Wednesday, February 24, 2010

World Events Set Stage for Isolationism

1. What was the Japanese reaction to the Treaty of Versailles? (pgs. 4 - 5)
The Japanese were greatly angered by the Treaty of Versailles because it was of no benefit to their nation whatsoever and was seemingly extremely racist as it favored the allies greatly.
2. Read the pull-out box on page 4 entitled, "Japan Becomes a Great Power." Cite specific evidence Japan was becoming a strong power that rivaled European & American interests. And, why specifically was Japan threatened by U.S. actions?
Japan was gaining strength as a world power because their nation began adopting different aspects of western culture like banking, trade, and military structure and powerful nations throughout the world began to view Japan as more of a rival than an inferior country. Japan began to feel threatened by the U.S. because they were taking control of nearby islands and western society was fast approaching their doorstep.
3. Why was the Washington Naval Conference convened and what was accomplished? (pg. 6) (Note: Japan signs the agreement.) The Washington Naval Conference was convened in order to deal with the growing concerns of Japan and their expanding navy. The conference wished to slow down the arms race between the U.S. and Japan as tensions built between the two nations. The conference was successful in limiting the size and number of battleships and also opened further trade with China.
4. The Senate's willingness to ratify the Kellogg-Briand Pact relected two strong and widely held sentiments. What were they? (pgs. 6 - 7)
The sentiments that were relected were the united state's ability to to permit military action only in self-defense and that it was not necessary to attack any nation that did not abide by the treaty.
5. Why did Hitler enjoy popular support in Germany for most of the 1930s? Give three reasons. (pgs. 9 - 10)
Hitler enjoyed popular support for most of the 1930s because he made sure that he was portrayed to the public as a stand-up guy who only looked to pursue their best interests. He seemingly was merely attempting to gain back the land stolen from Germany after the first World 2War and build them up to a powerful nation once again. He was succesful in blaming certain ethnic and social groups for what occurred after this war and also helped in strengthening the poor German economy.
6. Japan voiced its intentions to invade China for what two reasons? (pg. 10)
Japan claimed that they were going to invade China because they wished to obtain plentiful natural resources that their country lacked and did not want to have to trade with china to get them and they wanted to expand their territory and power.
7. Compare the Reichstag fire and the explosion on the Japanese railway in Manchuria. What did they accompllish?
Both these incidents were similar in the way that they both were caused by groups of people who felt oppressed by the government and were greatly affected by the actions their leaders had commited and they seemingly both accomplished very little as the government continued to oppress its people.
8. Why was the united States unable to oppose Japan in the early 1930s with a significant military force? (pgs. 11 - 12)
The United States was unable to match the Japanese military becuase it had just recently greatly lowed its number of troops by a total of 2.7 million making them far less powerful militarily.
9. Describe the major similarities and differences among liberal democracy, fascism, and socialism. (pg. 8) The differences pertaining to these three types of government rule mainly deal with who holds the most power. In liberal democracy power is given to the people while in fascism and socialism power is mostly in the hands of the government. In socailsim practically everything is controlled and owned by the government and it is fairly close in its societal restraints to communism. Fascism is not much better but people have more freedoms and their is more social variety such as the existence of seperate financial classes. The similarities between these three is the fact that the people do withhold some rights and freedoms, the most being held with democracy, and they are not considered as restrictive as communism. Democracy will usually have a president and differednt branches of government while socialism and fascism usually have a single ruler holding the greatest power.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Great Depression Outline

The United States government attempted to use several different methods in solving the problems caused by the great depression during the 1930’s. President Hoover’s way of thinking was that over time the economy would repair itself but soon realized this was not an option. Roosevelt however took a more tactical approach proposing his New Deal plan to resolve the depression, and this was composed of what was known as the three R’s, relief, reform, and recovery. This directly helped solve the primary issues of the depression and, given time, this plan proved to be highly successful and provided a necessary fix for a desperate nation.

Problems: Economy: stock market crash, unemployment, debt, tariffs, banks

Non-economic: homelessness, agricultural

How’s: Relief- Emergency Banking Act, FERA, FDIC; helped to solve the immediate problems that needed to be dealt with first such as widespread poverty

Reform- SEC, AAA, CCC; this helped with banking and economic issues as well as farming nd labor. These were essential to reform in order to help end the depression and prevent such a thing from recurring in the future

Recovery- TVA, NRA, Social Security, Wagner Act- These acts also helped in preventing future issues and provide assistance for people who could not provide it for themselves. These acts came from examining past issues to prevent them from happening again.

Success: The New Deal was quite successful in a preventative manner and focused on making sure a similar incident was less likely to occur in the future. It was not totally successful in resolving the Depression however and it took several more years after the introduction of the New Deal for the country to be somewhat stable once again. National hope was restored and confidence was built by Roosevelt’s efforts.

Succesful Acts:

Federal Securities Act and SEC

Conclusion: In conclusion the primary method of government action was FDR’s New Deal which dealt mainly with relief, reform, and recovery of the nation. It helped to solve economic problems as well as social issues created by the Depression. It was mainly successful in its preventative measures and did not exactly provide immediate relief for many of the nation’s problems; however it restored national hope and confidence in government.