4.01 US History - Isolationism

Which of the following fueled the United States to sign the Four-Power Treaty and the Five-Power Treaty?

Concern over Japan's rising military power

Washington Naval Conference (1921-1922)

Conference held in Washington, D.C. in 1921 and based on the belief that if powerful nations reduced their weapons, they would no longer see each other as a threat. It resulted in the creation of the Four-Power Treaty of 1921, the Five-Power Naval Treaty of 1922, five other treaties, and numerous agreements between nations. Also called the Washington Arms Conference.

Four-Power Treaty of 1921

This treaty sought to remove the danger of war in East Asia. The United States, Great Britain, France, and Japan agreed to respect each other's possessions in the Pacific. They also agreed to communicate "fully and frankly" in case of warlike action on the part of any of the others. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty.

Five-Power Naval Treaty of 1922

The United States, Great Britain, and Japan agreed to limit the number of ships in their navies, in a ratio of 5 to 5 to 3. In exchange for Japan shrinking its navy, the United States agreed not to fortify the Philippines.

London Conference (1930)

Conference held in Great Britain and attended by the United States, Japan, Italy, and France. Representatives convened to discuss the treaties of the Washington Conference. The group decided to extend certain provisions of the Five-Power Treaty, such as the limitation of aircraft carriers. The group, with the exception of France and Italy, agreed on a new ratio to use to define the number of battleships in each country's navy. Also called the London Naval Conference.

Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928

Delegates of 62 countries, including Germany, Italy, and Japan, as well as many other independent countries, met in Paris in August 1928 to sign an agreement that renounced war "as an instrument of national policy." Of course, the treaty did not apply to wars of self-defense, or to honoring previous commitments, or for other reasons that a country felt it was obliged to fight.

The only important absentee was Communist Russia, now called the Soviet Union or the U.S.S.R. It was barred by the United States because it refused to honor the war debt incurred by the Tsar's government. Also called the Pact of Paris.

Nobel Peace Prize of 1929

Awarded to Frank B. Kellogg, Secretary of State under President Coolidge, for his role in arranging the Kellogg-Briand Pact.

Neutrality Acts (1935, 1937, 1939)

Congress passed Neutrality Acts in 1935, 1937, and 1939. These acts were designed to keep the United States out of any turmoil bubbling on foreign soil. The American people wanted to avoid becoming entangled in another world war.

-First Neutrality Act (1935) – prohibited the U.S. export of arms and ammunition to foreign nations at war

-Second Neutrality Act (1937) – forbade U.S. citizens from traveling on foreign war ships, and American merchant ships were prevented from transporting arms to foreign nations at war even if those arms were produced outside of the United States.

-Third Neutrality Act (1939) – lifted the arms embargo and allowed trade with foreign nations at war under the terms of “cash-and-carry”

isolationism

the policy that one's country should not be involved in political and economic relations with other countries

demobilization

moving a country’s military from wartime to peacetime, including the changing of factories from wartime to peacetime production

How Did Demobilization Affect Labor in 1919?

The war had led to price inflation far beyond workers' pay, while industries made huge profits. Soldiers back from the war were suddenly competing for jobs. Labor unrest came to a head in 1919 when workers began to protest in response to the difficulties caused by demobilization. About 4,000,000 workers—one-fifth of the country's work force—went on strike for the right to belong to unions that could bargain collectively.

Washington: In February, a general strike shut down all business in Seattle. Coal miners and ironworkers went on strike in several states, as did telephone operators and transit workers. More than 60,000 workers left their jobs to join the strike. After five days of protests, the Seattle workers went back to their jobs, without any of their demands being met. Although the Seattle strike had been peaceful, many leaders compared the strike to revolutions in Russia, a comparison that pushed the public's support away from labor unions.

Massachusetts: In September 1919, the Boston police, who were certainly not radicals, went on strike. The resulting disorder lasted three months, until the strike was broken. All the police were fired and replaced.

