Foreign Policy Between 1920 and 1940

After World War I, the people of America were in a shocked state of mind. There had never before been a war so destructive, so deadly, in history. New weapons and methods of war were used such as the tank, the submarine, machine guns, and trench warfare. All of the countries involved were hurt and the United States realized that it wanted to go back to its isolationist policies that George Washington had suggested in his farewell address. Woodrow Wilson’s idea to make a “league of nations” failed within his own country because the United States did not want to join it. “The League strikes a deadly blow at our constitutional integrity and surrenders to a dangerous extent our independence of action”, this exemplifies the way most people in the U.S. felt about the league, that it would tangle the United States in to more foreign affairs. Because the United States was changing its foreign policy to more of an isolationist one, it wanted no part of this league. In 1922, the United States proposed the Washington Naval Treaty. In order to prevent an arms naval race, the U.S, Japan, Italy, Britain, and France, all signed this treaty to limit armament. “The world looks to this Conference to relieve humanity of the crushing burden created by competition in armament, and it is the view of the American Government that we should meet that expectation without unnecessary delay.” The United States felt it crucial to limit armament so that all countries would be less of a threat to each other, and the U.S. could possibly have a period of peace. After the Japanese Imperial Army captured the city of Nanjing, for a period of time the soldiers cause so much destruction to the city. , the soldiers “ wholesale looting, the violation of women, murdering of civilians, and the mass execution of war prisoners”. Because of the new isolationist policies, the United States did not get involved and protect their ally, China. “Through wholesale atrocities and vandalism at Nanking the