Defense Date
3-30-2009
Graduation Date
Spring 2009
Availability
Immediate Access
Submission Type
thesis
Degree Name
MA
Department
History
School
McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts
Committee Chair
John Dwyer
Committee Member
Holly Mayer
Keywords
anti-Catholicism, Manifest Destiny, Texas Annexation, U.S.-Mexican War, U.S.-Latin American Relations, Catholic Church
Abstract
This paper seeks to demonstrate how anti-Catholicism, like other domestic issues such as race, economics, and politics, influenced U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America during the first half of the nineteenth century. Catholicism, the Roman Catholic Church, and monarchism/despotism were all seen by U.S. elites as interconnected forces that undermined the growth and stability of republicanism in Latin America. U.S. politicians were able to manipulate anti-Catholic rhetoric in order to justify certain U.S. diplomatic policies toward Latin America. Anti-Catholic rhetoric could be separated into missionary and exclusionary arguments. Followers of Manifest Destiny utilized missionary anti-Catholic rhetoric to sanction U.S. territorial expansion while opponents relied on exclusionary anti-Catholic rhetoric to justify halting the further acquisition of territory. Regardless of how they were used, both missionary and exclusionary anti-Catholic rhetoric resonated with Americans because they reaffirmed already held beliefs of American exceptionalism and Latin American inferiority.
Format
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Solomon, M. (2009). Saving the "Slaves of Kings and Priests": The United States, Manifest Destiny, and the Rhetoric of Anti-Catholicism (Master's thesis, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1225