Transcript Document
1931 – 1941
Chapter 19
• What changes were taking place in the world after WWI and
how was America responding to those changes?
• What were the causes for WWII?
• What was the Holocaust?
• Why did the United States enter the war?
• Rise of Fascism in Italy
Fascism – a very aggressive,
nationalistic socialism
Fascists believed the state was
more important than the
individual
Fascist states believed in
expansion through the military
Fascist leader in Italy – Benito
Mussolini aka “Il Duce”
Received support from Catholic
Church
• Stalin and the USSR
Russian Revolution 1917 won by
Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
established (USSR) aka Soviet Union
1926 Josef Stalin took over after
Lenin’s death and a subsequent
power struggle
Stalin backed rapid industrialization
and the collectivization of agriculture
Millions died during social turmoil
and famine
• Hitler and the Nazis
Adolf Hitler admired Mussolini
Hitler helped found the National
Socialist German Worker’s Party
(Nazi)
1923 – Nazis attempted to seize
power in Munich – Hitler arrested
In prison wrote Mein Kampf (my
struggle)
The German Volk
Aryans
Lebensraum (living space)
Hatred of Jews
After prison, Hitler began political
rise in Nazi party
1933 Hitler appointed Chancellor
1934 Hitler could rule through
edict under Enabling Act
Hitler also became president and
now in control of the German Army
Der Fuhrer began to rebuild the
army in violation of the Treaty of
Versailles
• Militarists Gain Control of Japan
Many Japanese military officers
blamed democracy and civilian
politicians for the Depression
Japan needed resources for
industry – military wanted to take
them
1931 Japan invaded Manchuria –
officers assassinated the Japanese
prime minister
Military now in control
Military backed by the Japanese
emperor, Hirohito
• American Neutrality
Americans overwhelmingly
isolationist
1935 Neutrality Act – illegal for US
to sell arms to any country at war
1936 Spanish Civil War – Fascists
led by General Francisco Franco
supported by Italy and Germany;
Communists/Republicans
supported by Soviet Union
US banned weapons sales to
countries in civil war
Hitler and Mussolini signed
friendship pact
Japan aligned itself with Germany
and Italy in Anti-Comintern Pact
Japan, Germany, and Italy became
known as the Axis Powers
1937 Neutrality Act – US still
banned arms sales but now any
sales of goods were “cash and
carry”
FDR supported internationalism trade creates prosperity and helps
prevent war
• The Austrian Anschluss
1938 – Hitler called for the
unification of German-speaking
peoples
German troops marched into
Austria and united it with
Germany
Hitler next demanded the
Sudatenland – a region of
Czechoslovakia dominated by
ethnic Germans
Czech crisis resulted in Munich Conference
Convinced Hitler would be satisfied, Britain
and France gave in to his demands
(appeasement)
“Peace in Our Time” – British Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain
1939 Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia
• 1938 – Hitler demanded the
return of the city of Danzig
and transportation rights
through the Polish Corridor
• Britain and France announced
they would come to Poland’s
aid if Germany attacked
• 1939 – Germany and USSR
signed the Non-Aggression
Pact
• Secret deal would divide
Poland between Germany and
USSR
• September 1, 1939 – Germany
invaded Poland from the West
and USSR invaded from the East
• Britain and France declared war
on Germany
• Germany used mobile combined
arms warfare called Blitzkrieg
(lightning war)
• By October 1939 Poland was
defeated
• The Conquest of Western
Europe
After fall of Poland Allies sat
facing Germany
France defended with Maginot
Line
April 1940 - Germany attacked
Norway and Denmark to
secure its iron supply from
Sweden
May 1940 – Germany attacked
Netherlands, Belgium, and
Luxembourg
• French and British forces moved
north to confront German forces
in Belgium
• German armored units burst
through lightly defended border
at the Ardennes Forest –
bypassed Maginot Line
• French and British forces were
trapped in Belgium
• Trapped Allied forces evacuated
at Dunkirk using anything that
could float
• ~338,000 troops saved
• Allies had to leave behind all their
vehicles and heavy weapons
• June 1940 – France surrendered
• Northern France occupied by
Germans
• Rest of France placed under
control of French puppet
government at Vichy
• 1940 Battle of Britain
Hitler expected Britain to
surrender – Britain refused
British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill defiant
Hitler prepared to invade –
needed control of the air for
success
German Luftwaffe attacked
airfields then switched to cities
British air force inflicted great
damage to Luftwaffe – invasion
called off
• Shoah – Jewish word for
catastrophe
• Anti-Semitism strong in Europe
since Middle Ages
• Hitler blamed Jews for Germany’s
defeat in WWI
• Nuremberg Laws – stripped Jews of
citizenship, restricted jobs and
freedoms, forbade marriages with
Jews
• Jew = anyone with at least one
Jewish grandparent
• Kristallnacht
Night of broken glass
Hitler sanctioned attacks on
Jewish people, businesses,
and synagogues
Over 20,000 wealthy Jews
arrested by Gestapo
(German secret police)
Jews forced to pay fines for
the “damages”
• Jews attempted to leave
Germany
• Some migrated successfully to
US including Albert Einstein
• Countries refused to take many
of them including US
• SS St. Louis, filled with Jewish
refugees, was turned back from
Cuba and the US – returned to
Europe
• The Final Solution
Wannsee Conference – meeting
that arrived at decision to
exterminate Jewish population
Concentration Camps – detention
centers where prisoners used as
slave labor
Extermination Camps – usually
attached to concentration camps;
those not able to work: sick, old,
children were executed usually in
gas chambers
• Neutrality Act of 1939
US officially neutral after
Europe went to war
Despite neutrality, FDR did
what he could to help Britain
FDR got Congress to lift ban
on arms sales but it had to
be “cash and carry”
• 1940 Destroyers-for-Bases
US traded 50 WWI
destroyers fro bases in the
Caribbean
• Isolationism
American public divided over
involvement in European affairs
America First Committee strongly
opposed to helping Britain
Election of 1940 – FDR walked
tightrope between neutrality and
helping Britain
FDR re-elected to unprecedented
third term
• The Lend-Lease Act
Britain out of money
Under the Act, US lent war materiel
to Britain and, later, to the USSR
• Hemispheric Defense Zone
Britain losing ships to German UBoats
US could not directly help b/c it was
neutral
US declared the eastern half the
Atlantic a Hemispheric Defense Zone
and used US military to patrol it
• The Atlantic Charter
FDR and Churchill
discussed the
relationship between US
and Britain
US promised to help
Britain more
Fall 1941 German UBoats attacked US
warships
USS Reuben James sank
with 115 sailors
• United States & Japan
US angry at Japanese invasion of
China
1940 Export Control Act – US
blocked sale of scrap metal and oil
to Japan
US sent lend-lease materiel to
China
US froze all Japanese assets in US
US would not lift embargo until
Japan made peace in China
• Pearl Harbor
Japan needed to secure resources in
Asia without interference from US
Decided to knock out US fleet at
Hawaii
December 7, 1941 – attacked US at
Pearl Harbor
Attack knocked out bulk of US Pacific
fleet and killed 2,403 Americans
US declared war on Japan – Germany
and Italy declared war on US