Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Post-Depression Isolationism

While the things we learned about the Great Depression mostly deals with domestic affairs, it is also important to realize that there were many international factors that led to the Great Depression, and many international effects that came as a result of the Great Depression.

Most importantly, the United States began to adopt a policy of isolationism, due to the Great Depression. Isolationism meant that the United States would not involve itself with foreign entanglements or other countries. In his Farewell Address, George Washington even advocated for such a policy, urging non-involvement in the many European wars that were going on at the time.

However, this isolationism was a sharp contrast to the ideas and policies of the previous presidents, such as Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. Before, the United States had involved itself all over the world, such as negotiating a treaty between Russia and Japan, or even expanding the Monroe Doctrine to expand its sphere of influence and justify both economic and military intervention over Latin America.

The largest example of US isolationism showed immediately after World War One, which the US had involved itself in, when Congress refused to join the League of Nations, due to the concern that it would force the United States to be involved in foreign conflicts.

Yet another example of this isolationism spurred by the Great Depression was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Essentially, the act raised US tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods in an attempt to help out domestic industries that were devastated by the Great Depression. However, a large majority of economists agree that it only exacerbated the massive recession the US was facing.

Ultimately, we can see that because of the Great Depression and during this time period, the United States withdrew into a policy of isolationism and removed itself from the international stage, an especially sharp contrast to its previous policies of imperialism and many foreign interventions.

Smoot and Hawley standing together (from the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.) 



1 comment:

  1. In addition to it's effects on foreign affairs, the implications that isolationism domestically is also quite interesting. There is a clear connection between isolationism and the idea of nativism. During the 1920's (a time of isolationism) there was a surge in nativist ideals. This was embodied in the reconstruction of the KKK that took place around this time. It would be interesting to take a closer look at how the government's policies (such as isolationism) affect the American people's beliefs (such as nativism).

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