Continentalism

Continentalism refers to the agreements or policies that favor the regionalization and/or cooperation between states within a continent. The term is used more often in the European and North American contexts, but the concept has been applied to other continents including Africa, Asia and South America. In North American history, continentalism became linked to manifest destiny and involved merging continental expansion with international growth. European integrationEuropean Union and Eurasian Economic Union Historically, the United States of America saw itself as a blossoming continental nation-state. Accordingly, the first governing body for the North American colonists was called the Continental Congress, which sought to receive delegates from across the British colonized areas of the continent, including the future Canadian provinces of Quebec and Nova Scotia. Continentalism in the United States was developed through the expeditions and experiences of frontier expansion on the American frontier. In the nineteenth century, the ideology of continentalism became internationalised by the growing concept of Manifest destiny, to create a belief amongst state and commercial leaders that the United States would help spread Western civilisation from Europe to the rest of the world. Between 1840–1898, American continentalism began to involve ideas on overseas expansion, which would go on to influence the imperialistic foreign policies of Roosevelt and McKinley. Early United States continentalism involved the gradual absorption of North American territory into the U.S. There were various struggles of independence and expansionism in the United States between 1776–1865, including American settlers battling indigenous nations and efforts to buy territory from European imperial powers such as in the Louisiana purchase. American continentalism became an issue with global implications from the mid-nineteenth century as the United States grew as an economic and political power.