Why Did The Us Enter The Second World War In 1941?

2500-word foreign policy essay USA Why did the United States enter the Second World War in 1941? The Second World War saw the second major war in under 30 years. However, the USA decided to join the war once again not from the beginning, and waited for the war to develop and to see where the war would go before any major involvement. There are multiple reasons for the intervention of the USA in the war at the point of participation. There is no single reason the USA got involved in the conflict. However, there are a mixture of reasons. These range from short-term reasons to long-term reasons. But also, a vast combination of strategic, economic, and ideological reasons. Some of the major areas that are well known and will be looked at will be
This was significant as they gained such substantial amounts of territory with almost no retaliation therefore, they would soon be controlling the majority of Asia around them which did not sit well with the US (Heinrichs,1988). Their expansion was leading toward a strategic and economic conflict of interest that would soon see the two nations cross paths. Japan's siding with Germany and Italy was further leading towards a potential crossing of paths that would eventually see them have a conflict (Heinrichs,1988) (Hughes et al.,1988). Something significant in the history of the USA is the Monroe Doctrine, which was established in 1823 to value all of the American values and that their land is theirs and not threatened. The USA, which had made its claims in the Pacific as far back as 1823, was strategic to maintain a buffer zone and for the US also to stay isolated. However, with Japan's expansion into the West, they would eventually look to the East and the Pacific which would threaten the Monroe Doctrine. Japan’s interests would be to show and demonstrate its military powers to another major nation because it would help Japan with its resource
The US saw the further potential and saw it easier to trade with fellow nations that were under a democracy, so they were trying to create more business opportunities and would benefit from the war eventually. The Tripartite Pact, which Germany, Japan, and Italy established on September 27th, 1940, aimed to keep the US out of the war and to split the world into three spheres, these being Europe, Asia, and Africa (Yellen, 2016). This was established because the Axis were aware that the US could swing the war in the favour of the Allies (Yellen, 2016). The attack from the Japanese on Pearl Harbour eventually broke this pact which became irrelevant as Germany and Italy declared war on the US but would pursue their interests rather than support Japan in its conflict with the US (Yellen, 2016) (Britannica, 2023). This showed flaws in the relationship of the Axis which further encouraged the US to join as the enemy was not as strong and organised as it could be. Due to the US at this time being less and less isolated, they wanted to have more of a say about what goes on around the rest of the world (Longley,