Increase America’s role in the world while
simultaneously keeping the nation free of
burdensome commitments that might limit its
own freedom of action
FDR: Keep the U. S. the master of her own
fate; avoid important global commitments that
might reduce our ability to pursue our needs
Americans pursued a somewhat
isolationist foreign policy
while trying to be an international
voice to reduce money spent on
arms
Charles Evans Hughes
U. S. membership in the
League of Nations no
longer possible
Legislation in 1921
declaring the war with
Germany over
Negotiated separate
peace treaty with each of
the former Central Powers
Thought the U.S. would receive all of the
advantages of the Versailles Treaty without
the burdensome responsibilities
Pursuit of Peace
Washington Naval Conference--1921
U. S., Great Britain, France, Japan,
Italy Russia not included because
of Communist government
Scrap large portion of existing
naval fleets.
Build no new ships for 10 years
World’s first disarmament pact
Kellogg-Briand Pact—1928
64 nations renounced war as an
instrument of national policy.
American Secretary of State,
Frank B. Kellogg and
French Foreign Minister
Aristide Briand.
Not enforceable—no
provision for military or
economic force against
violators.
U. S. Financial Policy Causes
Financial Problems in Europe
$10 billion loaned by U. S.
to Britain and France during WW I
1920s—trouble repaying loans
Two ways to collect money:
export more to the U.S. or
collect reparations payments
from Germany
U. S. Financial Policy Causes
Financial Problems in Europe
U. S. Fordney-McCumber Tariff—
raised tariffs on imports to 60%
What was the result?
Americans did not buy British &
French products—therefore they
could not use export income to
repay U. S. debt.
U. S. Financial Policy Causes
Financial Problems in Europe
Britain and France therefore
demanded reparations payments
from Germany.
Germany defaulted on payments
1922—French troops march into
Ruhr region of Germany
U. S. Financial Policy Causes
Financial Problems in Europe
American Charles G. Dawes
traveled to Germany to
negotiate American
loans to Germany.
The Dawes Plan—U. S.
banks loan $2.5
billion to Germany.
U. S. Financial Policy Causes
Financial Problems in Europe
Bad feelings all around
Henry Stimson
Secretary of State under Hoover
1931: Japanese invaded Manchuria
Henry Stimson
Hoped that moderates would regain
control in Japan
When conquest of Manchuria
complete: toothless warnings to
Japan (moral suasion)
Hoover forbade him to cooperate
with the League of Nations in
imposing economic sanctions
Stimson refused to grant diplomatic recognition
to Japanese held territories
Japan unconcerned; 1932, invaded China
Henry Stimson
Foreign policy based almost entirely
on the nation’s immediate economic
needs
Hoover: only by resolving the
question of war debts and reinforcing
the gold standard could the U. S.
economy hope to recover
Cordell Hull
Abandoned the commitments of the
Hoover Administration to settle the
issue of war debts through international agreement
Simply let the issue die
April 1934: law forbidding U. S. banks
from making loans to any nation in
default on its debts
Stopped the old circular system by which debt
payments continued only by virtue of
increasing U. S. loans
War-debt payments from every nation except
Finland stopped for good
Cordell Hull
Reciprocal Trade Act of 1934
Authorized the administration to
negotiate treaties lowering tariffs
by as much as 50% in return for
reciprocal reductions by other
nations
By 1939, Hull: new treaties with 21
countries, increasing U. S. exports
by 40%
Cordell Hull
Good Neighbor Policy
1930s: U. S. increased
imports from other
nations of Western
Hemisphere by 100%+
New U. S. attitude
toward intervention in
South America
“No state has the right to intervene in the internal
or external affairs of another.”
Economic force rather than military force
Treaty of Versailles a
total failure.
Germans angered and
humiliated.
Soviets resented loss of land
Lost land that became Poland, Finland, Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania (the Baltic states)
Democratic states had
emerged in
Czechoslovakia
Germany
Austria
Italy
Democratic states had
emerged in
Romania
Bulgaria
Greece
The new states lacked
democratic traditions
Most had huge war debts, widespread hunger, homelessness,
and unemployment.
Several of the democracies
could not handle all the problems,
and dictators took over.
The Soviet Union
V. I. Lenin
became first
leader of Soviet
Union 1922;
died 1924.
Joseph Stalin took
power
The “Man of Steel”
Sought to create the model
Communist state.
The Soviet Union
1927—stamped out
private enterprise,
especially private farms
Collectivized farms, owned by
the state
Five-year-plans to make a backward, agricultural country into
an industrial power
1928, 1933, 1937
By 1939—USSR the
world’s third largest
industrial power behind
the U. S. and Germany
Stalin: ruthless and brutal—used
KGB secret police to terrorize the
country in the Great Purges.
Had own brother killed
Had closest allies killed
Thousands—millions sent to
the Gulag in Siberia
The Soviet Union
Totalitarian government
Executed Communist
Party officials, bureaucrats, and
army officers as “enemies of the
people.”
