How had the USA developed a policy of isolation in the period after the First World War? 

The Americans joined the “War to End All Wars” in 1917. The war had been raging for three years before they arrived, millions were dead on the European battlefields and the Americans arrived after Wilson had convinced the Senate and Congress of their moral duty to help defend her allies.

The casualties that arrived from the European conflict shocked Americans. They were shocked by the stories of war-heroism, boldness, bravery and tactical stupidity of the allies. It was no surprise that many Americans expressed a reluctance to be involved in any future European conflicts and controversies and sought a position of isolation.

The Republican candidate Warren Harding was elected President in 1920 on the ticket of urging Americans to return to ‘normalcy’. This harked back to the period before the war where America was politically aloof from Europe. The election of Harding was also a rejection of the Wilson's Democratic ideas, the newly negotiated Treaty of Versailles (1919) and America's active involvement as 'world policeman' in League of Nations. These factors would have saddled America’s future with involvement in European politics and possible further conflicts which in turn would have brought the capital expense that both – expenses Harding was reluctant to extract from the American tax-payer and to risk America lives.

The Fordney-McCumber Act (1920) is an example of the Harding Presidency forging a wedge between America and others. It was a tariff policy designed to protect American industry and output. It placed high taxes on all foreign imports in order to promote the purchase of American goods in America by Americas against any foreign goods. Europeans responded with their own high tariffs on American exports. Separating industry reduced America awareness of others as an economic market.

Additionally the immigration policy in the period 1919-22 is an example of how Americans sought to separate and disconnect themselves from  foreignness. The Quota Act (1921) was passed to actively restrict and reduce the volume of immigrants into America. It reduced the volume to 3% of what the population was in 1910 – a maximum of 375,000 per year. More specifically it was to shrink the volume of non-white and unskilled labour from Eastern Europe and Asia. This says more about American racism and xenophobia but is an example of how Americans wished to segregate and isolate themselves by identifying the racial mix of their nation.

We also need to understand what was Americas traditional foreign policy. In George Washington's (1776) inauguration speech he suggested that America should follow, and actively peruse, a policy of looking after the States first….”. In the 19^th century American traders exported but rarely imported goods. Wars have occurred in American but they have never been invaded. Wilson did not involve America in war until 1917. The responses and reactions to the war dead were quite simply those of an isolated country coming to terms with war realities. Thus, isolation was not an unusual policy for Americans to follow nor to revert back to.

Isolation was therefore formed partly in the political arena where a new Republican Presidency instituted tariff and immigration controls, rejected European political involvement and the Treaty of Versailles, and simply continued to follow a traditional policy that was then almost 150 years old.

Although the USA's foreign policy was isolationist, and its refusal to join the League of Nations was an example of this, they did involve itself in foreign affairs where its national self-interest was involved.

The USA had refused to recognise the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) because of the perceived threat of communism and the fact that the communist government had withdrawn from World War I and had refused to repay its war debts to the USA. While this was an isolationist move, it did influence other countries to do the same.

To protect the American job market and to keep out foreign influences from American society, a series of immigration laws were passed, which reduced the rights of foreigners to enter the USA. Although the intention was isolationist, it did sour relations with certain countries such as Japan, which was to have serious consequences for the future.

The USA's' isolationist policy affected other countries in various ways.

Take as an example the protective tariffs imposed on goods imported into the USA to protect local manufacturers. This had an adverse effect on international trade, which meant that certain countries could not repay their war debt to the USA.

When the USA felt that its interests were being threatened by a naval armaments race in the Pacific, it hosted the Washington Conference (1921-1922) where agreement was reached on limiting the size of navies.

The collapse of the German economy in the early 1920s was a serious threat to other European economies and to the USA. The Dawes Plan of 1923, initiated by the USA, saw German reparations scaled down and a loan granted to assist the German economy. Half of the cost of this was met by American banks.

The USA participated in disarmament conferences in 1927, 1930, 1932 and 1936. While there was some progress, the rise of dictatorships in Europe and militarism in Japan meant that there was little chance of success.
As tension began to grow in Europe in the 1930s the USA passed a series of neutrality acts with the aim of preventing America from being drawn into a European conflict as it was in 1917.

However, the USA was to find that for a variety of reasons it could not divorce itself entirely from events in Europe.

Text by Mr Huggins.