The Coming of World War II
Notes Chapter 25 Section 1
Objective:
Trace the changes in American policy from isolationism to
involvement in the war in Europe and Asia.
Rise of Dictators
Rise of dictatorships during 1920s in
Germany, Italy, and Japan
• Fascism:
-totalitarian organization of government
and society by a single-party dictatorship,
intensely nationalist, racist, militarist, and
imperialist
Fascism
Fasces
A Latin word
referring to a
bundle of
sticks bound
to the handle
of an axe.
Characteristics Fascism …
 Censorship
 No criticism of the government
 Schools teach fascist
philosophy
 No individual freedom
Characteristics Fascism …
 Private ownership
 Fascist powers look back in
history to their nation’s great
and glorious past.
 “War is the most noble goal of
man”- Hitler
Communism v. Fascism
Poor and
underdeveloped
countries – Russia and
China
Pre-democratic
Coercive way of
industrializing an
underdeveloped society
Wealthier and advanced
technology – German,
Italy, and Japan
Post-democratic
Based on brutality and
mass support – the more
brutal, the more popular
Propaganda
Appealed to: industrialists
and land owners and
lower middle class
Opposed communism
Italy – Benito Mussolini
Short changed in
Treaty of Versailles
– gained few
territories
1919 formed Fascist
party with other
veterans
Wanted to restore
the former glory that
was Rome’s
Mussolini – Il Duce
1922 threatened to march on Rome unless his authority was
recognized
King Victor Emmanuel III asked him to become prime minister
1925 declared dictatorship
– Efficiency and order would
make Italy great
– Suspended elections
– Centralized the economy
– Modernized the military
– Make the Mediterranean
an Italian Sea – Attacked
Ethiopia in 1935
Hitler
Corporal in WWI
Enraged at
Germany’s defeat
and terms of
Versailles Treaty
National Socialist
German Workers
Party – Nazi
Fascist
Anti-Semite
Munich Putsche
November 1923
Attempted to seize
Munich government
Guilty of high treason
Sentenced to 5 years
Served 9 months
Wrote Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Book written while Hitler was
jailed
Diagnosed Germany’s
problems and how to cure
them
Expressed hatred for the
Jews and Slavic people
Hatred for communism
Said Germany needed
Lebensraum
Anti-Semitism
Hatred of the Jews
Blamed Jews for Germany’s
problems
Germans were the Master Race
Ordered boycott of Jewish shops,
burned books, imprisoned Jews in
concentration camps
Conditions in Germany
People had little faith in the weak existing democratic
government
A multi-party system hindered the growth of a strong
“center” party
Fear of communism
Avenge defeat of WWI
Unemployment severe, inflation, depression
German middle class hungered for stability – even at the
cost of liberty
Police and military high command offered no serious
opposition when Nazis used strong-arm methods to gain
control
Rise to Power
1920 – National Socialist Workers Party
1923 – Tried to seize Munichjailed for 9
months
Promised to stabilize country and rebuild
economy
Promised to revive German Empire
1933 – Nazis largest party in Reichstag
Hitler named chancellor
Hitler Seizes Power
Reichstag burns
down
Hitler suspended
civil liberties
Received dictatorial
powers
New government –
Third Reich
Der Fuhrer
“How
fortunate
for leaders
that men
do not
think.”
- A. Hitler
Book burning - May 10, 1933
Hitler Repudiates the Treaty of
Versailles
1. Insisted on equality of arms
2. Announced withdrawal from
League of Nations
3. 1935 – announced rearmament
of Germany
The Nuremberg Rally
German
Propaganda
Posters
"Hitler is building.
Help him. Buy
German goods."
Hitler strengthens his power…
1933: Concentration camps
1935: The Nuremberg Laws…
1938: Kristallnacht – “The Night of Broken
Glass”…
The Nuremberg Laws
Nazi Racial Legislation
Laws designed to…
- Purify Germany
- Define citizenship
- Define the position of
Jews in the Third Reich.
The Nuremberg Laws
Nazi Racial Legislation
A few examples 1933-1939:
suspends Jewish doctors from the city’s charity services.
removes Jews from government service.
