Unit 5: From
Isolationism to
World War
AH.HI.F21 Notes
Content Statement 21
• During the 1930s, the U.S. government
attempted to distance the country from
earlier interventionist policies in the
Western Hemisphere as well as retain an
isolationist approach to events in Europe
and Asia until the beginning of WWII.
Intervention in Latin America
• Monroe Doctrine – stated any colonization in North
America would be viewed as a threat requiring U.S.
intervention
• Roosevelt Corollary – reserved the right of the United
States to interfere in Latin America
• Both passed by Theodore Roosevelt challenging
American isolationist practices
• Attempted to keep Latin America free of European
influences
• Good Neighbor Policy – passed by Franklin Roosevelt
forbidding intervention in Latin American affairs forcing a
return to isolationism in 1930
Neutrality Acts
• Attempts to isolate the U.S. from the
problems erupting in Asia and Europe
• Created weapons embargos with other
countries who were at war or involved in a civil
war (Spain)
• Limited loans
Failures of Treaty of Versailles
• Germany saw nothing fair in accepting all blame
for WWI, losing all overseas colonies, and border
territories
• Soviets lost territory as well
• Worldwide depression and economic struggle
• Countries began to turn to authoritarian leaders
to solve economic and social problems
Joseph Stalin – “Man of Steel”
• Ioseb Besarionis dze
Jughashvili
• Made agricultural and
industrial growth primary
goals
• Abolished all privately owned
farms and replaced them with
collectives (govt. owned
farms worked by families)
• All economic activity was
placed under govt. control
• Eliminated anyone who was a
threat to his power
Joseph Stalin – “Man of Steel”
• Historians estimate he was
responsible for the deaths of
8 to 13 million people
• Many people died from
famine as well
• Totalitarian government –
individuals have no rights and
all opposition is suppressed
Famine in the Ukraine
Famine in the Ukraine
Gulags
Gulag
Benito Mussolini – “Il Duce”
• Established
totalitarian regime in
Italy
• Was a powerful
public speaker
• Mussolini and
followers (Black
Shirts) marched to
Rome demanding
power
Black Shirts
Fascist/Nazi Salute
Benito Mussolini
• “Italy wants peace, work, and
calm. I will give these things with
love if possible, with force if
necessary.”
Benito Mussolini
Fascism
• Stressed extreme nationalism
• Placed the interest of the state
above those of individuals
• Power should rest with one strong
leader and a small group of
devoted party members
• Favored military expansion
• Extreme censorship throughout
country
Adolf Hitler – “Der Fuhrer”
• A former soldier of WWI
• Joined the National Socialist
German Worker’s Party (Nazis)
and quickly became leader
• Powerful public speaker who
promised to bring Germany
out of chaos
• Appointed Chancellor of
Germany in 1933 and
established Third Reich
Mein Kampf – “My Struggle”
• Book written by Hitler which
became the plan of action for Nazi
Party
• Displayed extreme anti-Semitism
(hatred of Jews)
• Spoke of racial purification – Aryan
(blonde hair/blue eyes) was
superior race
• Jews, Slavs and other non-white
races were inferior
Mein Kampf – “My Struggle”
• ...the personification of the devil as the symbol
of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew.
-Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
• “The application of force alone, without moral
support based on a spiritual concept, can never
bring about the destruction of an idea or arrest
the propagation of it, unless one is ready and
able ruthlessly to exterminate the last upholders
of that idea even to a man, and also wipe out
any tradition which it may tend to leave behind.”
Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
Nazi Propaganda
Appeasement
• Hitler believed Germany needed more
living space
• Many countries viewed this as a serious
threat but wanted to remain isolationist
• Appeasement – giving in to demands to
satisfy an aggressor
• Munich Conference-France and UK
allowed Germany to take Czechoslovakia
without conflict, as long as Hitler agreed
not to take any more land
Aid to Allies
• Cash and carry policy – replaced neutrality acts allowing the
sale of war goods providing other countries organized
transportation and paid in cash
• Destroyer-for Bases Agreement –Roosevelt's compromise for
helping Britain as he could not sell Britain US destroyers
without defying the Neutrality Act; Britain received 50 old but
still serviceable US destroyers in exchange for giving the US the
right to build military bases on British Islands in the Caribbean.
• Lend-Lease Policy – U.S. shipped $50 billion in supplies to “the
government of any country whose defense the President
deems vital to the defense of the United States.”
• Atlantic Charter – stated the overall goals of the war for the
Allies in defeating the Nazis
Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941)
• 180 planes launched from six aircraft carriers.
• By 9:30 the last Japanese planes soared off after
continuously attacking Pearl Harbor for a hour
and a half.
• 1,178 wounded
• 2,403 Americans were killed
• 21 ships sank or damaged
• Survival of three aircraft carriers prove crucial to
the war’s outcome
• “A date that will live in infamy”
US DECLARES WAR!
• December 8, 1941US declares war on
Japan
• December 11, 1941US declares war on
Germany