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Well in WWII there was a LOT of pressure building for the USA to join Britain, etc. Most people in the USA did not want anythign to do with war, but as Germany took over more and more and people realized the suffering that was going on - and also began to ask when Germany was going to come knocking on our door, sentimate changed.
I just read a good book about Murrow over in England during 1939-1941, and his huge efforts to draw the USA into what he realized was an inevitable war. Roosevelt wanted to go to war months before Pearl Harbor, but didn't have the full support of Congress.
Pearl Harbor was the catalyst that finally and overwhelmingly threw the entire country behind the war effort. It was the fastest and largest militarization in human history.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor was the largest error in military judgement on the part of the Japanese. They thought they'd knock out our Pacific fleet and we'd quickly sue for peace. Of course we're not just going to flip over on the ground and back away! Germany was furious at the Japanese for boming Pearl Harbor while the German's were having such issues dealing with the USSR. I think at that point most generals knew that while Germany might have been able to hold off the USSR for awhile longer, there was just no chance once the USA entered from the West.
For WWI, We were making a ton of money selling munitions to the UK. The Germans were fearful of our getting involved and tried hard not to "cross the line", but it was to the British advantage to make that line as hazy as possible without actually getting their hands dirty (Lusitania). Anglophilia in the U.S. and nativism against the recent wave of immigration from central Europe (examplified in the Know-Nothing party and immigration reforms in the period) played heavily into this, as well as American Exceptionalism (as personified in Wilson's "making the world safe for Democracy"). A counterweight to this was a reluctance to get involved because of memories from the Civil War and its massive loss of life.
For WWII, Japanese aggression in China caused the U.S. to cut off raw material exports (particularly oil). The Japanese rationalized that a decisive knock-out punch would keep us from interfering with their plans to replace the resources through conquest of Dutch, English, and French controlled areas in the far east.
Now, ask yourself, was it a cooincidence that Japan, Germany, Italy, and Russia had totalitarian regiemes in the 30's? Except for Russia, that line traces back to (1) political instability caused by economic instability, and (2) lingering resentment within the civilian population over past grieviences. The economic instability was caused by similar issues to what we're seeing today, greed and a bubble economy formed by massive leverage. A lot of the resentment can also be traced to nasceant globalism causing economic disturbances in the agricultural sector, racism, and hardships bought on from WW I.
Well i love history and right now i am in an American History class. i will tell you what i learned then i will ask my Q and you can give an answer if you want. well the chapter starts off as: How does a Teenager start a world war? well it goes on to explain that Bosnia and Herzigovina was controlled by Austria-Hungry and a teen assassinates the arch duke. they arrest the teen and find out Serbia supplied them weapons so they declare war on Serbia. well Russia protects Serbia and declares war on Austria-hungry. well Germany protects them and declares war on France and Russia. so Germany attacks belgium and Great Britain declares war on Germany. So we have Britian, France, and Russia VS. Germany, Austria-Hungry and i forget the other country. well we the U.S. did't really care. let them deal with it. Well Germany sent a note to mexico which we referr to it as the Zimmerman Note and Mexico said no. but why exactly did we get involved? What side was Italy on? why didn't some of the other european countries get involved?
As far as this question, it's complicated, but there are some general themes:
1) Germany had sunk the Lusitania as mentioned before, and this did not sit well at all with an already frustrated United States.
2) Germany had been sinking lots of American cargo ships with their unrestricted submarine warfare (first time subs were ever used).
3) There was a lot of strong propaganda against Germany in the USA which fired up views on the conflict.
4) US trade with the allied countries soared from $825M to $3.2B between 1914 and 1916 - vested interest.
5) Germany's letter to Mexico about joining in the war really pissed off a lot of Americans. Clearly Germany was not doing anything in our interests.
6) The United States had become major creditor to France and Britain, lending them a LOT of money for their war effort. The German's had also sunk boats with gold in them meant for payment to the US.
7) The United States obviously assumed Britain and France would win the war since they were lending them so much money, and had a very large vested interest.
8) After over 3 years of almost a total stalemate, something had to give. The Americans had given enough money, had enough negative thoughts about the German situation, learned of the letter to Mexico, and had enough ships sunk that US support gained enough steam to enter the war. All it took was something like the sinking of the Lusitania to finally be a catalyst (like Pearl Harbor).
5) Germany's letter to Mexico about joining in the war really pissed off a lot of Americans. Clearly Germany was not doing anything in our interests.
Wasn't the letter to Mexico asking them to invade Texas, which would then occupy us from entering the war and also would limit the amount of munitions we could give to Britain and France?
International financiers especially love wars since they can lend to both sides.
That is the cynical small answer, war is just great for business and finance.
Basically ;we did not want germany to rule. Its just the same reason FDR wanted to enter WWII much before we did. War was and still is the way countires settle really seroius matters.
Well if you think about, just before we joined the war Britain was near defeat on the western front, and Russia had withdrawn it's forces on the eastern front. And from our perspective it looked like Germany would take over Europe and that wouldn't bode well with our economy and morale. So really it was so we could save our allies.
"Proud Tower" and "The Guns of August" both by Barbara Tuchman are excellent books on WW1,,,The events leading up to it.. why the US got involved...It was a war that was planned 20 years before it happened.
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