Wednesday, December 11, 2013
The Hoover Administration's Isolationist Policies
During the Great Depression, the American people were more occupied with thier financial situation rather than foreign affairs. In the 1930’s in Far-East Asia, Japan and China were squabbaling over who controlled North China, as the Japanese installed a puppet government in the Manchuria and Manchuko provinces. The official American government didn’t want to get entangled in the affair so they issued the Stimson Doctrine, or otherwise known as the Hoover Doctrine. The Hoover Doctrine stated that the United States would not recognize any territories that Japan obtained illegally, which was not an overly bold statement, it had a large enough impact to keep the rest of the world satisfied. Going along with America’s response, the League of Nations didn’t do much about Japan’s conquest in Northern China, leaving them free to do as they pleased. This generally upset the League because by attacking China, they violated the Nine Power Treaty, where wasn’t supposed to attack that part of the country. However, the rest of the world needed to deal with their domsetic affairs before they dealt with foreign affairs.
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This is good tactic by the United States. It is said that this is all happening during the Great Depression, and you mention that the U.S. has much bigger problems, they are occupied by their financial situation. The United States is saying that they want to stay out of foreign affairs, which is really the correct thing to considering the predicament they are in. If they somehow get involved with Japan, this would cost the country more money, and at the wrong time. They basically left Japan alone and let them do what they want in their foreign area, which is smart.
ReplyDeleteI honestly imagine that Wilson would be angered or sadden by the League of Nations not doing anything to directly prevent Japan's conquest in Northern China as even though the US was not in the League the league was the idea of Wilson. Wilson believed in the idea of collective security so much that he risked his health by going on a speech making tour to convince Americans that the Treaty of Versailles need to be passed. I imagine the act of the League of Nation doing what they pleased would have greatly disturbed Wilson.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I find interesting is how the League of Nations followed the United States' lead in handling Japanese expansion. Of course, the League didn't really have much power and was completely inadequate in many other situation as well. But following the US's lead here really shows how the rest of the world regarded the UNited States as some sort of leader, even though they actually weren't part of the League of Nations, despite it being primarily Wilson's idea.
ReplyDeleteI don't think what happened in Manchuria was squabbling, it was more like a hostile takeover by Japan. But I agree, Hoover's proclamation was very weak and led to the collapse of the League of Nations as without US support, the League could not do anything.
ReplyDeleteI do think that the US and the other allies were right to focus on their own domestic and financial issues before they took issue with Japan's imperialist ambitions. However, the weak League really hampered trying to prevent a second world war.
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