8-13 million killed directly;
millions more died because of
famine caused by Stalin’s
agricultural policies. Up to
35 million died 1927-1939.
Italy
1919—Benito Mussolini
began his rise to
power in Italy.
Fascism—new
political movement
with a strong,
central government
headed by a
powerful dictator.
Goal: second Roman empire
Italy
People feared a takeover by Communists and
supported Mussolini
1921, Fascist Party won 35
seats in Italian parliament
1922, thousands of Fascists
marched on Rome.
King Victor Emanuel let Mussolini
form a new government
Il Duce made “trains run on time”
Germany
1919 Adolph Hitler
joined the Nationalist Socialist
German Workers’ (Nazi) Party
Nothing socialist about the
party
Basics of Nazism in book
Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
Goal: unite all Aryans, forming
a master race
Germany
Inferior races (Jews,
Slavs, nonwhites) only fit to serve
Aryans.
For Germany to thrive, needed
lebensraum (living space)
Nazis used Depression to make
a case for power
March 1932—Nazis more seats
in the legislature than any other
party.
Germany
1933, President Paul
von Hindenberg of the Weimar
Republic, appointed Hitler
Chancellor of Germany
Hitler dismantled the Weimar
Republic & established the Third
Reich
(First Reich, Holy Roman Empire
of Charlemagne; Second Reich,
short one of Bismarck in 19th
century)
Japan
Nationalistic leaders
took control of government
Led by Hideki Tojo
shared Hitler’s
desire for more
“living space” for
its growing
population
Also were militarists
Japan
Militarists still expressed
loyalty to godlike Emperor
Hirohito
1931,Japanese invaded
Manchuria
League of Nations tried
but could do nothing to
stop Japan. Impotent!
1933, Hitler pulls Germany out
of the League of Nations
Correctly sensing that the World
War I victors were too weak to
stop him, Hitler begins blatantly
violating the Versailles Treaty
in 1935.
1935—Germany begins a
military build-up.
1936—Germany sends troops to
occupy the Rhineland (demilitarized by the
Versailles Treaty)
1936—RomeBerlin Axis Pact
1935: Mussolini’s army
invades Ethiopia
League of Nations
attempted an
economic boycott.
No effect
Ousted emperor,
Haile Selassie: “It is
us today, it will be you
tomorrow.”
The United States
Policy of neutrality
Trusted in Kellogg-Briand Pact
Strong anti-war sentiment
1935: Congress passed first in a
series of Neutrality Acts—to keep
the U. S. out of future wars.
Outlawed loans or arms sales to
nations at war
Spain
1936: Spanish Civil War
Royalists (loyal to elected
government) vs. Fascists under
Francisco Franco
Hitler & Mussolini
backed Franco.
3,000 U. S. volunteers:
Abraham Lincoln
Brigade: fought
against Franco
Spain
While Italy and Germany
sent troops, aircraft, weapons
and tanks to help Franco, the
Western democracies only sent
food and clothing to help the
royalists.
1939, Franco’s forces win
600,000 lives
$15 billion
November 5, 1937:
Hitler decides the time
is right to begin the
quest for lebensraum
Focus: Austria &
Czechoslovakia
“Germany’s
problems
can only be
solved by
use of
force.”
March 14, 1938:
Anschluss (union) with Austria
after German troops had marched
in, unopposed, on March 12.
Rest of world did nothing
Sudetenland:
mountainous
region of
Czechoslovakia
with 3-million
German-speaking
people
German troops massed
at Czech border
Hysterical lies about Czech
treatment of German-speaking
people in German press
Work of Hitler’s Nazi
propaganda chief,
Paul Joseph Goebbels
Britain and France
promise to protect
Czechoslovakia
September 30, 1938,
Hitler invites British Prime
Minister, Neville Chamberlain
and French Premier
Edouard Daladier to
meet with
him in
Munich,
Germany.
Hitler vowed that the
annexation of the
Sudetenland would be his “last
territorial demand.”
Hitler charmed Chamberlain and
Daladier, who believed him.
Chamberlain: “My
friends. . .there has
come back from
Germany peace with
honor. I believe it is
peace in our time.”
Chamberlain’s political
rival, Winston Churchill,
called the Munich
pact a policy of
appeasement.
“Britain and France
had to choose
between war and
dishonor. They chose
dishonor. They will have war”
March 15, 1939,
German troops pour into
Czechoslovakia.
Hitler: “Czechoslovakia has
Ceased to exist.”
Spring 1939,
Goebbels begins
propaganda
campaign charging
Germans in Poland
were being mistreated.
Britain and France
promised protection to
Poland
Some in Germany concerned that
an attack on Poland would bring
the Soviet Union to declare war
on Germany.
August 23, 1939,
MolotovVon Ribentrob
Nonaggression Pact
Germany & USSR
September 1, 1939
Germany attacks Poland beginning
World War II.
