Today in class I learned that isolation means that people keep to themselves and that they stay out of other country's affairs. Washington was the one that came up with this. He warned us about this because he felt like our country would get into wars. The reason we stayed isolated so long is because we were still developing our country so therefore we didn't really have time to deal with other things. The two oceans really helped us stay isolated. e also stayed isolated for so many years because we had a west to go to. In 1890 the us census declared that the west was pretty much settled and that was when we really started going into other countries.The purchase of Alaska by the United States: Around this time in the Civil War people felt like they needed to expand the United States. The west was pretty much all settled and people started to freak out. In 1867 Russia was going to give up Alaska. The two biggest contenders was Great Britain and America. They didn't want to give it up to the British because they had an issue with them at the time. William Seward talked to the Russian prime minister and he talked them into buying Alaska for 2 cents per acre,1.7 million for the whole thing. In 1949, Alaska became the 49th state.The purchase of Hawaii by the United States: In 1778 James Cook discovered the passage to Hawaii. He saw the people surfing on wooden boards. He was trying to find the Northwest Passage. We kept going back their because of the sugar plantations and missionaries. They made a lot of money. That really why we wanted Hawaii because they made a lot of money off of it.I think that Washington was right about staying out of other country's businesses. I think that the purchases of Alaska and Hawaii were very important to our country.
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