America’s desire to establish an economic empire determined most of its foreign policy between the Civil War and the end of World War II, and fueled the U.S. into three wars: the Spanish-American War, WWI, and WWII. At the end of the 19th century, the U.S. used the “open door policy” with the motives of achieving free trade and control over Cuba to enter a war against Spain. Then, during World War I, Wilson resolved to stay neutral, yet the thought of economic gains and pressure from the business sector induced his changing of policy. A decade later, as in the previously mentioned wars, the driving force in World War II was profit. The U.S.’s involvement in World War II was greatly influenced by the interests of the industrialists and political leaders. The U.S. did not enter the war in order to stop fascism and religious oppression.
At the end of the 19th century the “open door policy” led the United States into conflict with Spain. After the battle at Wounded Knee (1890), which resulted in the closing of the internal frontier, America’s need for economic expansion grew due to limited domestic expansion. (Zinn, 297) America’s market became so saturated, that it had to start expanding outward to make a prof

Franklin Roosevelt repeatedly deceived the American people during the period before Pearl Harbor….He was like the physician who must tell the patient lies for the patient’s own good…because the masses are notoriously shortsighted and generally cannot see danger until it is at their throats. (Zinn, 411)

Unlike the previous two wars, WWII was greatly supported by the public, who supported the fight against fascism and religious oppression. However, the U.S. government and the industry sector that supported it, again, were more concerned with economic gains. Evidence seems to indicate that when documents of the Jews’ mistreatment were reported, Roosevelt “did not see it as a high priority; he left it to the State Department, and in the State Department anti-Semitism and a cold bureaucracy became obstacles to action.” (Zinn, 415) This case was obviously not the cause of the U.S.’s involvement in WWII. Instead, “what brought the United States fully into war was the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.” (Zinn, 410) Zinn also points out that Pearl Harbor was “not really sudden or shocking to the American government.” (Zinn, 410-11)

Throughout the course of the Spanish-American War, WWI, and WWII, it is clear that the government and the business sector were hungry for wealth and p