Compare and Contrast the United States involvement in World War I and World War II. Do the in class assignment differentiating American involvement in both wars and answer collectively as a class on the blog. Be specific and be sure to take notes and generate a chart of similarities and differences between the wars.
For WW1: The US vowed to stay nuetral but there were many instances where we were prodded. The Luisitania was sunk, along with 90 other merchant ships. In 1914, Wilson declared we were to be nuetral, but we were sympathetic with the Allies. Even though nuetral, the US still traded with the Allies. We were linked economically. Then there was the intercepted Zimmerman telegram (from Germany)attempting to get Mexico to attack the US in exchange for parts of Nevada, AZ and Texas. That was the last straw.
ReplyDeleteFor WW2, we were nuetral again...but we still played favorites economically through trade. Japan was threatened by our economic and industrial presence in the Pacific and Asia. And they did not like that we were aligned with China, so animosity grew bewtween the US and Japan. There was a growing sense that we should assist our old allies from WW1 since the German and Japanese atrocities were growing larger and more widespread. Large US business also want to enter the war for the economic boost. And then there was Pearl Harbor.
ReplyDeleteCommon similarities:
ReplyDeleteWe started out Nuetral; the last straw for both was a direct foreign threat, foreign affairs sparked growing domestic support for entering the wars,even though nuetral, we still ecomically supported the allies which caused tensions between the US and the non-allied forces. And both had a decisive attack (or threat) that forced the US into war.
Differences:
ReplyDeleteIn WW1, the US was never directly attacked as in WW2. In WW2, big business wanted because they saw $, which they learned from WW1. The US also remained nuetral longer during WW1.