A Glance at the 1930’s Essay

Submitted By speedee111
Words: 911
Pages: 4

A Glance at The 1930’s During the 1930’s, the majority of Americans were absolutely against Fascist or military leaders taking control in places like Italy, Japan, Germany, or other countries. Americans were also not willing to take any real action to stop the growing movements due to how war had affected them previously. Americans didn’t want to get involved in another devastating world war and they wanted President Roosevelt and Congress to remain neutral in world affairs. People referred to as “isolationists” thought it was pointless for the US to get involved in other country's issues, since that would only result in involving the US in faraway wars that would cost money and lives for no purpose. But aggression by Germany and Japan finally forced Americans to choose between their love of democracy and their desire for peace. When troops from Italy did an invasion on Ethiopia, America’s policy of neutrality felt some heat. In his heart, FDR wanted to jump in a make a difference because he was absolutely against the Fascist Italian leader, Benito Mussolini. Roosevelt took action by issuing an order banning Americans from sending arms to Italy or Ethiopia. He asked Americans not to send Italy a variety of things not covered by the ban on arms such as oil. However, when there is money, there is a deal. Businesses wanted to keep earning their money and since the demand for economic essentials were up, they were able to make a pretty penny. Thus, Roosevelt’s efforts to stop trade didn’t take-off. Not long after, there was a civil war in Spain. Spanish Fascists tried to get rid of the democratic government in Madrid. Roosevelt and Congress managed to hold themselves back agreeing that America should remain officially neutral in the conflict. By doing so, Roosevelt met the current wishes of the American people by avoiding war. On a personal note, he was very disappointed with how things were going in Europe Another hurdle for American neutrality came in Asia. There, Japan began a new invasion of China. It didn’t take long for Japanese forces take control. The United States had quite a bit of history built up pertaining to the support of the Nationalist forces of China. And many Americans were angry about the Japanese invasion. But Roosevelt and his administration once again refused to take strong actions against the aggression. For one thing, the American Navy was weak. There was little it could do to stop Japanese aggression thousands of miles away in Asia. It was evident that neither Roosevelt, nor Congress were very willing to be first to wreck America's official policy of neutrality. Franklin Roosevelt understood the serious threat to world peace created by Hitler and other Fascists. He was under the belief that the United States could not remain neutral forever if democracy was threatened in so many other countries. He knew that we had to take action. Whether that be displaying the peace which we preach, or assisting other countries in the fight. We had to do something though. Unfortunately, Roosevelt didn’t educate the nation about this threat. Instead, he typically followed the wishes of the majority of people who wanted America to remain neutral. Most people in the U.S. were strongly against any kind of involvement in foreign conflicts. Roosevelt made an important speech calling for the world's neutral nations to protect themselves from horrid, lawless Fascist nations. A lot of Americans thought that Roosevelt was covertly trying to create another new alliance so they went against what he