Compare and contrast the American commitment to neutrality before World War 1 and before World II?

Answer 1

WWI Wilson stated that they USA will stay out of the war, since the USA was a country that was made out of all the different races. And declaring war on one nation would basically mean declaring war on one of its own citizen. Also American trade was thriving during the war, the British got loans and they turned around used the money the just got to pay for the weapons they ordered. Furthermore they were able to trade with Germany. When the british finally blocked the US trade and the USA suddenly saw that they were overproducing and couldn't sell it was a different picture. So they took the sinking of the Luistiana as a reason to join the war. The war was a economic decision, but it left the world afterwards in dispear, broke, hungry and in poverty.

WWII the US stated out until the Germans decided to declare war on the USA which was after Pearl Harbor - this was a complete different decision to join the war. The decision came after Germany basically had taken over most of Europe other then the British. Roosevelt was fearful that the Germans would win and with that the USA might have been the next target, to prevent that they joined the war. It had to do with the survival of the fittest, emperialist thinking and nothing else.

So neutrality had to different reasons for the first one it was economic reason - the second one they just didn't care at first and then saw what germany did with that they had to suddenly get involved to prevent things from getting worse