Whatever you say, it can be difficult to underestimate the role of the individual in history . This applies to all states without exception, and not just our country. The United States is not special in this respect either. One of the prominent American figures was Roosevelt Franklin. The biography of this person shows how much a statesman can do when he is at the right time in the right place.
Basic information
Roosevelt Franklin is the 32nd President of the United States (since 1933), who was a candidate from the Democratic Party. Known for comprehensive reforms, which were called the "New Deal". It was the Roosevelt government in 1933 that established normal diplomatic relations with the USSR. What else is Roosevelt Franklin known for? His biography confirms that from the first days of the German attack on the Soviet Union he ardently advocated the creation of a working anti-Hitler coalition. He attached great importance to diplomatic relations between the victorious states.
He will tell us more about how Roosevelt Franklin lived his life, a biography. His nationality (and the ancestors of Roosevelt were Dutch Jews) suggests that he was a thoughtful, enterprising, intelligent and pragmatic person. Is it so? To answer the question, you need to track the whole life of Franklin.
The beginning of life
The future American president was born on January 30, 1882. State of birth - New York. He is Aquarius in the sign of the Zodiac. He is still the unspoken leader on the list of all US presidents, as he held this post for four consecutive terms. By the way, this record will never be broken. Why? Everything is simple. Two years after Roosevelt’s death, the next amendment to the Constitution was adopted, which explicitly forbade running for the third time in a row.
In the United States itself, his name is strongly associated with the Second World War, the creation of the anti-Hitler coalition, as well as the creation and implementation of the “New Deal”, due to which the position of American workers was greatly facilitated.
A family
The family of James Roosevelt, in which Franklin was born, was old and rich. Their ancestors sailed from Holland back in the 1740s. Theodore and Franklin Roosevelts are two presidents at once, whom America received thanks to this venerable family. Franklin's father owned large stakes in many state mining companies.
Sarah Delano, his mother, also came from a wealthy family with long-standing aristocratic roots. It is for this reason that little Roosevelt was taken on long sea voyages every summer, during which the family visited almost all of Europe. At the same time, Franklin "fell ill" with the sea, the craving for which he retained throughout his subsequent life.
Getting an education
Until the age of 14, he was educated at home. From 1896 to 1899 he studied at one of the elite schools located in Groton (Massachusetts). From 1900 to 1904, Roosevelt was educated at Harvard, who graduated with a bachelor's degree. From 1905 to 1907, Roosevelt (a brief biography is described by us in the article) did practice at Columbia Law University, which gave him the right to independently practice law. It is not surprising that upon graduation, the future president “leaned” on Wall Street.
In 1907, he marries Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), who was Franklin's very distant relative. In this marriage, six children were born, but one of them died in infancy. His wife played a very significant role in Franklin's life, since after 1921, when he became ill with polio and was, in fact, disabled, she took on a huge amount of clerical work.
How did a career start in politics?
How did Roosevelt Franklin end up in big politics? His biography in this role begins with the fact that in 1910 he accepted the proposal from the Democratic Party and successfully ran for the post of senator of his native state. In 1912, he actively supported the candidate for the post of US President Thomas Woodrow Wilson. When he was in the chair of the head of state, he offered Franklin a good post in the Ministry of the Navy. He soon moved to Washington.
Until 1921, he pursued a policy at this post, which would then become America's “calling card”. Strengthening the fleet, active foreign policy and diplomatic contacts - this was his "horse".
Failures and Disease
In 1914, Roosevelt (a brief biography is provided in this material) makes an attempt to take the post of senator in Congress, but it fails. In 1920, he raises the bar, trying to break out to the presidency. His "partner" was J. Cox. But the Democratic Party during this period is defeated, and the disease dooms Roosevelt to a forced break in work.
Way to success
But in 1928, when Franklin managed to become the governor of an influential native state, his career went uphill. In this post, he spent two terms at once, having acquired the most valuable skills, which came in handy for him while working as president. In 1931, when the economic situation in the country became very difficult, the future head of state "rose" quite well in organizing gratuitous assistance to the unemployed and starving. It was by that time that his popularity was growing among ordinary voters, with whom the president subsequently regularly holds talks.
