T5 International

Question 1

Aims of US 1920s Foreign Policy

Answer 1

• Firstly, the USA was convinced that the First World War was caused by the selfish rivalries of the European powers and wanted to avoid involvement in any further conflicts.
• Moreover, there was a growing fear of the spread of Communism after the Bolshevik Revolution
  in Russia in October 1917. This was seen as a threat to the economic and political ideology of the
  USA.
• Furthermore, the USA wanted to maintain the status quo in naval power and the Far East. The
  USA had the most powerful navy in the world and wanted to stop any further naval arms race,
  especially the growth of the Japanese navy.
• The USA also wanted to protect their interests, especially trade, in the Far East by maintaining the
  status quo and particularly the ‘Open Door’ policy. (These were increasingly threatened by
  Japanese expansionist policies.)
• The USA was also determined to maintain the Monroe Doctrine and its economic and political
  interests in Latin America.

Question 2

Reasons for the Washington Conference (1922)

Answer 2

• The USA wanted to prevent the renewal of the Anglo–Japanese Alliance in 1922. Britain was keen
  to renew this to secure Japanese support for her interests in the Far East. The USA, however,
  feared the spread of Japanese influence in the Far East, especially China, and wanted to detach
  them from their ally.
• The USA wished to maintain the status quo in China, particularly the Open Door policy which
  favoured US trading interests.
• President Harding left foreign affairs in the control of Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes,
  who was a keen supporter of disarmament.
• The most important reason was US fear of growing Japanese influence in the Far East. Japan had
  acquired German colonies in the Pacific and posed a potential threat to communication links
  between Hawaii and other US possessions in Guam and the Philippines. Moreover, Japan
  threatened China, which was increasingly vulnerable due to civil war.

Question 3

Achievements of the Washington Conference (1922)

Answer 3

• On the one hand the conference appeared to be a great success.
• It was the first agreement on arms limitation and brought stability and peace in the Pacific.
• The disarmament agreement was made between four powers: the USA, Britain, Japan and France,
  with Italy signing in 1922.
• Each agreed to reduce the tonnage of battleships for ten years, persuading Japan to accept less
  tonnage than Britain and the USA in an approximate ratio of five for USA and Britain, three for
  Japan and 1.75 for Italy and France respectively.
• In addition, they signed the Four Power Treaty in which they agreed to respect each country’s
  interests in the Far East as well as to maintain the Open-Door policy in China.
• Furthermore, Japan promised to remove its troops from the Chinese province of Shantung and
  the USA agreed not to strengthen its military presence in Guam.
• However, the conference had several limitations. It imposed no limits on the size of armies or air
  forces.
• The naval limitations only applied to battleships and aircraft carriers.
• The agreement was ‘toothless’ with no method of enforcing the limitation agreement.
• No sanctions were to apply to those who broke the agreement. While Japan abided by the treaty
  for several years, she began to expand her influence in the 1930s.

Question 4

The Kellogg–Briand Pact (1928)

Answer 4

• The Kellogg–Briand Pact was an international agreement set up by Frank B. Kellogg, the US
  Secretary of State, and Aristide Briand, the French Foreign Minister.
• This pact was signed for two main reasons.
• The French were keen on an alliance with the USA.
• However, America did not want any commitments in Europe and used the pact as a means of
  placating the French.
• Moreover, there was a strong movement for peace in the USA in the 1920s with growing support
  for peace societies.
• The pact was signed by fifteen countries which agreed not to wage war except in self-defence and
  to seek peaceful means to resolve disputes.
• However, it was another toothless agreement with no sanctions to deal with any country that
  broke the agreement.
• The Senate ratified the pact by 85 votes to one, but the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
  insisted that the pact did not actually sanction the use of war even if attacked, or commit the USA
  to help any country that was threatened.

