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Prosperity Of The 1920s Essay

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Much of the 1920s was seen as the decade of political stability and economic prosperity with new technology breakthroughs such as affordable mass-produced automobiles, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, cellophane, radios, talking movies, and commercial air travel. However, with all of these innovations, the 1920s presented only presented an illusion of prosperity since much of the more serious problems lie underneath which arose from World War I and also undermined the stability of the world economy. The first problem started from the nature of American dominance of the world economy since they had little money in order to buy the raw materials needed to manufacture any products. It then created an unbalanced cash flow from the rest of the world …show more content…

President Woodrow Wilson represented the United States and he was an intellectual and social “progressive” but was seen as self-righteous and his view of how nations conducted international relations was more of hope that experience in that he was convinced that “goodwill” among world leaders would overcome national interests and balance of power politics. His idealistic worldview is best captured in his 14 Points Plan which called for free trade, freedom of the seas, open agreements among nations, promotion of democracy and self-determination worldwide, and the establishment of the League of Nations to ensure the territorial integrity and maintain world peace. France had the representative of Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and since Germany have invaded France twice already, his principal goals were to ensure his country’s security against future aggression, permanent demilitarization of Rhineland, restrictions on German military forces, and requiring Germany to pay reparations for civilian damages. Prime Minister David Lloyd George represented Great Britain which wanted to eliminate Germany’s High Seas Fleet as a threat to the Royal Navy and maintain the British Empire and wanted “mandates” over colonies they treaty stripped from Germany. Lastly, Italy’s representative, Prime Ministers Vittorio Orlando, attended but when his demands weren’t met, he stormed

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