How Diplomacy Changed from the 19th Century to the 20th Century

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A breakdown of the dominate international theories practiced during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries showed the trend away from realism, where power politics for the control of land dominated foreign policies, to liberalism, with the international economic interdependence and the development of international nongovernment agencies. International politics ceased to be an all for one attitude as modern technology brought global economies and social awareness that spanned the world.

Empires and imperialism marked the nineteenth century. States typically handled diplomacy through their ambassadors. Career diplomats became as familiar with each other as they did the countries they came from and worked in during the nineteenth century. The manner in which rulers treated diplomats was the same as it was in the seventeenth century.

American expansion began in earnest with the cry of “Manifest Destiny.” The economic imperialism of the United States brought the country additional lands through war with Mexico, treaties with Britain, Russia, and Hawaiian kings. European imperialism included, among other expansionist-styled agendas, the colonization of Africa. European leaders sent in company agents who traveled the interior for other resources the Africans might not realize existed or held value to Europeans. Colonization by Britain companies also occurred in India by the East India Company, which was a similar political and economic imperialism to that of East Africa in Egypt and the Kimberley diamond mines in South Africa.

Meanwhile, the dominate European states formed alliances based on ideological principles, such as the Holy Alliance of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. These states joined because of their shared rel...

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