History- The end of isolationism

• Isolationism


  US foreign policy and public opinion after World War One that did not want to become involved in international politics or conflicts
• America had not joined the League of Nations, an international peace-keeping organisation set up in 1920
• By the end of 1941


  America's policy of isolationism had shifted, and America entered World War Two
• Nye Committee


  A committee appointed by Congress in 1934 to investigate how the USA had become involved in World War One
• Nye Committee's key conclusion

  • US munitions-makers, industrialists and financers had influenced the government's decision to go to war and had made huge profits from the war
• No specific evidence was included, but the committee's report gave credibility to the idea that America had only gone to war because of the greed of lobbyists
• Neutrality Acts


  Prevented the USA from selling weapons, giving loans or providing financial credit to countries at war, whether they were aggressors or victims
• Cash and Carry policy


  Countries could only pay cash for any materials bought in the USA, and they also had to have their own ships to carry them away
• Although neutral at the start of the war

  America supported Britain and France against Nazi Germany by selling them American weapons, warships and planes
• Roosevelt was not keen on the limitations of the Neutrality Acts
• When elected president for the third time (in 1940)

  Roosevelt stated that Americans would "not be sent into any foreign war"
• Lend-Lease Act


  Authorised the USA to lend or lease war supplies to countries whose defences were judged to be important to the USA
• Britain received $7 billion of lend-lease support
• Fireside chats


  Radio addresses given by President Roosevelt to the American people
• In one fireside chat in December 1940, Roosevelt told the American people that the USA should become the "arsenal of democracy" and explained his plan of lending goods instead of money
• Throughout the 1930s


  There had been tensions between Japan and America
• Japan invaded China in 1937 and began a military alliance with Germany and Italy in September 1940
• In response


  The USA increased its aid to China and applied economic sanctions and banned exports of oil and steel to Japan
• Japan was prepared to make some compromises in return for an end to the ban
• Roosevelt and his advisers wanted peace, but they did not trust Japan to stop its aims of dominating the Pacific region
• On 7 December 1941, Japan carried out a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
• Most of the fleet based there, along with aircraft, was destroyed or damaged
• In total, there were approximately 3,500 American casualties, with around 2,400 people killed