Question

Since George Washington warning in his 1796 Farewell Address that the United States should stay out of European Alliances, the United States had followed a policy of no-intervention in European affairs. On April 2nd 1917 President Wilson changed this policy when he asked Congress to declare war on Germany in 1917. Describe the events that led President Wilson to change American non-interventionist policy. Explain if you think he could have avoided war, or not.

Answer 1

Since George Washington’s Farewell Address in 1796, the United States had followed a foreign policy of non-interventionism. This policy ended with the United States entrance into World War I in 1917. The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson seemed to continue this non-interventionist policy when he declared a policy of neutrality to the nation in 1914 and then ran on and won election in 1916 on the slogan “He Kept Us Out of War.”