September 5th brought America’s announcing of their Neutrality in the war. After WWI, it was clear in American memory that interfering with European affairs was a huge mistake and it was one they strongly intended not to make again. President Franklin D. Roosevelt brought to play a series of Neutrality Acts. However, he believed that this was a very different war from World War I since Germany was clearly the aggressor. Whilst keeping the USA out of war, Roosevelt still had intentions to help the allies.

These intentions were carried out by an arrangement most well known as the Neutrality Patrol. Despite its name suggesting they were completely neutral, the patrol heavily favoured Britain because the Royal Navy had much better access to the Atlantic and an aggressor had been labelled quite clearly amidst conflicts. This is mainly due to the fact that Britain relied on Atlantic trade routes where as Germany could survive quite well without them.

Whilst Britain and France managed the North Sea, American allies focused their attention on the Mediterranean sea. The Mediterranean sea surrounds Italy and it was expected that Mussolini would soon join the war on Hitler’s side after the Rome-Berlin axis was created in 1936, linking the two fascist countries in alliance. Italy did indeed join the war but it was not until 9 months from the time when conflict began.

Here is a video which depicts Roosevelt’s announcement of his intentions to abstain from war after the horrors of WWI.