How did WW2 effect Australia's foreign policy?
I have an assignment, I know most of the imporant stuff...like
-Aus changed our major alliance from Britain to USA
-The White Aus Policy thing....after the war Aus lets other nationalities into the country.
-Economy boosted because Aus's population had grown
-Aus made Immigrants help make Aus a better place
Anything else I could put in my essay?
Thanks a bunch.
Comments
Well the whole economics of the country changed. From a largely rural,to idustrial.Prior to 1950 Astralia lived off sheep's back as her primary exports were wool,beef,grain,gold and silver.80% of which was bought by the UK.
The Second World War made Australia realise just how vulnerable we were in the South Pacific. The fall of Singapore in 1941 was a wake up call to Australia that the British could not defend Australia. This was also evidenced in 1953 when the British lost over the Suez Crisis and forced Britain to withdraw most of her forces.
The war also made Australia realise that the United States, now an emerging military power, was the closest 'white power' in the Pacific which could adequately provide some kind of defence for Australia.
Australia had to totally reconstruct her Foreign Policy and Defence policy. This led to Australia moving closer to the United States and formalising the ANZUS treaty in 1951.
The war also made Australia realise just how close Asia was and the important role that Asia would play to Australia both in terms of security and economics. With communist aggression in Europe and the Fears of a communist china, Australia would get involved in Korea and later Vietnam.
But also in Asia, the European colonial powers were forced to withdraw. The Japanese invasion in Asia weakened European power, providing indigenous nationalist groups a chance to overthrow European colonial power. Australia now had to deal with these very politically unstable governments in South East Asia. Indonesia is a very good example.
Domestically, Australia had lost alot of young men during the war. Concerns that Australia could face invasion led to the 'Populate or Perish' - in which Australia opened up our immigration policies to allow white Europeans into Australia.
But the war also saw the importance of Japan as a regional power in Asia-Pacific. With U.S economic and military support, Japan was not only seen as a bulwark against communism in Asia, but became very important economically to Australia.
To sum it up, the Second world war really changed Australia's perception of the world. We realised that we had to look to our own region - the Asia-pacific, for our own security and for trade.