Question

The American Pageant - World History

Question 1. Explain in what way the Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936 and 1937, the fall of France, Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, and the atack on Pearl Harbor mark the most important turning points in American foreign policy from “storm-cellar isolationism” to full-fledged interventionism between 1935 and 1941.

Answer 1

1.THE NEUTRALITY ACTS:-

• The Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 stipulated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war certain restrictions would automatically go into effect.
• The United States had been drawn into World War I to protect the relationships and loans of manufacturers and bankers, and the America could stay out of what was widely viewed as another inevitable European conflict.
• Congress in August 1935 and imposed a ban on shipments of weapons and war materiel to belligerent countries and discouraged travel by American citizens on the ships of belligerents by specifying that they did so at their own risk.
• It was invoked by Roosevelt in October when Italy invaded Ethiopia. The bill was a deliberate stopgap with a six-month sunset provision.
• In anticipation of the end of the first neutrality act, arguments were made to strengthen it further.

2."STORM-CELLAR ISOLATIONISM"(1935 TO 1941):-

• 1940-first peace time draft Allowing america to fight two wars with the help of russia· Present arguments for and against the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
• Had it been your decision, what would you have done? Why?If America had not dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and nagasaki it was estimated that there would have been even more japanese casualties.
• The dropping of the atom bomb was what got Emperor Hirohito to see that the japanese had very little chance of victory as well as defending their islands.
• However some believe that dropping the bomb was completely.
• No American could legally sail on a belligerent ship, or sell or transport munitions to a belligerent nation, or make loans to a belligerent.Fall of france -Congress jarred out of its apathy, gave $37 billion and passed a conscription.
• unnecessary in order to secure victory. Most people believed that Japan had already lost the war but just hadn't surrendered yet.
• Seeing it as an unnecessary act of brutality against the japanese. What evidence indicated throughout the 1920 s that the American economy was not as healthy as most American believed during the decade? Why weren't these weaknesses identified by political leaders,
• Everyone had money in the stock market and not real money. Too much credit, not enough money. Small businesses were failing.
• Everyone had too much hype on the stock market since the DOW peaked at 1929, that maybe people were blinded so much by ignorance that they didn’t acknowledge all those problems.
• Herbert Hoover was in office at the time and he was Republican. Republicans followed the Rugged Individualism idea that took the perspective that people should look after themselves.
• The real heart of the progressive movement was the effort by reformers topreserve world peace.
• The government as an agency of human welfare.ensure the Jeffersonian style of government.get the government off the backs of the people.promote economic and social equality.

THE END