Edmond Charles Genêt served as French minister to the United States from 1793 to 1794. His activities in that capacity embroiled the United States and France in a diplomatic crisis, as the United States Government attempted to remain neutral in the conflict between Great Britain and Revolutionary France. Genêt’s recall ultimately resolved the controversy from his position. As a result of the Citizen Genêt affair, the United States established a set of procedures governing neutrality.
The Impact of the French Revolution on US Foreign PolicyEdit
The events surrounding the French Revolution dominated American foreign policy in the 1790s. Following the overthrow of the monarchy in 1792, the revolutionary French Government clashed with the monarchies of Spain and Great Britain. French policymakers needed the United States to help defend France’s colonies in the Caribbean – either as a neutral supplier or as a military ally, and so they dispatched Edmond Charles Genêt, an experienced diplomat, as minister to the United States.
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