Post-WWI Agreements & US Foreign Policy

• During the 1920s-30s, Americans feared another European conflict due to WWI disillusionment, postwar European problems, and Soviet communism.
• Congress rejected joining the League of Nations, signaling a retreat into isolationism.
• US foreign policy shifted to unilateralism instead of complete isolation.
• Unilateralism involved military interventions, private investment abroad, and occasional treaties.

Post-World War I Agreements

• Republican presidents in the 1920s sought to promote peace and reduce defense spending through disarmament treaties.
• The Washington Conference in 1921 was the most successful disarmament effort.
• Charles Evans Hughes initiated the Washington Conference to address naval disarmament, stabilize the U.S. Navy, and resolve Pacific conflicts.
• Representatives from nine nations attended the Washington Conference: Belgium, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and Portugal
• The Five-Power Treaty involved the five largest navies agreeing to maintain a ratio for their largest warships (battleships).
• US and Great Britain: 5, Japan: 3, France and Italy: 1.67
• Britain and the US agreed not to fortify their Pacific possessions, but no limits were placed on Japan.
• The Four-Power Treaty included the United States, France, Great Britain, and Japan, agreeing to respect each other's Pacific territories.
• The Nine-Power Treaty involved all nations at the conference agreeing to respect the Open Door policy in China by guaranteeing its territorial integrity.
• The Kellogg-Briand Pact was an international agreement renouncing aggressive force to achieve national ends.
• The Kellogg-Briand Pact permitted defensive wars and lacked enforcement mechanisms.

Business and Diplomacy

• Republican presidents used diplomacy to advance American business interests, believing it brought prosperity both at home and abroad.
• Mexico's 1917 constitution mandated government ownership of mineral and oil resources.
• In 1927, Dwight Morrow (Coolidge's ambassador) negotiated a peaceful resolution to protect U.S. investors' interests.
• Coolidge maintained U.S. troops in Nicaragua and Haiti but withdrew them from the Dominican Republic in 1924
• American economic influence in Latin America increased; U.S. investments doubled from 1919 to 1929
• Secretary of State Hughes secured oil-drilling rights for U.S. companies in the Middle East.
• Congress passed the Fordney-McCumber Tariff in 1922, increasing duties on foreign manufactured goods by 25%.
• European nations responded to high U.S. tariffs by imposing their own tariffs, which weakened global trade and contributed to the Great Depression.

War Debts and Reparations

• The US emerged from WWI as a creditor nation.
• Harding and Coolidge insisted Britain and France repay their war debts.
• Britain and France argued they suffered greater losses and that U.S. tariffs made repayment difficult.
• The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to pay $30 billion in reparations to the Allies, but Germany faced bankruptcy and hyperinflation.
• The Dawes Plan in 1924, negotiated by Charles Dawes, established a payment cycle from the U.S. to Germany and then from Germany to the Allies.
• US banks lent Germany funds to rebuild its economy and pay reparations.
• Britain and France used these reparations to pay war debts to the US.
• After the 1929 stock market crash, U.S. bank loans stopped, and the Dawes Plan collapsed.
• Only Finland fully repaid its war debts

Herbert Hoover's Foreign Policy

• Herbert Hoover believed the US should avoid firm commitments to preserve the security of other nations, an opinion labeled "isolationism".
• Hoover actively pursued friendly relations with Latin American countries.
• Hoover ended interventionist policies by arranging the withdrawal of troops from Nicaragua by 1933 and negotiating a treaty for troop removal from Haiti by 1934.
• Japanese troops marched into Manchuria in September 1931, violating the Open Door policy and League of Nations covenant.
• Japan renamed Manchuria as Manchukuo and established a puppet government.
• The League of Nations condemned Japan but took no action
• The Stimson Doctrine of 1932 stated that the United States would not recognize regimes established by force like "Manchukuo".

Franklin Roosevelt's Policies, 1933-1939

• FDR focused on the domestic economic crisis during his first term.
• Roosevelt extended Hoover's efforts to improve U.S.-Latin America relations through the Good Neighbor policy.
• The Good Neighbor policy ended interventionism and sought Latin American cooperation due to rising militarist regimes.
• At the Seventh Pan-American Conference in 1933, the U.S. pledged non-intervention in Latin American affairs.
• Roosevelt repudiated Theodore Roosevelt's policy of intervention as a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.
• At the Pan-American conference in 1936, Roosevelt pledged arbitration for future disputes and warned against European aggression.
• In 1934, Roosevelt nullified the Platt Amendment, retaining only the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
• In 1938, when Mexico seized U.S.-owned oil properties, Roosevelt rejected intervention and encouraged American companies to negotiate a settlement.
• Assisting the US economy primarily motivated Roosevelt's early foreign policy
• In 1933, Roosevelt granted diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union to increase U.S. trade and boost the economy.
• As an economic measure, Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass the Tydings-McDuffie Act, granting the Philippines independence by 1946 with gradual removal of US military presence.
• FDR favored lower tariffs to promote international trade.
• The 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreements plan allowed the president to reduce U.S. tariffs by up to 50 percent for nations reciprocating with comparable reductions.

The Rise of Fascism and Militarism

• Worldwide depression, combined with post WWI sentiments, led to dictatorships in Italy, Japan, and Germany.
• By 1940, Japan, Italy, and Germany formed the Axis powers.
• Benito Mussolini led Italy's Fascist Party.
• Fascism is the idea that people should glorify their nation through aggressive shows of force
• Adolf Hitler led Germany's Nazi Party.
• Nationalists and militarists in Japan wanted to control Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
• Japan invaded China in 1937 marking the Second Sino-Japanese War.

