.2 million in 1810, 32 million in 1860, 76 million in 1900, 132 million in 1940, and 316 million in 2013. Economic growth in terms of overall GDP was even faster. However, the nation's military strength was quite limited in peacetime before 1940.
Pax Britannica was the period of relative peace between the great powers. During this time, the British Empire became the global hegemonic power, developed additional informal empire, and adopted the role of a "global policeman".
The Alaska boundary dispute was a territorial dispute between the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which then controlled Canada's foreign relations. It was resolved by arbitration in 1903. The dispute had existed between the Russian Empire and Britain since 1821, and was inherited by the United States as a consequence of the Alaska Purchase in 1867. The final resolution favored the American position, as Canada did not get an all-Canadian outlet from the Yukon gold fields to the sea. The disappointment and anger in Canada was directed less at the United States, and more at the British government for betraying Canadian interests in favor of healthier Anglo-American relations.
The Kingdom of France was the first friendly country of the new United States in 1778. The 1778 Treaty of Alliance between the two countries and the subsequent aid provided from France proved decisive in the American victory over Britain in the American Revolutionary War. France, however, was left heavily indebted after the war, which contributed to France's own revolution and eventual transition to a republic.
Relations between the Japanese Empire and the Russian Empire (1855–1917) were minimal until 1855, mostly friendly from 1855 to the early 1890s, but then turned hostile, largely over the status of Manchuria and of Korea. The two empires established diplomatic and commercial relations from 1855 onwards. The Russian Empire officially ended in 1917, and was succeeded by Communist rule formalized in 1922 with the formation of the Soviet Union.
Relations between the Soviet Union and the United States were fully established in 1933 as the succeeding bilateral ties to those between the Russian Empire and the United States, which lasted from 1776 until 1917; they were also the predecessor to the current bilateral ties between the Russian Federation and the United States that began in 1992 after the end of the Cold War. The relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States was largely defined by mistrust and tense hostility. The invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany as well as the attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan marked the Soviet and American entries into World War II on the side of the Allies in June and December 1941, respectively. As the Soviet–American alliance against the Axis came to an end following the Allied victory in 1945, the first signs of post-war mistrust and hostility began to immediately appear between the two countries, as the Soviet Union militarily occupied Eastern European countries and turned them into satellite states, forming the Eastern Bloc. These bilateral tensions escalated into the Cold War, a decades-long period of tense hostile relations with short phases of détente that ended after the collapse of the Soviet Union and emergence of the present-day Russian Federation at the end of 1991.
The bilateral relations between Canada and the United Kingdom have yielded intimate and frequently-co-operative contact since Canada gained independence in 1931. Canada was previously self-governing since 1 July 1867, the date that became Canada's independence day.
Diplomacy was a central component of the American Revolutionary War and broader American Revolution. In the years leading up to the outbreak of military hostilities in 1775, the Thirteen Colonies and Great Britain had sought a peaceful diplomatic solution within the British political system. Once fighting began, diplomacy in the American Revolutionary War became critical to each faction for both strategic and ideological reasons. The American colonists sought forward aid and support to counter Great Britain's overwhelming strategic, military, and manpower advantages as well as to garner political legitimacy through international recognition; Great Britain sought to contain these diplomatic overtures while also leveraging its foreign relations with Native American tribes and German states. The American Declaration of Independence in July 1776 escalated these developments as the erstwhile sovereign United States evolved an independent foreign policy. Diplomacy would prove critical to shaping the trajectory and outcome of the war, as Americans relations with several foreign powers—particularly France and Spain—allowed access to decisive war material, funds, and troops while at the same time isolating Britain globally and spreading thin its military.
The Franco-American alliance was the 1778 alliance between the Kingdom of France and the United States during the American Revolutionary War. Formalized in the 1778 Treaty of Alliance, it was a military pact in which the French provided many supplies for the Americans. The Netherlands and Spain later joined as allies of France; Britain had no European allies. The French alliance was possible once the Americans captured a British invasion army at Saratoga in October 1777, demonstrating the viability of the American cause. The alliance became controversial after 1793 when Great Britain and Revolutionary France again went to war and the U.S. declared itself neutral. Relations between France and the United States worsened as the latter became closer to Britain in the Jay Treaty of 1795, leading to an undeclared Quasi War. The alliance was defunct by 1794 and formally ended in 1800.
History of United States foreign policy is a brief overview of major trends regarding the foreign policy of the United States from the American Revolution to the present. The major themes are becoming an "Empire of Liberty", promoting democracy, expanding across the continent, supporting liberal internationalism, contesting World Wars and the Cold War, fighting international terrorism, developing the Third World, and building a strong world economy with low tariffs.
This timeline covers the main points of British foreign policy from 1485 to the early 21st century.
