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The US Isolation In The Early 20th Century

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For around half of its existence, the United States of America was an isolationist and non-intervening country, where the American government avoided all treaties and alliances with foreign nations in order to evade being drawn into wars. From the end of the American Revolution to the early 20th century, the United States did not take part in any conflicts outside of itself and only fought in wars that were related to direct territorial self-defense. This 136 year-long era of isolation was broken when the First World War began. Initially, the United States was able to stay neutral from the conflict for two and a half years due to strong neutrality support among the people and government. But because of numerous attacks on American lives by …show more content…
When the the fighting began on July 28, 1914, “the neutrality tradition reinforced [Wilson's] decision to keep the United States out of the conflict. His advocacy of remaining neutral in ‘thought, word, and deed’ helped the United States avoid being drawn into the war for more than two-and-a-half years” (Dobson). At first Wilson sought to remain neutral but the hindering of American trade with Europe caused by the intensifying friction with Germany and their naval blockade of England made many question the reasoning of the United States’ isolation from the war. One year into the war in 1915, Germany declared its armed forces would attack all ships that dared to break through the blockade. Later that year Germany sank the American merchant ship William P. Frye, and soon after, they killed over 1,200 passengers, including 128 Americans, on the British ship RMS Lusitania. Despite agreeing to avoid civilian vessels in 2916, Germany relentlessly continued to destroy unarmed ships, which caused more American casualties. Seeking for the end of the armed conflict, Germany decided to break their pledge by resuming assault on non-combatant ships. The “Zimmermann Telegram" ignited the final straw of the worsening tensions between the United States and Germany, where Arthur Zimmermann, the German foreign minister, promised Mexico territory on American soil in …show more content…
With the Great Depression affecting nearly every American citizen, Congress responded by intensifying America’s foreign trade slump with the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act in 1930. This act raised tariffs to their highest level and reduced American imports and exports by more than half. The act negatively impacted the Depression-era economy and it wasn’t until 1934 that Roosevelt requested Congress to allow negotiation for lower tariffs. Between 1935 and 1941, Congress passed what the Neutrality Acts, which imposed an arms and loan ban against all warring states. “Although the president plays the main role in crafting the U.S. foreign policy agenda, the Constitution grants Congress several powers involving foreign policy” (“Making and Shaping Foreign Policy”). These include the power to declare war and handling money. Throughout the 1930s, countless peace societies, many of whom were women’s organizations, supported the mandatory neutrality provisions and ban of arms sales. In fact, “sentiment against participation in a European war was so strong that President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s attempt to gain revision of the neutrality laws in the first session of the Seventy-sixth Congress was a failure.” (Denman and Weller) and it wasn’t until the start of World War II in 1939 were the sales of weaponry allowed by the Neutrality Acts. As Europe plummeted

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