Isolationism Against Germany

What arguments were made in favor of isolationism, and how and why did America’s isolationist stance erode entering into the 1940s? How did American foreign policy goals shape the American approach to the war?

In the book, America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience, Robert H. Zieger discusses the events between 1914 through 1920 forever defined the United States in the Twentieth Century. When conflict broke out in Europe in 1914, the President, Woodrow Wilson, along with the American people wished to remain neutral. In the beginning of the Twentieth Century United States politics was still based on the “isolationism” ideals of the previous century. The United States did not wish to be involved in European politics or world matters. The U.S. goal was to expand trade and commerce throughout the world and protect the borders of North America.

Interventionism, the belief that the United States should involve itself in foreign affairs, and isolationism, the belief that the United States should avert from any foreign affairs were two ideas that bopped heads during the first World War when it came to the United States’ position in foreign affairs. Interventionism was highly driven off of the thirst for profit and power. This hunger completely brainwashed people of all other thoughts, triggering them to steal innocent lives recklessly and mercilessly. However, isolationism protected American interests during the early 1900’s as it kept us out of war and affairs which ultimately resulted in American debt, lives, and peace being spared from the terrors of war as exhibited in George Washington’s Farewell Address, Ambassador James Bryce’s British Report on German Atrocities, and Robert La Follette’s A Progressive Opposes the Declaration of War.

Chapter 25 discusses the United States and the Second World War from 1939-1945. The United States wanted to stay out of international affairs but the newly elected Roosevelt advocated for an active role in it. Though he wanted a role in this, his priority was to attack the domestic causes of the depression which appealed to many poor Americans who were suffering from the Great Depression and had just lost everything. During this time, fascist governments threatened military aggression and the rise of Hitler created a controversial and war-like atmosphere. Hitler had a goal to avenge the defeat of WW1 which lead to the accusations of Jews, and the eventual full-blown Holocaust. Neutrality acts were put into place during this time to prohibit the exchange of arms to nations during the war.

President Woodrow Wilson had secured the political clout to establish foreign policy after World War I. However, the Europeans, especially the two major powers in Europe, England and France had the right to be circumspect of several aspects of Wilson’s plan. The German Delegation utilized President Wilson’s analogy that, “no single fact caused the war, but that in last analysis the whole European system is in a deeper sense responsible for the war…” (Comments of the German Delegation, 1919). European leaders could have taken offense to Wilson’s plan. President Wilson’s represented a nation that was protected by thousands of miles of oceans, and during the war the United States suffered no loss of infrastructure and economically their markets made money during the war. However, that was not the case for the European political leaders. They truly had an ax to grind against Germany. France with closer proximity to Germany than England elected to be protective and leery of Germany’s intentions after the war. Germany on the other hand was distraught over the terms laid before them by the Europeans at the Paris Peace Conference. The Germans believed they were being singled out, and that through the attrition of their sovereign territory they were losing vast economic resources and their ability to establish self-determination and self-preservation.

The devastating WWI left a permanent mark on the European soil, as well as in American people’s minds. People now understood what real wars are like; they are not always honorable, romantic or beneficial. As a result, isolationism ran high as the postwar United States entered the 1920s. Three presidents, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover all devoted themselves to domestic affairs starting from 1920 while trying their best to keep the country safe from the European turmoils. However, as the WWII erupted in Europe in the 1930s, president Franklin D. Roosevelt sensed the potential danger posed by Germany toward the United States. A series of changes in foreign policies from 1920 through 1941 marked the United

The 1930s were a difficult time for most Americans. Faced with colossal economic hardships—unprecedented in American history—many Americans turned inward to focus on the worsening situation at home. The United States became increasingly insensitive to the obliteration of fellow democracies at the hands of brutal fascist leaders like Hitler and Mussolini. The U.S. was determined to stay out of war at all costs—even if its allies were in trouble; Americans believed that they were immune from Europe’s problems as long as they refused to get involved. However, as the “free” countries fell, one by one, to the Nazi war machine, Americans began to realize the folly of their foolish optimism and clamored for increasing involvement in foreign

Dr. Suess knew he wanted to help out in the fight against Hitler, but he was older than the draft age limit. The only way he knew he could help was by using his artistic skills. Dr. Seuss began to draw political cartoons, annimated training films, and other political propaganda that was being used outside of the liberal magazienes. In his political cartoons, he strongly encouraged points that he felt would help win the war. For example, he encouraged the public to buy U.S war savings bonds and stmaps, for the government to use both white and black races in the war work, and many more points that he felt thte public needed to hear, if America was expected to win the war. By doing this, he put a spirit into the general public that helped them through the rough time of WWII. Without his inspiring art, the public may not have known what they could do to help the fight, without enlisting in the war themselves.

The US entered a period of isolationism. Isolationism is the opposition of political and economic entanglements with other countries. The US was not happy that they got dragged into WWI and decided that they would not be dragged into another worldly conflict and instead focused on making the US a better place.

World War II is generally viewed to be a moral war, or, as Howard Zinn would put it, “a good war.” This conventional impression of World War II results from American propaganda, along with misinterpretations of related events. Quite the contrary, the United States’ foreign policy, especially during World War II, was driven by imperialist goals rather than humanitarian concern. These foreign interventions are usually justified using political ideologies that advocate the spread of democracy but the United States government fails to act in the interests of the common people in other countries; instead, the US government intervened in foreign countries to protect its own needs and those of its private corporations. In addition, the

As the United States went through two World Wars between 1914 and 1941, isolationist sentiment had a large influence on US foreign policy. There were many causes for such isolationist beliefs as the era included many significant changes. The main change that Americans experienced during this time period was the immense difference in the decades, with a roaring economy in the 1920s following the first World War and a Great Depression in the 1930s which would end with the start of the second World War. With such large changes occurring within the lives of Americans during this entire period of time, isolationist sentiment rose. As such beliefs became widespread, US foreign policy became influenced by such isolationism. Isolationism meant that

The United States sought to stay out of any European affairs, and remain in its “storm cellar”. However, in the years leading up to World War II, America’s long lasting isolationism was challenged by growing interventionist sentiment

It is heavily debated that the display of German aggression inevitably contributed to the outbreak of general European tensions, and war in 1914. The use of strategies such as the Anglo-German Naval Race, as stated in Joll’s source, highlighted the aggression by Germany prior to war. Moreover, this type of tactic also demonstrated the desire and hunger Germany obtained for continental power, another factor towards European tensions. The sources in question both support and contest the set statement, to an extent. Sources 1 and 3 by Corrigan and Joll, respectively, argue how Germany’s use of tactics agitated European powers, thus causing war. However, Source 2 by Turner disagrees with the statement, arguing how other European powers were to

The United States believed in the idea of isolationism, but with the “Great War” taking place in Europe it was tough for them to be as such. One way which shows that the United States was not isolated was the fact that they were trading with the European powers that were engaged in the war. If the United States were to be truly isolationists, they would have attempted to not trade with any other nations and would have tried to self-sustain themselves as a nation. Even before World War One took place, the United States could have not been involved whatsoever with Europe, but since the nations industries had produced more than most people in America could buy, they had to go out and open trade with nations around the world. Since European

It made all the major powers try to avoid waging war with each other. The USA also took part in the Geneva Peace Conference of 1932 and the World Economic Conference of 1933. Also, throughout the whole time after WW1 the USA did not object to immigrants landing on it's shores. All these things strongly suggest that the United States were never isolationist in the first place.