The Road To WarThe Road To War

Chapter 17

America’s Foreign Policy 1931 - 1941

ISOLATIONISM:– The Great Depression – Americans not wanting a

repeat of WWI– Divided country

• Some favored the ideas of demagogues like Hitler

– Father Coughlin

• Some felt for the victims of aggression.

America chooses NEUTRALITY

Neutrality and Isolation:– Hawley-Smoot

Tariff isolated America.

• We couldn’t buy other countries goods and they wouldn’t buy ours because of the tariff.

America Chooses NEUTRALITY

Neutrality Acts (1935):– Banned the US from

providing weapons to nations at war.

– Banned loans to nations at war.

– Trade with countries at war as long as:

• Cash and carry• Non-military items

What was going on in Europe to make America favor Isolation?

Totalitarianism– Government that

exerts TOTAL control over every aspect of life in the country.

Fascism– Emphasizes the

importance of nation or of an ethnic group.

Fascism and Totalitarianism

Strong dictatorial governments.

No respect for individual rights and freedom.

Players of the European Game: JOSEF STALIN

(1888 – 1953) Joined the Communist

Party as an insurgent. Follower of Lenin. Took control of the

Communist Party and the government in 1926.

Sole ruler until death in 1953.

Josef Stalin: Personal Life

Came from poverty. Little education Violence in childhood Treatment of his own

family Greatest Talent??

– Creating FEAR

JOSEF STALIN: Economic Plan

Took away private land from farmers and created COLLECTIVE FARMS.– Millions starved to

death.

STALIN: Economic Plan

Industrialization of Russia:– More money to create

steel factories, oil, coal.

– Ignored housing, clothing, consumer needs.

– Millions suffered.

Stalin’s Reign of Terror

Cult of Personality PURGES

– “Purified” the Party by getting rid of opponents.

SHOW TRIALS– Only one verdict.

– GUILTY!!!

Fascism in Italy

Italy’s totalitarian government came out of the chaos of WWI.

Benito Mussolini– “Il Duce”– Blackshirts

Fascism in Italy

Blackshirt “thugs” terrorized people who did or might oppose Mussolini.

Brought control to Italy – but at a high, high price.

No democracy Outlawed other political

parties

Fascism in Italy

Mussolini wanted to rebuild the Roman Empire.

“The Country is Nothing Without Conquest”– Invasion of Ethiopia in

1935.

Hitler’s Rise to Power

Austrian by birth Poor student Artist??? WWI became a hero Blamed Jews and

Marxists for German losses in WWI.

Hitler’s Rise to Power: The Nazi Party

Founded in 1919– Belief in Hitler– Belief about German

nationalism– Belief in racial

superiority– 1923, tried and failed

to take over German government.

Hitler’s Rise to Power

Wrote MEIN KAMPF in prison– Defiance of the

Versailles Treaty ending WWI

– Called to strengthen German military again

– Purifying the “Aryan Race”

• Removal of anything that wasn’t “Aryan”

Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany

Nazi Party promised Germans to stabilize the country, rebuild the economy, and restore the empire that had been lost in WWI.

Nazis in Control

Suspended the rights of free speech and press.

Storm Troopers / Brown Shirts terrorized people into silence.

Germany Rearms and Expands

1936: Germany took back the Rhineland.

1936: Created the AXIS with Italy

1938: Annexed Austria

1938: Invaded and took over Czechoslovakia

What did the world do as Hitler did this?

APPEASEMENT– Giving in to a

competitor’s demands to keep the peace.

Appeasement

Britain’s Prime Minister: Neville Chamberlain.

Thought once Hitler had Czechoslovakia Hitler would “be content”

“Peace in Our Time.”

The Spanish Civil War

1936 Elections – Pre-election violence

between political parties.– The group of liberal parties

– REPUBLICANS – won. – DO NOT CONFUSE US

REPUBLICANS WITH SPANISH REPUBLICANS!!!!!

The Spanish Civil War

Fascists in the military did NOT like the Republican victory.

CIVIL WAR in 1936

The Spanish Civil War

Both sides turned to other countries to help them.

Hitler, Mussolini backed the fascists with money, troops, and equipment.

Russia helped the Republicans.

40,000 English, Americans and French came to fight on the Republican side.

The Spanish Civil War: Fascism won

Fascism ruled from 1939 – 1975.

Francisco Franco.– Spanish nationalism– Totalitarian control

Europe FINALLY goes to war

“Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor. They will have war.”– Winston Churchill

Invasion of Poland

Poland was next on Hitler’s list of countries to invade.

BUT– France and England

had said they would not go along with this invasion.

– Stalin was also a problem.

