Overview

The traditional view is that the Senate rejected the treaty because Americans were ‘isolationist’, but modern historians do not agree – they blame Wilson.

Ideas

●   Isolationism – the isolationists, led by Senator Borah, did not want to get involved in European Affairs

●   Money – not wanting to spend money on wars in Europe

●   American soldiers – 100,000 had died in WWI

●   Germans – many Americans were German immigrants and hated the Treaty

●   Empire – many Americans hated the British Empire, which the ToV had increased.

●   … or WILSON? – 80% of Americans wanted to join the League, and only 12 Senators were isolationists; the rest would have accepted the Treaty with Lodge’s 14 reservations.   But Wilson would not accept any compromise and in the end his 23 supporters voted against the Treaty.   

HOW DID THE POLICIES OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT ENCOURAGE ISOLATION?

American Isolationism in the 1920s

Overview

In 1920 Warren Harding became Presdient under the slogan ‘return to normalcy’.   They did TWO things which they hoped would keep things ‘normal’: they protected American industry and farming with high tariffs, and they tried to keep out immigrants by a system of ‘quotas’.

Facts

●   Tariffs: Fordney-McCumber Act (1922) – highest tariffs in history (up to 400%).   The Act set tariffs according to:

▫   Scientific tariff – the wages in the country of origin (so the cheaper the item was to produce, the greater the tariff added to the imports).

▫   American selling price – the cost of production in America (so the more the item cost in America, the greater the tariff added to competing imports).

●   Immigration

▫   Immigration Laws – the 1917 Immigration Law (immigrants must be able to read English/ banned immigrants from China and Japan), the 1921 Emergency Quota Act (maximum number 357,000 / reduced immigration from eastern and southern Europe by only allowing each country to send 3% of immigrants already in America in 1910) and he 1924 Reed-Johnson Act (maximum number 154,000 / reduced immigration from eastern and southern Europe by only allowing each country to send 2% of immigrants already in America in 1890)

▫   Insisted on ‘Naturalization’ – that immigrants become ‘American’ (e.g. 'Americanization Day' rallies, 'citizenship exam').

▫   Sacco and Vanzetti - two anarchist immigrants from Italy - were in 1920 were found guilty of armed robbery and murder and executed in 1927, even though the defence produced 107 witnesses, and in 1925 the actual murderer gave himself up ... the jury did not believe them because they were Italian immigrants).