The Gun Law excludes Jewish gun merchants.
invalidates all German passports held by Jews.
– Jews must surrender their old passports, which will become valid only after the
letter “J” had been stamped on them.
Exclusion of Jews from German Economic Life closes all Jewishowned businesses.
expels all Jewish children from public schools.
restricts the freedom of movement of Jews.
Jim Crow Laws
US Racial Legislation
A few examples:
Nurses No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in
wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed.
Alabama
Education The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be
conducted separately. Florida
Intermarriage It shall be unlawful for a white person to marry anyone except a white
person. Any marriage in violation of this section shall be void. Georgia
Textbooks Books shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored
schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them. North Carolina
Lunch Counters No persons, firms, or corporations, who or which furnish meals to
passengers at station restaurants or station eating houses, in times limited by
common carriers of said passengers, shall furnish said meals to white and colored
passengers in the same room, or at the same table, or at the same counter.
South Carolina
1938: Kristallnacht
"Night of Broken Glass"
Jewish teenager murders a German official in Paris
Violent pogrom (persecution) against Germany’s
Jews
Initiated on the 15th anniversary of the failed Munich
putsch.
1,000 synagogues burned & 7,000 Jewish businesses
looted
Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools & homes looted
30,000 arrested for “being Jewish”
Jewish business not allowed to reopen
Curfews on Jews leaving their homes
1931-32
World Events:
Japan invades
Manchuria &
Shanghai
American
Response:
Diplomatic
protest
No Action
Japan
Wanted to be a world power
Chain of islands in Pacific
Limited resources
Japan needed raw materials for industrial
economy
Depended upon the U.S. for iron, coal,
and petroleum
Japanese Resentment
Material dependency
Lack of gains from Treaty of Versailles
1922 Washington Naval Disarmament Treaty
Restrictions on immigration to US
High U.S. tariffs prohibited Japanese imports
to U.S.
Led to prolonged depression in Japan
Two factions in Japan
Moderates –
wanted strict
observance of
treaties and
conciliations to
U.S.
Militarists – wanted
an end to the
power of the West
in the W. Pacific
Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
Japanese Monroe Doctrine
Japan announces interest in maintenance of
order in the W. Pacific
1931 Japan attacked Manchuria
1932 Japan controlled Manchuria
–
–
–
–
Set up a puppet government
Manchukuo
League of Nations condemned Japanese aggression
Japan withdraws from the League
1935
World Event:
Italy invades Ethiopia
American Response:
The Neutrality Acts are
passed
Italo – Ethiopian War 1935-36
Italy attacked primitive
Ethiopia with a modern air
force
Emperor Haille Salasi
appealed to the L of N
Italy &
Ethiopia
1935 Italy
invades the
African nation of
Ethiopia
More empty
threats by
League
1936 Ethiopia
falls
League branded Italy the aggressor
–Minor economic sanctions
–Failed to embargo oil
–Italy conquered and annexed
Ethiopia
American Response Isolationism
Disillusioned by WWI
– 70% polled feel WWI a mistake
– Nye Committee “merchants of death”
College students
– 39% refuse to fight
– 33% only if US attacked
– Nationwide student strike opposing war prep
Spans political spectrum
– Keep America Out - unionists
– America First Committee – Henry Ford – Charles
Lindbergh – denounced any move by the gov’t
toward involvement
The Neutrality Acts
Designed to keep the US out of
war…
– 1935: Banned war supplies
– 1935: Forbid travel
– 1936: Prohibited loans
– 1937: Included the Spanish CW
– 1939: “cash-and-carry”…
– Replaced by “lend-lease” …
Neutrality Acts
Designed to avoid the same issues that caused
U.S. to enter WWI
1st Neutrality Act
– Prohibited sale of war implements to
belligerents
– Prohibited loans to belligerents
– Prohibited Am. from sailing on ships of
belligerents
– Restricted entry of U.S. merchant ships into
war zones
1936
World Event:
Germany rearms
& sends troops
into the Rhineland
American
Response:
Britain, France &
U.S.