American Isolationists

• Public opinion opposed fascism and militarism and sought to avoid foreign wars.
• The Nye Committee's 1934 report blamed bankers and arms manufacturers for U.S. entry into WWI.

Neutrality Acts

• The Neutrality Acts aimed to ensure U.S. neutrality if war broke out in Europe.
• The Neutrality Act of 1935 prohibited arms shipments and restricted U.S. citizens from traveling on belligerent ships.
• The Neutrality Act of 1936 forbade loans and credits to belligerents.
• The Neutrality Act of 1937 forbade arms shipments to sides in the Spanish Civil War.
• The America First Committee was formed in 1940 to mobilize public opinion against war, featuring speakers like Charles Lindbergh.

Prelude to Another War

• Fascist dictatorships actions made democratic governments in Britain and France nervous during 1935-1938.
• Britain and France adopted a policy of appeasement, allowing Hitler to get away with small acts of aggression and expansion.
• Mussolini's Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935 to gain military power, and neither the League of Nations or the US intervened.
• Hitler ordered German troops to march into the Rhineland in 1936, violating the Versailles Treaty.
• Japan initiated full-scale war against China in 1937, bombing the U.S. gunboat Panay, for which the U.S. accepted Japan's apology.
• Britain and France allowed Hitler to take the Sudetenland unopposed at the Munich Conference in 1938.
• Roosevelt tested public opinion with his Quarantine Speech in 1937, but negative reaction led him to drop the idea.
• Like Wilson, Roosevelt advocated for neutrality and an arms buildup.
• Congress passed the preparedness request and increased military and naval budgets by nearly 2/3 in late 1938.

Outbreak of War World II in Europe

• In March 1939, Hitler occupied all of Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich agreement.
• Britain and France pledged to fight if Poland was attacked and assumed the Soviet Union would oppose Hitler.
• Hitler and Stalin signed the non-aggression pact in August 1939 and agreed to divide Poland.
• On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, prompting Britain and France to declare war.
• Poland fell to Germany's "blitzkrieg" tactics, overwhelming with air and tanks, and Denmark, Norway, and France later surrendered in 1940.

Roosevelt Changes Policies

• President Roosevelt gradually aided the Allies to counter isolationism.
• Roosevelt believed British survival was crucial to U.S. security
• After France's surrender in 1940, most Americans accepted the need to strengthen U.S. defenses.
• The "Cash and Carry" policy (1939) allowed belligerents to buy U.S. arms with their own ships and cash, benefiting Britain most in practice.
• Roosevelt pushed Congress to enact the Selective Training and Service Act (1940) for compulsory military service to 1.2 million troops a year.
• Via a trade, Britain received older U.S. destroyers, and the United States gained the right to build military bases on British islands in the Caribbean.

The Election of 1940

• Fear over the future brought to the forefront the question of of a possible third term for Roosevelt.
• Republican, Wendell Willkie, agreed with Roosevelt on preparedness and aiding Britain short of war participation.
• Roosevelt won a third term with 54% of the vote, aided by economic recovery and war fears.

Arsenal of Democracy

• Roosevelt viewed Germany's conquest of Europe as a direct danger.
• Roosevelt believed that the US should be the "arsenal of democracy"
• In January 1941, the "four freedoms" (freedom of speech, religion, want, and fear) were brought to the forefront as a way to justify policies to lend money to Britain
• The Lend-Lease Act was signed into law in 1941 and allowed Britain to obtain all the U.S. arms it needed on credit.
• Via the Atlantic Charter in August 1941, principles for peace like self-determination, no expansion, and free trade were affirmed.
• In July 1941, the U.S. Navy was ordered to escort British ships carrying lend-lease materials and ships were authorized to be shot on sight.

Disputes with Japan

• U.S. relations with Japan strained due to Japan's invasion of China and ambitions in Southeast Asia.
• Beginning in 1940, Japan became allied with Germany and Italy as one of the Axis powers.
• Beginning in 1940, Japan was restricted from importing steel and scrap iron.
• In July 1941, actions were taken that froze all Japanese credits, and U.S. oil exports to Japan.
• The US insisted that Japan pull be pulled out of China.
• In October, a new Japanese tried to negotiate with the new Prime Minister, General Hideki Tojo.
• Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, killing 2,400 Americans, wounding 1,200, damaging 20 warships, and destroying 150 airplanes.
• On December 8, Congress declared war, recognizing a state of war existed with the Japanese Empire.
• Germany and Italy honored their treaty with Japan by also declaring war.

The War in Europe in 1941-1942

• By December 1941, Europeans had been fighting for two years.
• Hitler broke his non-aggression pact with Stalin and ordered his troops to invade the Soviet Union in June of 1941.
• From 1942 to 1945, the principal Allies fighting Nazi Germany were Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
• The three Allied leaders agreed to prioritize the European war before shifting resources to counter Japanese advances.

Following WWI, Americans feared renewed European conflict, leading to isolationist sentiment. Congress rejected the League of Nations, but US foreign policy shifted to unilateralism involving interventions and treaties. The Washington Conference in 1921, initiated by Charles Evans Hughes, sought naval disarmament and Pacific conflict resolution.