The Kellogg-Briand Pact: Pacificism In The 1920'S

The Kellogg-Briand Pact: Pacificism in the 1920's

As the guns fell silent, the American voice begins to get louder. The cry for no more war and peace is everywhere as the United States to untangle themselves with Europe. The League of Nations failed to pass Congress and the people want some insurance that they don't have to endure another war of that scale. This wave of familiar pacificism and isolationism results in a hope to prevent future war. In able to push towards naval disarmament as a deterrent to war, Republican leaders held a conference in Washington in 1921 with the European powers along with Japan. Soon after the dubbed 'Five Power Treaty' was signed that established ratios on number of existing battleships. However the treaty had its faults and loopholes since it technically still allows nations to construct as many warships as long as it's not a battleship. Following the Geneva Conference in 1927, many felt the need to outlaw war in some form was necessary, this including Aristide Briand the French Foreign Minister. Briand wanted a Franco American pact that would condemn war as an international policy, and he took the idea to the American public to rally their support. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg hesitantly accepted the idea. After some deliberation, it resulted in the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which outlawed war as a form of international policy except in case of defense, a pact that forty seven countries had entered.

These new policies arose in a world that had recently been rocked by the devastation of war. These changes came under the new Republican leadership who had planned and ran their elections on shifting American foreign policy back to a pacifist and isolationist policy.

After WWI and the active United States participation in foreign affairs, the departure from isolationism, the sweet lure of the pre-WWI policy took effect. Congress voted down the League