James Monroe while expanding the United States at the expense of the Spanish Empire, from which he obtained Florida and the recognition of a border across the continent. Faced with the breakdown of the expansionist consensus over the question of slavery, the president tried to provide both North and South with guarantees that future expansion would not tip the balance of power between slave and free states, a system that, Weeks remarks, did indeed allow the continuation of American expansion for the best of four decades. Monroe pursued warmer relations with Britain in the aftermath of the War of 1812. In 1817
James T. Monroe James T. Monroe James T. Monroe is an American scholar. He is emeritus professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, focusing on Classical Arabic Literature and Hispano-Arabic Literature. His doctorate was from Harvard University. Professor Monroe "works in the areas of lyric poetry, the Middle Ages, and East-West relations with particular interest in the importance of the Arab contribution to Spanish civilization." A survey of mostly academic studies of Islam and the Arabs. Monroe also reviews these works in terms of their literary origin and social context with regard to the evolving national consciousness