What was not a reason for u.s. neutrality during the beginning years of world war i ?

Examine how German U-boats and the Zimmerman Telegram pushed the United States into World War I

See why the United States abandoned its policy of neutrality and decided to enter...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

NARRATOR: Europe, 1914. Although its history and geography were studied in American schools, Europe seemed far away to most Americans in the days when ships were the only way to get across the Atlantic. To most Americans the problems of Europe seemed as remote as the continent itself. Since the days of Washington and Jefferson, the United States had held to a policy of "no entangling alliances" with European nations. There was indifference to the growing militarism and imperialism of the great powers of Europe as they competed for world markets and raw materials for new industries. The crisis began in June, 1914, when Serbian patriots in Bosnia shot and killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, then visiting the capital, Sarajevo. [Music in] As news was flashed by overseas cable, each day's headlines kept the crisis immediate and alive for the American public. By August, 1914, the great powers of Europe were at war . . . the Central Powers against the Allies. [Music out] The German plan was to overwhelm France, then turn its full force on Russia. To reach France, Germany decided to march through neutral Belgium. When Belgium resisted, Germany let loose its guns on that small nation [sounds of gunfire]. Most Americans were shocked at what was labeled "the rape of Belgium." But America remained behind its traditional wall of isolation, even though many were recent immigrants from Europe. The burden of defining American neutrality fell to the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson. At the war's start, he called upon Americans to be neutral in fact as well as in name, in thought as well as in action. Early in the war the British navy cut off Germany from her colonies, and swept German ships off the surface of the sea. Britain impounded the cargoes of neutral ships, including those of the United States, if they were bound for German ports. Wilson protested to Britain, and protested also against the German threat to torpedo any ships found in British waters. [Music in] Then, as so often happens, a single incident occurred which profoundly stirred American opinion. The British luxury liner, the Lusitania, sailed from New York in May, 1915. A German submarine sighted the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland. Hit without warning, the Lusitania exploded--more than 1,200 dead, 128 of them Americans. [Music out] The Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, held that British interference with American shipping was fully as unbearable as German submarine warfare. When Wilson sent a sharp protest to Germany, without also protesting to Britain, Bryan resigned from the cabinet. But the United States was still legally neutral, and Wilson hoped it could act as mediator to end the war. In the middle of 1915, he sent his aide, Colonel House, to Europe as his personal envoy. The situation that Colonel House found there gave hope that the warring powers would consider a "peace with honor." In 1916 Wilson ran for re-election on a platform of peace. His re-election reflected the wish of most Americans to stay out of what many still felt was Europe's war. After re-election Wilson continued his efforts to rally world opinion behind his concept of a "just" peace. Germany, desperately working against time, decided to risk renewal of "unrestricted submarine warfare," in violation of traditional international law. The step was taken with full knowledge that it might cause a break [music in] and possible war with the United States. During one month, March, 1917, five American ships were sunk. The sinkings shocked the American people. War sentiment grew. [Music out] It was increased by the discovery in March, 1917, that the Kaiser's government had asked the aid of Mexico in case of war with the United States. On April 2, 1917, Wilson appeared before Congress.

Congress declared war on April 6.

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Introduction

In the 1930s, the United States Government enacted a series of laws designed to prevent the United States from being embroiled in a foreign war by clearly stating the terms of U.S. neutrality. Although many Americans had rallied to join President Woodrow Wilson’s crusade to make the world “safe for democracy” in 1917, by the 1930s critics argued that U.S. involvement in the First World War had been driven by bankers and munitions traders with business interests in Europe. These findings fueled a growing “isolationist” movement that argued the United States should steer clear of future wars and remain neutral by avoiding financial deals with countries at war.

First Neutrality Act

By the mid-1930s, events in Europe and Asia indicated that a new world war might soon erupt and the U.S. Congress took action to enforce U.S. neutrality. On August 31, 1935, Congress passed the first Neutrality Act prohibiting the export of “arms, ammunition, and implements of war” from the United States to foreign nations at war and requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license. American citizens traveling in war zones were also advised that they did so at their own risk. President Franklin D. Roosevelt originally opposed the legislation, but relented in the face of strong Congressional and public opinion. On February 29, 1936, Congress renewed the Act until May of 1937 and prohibited Americans from extending any loans to belligerent nations.

Neutrality Act of 1937

The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and the rising tide of fascism in Europe increased support for extending and expanding the Neutrality Act of 1937. Under this law, U.S.citizens were forbidden from traveling on belligerent ships, and American merchant ships were prevented from transporting arms to belligerents even if those arms were produced outside of the United States. The Act gave the President the authority to bar all belligerent ships from U.S. waters, and to extend the export embargo to any additional “articles or materials.” Finally, civil wars would also fall under the terms of the Act.

The Neutrality Act of 1937 did contain one important concession to Roosevelt: belligerent nations were allowed, at the discretion of the President, to acquire any items except arms from the United States, so long as they immediately paid for such items and carried them on non-American ships—the so-called “cash-and-carry” provision. Since vital raw materials such as oil were not considered “implements of war,” the “cash-and-carry” clause would be quite valuable to whatever nation could make use of it. Roosevelt had engineered its inclusion as a deliberate way to assist Great Britain and France in any war against the Axis Powers, since he realized that they were the only countries that had both the hard currency and ships to make use of “cash-and-carry.” Unlike the rest of the Act, which was permanent, this provision was set to expire after two years.

Neutrality Act of 1939

Following Germany’s occupation of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939, Roosevelt suffered a humiliating defeat when Congress rebuffed his attempt to renew “cash-and-carry” and expand it to include arms sales. President Roosevelt persisted and as war spread in Europe, his chances of expanding “cash-and-carry” increased. After a fierce debate in Congress, in November of 1939, a final Neutrality Act passed. This Act lifted the arms embargo and put all trade with belligerent nations under the terms of “cash-and-carry.” The ban on loans remained in effect, and American ships were barred from transporting goods to belligerent ports.

In October of 1941, after the United States had committed itself to aiding the Allies through Lend-Lease, Roosevelt gradually sought to repeal certain portions of the Act. On October 17, 1941, the House of Representatives revoked section VI, which forbade the arming of U.S. merchant ships, by a wide margin. Following a series of deadly U-boat attacks against U.S. Navy and merchant ships, the Senate passed another bill in November that also repealed legislation banning American ships from entering belligerent ports or “combat zones.”

Overall, the Neutrality Acts represented a compromise whereby the United States Government accommodated the isolationist sentiment of the American public, but still retained some ability to interact with the world. In the end, the terms of the Neutrality Acts became irrelevant once the United States joined the Allies in the fight against Nazi Germany and Japan in December 1941.