U.S. Foreign Policy 1920s – 1930s. I. Events Leading Up to World War II. The Versailles Treaty. A. 1920s: Harding, Coolidge,Hoover U.S. Foreign Affairs. U.S. returned to policy of isolationism after WWI
U.S. Foreign Policy 1920s – 1930s I. Events Leading Up to World War II
A. 1920s: Harding, Coolidge,HooverU.S. Foreign Affairs • U.S. returned to policy of isolationism after WWI • U.S. refused to join international organizations such as the League of Nations and World Court
The Ineffectiveness of the League of Nations • No control of major conflicts. • No progress in disarmament. • No effective military force.
B. U.S. Foreign Policy • U.S. promoted world peace by working toward disarmament • 1927 Kellogg-Briand Pact - Outlawed war but allowed for war in self-defense, lacked provisions for enforcement
Kellogg-Briand Pact Signed on January 17, 1929President Calvin Coolidge in the White House
1920 Allies owed the U.S. over $10 Billion –only way for the Allies to pay was to collect money from Germany • Germany owed over $32 Billion –they could not pay • 1924 Dawes Plan –provided loans and allowed Germany more time to complete reparations
Germany was just getting back on her feet when Wall Street Crashed. The Great Depression paved the way for Hitler and the Nazi’s to rise to power.
A. 1933 London Economic Conference • 66 Nations gathered to attack the depression by stabilizing national currencies • Roosevelt refused to commit the U.S. until there was some recovery in the country- this attitude plunged the world into a deeper economic crisis forcing extreme ideas of nationalism across Europe
B. 1933 “Good Neighbor Policy” • represented an attempt to distance the United States from earlier interventionist policies • Applied specifically to Latin America • U.S. removed troops from Haiti and Nicaragua that had been there since the 1920s • Denied military action against Mexico and Cuba, used dollar diplomacy to negotiate a settlement
Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza with President Franklin Roosevelt in Washington in 1939. Eleanor Roosevelt and Salvadora Somoza stand behind them.
C. Recognition of the Soviet Union • Since 1917, the U.S. refused to recognize the Soviet Union • Because of the Depression, the U.S. did not see the Soviet Union as a threat – but as a market for food and supplies • Main reason for the U.S. to recognize the Soviet Union –FDR believed a strong Soviet Union could hold back Japanese expansion
Roosevelt’s noninvolvement in Europe and withdrawal from Asia (U.S. provided for the Philippines to have independence by 1946), and the Good Neighbor policy suggested the U.S. was giving up its ambition to be a world power.
A. Militarists in Japan 1. Japan began expanding throughout Asia to gain access to new natural resources 2. Japan took control of Korea, China, Vietnam, many Pacific islands, and they intended to invade Australia
B. Mussolini of Italy ***1. After WWI, Italy felt that they had been slighted in the awards to the Allies from Germany 2. the Fascist Party was formed in 1921 by Benito Mussolini- he believed the military controlled government should direct and control all of society
3. It differs from Communism slightly in that the government allows private ownership of property. 4. After he was made Prime Minister, he claimed dictatorial powers which he used to limit rights, arrest political opponents, and restrict voting rights of the Italian people.
Italy Attacks Ethiopia, 1935 Emperor Haile Selassie
The Spanish Civil War: 1936 - 1939 Francisco Franco
C. Franco in Spain- General Francisco Franco took over as the Fascist dictator of Spain; supported by Germany & Italy
The Spanish Civil War:A Dress Rehearsal for WW II? Italian troops in Madrid
D. Stalin in the Soviet Union 1. Lenin died 1924; in the Communist Party, Joseph Stalin emerged as the new dictator.
2. 1927- Soviet Union turned into a totalitarian state- the government exercises total control over every aspect of life; they took control of all private property- anyone that resisted was sent to Siberia to work in the forced labor camps. This led to widespread death and starvation for the Soviet people.
3. Stalin used the Red Army and secret police to force his will on the people and to crush all opposition; he began The Purge of perceived enemies. ** Up to 30 million Soviets died!
The “Stab-In-The-Back” Theory German soldiers are dissatisfied.
E. Hitler in Germany 1. Adolf Hitler was a WWI veteran who believed Germany had been sorely mistreated after WWI. He attempted to take over the government in the 20s but was arrested and put in prison.
2. Mein Kampf (My Struggle)- the book he wrote while in prison which told of his plans: - Germans would be made the master race - Jews were to blame for Germany’s situation and would be “dealt” with - he would rebuild Germany both physically and economically and make it the world power His political party was the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi)
3. Nazi Party -1932 Hitler- Chancellor 1933 Dissolved Reichstag Burned Bundestag 4. Third Reich -he used Secret Police (Gestapo) to terrorize his people and take control of all industry to rearm the military
5. Anti Semitism-hatred of the Jews; this became the official German policy 1935-Nuremberg Laws restricted Jews’ rights, revoked citizenship, treated them as sub-human 1938- Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) this marked the beginning of the Jewish persecution and arrests
6. Steps to War: • March 1936- Rhineland • 1938- Austria & Sudetenland • 1939- rest of Czechoslovakia
7. Appeasement: The Munich Agreement, 1938, by G. Britain, France, Italy, and Germany to allow Germany to keep the areas already taken but agreed not to show aggression anywhere else.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain Now we have “peace in our time!” Herr Hitler is a man we can do business with.
Rome-Berlin Axis, 1939 The “Pact of Steel”
The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, 1939 Foreign Ministers von Ribbentrop & Molotov