White House
In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt (a brief biography of him is described in our article), who really provided assistance to the population during the period 1929-1933. (The Great Depression), in general, without much difficulty was able to get around Hoover, who could not lead the country out of such a difficult period. It was then that Franklin announced the plan for comprehensive reforms, which later become known as the New Deal. It is still being studied in American schools and higher education institutions as an example of a correct, competent and adaptive economic policy.
First reforms
In just the first hundred days of his presidency, he carried out a series of extremely important and really useful reforms. Firstly, the entire banking system has been fully restored. Secondly, a special law was passed guaranteeing assistance to all people who are below the poverty line. Farm debt was completely refinanced, they also passed a law on the restoration of the agricultural sector, which included not only state control over the volume of production, but also sending targeted assistance to the most needy producers.
Roosevelt himself considered the measures taken to restore industrial potential to be the most successful and promising of his transformation. In addition, in 1935 he passed a whole range of laws that govern almost all aspects of the country's social and business life.
In 1936, he won an impressive election victory, beating all his competitors by a wide margin. It is for this reason that he applies in 1937-1938. considerable efforts to maintain the labor sphere, "working out" the limit of confidence of its voters. What distinguished Roosevelt Franklin during this period? His biography testifies that all these innovations met with serious resistance from large industrialists. They did not like the "excessive" guarantees of a social nature that the state gave to the poor and insecure segments of the population.
What else struck compatriots Roosevelt Franklin (biography)? Women in his life, for example, played an important role (it is worth recalling only his active wife). It is not surprising that during the presidency of Roosevelt, the whole beautiful half of the country began to idolize. The fact is that it was this president who began to pursue a policy of equality and equal payments to women at work, in the army, and other structures. However, he cared for all categories of the population, despite gender differences.
In particular, in August 1935, he signed a resonant law on social insurance, which provides for guaranteed payments of two types at once: for inoperability (in all cases) and for the needs of medical care. Until that time, nothing like this existed in the country of the “American dream,” and it was almost impossible to get high-quality medical care to a person who did not have a decent amount in the account.
Prewar policy
This is the most controversial period of his reign. On the one hand, Franklin Roosevelt, whose brief biography is given here, behaved like a realist. On the other hand, he acted very infantilely and indecisively, apparently fearing a negative reaction of his own proteges from industrial and financial circles. Oddly enough, but it was this politician who established quite friendly diplomatic relations with the USSR in 1933. Even in relation to Latin America, he pursued a policy of "good neighborliness", almost for the first time in the history of the United States, speaking on equal terms with the politicians of these countries.
But this is only one side of the coin. The fact is that he in every possible way avoided the aggravation of processes. Simply put, his international policy was distinguished by his desire to avoid all really difficult situations, and often Roosevelt, whose biography is striking in his “U-turns,” did not make any distinction between victims and aggressors.
However, it was he who, after the atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese army in China (this was in 1937), began to insist on the complete international isolation of those countries that conduct military operations with such cruelty and kill millions of civilians. But few Western politicians at that time showed at least some interest in events that developed so far in the East. This allowed Japan to strengthen its position as much as possible, and Hitler provided significant assistance to Mikado.
For example, precisely because of his policy of removal and non-interference, the legitimate governments of Italy and Spain were once deprived of the opportunity to purchase weapons. Only when the fire of war broke out in Europe, he lifted his embargo. But this is not worth looking for excessive altruism: simply in this case, America could help out a lot more money by selling weapons to all parties to the conflict at the same time. How did Roosevelt behave during World War II? His biography in this case also contains many interesting points.
The Second World War
In 1940, he once again won the election, after which military assistance to Britain was gaining momentum. At the very beginning of next year, he signs a resolution “On Mutual Assistance,” which, among other things, introduces the concept of Lend-Lease. It was through him that the Soviet Union was granted an interest-free loan worth one billion dollars.
Historians still argue how big a role this money and supplies played in the Soviet Union’s struggle with the fascist aggressor, but in any case it was real and tangible help, which significantly strengthened relations between the two countries in the most difficult time for us.
