Why was the united states neutral in the world war 1?

booman17

It tried to stay neutral but eventually was brought into the war after the sinking of the Lusitania. The US saw the European conflict as just that, a European problem and employed a policy of Isolationism. The US being far enough removed from the battlefields that we would remain neutral. In reality , the US was providing war materials for the Allies and profitting from it's policies. The reason the Lusitania was sunk, was that the US was shipping war materials to Great Britain in the hold of passenger ships. The Germans warned that they would sink any such vessels, but the outrage over the loss of life in that sinking pushed the US into the conflict on the Allied side.

James D

Well is started as great power rivalry and as such was a mainly imperial war. Pretty much didn't effect america till later on.

Who keeps giving a thumbs down to all these brilliant answers?

They are historical facts whats to thumbs down.

Andrew

we tried to stay neutral, but with the sinking of the Lusitania ( a cruise ship "carrying noooo weapons whatsover....") along with the Zimmerman note (Germany sent MExico this note asking for an alliance and in return, Germany will give Mexico Texas back) sent the US into WWI, where are dominated, but we were not officially recognized as a super power until after WWII.

mnbvcxz52773

World War I was really an extension of the Franco-Prussian War, which the US also stayed out of.

The US's entire purpose was to stay away from Europe. That is one of the major reasons colonists went to the New World, so from the beginning, we were isolationists. Until World War I, our military actions were either over here, or defending US ships, or countering Europeans from moving into Americas.

Also, at the same time, we had problems with Mexico and Poncho Villa and had just recently finished the Spanish American War, which was pretty unpopular as it was.

In general, the US did not like war, and the US Civil War just reinforced that opinion, because a lot of people still remembered that war quite well. The US barely kept a standing military through most of its history, and most of that was kept out west in "indian country" and in small units. So even if the US wanted to enter the war, it had to re-learn unit tactics at high levels (Brigade, Division and Corps).

As mentioned, the sinking of the Lusitania and Zimmerman telegraph changed US public opinion as the war was getting too big for the US to just sit out.

Continuing on, the same thing, same mind-set and military readiness occurred for WWII. WWII was really a continuation of WWI again. If your curious, Franco-Prussian war was the First Riech, WWI was the Second Reich, and WWII was the Third Riech.

ian24

It wasn't. As with WW11, they just weren't there at the start (this is not meant to be taken as a "dig" at at our allies. Its just a fact).

dark_assassin69

The position of the United States in that time period was "It's Europe's fight, not ours." This however was ended after the sinking of the Lousitania by a german U-Boat off the english channel and the discovery of the Zimmerman note. We did sell arms to the British to help them in their war effort prior to sending troops in the lend-lease act. WWI was the start of the United States becoming the police of the world that it is today. The world is often angry at the US for being this way but most of them fail to see the events that made us so. The United States is the police of the world because everytime something happens everyone looks to the US for help and then gets mad when we help them.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: