History US Foreign Relations - Essay Example

History essay Carlos Sandino (b.1895), a liberalist protested against the interference of the US government in Nicaraguan affairs and led guerilla warfare against US marines. He was executed in 1934. Neutrality Acts 1935-1937 were passed by the US congress to restrict American involvement in any future war, keeping in view the embitterment in the minds of people after WW I. Comintern, a communist organization, was formed in Moscow in 1919 to remove all international bourgeois class and to destroy all concepts of Statehood. Dumbarton Oaks conference held in 1944 in Washington DC was attended by US, Britain, China and the Soviet Union to negotiate and form the council of United Nations. The Dawes Plan, said that after World War I, France, Britain and Russia should be allowed to collect war reparations or monetary compensation from Germany for war damages. Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 aimed to regulate international monetary or financial transactions after the World War II. Here the GATT, IMF and IBRD were formed. Tripartite Pact, Sep. 1940 was a pact signed by Germany, Japan and Italy, where these three countries promised to help each other by political, military and economic means. Kuomintang is a political party of ROC (republic of china) or Taiwan, separate from the People’s Republic of China and follows a policy of no unification, no independence and no use of force. Nine-Power Treaty (1922) was a pact signed by all US, Japan, China, UK, France, Italy and Belgium which declared the territorial integrity of China and also confirmed its sovereignty. Dada was a movement started during the WWI in Zurich, Switzerland. This anarchist movement was involved in poetry, visual arts and theatre, was anti-war and anti bourgeois in nature. The gold standard is a system where the local currencies of various countries are fixed based on a specified or fixed amount of gold. Rogers Act of 1924 was created to amalgamate the US Diplomatic services and Consular services and bring them under the US foreign services. Locarno Conference, 1925 was a European security pact which provided for Rhineland to be demilitarized and Germany was given a seat in the League of Nations. John Maynard Keynes(1883-1946), an English economist, formed the basis of what is now known as macroeconomics and advocated the formation of interventionist governments. Article 27 of Mexican Constitution of 1917 stated that all land and water and their conservation was a state prerogative, which reserved the right to impose on any private property In Munich beer hall putsch, 1923, Hitler tried to overthrow the Weimar government to establish the rule of the nationalist right wing, instead.  White Committee was formed by William Allen White in 1940, to defend America by helping the allies. Rainbow-5 refers to the various US war plans (1920’s and 30’s) that were color-coded and outlined war strategies for fictitious war type situations. War debts-reparations issue means the monetary compensation that is meant to cover war damages instead of land annexation by the winning side. Smoot-Hawley Tariff 1930, was an act that raised tariffs by the US government on more than 20000 imported goods. Stab-in-the-back legend was a social formula that said Germany’s failure in both the world wars, was due to no response from it citizens and sabotage caused by the Jews, Bolsheviks and socialists. Operation Barbarossa was a code used by the Germans while attacking the Soviet Union in June 1941 during the World War II. London Economic Conference 1933 was a conference of 66 nations (except US) in an effort to stabilize and revive world economy and trade to ward off the economic depression. Southern Advance was a war tactics used by Japan during WWII to invade European colonies in South East Asia to cut off aid to China and destabilizing it. Atlantic Charter was an agreement between UK and US to create the blueprint for all international treaties after the WW II. How and why did the United States become involved in World War II World War II which began officially on 1st September 1939 was a major warfare that involved nearly all the countries of the world and was divided into two major warring factions, the Allies and the Axis. More than seventy million people of which majority were civilians were killed in this war, which lasted for almost six years. WWII ended in 1945 with the Allies emerging victorious, after which USA and Russia emerged as the two main players in world power leading to almost another major conflict known in history as the Cold War. Though World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Hitler in 1939, its groundwork started long back in the 1931. After its humiliating defeat in WWI, Germany who had to sign the treaty of Versailles lost nearly 13% of its land and had to face many other restrictions. Under Hitler (who became the German Chancellor in 1933) and his Nazi militia, Germany decided to retaliate to regain its lost glory and starting preparing itself to launch full military offensive against other European countries. On 18th September 1931 Japan in order to expand, decided to attack China and annexed two Chinese territories. This led to the 2nd Sino-Japanese war in 1937. Defying the League of Nations, in 1935, Italy attacked Ethiopia and took over it as a colonial territory. In 1938 Hitler, emboldened by the lack of responses from other nations on Italy’s annexation of Ethiopia, attacked Austria and annexed it. After this, he attacked the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia and conquered it. Later took over the whole of Czechoslovakia. Alarmed at this, France and England entered a pact to help Poland from Germany, while Germany and Italy also entered a pact and later in August 1939, Germany and Russia signed a non-aggression pact. Finally, on 1st September, Germany attacked Poland. France and England declared war against Germany on 3rd September, though in actual terms they did little to help Poland against the Germans. After signing a pact with Japan, Soviet also attacked Poland on 17th September 1939, while at the same time Japan attacked Changsha in China. In June 1940, Soviet conquered the neutral states of Baltic. A pact between Germany and Russia was made in February 1940 to mutually help each other by providing military support and arms and material supplies. In April 1940, Germany attacked and defeated Denmark and also conquered Norway within the next two months, despite opposition from the Allies. The fallout of this Norway conquest was that England had a new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill on May 10th 1940, the same day when Hitler attacked Belgium, France, Holland and Luxembourg. Soon in June 1940, Italy joined Hitler in the invasion and after some time France fell along with Belgium and Holland (Netherlands), into the hands of the Axis. Next Hitler trained his sights on England. Meanwhile Japan after being repulsed initially by the Chinese, started a blockade against China, by taking over many of their bases. All these years America under its Neutrality Acts of 1935-37 did not take any active part in the war. It just took steps to assist China and the Allies by amending the acts and allowing ‘cash and carry’ trading with them and also imposed sanctions on trading oil, steel, iron and mechanical supplies with Japan. It strengthened its own navy and supplied British army with American destroyers but taking into account the public opinion of the majority of its citizens, refused to take any active part in the fighting. On 27th September 1940 Japan, Italy and Germany formally entered the tripartite act with Hungary, Slovakia and Romania also joining in later. Soon these Axis forces joined together in 1941 to invade Soviet Russia as decided in the anti-Comintern pact of 1935. Hitler’s main aim was to conquer Russia, finish off communism and have his so-called ‘living space’. Finally on 7th December (American date) 1941, Japan attacked America in the famous Pearl Harbor incident, where it destroyed a sizeable portion of the American navy in one go, killing many navy men. President Roosevelt had always wanted to take part in the war, as American ships supplying arms to England had been attacked by the Germans in the Atlantic, but had bowed to public pressure at home. When Japan directly bombed America and its citizens were in an uproar, Roosevelt seized the situation to declare war against Japan, formally on 8th December. After few days, Hitler and Italy also declared war on US, based on the conditions set in the tripartite pact. This allowed America to officially join the war against the Axis as a whole and with a ‘Germany first’ policy. Therefore, the fundamental cause of America joining the war was the Pearl Harbor incident. However if we take a closer look we will find America was never neutral. Right from the beginning in 1931, when Japan attacked China, it had sided with China, which was a non-communist state at that time, and sent its own ‘volunteers’ to China to fight against Japan. Until 1941, it had been liberally giving England arms and ammunitions under the land-lease act, so America was only technically neutral. By giving arms to the allies and cutting off 100% oil supplies to Japan it had already taken its side, though unofficially. Pearl Harbor incident only justified its entry. As long as the war was fought on European soil, American citizens did not wish to take part in it. When finally attacked in its own home soil, America decided to join the war ‘officially’. Read More