ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the election of Warren G. Harding in 1920 and the beginning of American isolationism. Americans were determined to avoid military involvement in Europe, but at the same time the United States was very far from being “isolated” from the rest of the world in the 1920s and early 1930s. American business was extremely active internationally and the United States also played a key role in foreign affairs, hosting the Washington Naval Conference in 1921 and the Kellogg-Briand deliberations in 1928. The French invasion of the Ruhr (an attempt to collect reparations from Germany) is examined in some detail. Little was accomplished by this action except social and economic chaos. It would be two Americans, Charles G. Dawes and Owen D. Young, who would finally untangle the reparations issue with the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan. Thanks to their efforts, the German and French economies revived and even thrived until the advent of the Great Depression in 1929. It should be emphasized, however, that there was no political support in the United States for enforcing international treaties with military force.
