From the inception of the United States, certain political figures and legislation itself made clear the country’s stance on foreign policy. President George Washington himself spoke about the dangers of foreign entanglements in his farewell address and the 1823 Monroe Doctrine further separated the US from Europe, setting the precedent for American isolationism. However, around the turn of the 20th century, these ideas began changing, allowing America to become more involved with foreign nations. Though the Progressive Era brought greater interaction between America and other nations, the 20s was a period of aggressive isolationism. Although America retained its policies of isolationism through the 1920’s, the years of 1918-1945 brought more …show more content…
change to American foreign policy, as the United States slowly abandoned thoughts of neutrality to join in the ranks of world powers as a leader of foreign policy. After the disastrous Great War, America developed a highly isolationist policy that would continue well into the 20s, demonstrating the widespread fear of foreign entanglements.
The opinions of many Americans during this time were vocalized through Henry Cabot Lodge, who is known for his opposition to the League of Nations. As proposed by President Wilson in his Fourteen Points and in the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations would be an international body to solve world issues like those which caused the Great War. However, because of opposition from various groups in the U.S. Senate, including Lodge’s Reservationists and the Irreconcilables, the United States did not become a member of the League of Nations. Popular isolationism continued with the Washington Conference in 1921. Although it was a conference that included the participation of other nations like Great Britain, the ultimate goal was preventing future foreign conflicts through global naval disarmament. In addition, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was an idealistic agreement between the world powers agreeing not to engage in conflict other than defensive purposes. These numerous isolationist efforts evidently were not successful, as the world was propelled into a war in which American forces fought as …show more content…
well. The aggression of belligerent nations in World War II eventually led to the abandonment of American neutrality by means of supplying the Allied powers and eventually entering into the war. Certain events such as the German blockade forced the United States to develop a more open relationship with Allied nations, specifically Britain. America changed trading policies with Britain numerous times before U.S. involvement in the war. This included the “cash and carry” policy in the Neutrality Acts, the Destroyers for Bases, eventually leading to the Lend Lease Act of 1941 which removed qualifications from trade between the United States and Britain altogether. FDR’s famous Quarantine Speech in 1937 also was a strong statement to the people of America that neutrality in world affairs was not plausible. This controversial speech did not gain positive public opinion at first, but when Japanese aggression increased into the eventual bombing of Pearl Harbor, the decision to enter the war was decisive. America then abandoned her earlier policies of neutrality and took the first steps to become a world leader of international affairs. After the success of the Allies in the war, America truly became the dominant leader in global affairs.
America’s assistance in the war in both the Pacific theater and in Europe itself directly impacted the results of the war, making the United States a strong leader in post-war years. This domination of world affairs was cemented with the creation of the Atlantic Charter, where Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met to discuss the postwar years. This established democracy and autonomy for all nations as the goal for post war agreements. Finally, the establishment of the United Nations fully confirmed America’s status as a leading world power. Changing from the popular opposition of the League of Nations to the eventual establishment of the United Nations in America itself, it is clear that American foreign policy experienced a complete change in the years after World War
I. Thus, American foreign policy changed drastically from the period 1918-1945; isolationism was completely abandoned by the end of WWII, allowing America to become the frontrunner in foreign affairs. The broad context to which this abandonment of isolationism was a small part of the larger idea American foreign policy. The history of America is a history of both domestic reform and involvement with foreign nations; thus, this abandonment of neutrality was an important and essential step for America to become a leading world power. This period of change in foreign policy can also be compared to the earlier period of Progressivism, where President Theodore Roosevelt specifically encouraged foreign involvement in Asia and in the Caribbean, even adding the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. In comparing these two periods, it is clear that throughout the years numerous pressures and circumstances altered the ways in which the United States interacted with other nations. Thus, it is clear that through the alteration of foreign policy, America took progressive steps during this time to abandon older ways of thought in favor of a future where America could serve as a leader in the global community.
In the book, America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience, Robert H. Zieger discusses the events between 1914 through 1920 forever defined the United States in the Twentieth Century. When conflict broke out in Europe in 1914, the President, Woodrow Wilson, along with the American people wished to remain neutral. In the beginning of the Twentieth Century United States politics was still based on the “isolationism” ideals of the previous century. The United States did not wish to be involved in European politics or world matters. The U.S. goal was to expand trade and commerce throughout the world and protect the borders of North America.