Tactics: Blitzkrieg (Lightning War)
September 3, 1939:
Britain and France declare war
on Germany
Poland ceased to exist as a
nation in 3 weeks. During the
last week, the Soviet Union
invaded Poland from the east,
in accordance with the GermanyUSSR pact.
Next: The phony war
Late 1939, Stalin sends
Soviet troops against
Finland
Brutal fighting in
which the outnumbered Finns
fought well, but
eventually lost in
3 months.
April 9, 1940, the
Phony War ends when Germany
invades Denmark and Norway
Germany: the
action “necessary
to protect [those
countries’]
freedom and
independence.”
May, 1940, Germany
attacks Belgium, the Netherlands,
and Luxembourg
France and
Britain
remained
untouched.
June 1940,
Ardennes
Forest
Miracle of
Dunkirk
Maginot Line
Miracle of Dunkirk:
340,000 allied
troops rescued
Italy invades
France a few days
later
June 21, 1940,
Paris falls.
Hitler forces France to
surrender in the same
railroad car where
Germany surrendered
in 1918
Germany controls
northern France. A
puppet government
under Henri Petain
governs southern
France
General Charles De Gaulle
establishes a Free
French government in
England
Hitler next sets his
sights on Great
Britain and prepares
an invasion force.
Because it would require an
amphibious invasion and because
of the strength of the British
navy, Hitler decides to bomb
England first.
Would lead to the Battle of
Britain
Luftwaffe made bombing
runs over England
Goal: control of the skies
Germany: 2,600 planes
under Reichmarshall
Herman Goring
Opposed by the
Royal Air Force (RAF)
Battle of Britain
Germany focused first
on RAF airfields then attacked
cities, especially London
Thousands
of casualties
British used radar, a
new invention, to plot
German attack paths
Major British
advantage
In the end, the RAF defeated the
Luftwaffe. Hitler called off the
invasion of England.
Churchill:
“Never in the field of
human conflict was
so much owed by so
many to so few”
Despite the British victory,
Germany still had upper
hand in Europe.
Roosevelt enforced the
Neutrality Acts with
regard to Spain.
1937: refused to
enforce them when
Japan launched a
new attack on
China.
Japan had not
declared war on
China U. S. sent arms to China
Roosevelt
notes that
the U. S.
must change
the Neutrality
Acts after Hitler’s invasion of Poland
in September 1939.
Asked for a cash and carry provision—
pay cash for war goods, carry home
on own ships.
Neutrality Act of 1939—cash & carry.
September 1940:
Germany (Hitler), Italy (Mussolini)
and Japan (Tojo) sign the Tripartite
Pact becoming the Axis Powers.
Mutual defense; aimed at keeping
the U. S. out of the war.
Roosevelt responds
Sends rifles, machineguns and 50
destroyers to Great Britain
1940: Congress passes first U. S.
peacetime draft—Burke-Wadsworth
Act
Army begins to rebuild
under General George C.
Marshall.
1940: 18th largest army
in the world.
The America First Committee
Opposed intervention in Europe
Robert E. Wood
Charles Lindbergh
Gerald Nye
1940: Roosevelt defeats
Wendell Willkie
Using Lend-Lease Plan, U. S.
becomes the Arsenal of Democracy
$50 billion in aid sent to
Great Britain and the Soviet Union
Under Lend-Lease, U. S. gave aid,
and provided transportation to
any “country whose defense was
vital to the United States.”
Led to
Battle of the North Atlantic—
German U-boat wolf packs
sunk millions of tons of Allied
shipping, including many U. S.
merchant ships.
The Battle of the Atlantic
September 4, 1941: German U-boats
fire two torpedoes at a U. S.
destroyer (The U. S. S. Greer)
September 18, 1941: U.S.S. Pink
Star (merchant ship) torpedoed &
sunk.
Mid-October: destroyer U.S.S. Kearny
torpedoed—11 killed
Mid-October: destroyer U.S.S. Reuben
James sunk—100 killed.
July 1941: Roosevelt
orders U. S. navy to protect LendLease shipments.
U. S. ships permitted to fire on
German U-boats in self-defense
August 1941:
Churchill &
Roosevelt
meet on a warship
off Newfoundland
Agree on Atlantic Charter
U. S. and Great Britain:
1) Seek no territorial expansion
2) Pursue no territorial changes
without consent of inhabitants
3) Respect the right of people to
choose their own form of govt.
4) Promote international free trade
5) Encourage international
cooperation to improve life
6) Build a secure peace
7) Work for disarmament
8) Establish permanent system of
general security.
Fall 1940, Germany
invades and quickly
overwhelms the
Balkan countries
of Yugoslavia
and Greece.
The stage is set for attack on the
Soviet Union.
Operation Barbarosa
Great
Russian
Plain
3d Russian Ally: Vastness
—German supply lines
overextended
The Russian Spring:
A new ally: MUD
The Great Russian
Ally: WINTER
Operation Barbarosa:
Germans round-up Jews and other
Slavs—terrible genocide
German S. S. members
murder civilians in the
Ukraine