EMartinez+Extra+Credit

Foreign Policy in the 1930s

 * Allied nations couldn't repay their debts to the US after Germany announced that they couldn't pay their reparations, which was a total of $33 billion.
 * The United States proposed an international law court twice at Hague conferences, but the world court was based on arbitration
 * After the Treaty of Versailles, the US was placed as the role of world leader.
 * Owen D. Young headed a commission that lowered the annual payment of Germany to virtually the identical sum that the other European nations owed the US.
 * Germany and European nations were able to resume paying until the Great Depression
 * In late 1931, Herbert Hoover put a one-year moratorium on both the reparations and debt payments
 * moratorium: a temporary prohibition of an activity.
 * In the end, only Finland paid its debts in full
 * Before WWII, the US pushed for an agreement on naval disarmament
 * The Four Power Treaty of 1921 prohibited new fortifications throughout most of the Pacific; was between the United States, Great Britain, Japan and France
 * The following year, the Five Power Treaty was created that included Italy
 * This set a limit for battleships based on a 5:5:3 ratio, being US, Great Britain and Japan respectfully
 * In August of 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was created, which was "an instrument of national policy" and supported "pacific means" to settle international quarrels
 * In 1928, the Pan-American Conference was held in Havana, Cuba
 * "Memorandum on the Monroe Doctrine" written by Undersecretary of State J. Reuben Clark seemed to promise an end to American military intervention based solely on the Monroe Doctrine
 * The "Good Neighbor Policy" was instituted was avoided the use of military force in South America
 * The London Economic Conference was held in 1933
 * Roosevelt took the United States off the gold standard in an effort to forestall deflation and total economic collapse
 * Roosevelt extended diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union, and the Soviets promised to halt subversive propaganda
 * Soviet Union also promised to guarantee civil and religious liberty to Americans in the Soviet Union and resolve the national debt and property claims issues at a later date
 * In 1916, the Jones Act promised Filipinos their independence, but at an unspecified date
 * The Tyding-McDuffie Act of 1934 affirmed Congress' intention to grant independence to the Philippines
 * Benito Mussolini gained power in Italy in 1922
 * Fascist movement emphasized aggressive nationalism
 * "Il Duce" or "the leader" as he liked to call himself
 * Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party, otherwise known as the Nazis, in Germany
 * Hitler completely went against the Treaty of Versailles
 * Emperor Hirohito in Japan also had the same ideas as Hitler and Mussolini, which was basically territorial expansionism and that started with Japan taking over Manchuria in 1931
 * Isolationists believed that America's entry into WWI was dictated by munitions makers and arms dealers who profited from the conflict
 * The Nye Committee's finding led to the passage of the Neutrality Acts
 * Congress hoped to prevent the US from being dragged unwillingly into another worldwide conflict
 * Roosevelt tried to keep the US neutral
 * The Spanish Republic, a liberal democratic government was established in 1931
 * Five years later, General Francisco Franco led the Spanish force into Morocco
 * In October 1936, Hilter and Mussolini established the Berlin-Rome Axis
 * Germany and Japan joined in the Anti-Comintern Pact directed against the Soviet Union and global communism
 * Italy signed the pact a year later
 * Roosevelt's administration called for a "moral embargo" of military technology against nations that bombed civilians
 * Roosevelt moved cautiously in the face of increased tensions in Europe and Asia
 * Isolationists along with pacifists urged that the US remain apart from various conflicts
 * In May on 1937, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Neville Chamberlain attempted to limit the territorial expansion by Hitler through appeasement
 * appeasment: to relieve or satisfy (a demand or a feeling)
 * At the Munich Conference, the Sudetenland was incorporated into the Third Reich
 * Chamberlain returned to London to announce "peace for our time"
 * Hitler pledged that the Sudetenland was his "last territorial claim"
 * Hitler then took over Czechoslovakia and also pressured Poland for Danzig
 * Not a single nation agreed to an alliance with the Soviet Union


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