had been an American foreign policy for more than a century. A very real "geographical isolation" permitted the United States to "fill up the empty lands of North America free from the threat of foreign conflict.” President Roosevelt wanted to avoid war, especially since it was contrary to American policy which most if not all Americans were in agreement with. And as I said, another factor that led to the decision of Neutrality by President Roosevelt was the American Economy. The health of the American economy could not be jeopardized, whatever was happening elsewhere. It was Roosevelt’s view that the United States would fare well (economically speaking) whether Europe went to war or not. "Gold was flowing in from Europe’s capitals; orders were mounting daily for equipment and supplies of all kinds; America was building a battleship for Stalin, aero-engines for France" (Overy). For most of the 1930’s the United states traded as openly with Germany and Japan, as it did with any other country. Japan relied on fuel oil and scrap iron until 1941. Germany was one of the United States’ "most important markets" during the 1930’s. America was steadily regaining the prosperity that had diminished during World War I and the Great Depression. The real concern of American business was not "the rights or wrongs of trading with fascism" but the fear that commercial rivals such as Japan and Germany would exclude American goods from Europe and Asia altogether. Some would point and accuse the united states of being selfish, but one has to understand that any negative actions made would have resulted in the United States being almost if not completely out of the economic race. Would the United States have been as prosperous as it is today had we intervened any earlier? We probably would have not because at that time in history America needed a boost to return to its earlier status of being economically stable whic...
