American Isolationism

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  • Created by: Pip Dan
  • Created on: 20-09-17 14:40

By 1920, Wilson was ill and had failed to gain American approval for his aims to create a new world order. In the 1920 presidential election, the uninspiring James Cox represented the Democrats. The Republican comfortably regained control of Congress and the White House, under Warren G. Harding. Both Harding and his successor, Calvin Coolidge, believed America's role in the world was primarily economic, not political. This led to the foreign policy of the inter-war years being called 'isolationist'. While it is certain that the American people and governments of the 1920s and 1930s desired to stay out of European affairs, American's economic influence and its interests in Latin America and the Far East meant that it continued to be a player on the world stage, albeit a reluctant one.

Economic arguments

Isolationist

Internationalist

The Fordney-McCumber Act 1922 introduced the highest import tariffs in US history in order to protect American goods from foreign competition. This is perhaps more of a sign of isolationism than the trade tariffs impose in the 1930s which were a response to the Depression and the Ottawa Conference

American's economy was linked to Europe through the actions of private bankers. The 1924 Dawes Plan made them linked to the economic issues in Germany making it very difficult, and perhaps unwanted, to separate themselves from the rest of the world.

Some historians argue that the United States could afford to interfere less politically in Latin America because they had established American economic power in the area so effectively. For example, in the 1930s, two-thirds of Cuban sugar production was owned by American companies, as was half of all Venezuelan oil production. As shown by David Ryan, by 1929 American investments in Latin America were worth $3.52 billion.

The economic problems of the 1930s meant that the USA had to focus on domestic issues. Where the aim to be involved internationally or not, domestic concerns had to take priority to international ones

Political arguments

Isolationist

Internationalist

America refused to join the League of Nations and sign the Treaty of Versailles. This deliberately left her out of the biggest alliance of countries, limiting not only her international capability but the power of the League as well. It is a strong argument that America was trying to step away from foreign affairs

Despite not joining the League of Nations they did attended more than 40 meetings for the assembly and the USA supported much of the work done by the League in areas such as health

 Immigration restrictions, such as the Quota Act 1921 and the Johnson-Reed Act 1924, reflected Coolidge's…

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