U.S Isolation to Interventions in World War 2
Alex Fulmer
Boulware
US History
February 1, 2017
U.S Isolation to Interventions in WWII
In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson set out a set of principles called the Fourteen Points which helped negotiate peace in order to end World War 1. During and after the war a lot of Americans became furious with the President because of the war. Because after WW1, a lot of Americans believed that they had been tricked into joining a war for the wrong reasons and they were determined to never make the same mistake twice. Through government propaganda, the Great War was advertised as the “War to End Wars” which then became very disappointing because it was not. And because of the disappointment, Americans then soon adopted the isolationist policy during the 1930s.
With America having little faith in President Wilson, the United States did not join the Leagues of Nation and isolated themselves from other countries as well as not attending any conferences. And through isolationism America reduced the number of immigrants that were allowed to come into the country and they all increased the taxes of countries trying to sell products to the US. Americans were so scared about losing any more men in the war and the cost of future wars drew them back even more. But theses ideals once changed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
During the 1930 as fascism continued to take over many democracies, America still felt like the right thing to do was to stay neutral rather become part of the war. Then the Kellogg-Briand Pact was created and signed by 15 other nations which agreed on protecting America from future war threats, though it was signed it was being enforced. And this continued to happen with of other documents as well. But as Americans started to see how France fell because of fascism they thought it might pose a threat to America’s democracy.