What is a land lease?
By the way, what does the concept of "land lease" mean? This is the system by which debt supplies of arms, food, ammunition, raw materials, etc. are carried out. Officially, deliveries were made to all countries that were members of the anti-Hitler coalition. Unofficially, loans were also issued to Hitler Germany, and the Krupp factories were converted with this money.
President Roosevelt, whose biography is being examined by us, tried to confine himself to the “skimming cream” policy as long as possible by sending convoys to Europe. This continued until the fall of 1941, when in the coastal areas began to increasingly notice boats in Germany. Then a policy was proclaimed, which was later called the "Undeclared War."
It was then that the United States allowed to put weapons on its ships, gave them the right to go through areas directly affected by the war, and announced that all German and Italian ships that appeared in the American zone of responsibility would be fired and sunk.
Attack of japan
When did F. D. Roosevelt, whose biography is interesting to many, switch to more active actions? Perhaps he would have ripened to the “European Pie” section only in 1944, but here Mikado played a role.
In early December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in the Pacific. I must say that for the president himself this event turned out to be an extremely unpleasant surprise, since he tried by all means if not to prevent, then to delay the war with Japan. Already on December 8, the United States declared war on Japan, and a few days later - Germany, Italy and other allies of the fascist regimes.
F. Roosevelt’s biography at this moment is poorly covered, since he worked hard, assuming, in accordance with the Constitution, the post of Commander-in-Chief. Roosevelt worked hard in creating an anti-Hitler coalition.
Waiting and real action
Alas, most of this work was purely paper in nature. None of the members of this coalition, with the exception of the USSR alone, conducted large-scale military operations against the fascists. Great Britain did host Rudolf Hess, the details of the negotiations with which are still the greatest secret of those times.
On January 1, 1942, a declaration was signed that laid the foundation for the creation of the UN. But the matter didn’t go further than this - the Second Front, which was repeatedly requested by JV Stalin, was not in a hurry to open the US president and his allies. When did F. Roosevelt, whose brief biography is already known to you, still change his mind?
Only after the USSR broke the ridge of the armored power of Germany, destroying its strike nucleus near Kursk, only after Stalingrad, in which the Paulus army was ground, did he seriously take the Soviet Union and realized that he would have to talk to the Russians after the war. At a conference in Tehran, he no longer supported Churchill, who by all means “rejected” the start of a military operation in Europe.
Meeting in Tehran
For the first time, Roosevelt presented his vision of the development of the world in the post-war period at a conference in Quebec (1943). He called the United States, the USSR, China and the UK "policemen of the world", responsible for maintaining a normal world order. In Tehran, F. D. Roosevelt, whose brief biography you probably already understand, also continued to discuss this issue with Stalin and Churchill.
In 1944, Franklin was re-elected for the fourth consecutive term. His speech at the Crimean Conference in Yalta played an important role in the post-war arrangement of the world. His realistic position on this score was caused, if you look broadly at both the successfully continuing offensive of Soviet troops in Eastern Europe and the desire to involve the Soviet Union in the procedure of "resolving the Japanese question." In addition, he showed Stalin so much that the United States is interested in further cooperation in many areas, including the military.
After Yalta, an old illness and general overwork, accumulated over all war years, makes itself felt. Despite this, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose biography in our article is already drawing to a close, continued to intensively prepare for the conference. She was supposed to go to San Francisco. But this was not destined to come true.
On April 12, 1945, this prominent politician died from a brain hemorrhage. He was buried in his native Hyde Park. Americans zealously honor the memory of this president, putting him on a par with Lincoln and Washington. It must be emphasized that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose brief biography was examined by us, did a lot to normalize relations between the two countries. It was not his fault that his descendants, with the exception of Kennedy, held dangerously harsh convictions that could repeatedly lead to nuclear war.
Roosevelt was remembered by many as an unusually pragmatic, but at the same time firm politician. He always tried to find a common language even with those whom he resolutely did not understand, and preferred the world to a “glorious fight”. It was his rule that was marked by the solution of many social problems and contradictions, which in the modern USA are more and more clearly indicated again.