The alliance formed between the US and USSR during the second world war was not strong enough to overcome the decades of uneasiness which existed between the two ideologically polar opposite countries. With their German enemy defeated, the two emerging nuclear superpowers no longer had any common ground on which to base a political, economical, or any other type of relationship. Tensions ran high as the USSR sought to expand Soviet influence throughout Europe while the US and other Western European nations made their opposition to such actions well known. The Eastern countries already under Soviet rule yearned for their independence, while the Western countries were willing to go to great lengths to limit Soviet expansion. "Containment of 'world revolution' became the watchword of American foreign policy throughout the 1950s a...
Throughout the years, the United States government had made drastic changes in its foreign policies. The few decades from 1880 to 1910, which saw five different presidents all with very distinct foreign policies, were no exception. As a country, the United States progressed from being a country only concerned with expanding its territory out west, to being a country on the verge of becoming involved in the First World War.
...work with other nations to keep the peace. It is still in effect today. The UN was not based on or limited to a peace treaty but instead was separate. That helped Roosevelt get support for U.S. membership.
The two decades after the end of WWI witnessed significant changes in the economic, social as well as cultural life in America. In the 1920s, the memories of WWI and fear of another costly and deadly European conflict led to the development of Isolationism Policy. The United States adopted the foreign policy of isolationism became isolated due to its economic policies and politics. This policy was in response to the Japanese aggression in Chinese Manchuria. According to Blume (2010), the country involved without commitment as it gained advantages without obligations. The U.S could get involved in world affairs but could not act by interfering or having alliances with other nations. Thus, US became a sovereign free state which was at peace.
The book A Concise History of U.S. Foreign Policy, by Joyce Kaufman, and the essay, American Foreign Policy Legacy by Walter Mead both acknowledge the history, and the importance of American foreign policy. The two argue that American foreign policy has always been an essential aspect of the prosperity and health of the United States. After reading these writings myself, I can agree that American foreign policy in the U.S. has always been detrimental to the success of this nation. Throughout history most Americans have had very little interest in foreign affairs, nor understood the importance. This essay will address the importance of foreign policy, why Americans have little interest in foreign affairs, and what the repercussions
Following World War I, President Woodrow Wilson became the mastermind for the creation of an international organization (Dudley 72). Eventually he was successful in the creation of the League of Nations and fighting for it to become a part of the Treaty of Versailles (Dudley 72). Although the League became a point in the Treaty of Versailles, the United States still had to ratify the Treaty to become a part of the League themselves (Dudley 76). Americans became split about whether the United States should have a place in the League or not, and the U.S. Senate had a decision to make (Dudley 76). On one side of the argument was a Democratic senator of California, James D. Phelan (Dudley 74). Mr. Phelan believed that the United States should join the League of Nations because it is the duty of the U.S. to uphold our ideals and support Democracy (Dudley 76). However, on the opposing side of this argument was people like Lawrence Sherman, a Republican senator from Illinois (Dudley 76). Mr. Sherman felt that the United States should not join the League of Nations because that would go against the policies of isolationism he felt the U.S. should follow, and he believed that the League of Nations would bring America too much into the conflicts of Europe (Dudley 76).
The United States has had a changing view on the management of foreign policy from neutrality to a defender of democracy. It is characterized by the Monroe Doctrine during the 20th century that states no American interference in European affairs unless the democracy of the western hemisphere were to be threatened. This ideology was later abandoned with the entering of the U.S. in WWI, WWII, and the Vietnam War. The immigrants of this nation were the backbone of the working class that enabled for the U.S. to prosper economically in an open trade. As an established super power the United States has had a series of world relationships that began in 1877 to the progression of today that established the fundamental values of American exceptionalism.
Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States and held the office from 1913-1921. He became known as “the Crusader” due to his foreign policy theory that America should be a beacon of liberty and aggressively pursue the spread of democracy throughout the world. His policy would enable America to prosper economically and develop an international security community through the promotion of democracy in other nations. While former Secretary of State Kissinger writes in his book Diplomacy that 20th century American foreign policy has been driven by Wilsonian idealism, an analysis of 21st century US foreign policy reveals that, in fact, US foreign policy has been influenced by ideals that can be characterized as Hamiltonian, Jeffersonian, and Jacksonian as well.
Although the United States appeared isolationist in the 1920s, it cannot be called truly isolationist as policy remained interventionist over some issues. Although it did not join the League of Nations, it worked closely with them, especially over humanitarian issues. It also instigated and signed the Kellog-Briande Pact in 1928 along with 63 other nations, outlawing war. Furthermore, interventionism continued where it was most convenient in regard to colonial interests, trade opportunities, ensuring peace overseas and the repayment of foreign debt. Although President Harding claimed we see no part in directing the destiny of the world', it seems that a foreign policy of interventionism was needed in directing the destiny of the United States.
The 1920’s was a period of extremely economic growth and personal wealth. America was a striving nation and the American people had the potential to access products never manufactured before. Automobile were being made on an assembly line and were priced so that not just the rich had access to these vehicles, as well as, payment plans were made which gave the American people to purchase over time if they couldn't pay it all up front. Women during the First World War went to work in place of the men who went off to fight. When the men return the women did not give up their positions in the work force. Women being giving the responsibility outside the home gave them a more independent mindset, including the change of women's wardrobe, mainly in the shortening of their skirts.
In George Washington's farewell speech he warned the American people to beware "the insidious wiles of foreign influence." Though it was never put into law, this statement has played a major role in the American foreign policy of isolationism. American isolationist sentiment stems from the fact that America is geographically isolated from the rest of the world. American isolationist sentiment was at its peak in the years following World War I. "In the war of 1914-1918 that had set the stage on which Hitler now strutted, no people had been more reluctant combatants, and few more disappointed with the result, than the Americans"(Kennedy, 385). After losing more than fifty thousand young troops in a war that was viewed to be unnecessary, the American people began to view neutrality as the best policy. The reasons for American intervention into World War I, which included the sinking of the Lusitania and large foreign investments, were to be avoided at all cost in the unstable 1930s. The Great Depression and the New Deal promoted insulation from foreign trade in order to improve the economy. Extreme isolationist sentiment shaped and hindered Franklin Roosevelt's foreign policy in the late 1930s. The Neutrality Acts of the 1930s were designed to maintain neutrality by first eliminating the causes of World War I. As the War ripped through Europe, the American isolationists slowly began to view intervention as a necessary evil.
The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe became the East nations, and the United States, centered on NATO formed the West nations, dividing the world in two. Belonging to neither the East nor the West, developing countries were called Third World nations and became a stand-in for wars between the East and West (Gaddis, The Strategies of Containment 70-78). The end of WWII and the beginning of the C... ... middle of paper ... ... a, from containment to rollback in Korea; welcoming European integration because it portended the creation of an economic unit that encouraged technological innovation; building a configuration of power in the international system, nurturing free markets while safeguarding American interests, a constant in Washington for more than 35 years; and, free political economy at home were just a few of the strategic methods used to change, influence, and shape American domestic policy (Leffler, The Specter of Communism,100-129).
The desire to avoid "foreign entanglements" of all kinds had been an American foreign policy for more than a century. A very real "geographical isolation" permitted the United States to "fill up the empty lands of North America free from the threat of foreign conflict.” President Roosevelt wanted to avoid war, especially since it was contrary to American policy which most if not all Americans were in agreement with. And as I said, another factor that led to the decision of Neutrality by President Rooseve...
As we approach the next Presidential election the topic of American foreign policy is once again in the spotlight. In this paper, I will examine four major objectives of U.S. foreign policy that have persisted throughout the twentieth century and will discuss the effect of each on our nation’s recent history, with particular focus on key leaders who espoused each objective at various times. In addition, I will relate the effects of American foreign policy objectives, with special attention to their impact on the American middle class. Most importantly, this paper will discuss America’s involvement in WWI, WWII, and the Cold War to the anticipated fulfillment of these objectives—democracy, manifest destiny, humanitarianism, and economic expansion.