Julian Pauncefote, the British Ambassador, had concluded a
general treaty of arbitration, the Senate should have rejected
it, for the lesson that caution was necessary in international
affairs had been driven home. Time was needed for the new
generation to formulate its foreign policy.



CHAPTER VII. The Outbreak Of The War With Spain

Before the nineteenth century ended, the Samoan, Hawaiian, and
Venezuelan episodes had done much to quicken a national
consciousness in the people of the United States and at the same
time to break down their sense of isolation from the rest of the
world. Commerce and trade were also important factors in
overcoming this traditional isolation. Not only was American
trade growing, but it was changing in character. Argentina was
beginning to compete with the United States in exporting wheat
and meat, while American manufacturers were reaching the point
where they were anxious for foreign markets in which they felt
they could compete with the products of Great Britain and
Germany.

In a thousand ways and without any loss of vigor the sense of
American nationality was expressing itself. The study of American
history was introduced into the lower schools, and a new group of
historians began scientifically to investigate whence the
American people had come and what they really were. In England,
such popular movements find instant expression in literature; in
the United States they take the form of societies. Innumerable