The purpose of this first class is to give students a better sense for what was the heritage of the American colonial era and the American revolution for America’s first diplomats. The first couple of classes should leave you with a firm grasp of early American foreign policies. Today, we will examine how the war for independence came about. What happened in the eventual peace settlement with Great Britain? What were the Articles of Confederation, and did they have a positive or negative influence on early foreign policymaking?