No action
1936
The Axis Powers
Germany - Italy
Rome-Berlin Axis
Supporting
“parallel interests”
The Axis Powers
 Axis- a straight line around
which a geometric figure can
rotate.
 Draw a line between Rome &
Berlin… The two dictators
wanted the rest of Europe to
revolve around their regimes.
Guernica, Picasso 1937
1936
World Event:
Civil War in Spain
General Francisco
Franco
American Response:
Neutrality Acts
amended
Spanish Civil War
1936-37
Rebels – army, Churchmen, fascists –
Franco and Nationalist forces
Gov’t of Spain (The Republic):
anticlericals, industrial workers,
socialists, and communists, foreign
volunteers
Italy and Germany sent “volunteers” to
help the Nationalist
Franco rules from 1939 until his death
in 1975
Spanish Civil War
27 nations involved
England and France embargoed arms to both
sides because of danger of world war
Majority of Am. refused to take sides
Minority of Am. supported loyalists – Abraham
Lincoln Brigade
U.S. invoked neutrality laws and refused to sell
arms
Dress rehearsal for WWII
“This nation will remain a
neutral nation…
I hate war… I hope the
United States will keep
out of this war.
I believe this is wise.”
- President Roosevelt
Fireside Chat, Aug. 14,1936
1937
World Event:
Japan begins full scale
invasion of China
* WW II officially starts
in Asia
American Response:
Diplomatic protest
Congress appropriates
$1 billion to expand
the navy
Japanese aggression
1937 – Invasion of
Northern China
Captures Nanjing and
slaughters 300,000
Chinese civilians
Believe America is weak
– Neutral position on Manchurian
Crisis
– Steps toward Philippine
independence
– Efforts toward American Naval
disarmament
Undeclared War
July, 1937 – an “undeclared” war on China
Americans are sympathetic and do not
invoke neutrality laws
FDR – Quarantine Speech – denounced
aggressor nations and asked peace-loving
nations to preserve order, as “a
community approves and joins in
quarantine” against disease
1938
World Events:
Germany annexes
Austria (Anschluss) &
Sudetenland
The Munich Pact is signed
Munich Conference
1938
Great Britain and France met
with Hitler
Hitler promises Sudetenland
“last territorial claim”
PM Chamberlain of G.B. said:
“We have won peace in our
time.”
**Appeasement** Keeps the
peace by giving in to Hitler’s
demands
Emboldens Hitler
The Munich Pact
1939
World Event:
• Germany invades
Czechoslovakia
• Stalin & Hitler sign a
Non-Aggression Pact
• Hitler invades Poland
from the west
• Stalin invades from the
east
–
–
–
–
–
Poland
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Finland
Blitzkrieg (lightning war)
•
•
Germany attacks Poland – Sept. 1, 1939
G.B. and France declare war against
Germany – Sept. 3, 1939.
1939
American
Response:
The Neutrality Acts
are amended to
“cash & carry”
1940
World Event:
•
Germany invades
Denmark, Norway,
Holland, Belgium &
France
WW II officially starts
in Europe
Blitzkrieg…
– Dunkirk…
– The Battle for
Britain…
1940
American
Response:
•
•
•
Selective Service Act…
Destroyers for Bases
Deal…
Lend-Lease Plan…
Arsenal of Democracy
Roosevelt moved to help Great Britain – PM
Winston Churchill asked for destroyers to
convoy supplies across the Atlantic
FDR gave 50 old American ships in return for
sites on which to build 8 naval and air bases
Lend – lease: The U.S. will lend-lease goods to
any country whose defense is necessary for the
defense of U.S.
