The USA's policy of neutrality

• Many Americans felt that their involvement in the First World War was a mistake. This feeling continued throughout the 1930s.
• Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts, which intended to keep the USA out of future wars.
• America felt that they unnecessarily lost men and military equipment, and that Europe was drifting towards further conflict as a result of the growth of totalitarianism (when political regimes suppress political opposition and control all aspects of people's lives).

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. It could also prevent American citizens from travelling on ships of those countries at war except at their own risk. This was put in place to avoid situations such as the Lusitania incident, 1915.

• The second Neutrality Act the following year, forbade any loans or credits to countries at war. It did not, however, extend the definition of prohibited articles, so American firms were able to sell trucks and petroleum to General Franco in the Spanish Civil War on credit.

•  The third Neutrality Act of 1937 banned the export of munitions for use by either of the opposing forces in Spain. However, it did permit nations involved in a war to buy goods other than munitions from the US provided that they paid cash and used their own ships-'cash…