Neutrality in WWII

?
  • Created by: Pip Dan
  • Created on: 20-09-17 14:43

The widespread feeling that involvement in WWI had been a mistake continued in the USA throughout the 1930s. It was  made evident when Congress passed a series of Neutrality Act, which intended to keep the USA out of future war. It was felt that the USA had unnecessarily lost men and military equipment, and that Europe was drifting towards further conflict as a result of the growth of totalitarianism.

The Neutrality Acts

  • The first Neutrality Act of 1935 gave the president the power to prohibit US ships from carrying US-made munitions to countries at war. The Neutrality Act could also prevent US citizens from travelling on ships of those countries at war expect at their own risk. This was to avoid situations like the Lusitania incident, 1915.
  • The second Neutrality Act, the following year, banned loans or credits to countries at war. The Act sent no limits on trade in materials useful for war and US companies such as Texaco, Standard Oil and Ford were thus able to sell such items on credit to General Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
  • A third Neutrality Act of 1937 forbade the export of munitions for use by either of opposing forces in Spain. It did; however, permit nations involved in a war to buy goods other than munitions from the USA, provided they paid cash and used their own ships. This became known as 'cash and

Comments

No comments have yet been made