Question 5

US Loans

Answer 5

• The USA was prepared to lend money to countries after the war to restore prosperity and prevent
  the spread of Communism – but not to the USSR and China.
• They insisted that all war debts had to be repaid.
• Indeed, the USA used debt repayments as a threat to European powers, particularly when Britain
  tried to force up the price of rubber by restricting supplies in the British Empire.
• The USA retaliated by threatening harsher repayment terms for war debts.

Question 6

The Dawes and Young Plans (1924 - 1929)

Answer 6

• The USA was also keen on a stable Germany to prevent a Communist revolution and was directly
  involved with the Dawes and Young Plans.
• Under the Dawes Plan of 1924 Charles G. Dawes, an American banker, was asked by the Allied
  Reparations Committee to investigate the fact that Germany could not afford to pay the original
  reparations instalments and had defaulted on its payment in 1923.
• His report, published in April 1924, proposed a plan for instituting annual payments of reparations
  on a fixed scale.
• He also recommended the reorganisation of the German State Bank and increased foreign loans.
• The plan that was drawn up reduced German payments to $250 million a year with these
  payments increasing over the next five years as the German economy improved.
• Germany was also given an immediate loan of 800 million marks, with US bankers providing half
  and the rest coming from foreign bankers.

Question 7

The Young Plan (1929)

Answer 7

• The Young Plan of 1929 was drawn up by Owen Young, head of the General Electric Company.
• This scaled down reparation payments to $26 billion, to be paid over a period of 59 years.
• Overall, the USA was lending money to Germany which was using these loans to pay reparations
  to the Allies who, in turn, were using these payments to repay loans to the USA.
• In other words, the USA was effectively paying itself back with its own money.
• The situation became even more confused with the Dawes and Young Plans scaling down German
  reparation payments.
• Germany was paying less to the Allies who, in turn, paid less to the USA.

Question 8

Involvement in Latin America

Answer 8

• Although the USA, for the most part, did revert to isolationism, they did continue to pursue and
  protect their interests in Latin America.
• There was increased involvement by the USA in Latin American in the 1920s.
• This was partly due to the Monroe Doctrine as well as the emergence of the Good Neighbor Policy
  which cultivated good relations with Latin America.
• Much of this increased involvement was economic which, in turn, often encouraged more political
  and military intervention in order to safeguard these economic interests.

Question 9

Economic involvement in Latin America

Answer 9

• US investment in Latin America doubled in the years 1924–29 from $1.5 billion to $3 billion.
• This included automobile firms such as General Motors which manufactured vehicles in Argentina,
  Brazil and Uruguay.
• In 1923, General Electric set up the American and Foreign Power Company and controlled the
  provision of electricity in eight Latin American countries.
• In addition, US companies dominated the media such as the movies and radio.
• The State Department even hired economists such as Edwin Kemmerer to develop plans for
  countries that requested US investment.
• The Kemmerer Plans helped to stabilise and develop the economies of such countries by offering
  advice on sound currency and central banks.
• However, such investment did bring problems and increase US involvement in order to protect
  these investments.
• For example, it would intervene to prevent US loans being spent by corrupt officials on luxuries.
• However, the USA was reluctant to sanction military intervention because it was expensive and
  unpopular with taxpayers.

Question 10

Settling Disputes

Answer 10

• During the 1920s, where possible, the US settled disputes with troops. These were often replaced
  by loyal local militia.
• The USA gave Colombia $25 million in compensation for its support for the independence of Panama in 1903.
• There was an ongoing dispute with Mexico after the latter defaulted on its international debts, much of which were from the USA, in 1914.
• In 1922, the Mexican Government agreed to repay $500,000 and, in the following year, the
  Bucareli Accords provided compensation for damage caused to foreign property during the
  Mexican Revolution.
• In 1925, US troops were withdrawn from Nicaragua in order to improve relations between the two countries.
• However, the following year 5,000 troops were sent back in due to the outbreak of civil war.
• A US diplomat, Henry Stimson, organised the Peace Treaty of Tipitapa which led to the election of Juan Bautista Sacasa in 1928.