The fact that through much of its history the US has had many opportunities for economic...True/False question

Question

The fact that through much of its history the US has had many opportunities for economic expansion at home helped to make a policy of avoiding entangling alliances possible.

True or False?

I've done a lot of reading and I can't decide what the answer to this is. Under the old policy of no entangling alliances, the United States avoided any permanent association with any other nation. In the post-World War II era, however, the United States formed several long-term alliances with other nations in various regions of the world. Any insight you could give on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

That's a horribly worded question.  Because you're right.  Prior to World War II, the US did a decent job of staying out of permanent foreign affairs (as per the Monroe doctrine).  Even after World War I, the US went into total isolation and was only dragged out after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor during the second World War.  Now today, we have several long standing alliances with countries everywhere.

But if you want to look at nothing but the economic side, I would say false.  We've always relied on imports from Europe (even after the Revolution, we needed England and its goods) and China especially- with the Open Door policy.  Today, we rely on Canada and Venezuela for oil.  But economics isn't the only thing that dictates foreign alliances, and that's what the question seems to be implying.  If this is a test/homework question, beat your teacher over the head for writing it.  It's terrible, and certainly can't be answered with a simple "true or false".  It has the potential for an essay question, but it's horrible for anything else.