The USA and Colonial Question іn International Relations: 1918-1921

ANATOLIY V. GONCHARENKO.

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The article investigates the position of the United States in the colonial question in the context of international relations in 1918-1921. The causes, course and effects of Washington’s activation in settling the colonial problem after the First World War have been characterized. The process of formation and implementation of the foreign policy initiatives of US President Woodrow Wilson in the colonial question during the investigated period is researched. The role of the USA in strengthening the colonial struggle between the great states in 1918-1921 was analyzed. The colonial system was a kind of “laboratory”, which, taking into account local specifics and realities at the beginning of the XX centuries, worked out a model of the future dominant US status, which is now transforming into a «new world order», as well as new methods of neocolonial domination. US political, economic and military intervention in colonial relations pursued far-reaching geostrategic goals. Acquisition and use of the colonies as a powerful bridgehead for strengthening American expansion should also have been concealed by the White House’s active intervention in European affairs. The methods of this task, developed by the American leadership in the early XX centuries, have become a classic model for the actions of American neocolonialism in other regions. At the beginning of the XX century the United States goes to the forefront as a world power with its own specific interests in many parts of the world. The sharp increase in US naval forces during this period makes them a serious factor in international politics, and reflects on the foreign policy line of the largest powers of that time. Separating from the metropolis, the North American colonies from the very beginning absorbed many of the essential features inherent in England. The failure of US President’s foreign policy tactics in the colonial question after the First World War as a result of the position of other major states did not leave Woodrow Wilson anything better than starting to build a “military machine of immense size”, which was an unpopular step and had no real resources for peacetime implementation. Trade unions, women’s, and religious organizations immediately began a wave of protests against the arms race. In the United States there was not enough people for the fleet, its sharp increase would lead to the mobilization or hiring of additional staff, not to mention the huge financial costs. It would also have led to an increase in international tension or a new war in which the United States would no longer be in an observer’s position, but a major participant in hostilities, in which the gravity of the war would have been fully implemented. All this led to Wilson’s foreign policy strategy regarding the colonial problem in a deadlock, from which he was not able to find a way out.[/restab]

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the USA, international relationships, foreign policy, colonialism.[/restab]

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