Question

Isolationism During the 1930sDuring the Great Depression isolationist sentiment surged. In 1935, some 150,000 college students participated in a nationwide Student Strike for Peace, and half a million signed pledges saying that they would refuse to serve in the event of war. A public opinion poll indicated that 39 percent of college students would refuse to participate in any war, even if the country was invaded.Anti-war sentiment was not confined to undergraduates. Disillusionment over World War I fed opposition to foreign entanglements. "We didn't win a thing we set out for in the last war," said Senator Gerald Nye of North Dakota. "We merely succeeded, with tremendous loss of life, to make secure the loans of private bankers to the Allies." The overwhelming majority of Americans agreed; an opinion poll in 1935 found that 70 percent of Americans believed that intervention in World War I had been a mistake.Isolationist ideas spread through American popular culture during the mid-1930s. The Book of the Month Club featured a volume titled Merchants of Death, which contended that the United States had been drawn into the European war by international arms manufacturers who had deliberately fomented conflict in order to market their products. From 1934 to 1936, a congressional committee, chaired by Senator Nye, investigated charges that false Allied propaganda and unscrupulous Wall Street bankers had dragged Americans into the European war. In April 1935--the 18th anniversary of American entry into World War I--50,000 veterans held a peace march in Washington, D.C.Between 1935 and 1937, Congress passed three separate neutrality laws that clamped an embargo on arms sales to belligerents, forbade American ships from entering war zones and prohibited them from being armed, and barred Americans from traveling on belligerent ships. Clearly, Congress was determined not to repeat what it regarded as the mistakes that had plunged the United States into World War I.By 1938, however, pacifist sentiment was fading. A rapidly modernizing Japan was seeking to acquire raw materials and territory on the Asian mainland; a revived Germany was rebuilding its military power and acquiring land bloodlessly on its eastern borders; and Italy was trying to restore Roman glory through military might.Reference the section titled "Isolationism During the 1930’s". How did people in the United States feel about war and involvement in Europe?

Answer 1

In the 1930s, isolationist sentiment was prevalent in the U.S., reinforced by the Neutrality Acts aimed to keep America out of foreign wars. The mood began shifting as threats rose globally, but the U.S. maintained neutrality until the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Step-by-step explanation:

Isolationism During the 1930s in the United States

During the 1930s, isolationist sentiment was prevalent throughout the United States as the nation grappled with the effects of the Great Depression and retained fresh memories of the losses from World War I. The public and Congress were significantly influenced by anti-war sentiment, as evidenced by the legislation of the Neutrality Acts between 1935 and 1937, which aimed to prevent the U.S. from engaging in foreign conflicts.

The pacifist mood began to wane by 1938 as global tensions rose with the aggressive actions of Japan, Germany, and Italy. Nevertheless, the U.S. policy remained largely noninterventionist, in part due to economic self-interests and ethnic influences, such as the Irish Americans' opposition to England and German Americans' sympathies for Germany.

Although President Roosevelt privately indicated a desire to support allies like Britain and France, the official stance of the U.S. government leaned towards neutrality, abiding by the established neutrality laws.

Ultimately, however, the direct attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, served as a turning point, compelling the U.S. to enter World War II and marking the end of its isolationist period. This shift showed that while the U.S. sought to avoid another costly conflict, it could not remain removed from global affairs when directly threatened.