In times of great hostility throughout Europe, America sought to remain neutral allowing Europe to handle its own affairs. In these times of uncertainty came the preparation of a country. With this call for neutrality caused a situation to erupt where the war ended up being fought on two different styles of battlefields. The conventional one through out war engulfed Europe, and a second battlefield of the government against the people it was established to represent. During this period of time, the Great War would forever shape American Foreign Policy, and how it was to affect the world around us.
             The beginning of the Great War was a period that showed a prosperous time for American industries and banking. The war engulfing Europe left America the opportunity to export the supplies needed for them to fight. Neutrality became a way to make more money from both sides as well as keeping Americans from fighting someone else's war. The time of true neutrality was short though, as our trade soon began to shift one sided as America leaned more and more toward helping the Allies with little to no supplies being sold to The Central Powers. This one-sided trade was the start of America going to war.
             The next step that brought the US closer to war was the idea of Preparedness, or the building up of the military just prior to going to war. With few Americans really wanting to go to war, it became more then just building a military to go to war. In turn, it changed more to preparing a nation to go to war. This involved more then just recruitment and arms build-up. It was about enacting special boards and acts by the government to take total control of the country and to mold it in to this war machine. Examples of this are the War Industries Board that controlled all the major industries of America, Food Administration that took control of food production and distribution, and the Selective Service act that served to be the f...