Even though World War II didn't technically begin until Germany invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939, the storm was definitely a-brewin' as early as 1930, and the Americans were not at all looking forward to being involved in another conflict.

In efforts to avoid that all together, the U.S. government signed a number of neutrality acts, the first in 1935 under FDR. After Congress rejected a proposal that would allow the U.S. to pick and choose who to help and who to, well, not help, they proposed a general embargo, or block, on trading all war materials with all countries involved in the war.

You probably figured it out by the name, but the idea was to remain neutral in the conflict and hopefully avoid any unsavory consequences, like having to send troops overseas. But it didn't quite work out as intended. The U.S. wasn't able to send anything to the Allies that could be construed as war materials, and when Germany invaded France—our oldest ally—in 1940, under the Neutrality Act, there was nothing the U.S. could to do help.

For the most part, the Neutrality Act of 1935 started to dissolve in 1941, when Nazi Germany started to attack American ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean. It was repealed officially in 1941 when FDR signed the Lend-Lease Act. (For more info, check out the Timeline section of this guide.)