Pennsylvania: Strikes also erupted in the steel industry in Pennsylvania in the weeks after the Boston police strike. During this strike, nearly 365,000 workers stormed away from the jobs because of the low wages and long working hours. Many of the strikers, who were immigrants, were thrown in jail, beaten, or killed.

Another strike, beginning in November of 1919, crippled the coal mines after thousands of workers unionized and began protesting for higher wages, a shorter work-week, and shorter workdays. The coal miners' strike was relatively successful with the president agreeing to a 14 percent wage increase for the striking workers.

Despite the gains by the striking workers and their leaders, the public did not support the labor union. They believed that these leaders had ties to Russian revolutionaries and were pushing for a revolution in the United States. The American people were scared.

Which of the following is an effect of demobilization on labor immediately after World War I?

The economy contracted at the same time men were returning home from war.

Communism

an economic and political system in which the state owns and controls all property

Red Scare

Period of anticommunist hysteria that swept the United States and WW1

Anarchists

person who believes in a system of government in which the state is seen as undesirable and unnecessary; it opposes capitalism, which enriches the past of society while impoverishing another, and values the will of individuals over that of the state.

What was the Red Scare?

In November 1917, the Bolshevik (Communist) Revolution seized control of Russia, and Americans became terrified of radical activity. In March 1919, word came that the Communist International, a group led by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin that pushed for the overthrow of capitalism and free enterprise, was calling for worldwide revolution.

With the rise of striking workers, such as police officers, steelworkers, and coal miners, the American public feared a Bolshevik Revolution of their own was on the horizon. This fear reached an all-time high during a period called the Red Scare.

A wave of bombings increased these fears. Targeted officials included a prominent Supreme Court justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the Attorney General of the United States, A. Mitchell Palmer.

In August 1919, Palmer started a special "anti-radical" division of the Bureau of Investigation.

In November 1919, the Bureau began rounding up suspected radicals across the country. The goal was to wipe out what Palmer called a Communist plot to destroy the United States, but the raids targeted more than one group of people.

Anarchists, along with communists, were lumped together in the public mind as "reds."

the Bureau rounded up 249 foreign-born "reds" and deported them to Russia.

Then on January 2, 1920, Palmer and Hoover launched another series of raids. More than 4,000 people were rounded up in 33 states and many of them were deported. They were detained only because of their political affiliations.

Altogether, about 6,000 people were rounded up during the Red Scare. Most were arrested without warrant and held without charge, in violation of the Constitution. But by the summer of 1920, the Red Scare had subsided. Americans realized that the communist threat had been hugely exaggerated and their own liberties threatened by the raids. However, the effects of the Red Scare continued to shape the country for years to come.

Sacco and Vanzetti

On the afternoon of April 15, 1920, a robbery and double murder took place on the main street of South Braintree, Massachusetts.

The robbery attracted little attention outside the Boston area until May 5, when two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were arrested and charged with the crime.

The Murder Trial: What Happened to Sacco and Vanzetti?

Before the Trial:

Sacco and Vanzetti were anarchists.

they were charged with the Braintree murders in May 1920, even though the Red Scare hysteria had subsided, nativist sentiments persisted in the United States, and foreign peoples and radicals were often targeted.

Neither had any previous criminal record. However, both men were carrying guns when they were arrested. Both feared they would be deported. When questioned by the police, they lied about their anarchist associations.

While in custody, Vanzetti was charged with an attempted robbery that had taken place in December 1919. He was tried for this crime first. Many witnesses supported his claim that he was somewhere else at the time of that robbery.

Vanzetti had declined to testify for fear of disclosing his anarchist activities. He was found guilty and given a sentence of 10 to 15 years.

The Murder Trial:

It became clear that Sacco and Vanzetti's murder trial would be conducted on political lines. One of their anarchist supporters secured a well-known lawyer for them named Fred Moore.