Hitler’s Solution?

Make a pact with Stalin.

Only have to fight Britain and France – IF they would fight.

Hitler’s BLITZKRIEG

“Lightning War” Fast and concentrated

land and air war. Take enemy by

surprise. Terrorize civilian

populations and troops.

Poland

Held out for a month. Stalin’s Russia took

part of the territory. Germany came in

with their laws and started to put Jews into Concentration camps.

What happened next?

NOTHING!!! “Phony War” Britain and France

feared the potential losses.

France

Maginot Line– Why didn’t it work?

France

April 9, 1940 Germany attacks.

NOT through the Maginot Line.

They went round and attacked through Belgium.

Blitzkrieg!

Dunkirk

German drive to capture British and French soldiers.

Drove the allies to the coastal city of Dunkirk.

Dunkirk

Over nine days one of the greatest rescues in the history of warfare happened.

Over 900 boats of all types braved the LUFTWAFFE to save 340,000 soldiers.

Fall of France

June 10, 1940 Reaction of the

French?– Collaborators (worked

with the Nazis)– Resistance ( fought the

Nazis as guerrillas / insurgents)

Battle of Britain

August 1940 – May 1941

Luftwaffe attacks day and night.

1,000 planes bombed Britain

The Blitz

Firebombs! Heat of 1400-degrees

Farenheit Melted asphalt and

glass.– Trapped people

People in shelters hit literally exploded from the heat.

England Replies

RAF (Royal Air Force)

Flying 6 – 7 missions a day.

Tried to avoid the German fighter planes and shoot down the bombers before they unloaded.

England’s RAF

Flew Spitfires and Hurricanes

80% died But they took out

more Germans.

England’s RAF

Meanwhile – England bombers were bombing German cities.

Japan Builds an Empire

US Great Depression affected industry in Japan.

1930s – rise of nationalism and fascism in Japan.

The Manchurian Incident

Japan needed raw materials and food.

Why not invade Manchuria to get it?

The Manchurian Incident

PUPPET STATE:– Supposedly

independent country but under the control of a more powerful country.

– Manchuria 1932

Manchuria

Japan sent a million farmers, businessmen, and soldiers to make Manchuria their colony.

1937 - Japan invades China

The Rape of Nanking The world was

horrified. The world did

nothing.

1940 Japan finds new allies

Germany and Italy The Axis Powers

What was America doing in 1940?

America First Committee– Blocked any aid to

England.– Strict Isolation– Charles Lindbergh a

leader

1940 Election

Roosevelt won. “Your boys are not

going to be sent to any foreign war.”

Lend Lease

November 1940 “If your neighbor’s

house is on fire, you don’t sell him a hose. You lend it to him and take it back after the fire is out.”– FDR– $49-billion in aid

given.

Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor

Most American attention was on what was happening in Europe.

That included FDR

Before the Attack

Roosevelt did use the Neutrality Acts to keep iron, steel and oil from being exported to Japan.

1940 froze all Japanese investments in the United States.

Before the Attack

October 1941 – General Tojo Hideki became Prime Minister of Japan.– Tojo– MAJOR fascist– Admired Hitler– Believed any country that

tried to keep Japan from needed supplies was an enemy.

Before the Attack

Admiral Yamamoto American education Brilliant tactician Did NOT favor a war

with the US

Yamamoto

When he saw he could not stop Japan from a war with the US – it was his duty to try to make Japan win.

America: The Sleeping Giant

“America is a sleeping giant. Once awakened, his wrath will by mighty.”– Yamamoto

Japan negotiates with the US

October – December 1941.

BUT: US had cracked Japanese coded messages.

US KNEW on November 27 and December 6 an attack was going to happen.

Before Pearl Harbor

But what the US DIDN’T Know was WHERE the attack would be.

Why Pearl Harbor?

Little known port Half the fleet would

be there in December The harbor is only 3

miles square

December 7, 1941

Shortly after 7 AM it started.

Specifics of the Attack

The Arizona Hit by 1,760 lb. Bomb

in the forward ammo magazine.

Went down in 9 minutes

Half the dead of Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941

By 9:45 the attack was over.

2,400 lives lost 1,200 injured 200 warplanes destroyed 18 warships sunk or

heavily damaged– 8 of the nine battleships of

the fleet.

Back in Washington DC

The Japanese blew it.– Diplomatically

speaking.– The Declaration of

War on the US came AFTER the attack.

Yamamoto knew Japan would lose too

The three primary targets weren’t in the harbor when they attacked.– The Enterprise– The Lexington– The Saratoga

FDR

“December 7, a day that will live in infamy.”– FDR, Declaration of

War speech

The West Virginia