Why did the us maintain the policy of isolation prior to 1941?

Trying to help out a friend with a project...just need this one question answered





Why did the us maintain the policy of isolation prior to 1941?





any help, links, websites are welcome..thanks guys!Why did the us maintain the policy of isolation prior to 1941?
The other answer is obviously just copyed and pasted job so i didnt even read it. Here are key points.


1. Since the formation of the US, the US was weak both military and economically compared to the great powers of the time (ie europe and japan.) Up until 1941 it's policy was always isolation as it wasn't powerful enough to interfere with any other nations affairs. Obviously after WWII, the US was the dominative nation so then, with the rise of communism and (only then) did the US start to abandon its policy of isolation. (obviously it abandoned it during WWII, but that was only because it was dragged into the war kicking and screaming, after pearl harbour.


2. It went with isolation uo un till 1941 as that was in the US best interests. After 1941, it was in their interest to abandon its policy of isolation and so it did that.


3. an interesting point you could make is that under bush we saw the US at its most example of interfering in other nations, (they have troops stationed in over 150 countries right now!). Under Obama you could saw perhaps that America is trying not to interfere in other nations affairs so much (though not real)Why did the us maintain the policy of isolation prior to 1941?
The year 1940 signaled a final turning point for isolationism. German military successes in Europe and the Battle of Britain prompted nationwide American rethinking about its posture toward the war. If Germany and Italy established hegemony in Europe and Africa, and Japan swept East Asia, many believed that the Western Hemisphere might be next. Even if America managed to repel invasions, its way of life might wither if it were forced to become a garrison state. By the autumn of 1940, many Americans believed it was necessary to help defeat the Axis 鈥?even if it meant open hostilities.








Many others still backed the noninterventionist America First Committee in 1940 and 1941, but isolationists failed to derail the Roosevelt administration's plans to aid targets of Axis aggression with means short of war. Most Americans opposed any actual declaration of war on the Axis countries, but everything abruptly changed when Japan naval forces sneak-attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States four days later. America galvanized itself for full-blown war against the Axis powers.





The demise of isolationism





The isolationist point of view did not completely disappear from American discourse, but never again did it figure prominently in American policies and affairs. Countervailing tendencies that would outlast the war were at work. During the war, the Roosevelt administration and other leaders inspired Americans to favor the establishment of the United Nations (1945), and following the war, the threat embodied by the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin dampened any comeback of isolationism.





The postwar world environment, in which the United States played a leading role, would change with the triumph of urban industry and finance, expanded education and information systems, advanced military technology, and leadership by internationalists. A few leaders would rise to speak of a return to America's traditional policies of nonintervention, but in reality, traditional American isolationism was obsolete.