He decided not to hide his clients' anarchism in court. Instead he would have them acknowledge it. This would prove that the state's case had nothing to do with hard evidence, Moore believed.

the case a political event turned the Sacco-Vanzetti trial into national and international news.

The trial took place over six weeks in June and July 1921. The prosecution presented evidence relating to the guns and the car used in the crime. The defense presented rebuttals to the evidence, but it mainly conducted its case on political grounds.

Sacco and Vanzetti were found guilty of robbery and murder on July 14, 1921.

Effects of the Trial:

Over the next six years, the defense attempted to win a new trial. It presented evidence that included police misconduct, a confession by another man, and judicial prejudice.

On April 9, 1927, after all the appeals had been exhausted, Sacco and Vanzetti were sentenced to death in the electric chair. Protests rose around the world. Demonstrations took place in communities across the United States.

On the day of the execution, August 23, 1927, Ybor City's Italian Club held its largest meeting ever, to "bid farewell to our noble comrades."

Johnson-Reed Act of 1924

A law passed by Congress in 1924 mandating further restrictions on immigration based on nationality

What Was Life Like in the U.S. After the Red Scare?

the fear of immigrants that had influenced it was still very much alive. Middle-class Americans associated immigrants with radicalism. Working Americans also favored immigration restriction. Employers often used immigrants as strikebreakers.

Laws restricting immigration had been passed during the war. Now Congress added two new ones:

The Quota Act of 1921 established limits on immigration based on the number of people from specific countries who had lived in the United States in 1890.

The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 enacted further restrictions based on nationality. After 1924, it was limited to 150,000. Four-fifths of the places for new immigrants were reserved for people from northern and western Europe. Immigration from Italy and Russia slowed a little. Immigration from Asia stopped almost completely.

Why Did the U.S Desire a Return to "Normalcy"?

In the years after the Great War, the economy was suffering, Democrats were pushing for the League of Nations, and workers were striking. The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, whose first president was Jane Addams, had created a world peace movement. They supported Woodrow Wilson's plans for a League of Nations.

Henry Cabot Lodge led the Senate's fight against the League. He found widespread American support for avoiding foreign alliance and international responsibilities.

The Republicans made "Back to Normalcy" their campaign slogan in that year's election. For the next ten years, "normalcy" was the prevailing political sentiment in the United States. And for many Americans "normalcy" meant turning away from distant shores. It meant a return to isolationism.

Reasons:

did not want the United States bound by treaties that would prohibit American expansion.

Others saw an endless drain on the U.S. economy if the country tried to restore or assist war-torn Europe.

also millions of Americans who were simply bewildered by too much change.

Discrimination and racial violence continued throughout the 1920s. The numbers of African Americans killed and injured in the 1921 riots of Tulsa, Oklahoma, surpassed those of Chicago in 1919.

A worldwide epidemic of influenza—"the flu"—carried by returning soldiers had killed 675,000 Americans by June of 1919 and sickened millions more.

What were the most important events that led Americans to turn toward isolationism or that indicate changing American attitudes?

1915
A revived Ku Klux Klan targets Jews, Catholics and foreigners as well as African Americans.

November 1917
A revolution in Russia brings Communists to power.

February 1919
A general strike shuts down business in Seattle.

April 1919
Bombs mailed to public officials intensify the growing "Red Scare."

Summer 1919
Racial violence kills dozens and injures hundreds in Chicago.

September 1919
A strike by police leads to weeks of disorder in Boston.

November 1919
A. Mitchell Palmer launches a series of raids on "reds," in which thousands will be held and deported without due process of law.

March 1920
The U.S. Senate decisively rejects the Treaty of Versailles and U.S. membership in the League of Nations.

May 1920
Harding declares in a speech that America needs a return to "normalcy."

June 1920
Harding surprisingly wins the Republican nomination for president.

November 1920
Harding is elected President of the United States and brings with him a return to normalcy in the form of isolation.