American Foreign Policy During the Interwar Period. in This Essay, One Should Address the Following:

On September 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler invaded Poland. This led to a widespread war across many nations. This war was later called World War II. Before Germany invaded Poland, both America and Germany were going through a Great Depression. In the war, there were two sides, The Allies,(including America and

The challenges that confronted the U.S. in Europe when America entered the war were many. The challenges of balancing international policy and economic problems. Roosevelt faced challenges in Europe with worsening U.S. – Japanese relations. Franklin D Roosevelt suffered with health issues causing him more difficulty that he did not let the public see. He did not live to see the end of the war and Harry Truman became his successor and was challenged with the task of ending the war and encouraging peace.

As Franklin Roosevelt began to have more internationalist views, Americans, under no circumstances, wanted to be drawn into another foreign war. The result was a relative stand still in American foreign policy. Congress pacified isolationists by passing the Neutrality Act of 1935, which was designed to isolate America from the growing Nazi monster. First, it created an embargo on the sale of arms to all belligerent nations and second it stated that American citizens that traveled on belligerent ships were doing so at their own risk. The Act was basically an attempt to prevent the World War I nightmare from happening again. Roosevelt was required to sign the bill though he would have rather it had different provisions regarding the embargo of arms to belligerent nations. He was in favor of creating selective embargoes

American foreign policy during the 1890s was based on many factors that each acted as an individual justification for our country’s behavior as a whole. Racism, nationalism, commercialism, and humanitarianism each had its own role in the actions America took against other nations.

"He Kept us Out of War" (World War I Quotes). This quote was a democratic slogan stated during the election of 1916 on behalf of President Woodrow Wilson. This slogan makes an attempt to refer to the good leadership qualities and decisions that President Wilson made to keep the United States of America out of the war and that is why he should be elected again to serve as President. Though this made a valid argument to show that Wilson was smart to keep us out of war, many events took place that continued to anger the U.S. which eventually made them declare war on Germany on April 6th, 1917 (World War I). In doing this, they broke their policy of non intervention. The United States held out of the Great War for so long because of

England and France, fearing another war established a policy of appeasement to by time and rearm its forces. The European countries believed that Hitler would only retake the Sudetenland; this land was historically Germany's homeland(6). This was another mistake by France and England because with the Sudetenland he gained the famous Skoda armament factories and was ultimately a more dangerous military opponent(6). Until the remainder of Czechoslovakia was swallowed in 1939 all Hitler had done seemed reasonable(6). Until then he had only tried to obtain lands where ethnic Germans lived(6). The disregard of the Treaty of Versailles would be the main factor that allowed Germany to regain their power and ultimately bring the world into another war.

President Wilson had cautioned citizens from taking side in the war in fear of jeopardizing wider US policy, during the time of neutrality. Untied States maintained this neutrality despite increasing pressure on President Wilson after the sinking of the Lusitania. This neutrality would crumble when Germany started to introduce its unrestricted submarine

These 3 countries came to an agreement known as the Tripartite Pact, which solidified their side in the war (Ross 31). Germany first invaded Poland because of Hitler's dogged determination to expand the borders of his empire whilst claiming Lebensraum, a German concept which was basically just a justification for the German’s very aggressive territorial expansion (Staton). By using this justification, Germany also believed they had racial superiority (Ross 22). This racial superiority is what led the Germans to believe they had the right to commit mass genocide in order to create the perfect race. " Italy entered the war as an Axis member on June 10, 1940, when the defeat of France became apparent" ("Axis Alliance”).

In the early hours of the 1st September 1939 German forces invaded Poland. 21 years after the end of World War I, the world had to face the beginning of another world war that should last 6 years. World War II was one of the most disastrous events in human history causing approximately 60 million deaths and destruction almost all over the globe (msn Encarta 2008). Winston Churchill wrote in the preface of his book about World War II (The Gathering Storm):

Yet another factor that led to this decision of Neutrality by President Roosevelt was the American Economy. The health of the American economy could not be jeopardized, whatever was happening elsewhere. It was Roosevelt’s view that the United States would fare well (economically speaking) whether Europe went to war or not. Gold was flowing in from Europe’s capitals, orders were mounting daily for equipment and supplies of all kinds, and America was building a battleship for Stalin. For most of the 1930’s the United States traded as openly with Germany and Japan, as it did with any other country. Japan relied on fuel oil and scrap iron until 1941. Germany was one of the United States’ most important markets during the 1930’s. American investments in Germany increased by forty percent

In 1939, Italy invaded Ethiopia, Japan advancing into China. In March 1939, Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia provoked vivid reactions from both American isolationists and American interventionists: the first group wanted no intervention because it could destroy the New Deal and the second group pledged the fact that the United Stated should enter the war in order to defend peace. President Roosevelt was torn between the two groups. He did not want to impose or oppress his views to people thus the US government created Neutrality laws to prevent the sale of arms to those countries who were in war. On the 1st of September, Germans’ invasion in Poland, breaking the Munich agreement, changed US view and it was the end of the Neutrality laws.

Another major foreign policy action was the entry to World War I. On August 4, 1914 there was an outbreak in Europe. A war started between the central powers and the allied powers. The central powers consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungry, and the Ottoman Empire. They were also known as the Triple Alliance. The Allied Powers, also know as the Triple Entente consisted of Britain, France, and Russia. An immediate cause of the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Some long term causes that started the war were militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism. America tried to keep themselves isolated from the war in Europe. Before the war, America had an idea of neutrality. Neutrality is when American lives and property is not threatened. There was great ethnic diversity in the United States which led to a public union about war. The United States also had the idea of freedom of the seas. This meant the routes for trading were open. The United States had the desire to trade with both the central and the allied powers. The United States had a great economic interest in the war at this time. There were many different

Compare and Contrast United States foreign policy after the First World War and after the Second World War. Consider the periods 1919-1928 and 1945-1950.

The United States cautioned Japan against further hostile actions by threatening to cut off shipments of raw materials to the country. This was a really risky situation for Japan, its only income of oil and metal came from the United States, while their main source of rubber came from some British territories in Malaya. “Therefore, it would seem that the nation would have to tread lightly to avoid angering the West. Or would it? In a surprising act of defiance, Japan promptly separated from the League of Nations, which was the precursor to the United Nations.” Tensions continued to arise in the region for several years until 1937, when Japan entered full force military combat with the economically depressed nation China. This conflict became known as the Second Sino-Japanese War, which would later be singled out as the starting point of World War II in the Pacific Theater. In the fall of 1940, Japan met with the Germans and fascist-controlled Italy to create an alliance known as the Tripartite Pact. Under this alliance these three nations agreed to work with and hold up each other in their respective countries’

In 1936, Hitler remilitarised the Rhineland by marching 30,000 troops[8] into Cologne on the 7th of March 1936. To prove that the remilitarisation was popular and warranted, a plebiscite was held and the results were 98.8%[9] in favor of the move. Hitler’s confidence was at an all time high by this time. Showing his power to Britain and France and discounting the Treaty of Versailles placed Germany in a commanding position. Also by 1936, the formation of the Axis occurred. It meant that the two fascist powers in Germany and Italy were to work together on matters of mutual interest.[10] The formation of the Axis later developed in May 1939 into a military cooperation which was named the