What made it difficult for early United States leaders to maintain neutrality during conflicts between France and Great Britain was that each nation urged the United States to halt trade with the other. The United States was put in the middle of tensions between Britain and France in the early 1800s because Napoleon was at war with Great Britain. He established a continental system by which no nation could trade with the British, thus isolating the Isles. The United States intended to remain neutral but was embroiled in this and other conflicts.