This article covers worldwide diplomacy and, more generally, the international relations of the great powers from 1814 to 1919. This era covers the period from the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815), to the end of the First World War and the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920).
During the American Revolution, Russia remained neutral in the conflict between Great Britain and rebelling colonists in Thirteen Colonies of the British Empire. Prior to the war's outbreak in 1775, Russian colonisers, operating under the ultimate direction of Empress Catherine the Great, had begun exploring the Western Seaboard, and in 1784 began colonizing Alaska, establishing the colony of Russian America. Although Russia did not directly become involved in the conflict, with Catherine rejecting British diplomatic overtures to dispatch the Imperial Russian Army to North America, the Russians did play a major role in diplomacy in the American Revolutionary War and contributed to the lasting legacy of the American Revolution abroad.
The diplomacy of the American Civil War involved the relations of the United States and the Confederate States of America with the major world powers during the American Civil War of 1861–1865. The United States prevented other powers from recognizing the Confederacy, which counted heavily on Britain and France to enter the war on its side to maintain their supply of cotton and to weaken a growing opponent. Every nation was officially neutral throughout the war, and none formally recognized the Confederacy.
The history of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom covers English, British, and United Kingdom's foreign policy from about 1500 to 2000. For the current situation since 2000 see foreign relations of the United Kingdom.
International relations (1919–1939) covers the main interactions shaping world history in this era, known as the interwar period, with emphasis on diplomacy and economic relations. The coverage here follows the diplomatic history of World War I and precedes the diplomatic history of World War II. The important stages of interwar diplomacy and international relations included resolutions of wartime issues, such as reparations owed by Germany and boundaries; American involvement in European finances and disarmament projects; the expectations and failures of the League of Nations; the relationships of the new countries to the old; the distrustful relations between the Soviet Union and the capitalist world; peace and disarmament efforts; responses to the Great Depression starting in 1929; the collapse of world trade; the collapse of democratic regimes one by one; the growth of economic autarky; Japanese aggressiveness toward China; fascist diplomacy, including the aggressive moves by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany; the Spanish Civil War; the appeasement of Germany's expansionist moves toward the Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, and the last, desperate stages of rearmament as another world war increasingly loomed.
The history of Japanese foreign relations deals with the international relations in terms of diplomacy, economics and political affairs from about 1850 to 2000. The kingdom was virtually isolated before the 1850s, with limited contacts through Dutch traders. The Meiji Restoration was a political revolution that installed a new leadership that was eager to borrow Western technology and organization. The government in Tokyo carefully monitored and controlled outside interactions. Japanese delegations to Europe brought back European standards which were widely imposed across the government and the economy. Trade flourished, as Japan rapidly industrialized.
International relations from 1648 to 1814 covers the major interactions of the nations of Europe, as well as the other continents, with emphasis on diplomacy, warfare, migration, and cultural interactions, from the Peace of Westphalia to the Congress of Vienna.
The history of U.S. foreign policy from 1897 to 1913 concerns the foreign policy of the United States during the Presidency of William McKinley, Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, and Presidency of William Howard Taft. This period followed History of U.S. foreign policy, 1861–1897 and began with the inauguration of McKinley in 1897. It ends with Woodrow Wilson in 1913, and the 1914 outbreak of World War I, which marked the start of new era in U.S. foreign policy.
The foreign policy of the Theodore Roosevelt administration covers American foreign policy from 1901 to 1909, with attention to the main diplomatic and military issues, as well as topics such as immigration restriction and trade policy. For the administration as a whole see Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. In foreign policy, he focused on Central America where he began construction of the Panama Canal. He modernized the U.S. Army and expanded the Navy. He sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to project American naval power. Roosevelt was determined to continue the expansion of U.S. influence begun under President William McKinley (1897–1901). Roosevelt presided over a rapprochement with the Great Britain. He promulgated the Roosevelt Corollary, which held that the United States would intervene in the finances of unstable Caribbean and Central American countries in order to forestall direct European intervention. Partly as a result of the Roosevelt Corollary, the United States would engage in a series of interventions in Latin America, known as the Banana Wars. After Colombia rejected a treaty granting the U.S. a lease across the isthmus of Panama, Roosevelt supported the secession of Panama. He subsequently signed a treaty with Panama which established the Panama Canal Zone. The Panama Canal was completed in 1914, greatly reducing transport time between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Roosevelt's well-publicized actions were widely applauded.
In 1801 [...] President Jefferson initiated relations with the new czar, Alexander I, sending Leverett Harris, a political friend from Pennsylvania, as the first U.S. consul-general to Russia. Russia tried to be a third-party meditator of peace in the war of 1812. However, Great Britain officials rejected this idea.
[...] in St. Petersburg, Levett Harris [...] had been America's first consul from 1803 to 1816 [...]