American foreign policy before WWII

• American foreign policy was shaped by the Great Depression and the WWI experience. An idea that the WWI intervention was a mistake.
• The League of Nations failed to make significante changes in Europe
• After the WWI, the U.S. was less involved in World Trade.
• FDR supported the "good neighboor" policy, reducing the U.S. presence in Latin America.
• Between 1935 and 1937, in reaction to the rise of dictators in Europe, and the invasion of China by Japan, Congress passed a series of neutrality acts that banned the sales and transportation of arms to belligerents nations.
• The Objectives of the series of neutrality acts was to not to reproduce to mistakes of WWI and limit US involvement as much as possible.
• Until October 1937, FDR himself was isolationist. But changed his stance with the “quarantine speech” in which he denounced the “epidemic of world lawlessness” (i.e. dictatorships & invasions)