John Adams: Foreign Policy (The XYZ Affair)

In this experience, students explore the XYZ affair as a reflection of the foreign policy of John Adams. Then they analyze a political cartoon about the XYZ affair. Finally, they consider the options that Adams had for protecting U.S. ships, and they build an argument to support one of the options.

This learning experience is designed for device-enabled classrooms. The teacher guides the lesson, and students use embedded resources, social media skills, and critical thinking skills to actively participate. To get access to a free version of the complete lesson, sign up for an exploros account.

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Here are the teacher pack items for John Adams: Foreign Policy (The XYZ Affair):

Attributions

Engage

Overview

This experience includes small group work in scene 3 through scene 5.

Objective:

Explain President John Adams’s foreign policy

George Washington addressed foreign policy in his farewell address. Soon after taking office in 1797, Washington’s successor, John Adams, found himself facing a major foreign policy crisis.

Objective:

In this experience, you will:

Explain President John Adams’s foreign policy

President John Adams

John Adams inherited some unsettled foreign policy issues from George Washington. As a class, let’s make a list of the issues we have learned about.

If you are familiar with an issue that no one has entered in the table below, add it to the table.

Ensure that your students post the following points:

Washington encouraged a foreign policy focused on neutrality.
French Revolutionary War raging in Europe.
French government expecting the United States to support their fight against Great Britain.

In this experience, we are going to focus on an event during Adams’s presidency known as the XYZ Affair.

Based on the name, predict what you think the XYZ Affair is.

Post your answer

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