He gave the neutrality speech in order to keep the U.S. isolated during world war 1. This came from the belief that it was not the business of the United States to become involved with foreign affairs. Much of Europe had created a domino effect with the alliances that they all had, and the United States did not want to become involved at this point in someone else’s war. OBVIOUSLY this neutrality would end as soon as those European powers attacked us (USS lusitania and the Zimmerman telegram) but for the time being it wasn’t our business.
