Revista de Historia Industrial | 2026
Authors: de La Villa L.
DOI: 10.1344/rhi-ihr.48094
Journal: Revista de Historia Industrial
Year: 2026
Publisher: Department of Economic History and Institutions, Policy and World Economy
Document Type: Article
Open Access: All Open Access; Gold Open Access; Green Open Access
Cited by: 1
This article traces how the United States reshaped sovereign-debt diplomacy during the interwar period and its aftermath. Using archival sources from the Foreign Bondholders Protective Council and governmental collections, it reconstructs Washington's responses to the interwar debt crisis from the outbreak of the Great Depression until the final settlement of interwar debts in the 1950s. The study shows a decisive transition from the early 1930s hands-off policy to an increasingly interventionist approach in which the US government mediated restructurings, supplied official credit, and embedded debt relief within trade and security agreements. The analysis of key shifts in US policies and practices – including debates on banking investigations and the Johnson Act in the early 1930s, the interventionist stance linked to New Deal diplomacy, and landmark post-WWII debt settlements – reveal how the US government evolved into a proactive architect of concessionary debt bargains. By highlighting US leadership in international debt resolution, these findings show how debt diplomacy became an important tool of global financial governance and post-WWII reconstruction efforts and departed from the 19th century experience of gunboat diplomacy. © Revista de Historia Industrial – Industrial History Review, 2026.
debt diplomacy; international finance; interwar period; sovereign debt