Americas in the world — the USA and one other nation's global role
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Flip to reveal answersWhy did the USA enter the First World War in 1917?
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All 12 Flashcards — Americas in the world — the USA and one other nation's global role
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Question
Why did the USA enter the First World War in 1917?
Answer
Unrestricted German U-boat attacks on shipping plus the Zimmermann Telegram (Germany's offer of an alliance to Mexico against the USA) ended US neutrality.
Question
What was Wilson's Fourteen Points plan?
Answer
A 1918 proposal for a fair peace: self-determination, open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, and a League of Nations to prevent future wars.
Question
Why did the US Senate reject League of Nations membership?
Answer
Senators (led by Henry Cabot Lodge) objected to Article 10's collective-security obligation, fearing it would drag the USA into future wars automatically.
Question
What was the Good Neighbor Policy?
Answer
FDR's 1933 pledge that the USA would not intervene militarily in Latin America; formalized at the Montevideo Conference and backed by troop withdrawals from Haiti and Nicaragua.
Question
How did the USA respond to Mexico's 1938 oil nationalization?
Answer
It negotiated compensation instead of intervening militarily — cited as proof the Good Neighbor Policy was a genuine, tested shift in approach.
Question
What triggered US entry into the Second World War?
Answer
Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941; the USA declared war the next day, and Germany and Italy declared war on the USA days later.
Question
What was the Manhattan Project?
Answer
The secret US wartime program that developed the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
Question
What is the historical debate around the atomic bomb decision?
Answer
Whether it was necessary to end the war quickly and avoid a costly invasion, or whether Japan was already close to defeat and the bombing was aimed partly at warning the USSR.
Question
How did Brazil behave in the early years of the Second World War?
Answer
President Vargas traded with both the Allies and the Axis, extracting loans and the Volta Redonda steel mill from the USA before declaring war on the Axis in 1942.
Question
Why did Brazil declare war on the Axis in 1942?
Answer
German U-boats sank Brazilian merchant ships, turning public opinion firmly against the Axis and ending Vargas's neutral balancing act.
Question
Compare US and Brazilian entry into WWII.
Answer
Both were pushed from neutrality to war by direct attacks on their own ships/territory (Pearl Harbor for the USA, U-boat sinkings for Brazil), not by ideology alone.
Question
What is the Good Neighbor Policy's key continuity vs. change?
Answer
Change: US methods shifted from military intervention to diplomacy/economics. Continuity: the underlying goal of a hemisphere safe for US interests stayed the same.
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Full study notes for Americas in the world — the USA and one other nation's global role
Topic 11.8 hub
Emergence of the Americas in global affairs (1880–1945)
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