Fall of France
Maginot Line
Germans invade through the Ardennes Forest
Italy declares war against France
Evacuation
“Miracle at
Dunkirk” –
338,000
British
soldiers
saved
Fall of Paris
Occupied France – German occupied north and west –
disarmed
– Vichy France – Marshall Petain – collaborationist regime
Free French led by Charles de Gaulle escapes to GB
The Axis Powers
Germany - Italy - Japan
1940 – Tripartite Pact
Rome – Berlin –Tokyo
Axis
Japan sought control of SE Asia
1940 –began to
attack European
possessions in SE
Asia
1940 – signed an
alliance with
Germany and Italy
1941 – invaded
southern IndoChina – a colony
of France
Election of 1940
Democrats “drafted” FDR – Henry Wallace
was his running mate
Wendell Wilkie nominated by the
Republicans
Issues:
– Third term
– Intervention
FDR won an unprecedented third term
1941
World Event:
German invasion of the
USSR
Operation
Barbarossa…
Battle of Britain
Round the clock bombing
Ultra and the development of radar
Role of RAF
Operation “Sea Lion” - Postponed
We shall defend our Island,
whatever the cost may be.
We shall fight on the
beaches, we shall fight on the
landing grounds, we shall
fight in the fields, and in the
streets, we shall fight on the
hills; we shall never
surrender …W. Churchill
Atlantic Charter (1941)
Roosevelt and Churchill identify
“common principles”
– Freedom from fear, want, and
tyranny
– Condemned aggression
– Free trade
– Affirmed national selfdetermination
– Disarmament
– Collective security
– Foundation for UN
Undeclared War in the Atlantic
Germans cut off England
“wolf – packs” hunt Am. supply ships
– September, 1941 – US destroyer Greer attacked
– Oct. 31 – destroyer Reuben James sunk with 115 crew members
Summer 1941 10,000 tons of Allied ships sank daily
FDR ordered US ships to shoot German subs on sight
– Ordered our merchant ships to be armed
– U.S. began to convoy ships
1941
American Response:
FDR: The Four Freedoms
Speech…
Freedom
From
Fear
Freedom
From
Want
Freedom
of
Speech
Freedom
of
Worship
Sunday morning,
Dec. 7, 1941
Pearl Harbor
Tension between U.S. and Japan: 1940 –
the U.S. stopped selling airplanes to
Japan – terminated trade agreementsembargoed scrap metal and oil to Japan
Japan attacked French Indo-China – U.S.
froze Japanese assets in U.S.
U.S. naval fleet in Pearl Harbor stood in
the way of Japanese dominance in Asia
and Pacific
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor – Ford Island
The Attack
Knock out the Pacific fleet before and all-out
military conflict
Dec. 7, 1941
Lost: 5 battleships, 3 cruisers, several
smaller vessels, 200 airplanes, 2,400 people
Missed: Aircraft carriers
Dec. 8 – U.S. declared war on Japan
Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.
The Pearl Harbor attack…
The largest surprise attack in
history
353 planes… Launched from
274 miles away
Two waves:
1st : 7:53 AM -183 planes
2nd: 8:40 AM -170 planes
Pearl Harbor
The damages…
 2,400 dead
 1,200 wounded
 8 battleships
 3 destroyers
 3 cruisers
 188 planes
Japanese photo of the Pearl Harbor attack…
USS SHAW
USS ARIZONA
Battleships USS WEST VIRGINIA
& USS TENNESSEE
USS CALIFORNIA
USS CALIFORNIA
USS WEST VIRGINIA (left)
& USS ARIZONA (right)
USS OKLAHOMA
USS NEVADA beached
P-40 - WHEELER ARMY AIR
FIELD
Destroyers
USS CASSIN &
USS DOWNES
WHEELER ARMY AIR FIELD
B-17- HICKAM ARMY AIR BASE
Map of the Axis Powers 1942
“I fear that all we
have done is
awaken a sleeping
giant, and fill him
with a terrible
resolve."
- General Yamato
of the Imperial Japanese Navy
FDR requests a declaration of war…
Pearl Harbor
"Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 - a
date which will live in infamy the United States of America
was suddenly and deliberately
attacked by naval and air
forces of the Empire of Japan."
-Franklin Roosevelt, December 8, 1941
"...Every single
man, woman,
and child is
partner
in the most
tremendous
undertaking of
our history."
FDR
A Global War
Dec. 11 1941
 Germany & Italy declare war on
the U.S.
 Hitler declares war against the
“half Judaized and the other half
Negrified” America
 The U.S. acknowledges a state of
war
Aerial photo USS Arizona Memorial