Why was the United States reluctant to be involved in World War I?

Question

Why was the United States reluctant to be involved in World War I?

Answer 1

No one WANTS to go to war.  The US was practicing more of an isolationist stance at that point.  WWI was viewed as "Europe's War".

Answer 2

It was none of our business.  We in the USA were not threatened.  We were not attacked.  Germany was not looking for world conquest.  We had nothing against Germany and Austria.  The German Kaiser was the cousin of the British king.  Both were grandsons of Queen Victoria.  And the wife of the Russian Czar was another grandchild of Victoria.

It seemed like a family squabble over land in Europe.

It became our business by 1917 because bankers in New York and Chicago had loaned so much money to Britain and France.  If Britain and France lost, these bankers stood to lose a great deal of money.  There were other factors of course, but I think this money issue was a major factor that made the war "our business."  Big money interests had a voice in government then even more perhaps than they do now - - though money often seems to be the factor that decides who wins elections in our mass media world today.

Answer 3

we were isolationists at that point in history.

Answer 4

They did not believe that it effected them in any way. They felt that it was a European conflict and only once the fighting began to affect them did they join the war

Answer 5

The United States has a long history of isolationism. They simply didn't want to get involved in other people's problems if they didn't have to. And WW1 was seen as a European affair. The combatants were all European nations for the most part, plus their colonies and a couple of allies outside of Europe. So the US felt they could just sit out the war and keep going after like nothing had happened.

Answer 6

A better question is why the US got involved in it,at all.  This is the question usually asked, as the reasons for NOT being there are so great.  

America really was not threatened in any way.

The one violent incident that stands out, provoking the US, was the (accidental?) sinking of the Lusitania by German U-boats.  But, there is a long gap between this incident and US entry into the war.