Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War
by: Bryan Peter
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http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/firstfamily/masthead_image/32fr_header_sm.jpg?1250884571
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London Conference
Tydings-McDuffie Act
Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act
Tripartite Pact
Johnson Debt Default Act
Spanish-Civil War
Quarantine Speech
Russo-German nonaggression pact
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Cash-and-Carry
Neutrality Act of 1939
Battle of Britain
Wendell L. Willkie
Lend-Lease Act
Atlantic Charter
Attack of Pearl Harbor
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Why was Franklin D. Roosevelt a very
influential person during this time?
What was a main thing that Franklin D.
Roosevelt wanted to change when he became
President?
What caused WW2 to start in the European
Countries?
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The London conference was oringaly set up in
1933, the goal for this conference was to try
and create an international fix to the Great
Depression. The United states did not send a
representative and as a result nothing was
accomplished.
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The United States never really liked having
the islands of the Philippines and all they did
was cause them problems so in 1934 the
Tydings-McDuffie Act was passed which said
the Philippines would become independent in
12 years.
In 1934 Franklin D. Roosevelt recognized the
Soviet Union in a hope of possibly trading
with them, but this angered the Americans
because the Soviet Union was a communist
nation.
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When Franklin D. Roosevelt became president
in his inaugural address that he wanted the
United States to become better “Neighbors”
with the Latin American countries. He took
the U.S. military out of the Latin American
countries. The Mexicans tried to to test this
good neighbor policy that FDR put into place
by taking American oil properties, but FDR
did not over react and did not use military
force proving he was serious about this
policy.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Secretary of
State Cordell Hull thought that lower tariffs
helped generate more trade so he passed the
Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act which
lowered tariffs. This started a trend of having
lower tariffs rather than high tariffs which
lasted until after WW2.
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After WW1 and all the countries realized the
depression that was created some of their
leaders turned to totalitarian regimes which
basically means a dictatorship. Germany,
Italy, and the USSR are some of the countries
that went to this. Germany and Italy’s leaders
connected together and eventually Japan
joined them with the Tripartite Pact.
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This group of three nations started to
“prepare for war” by attacking small countries
that could not defend themselves. Even
thought the U.S. knew this was wrong they
did not want to get pulled into the European
problems like they did in WW1. One way they
tried to prevent this was with the Johnson
Debt Default Act which said if a country had a
debt with the U.S. they could not borrow
anymore money from the U.S.
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In 1935, 1936, and 1937 congress passed
Neutrality Acts hoping to stay out of wars
that they should not be involved in and to try
not to make the same mistake made in WW1,
but with WW2 came different circumstances
and they said they would stay neutral no
matter what.
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The Spanish-Civil War was in a way a preview
of WW2 because it was the fascist fighting
against the republic and although the U.S.
wanted the republic to win they could not
offer and did not offer any help, but Hitler
and other fascist leaders helped out the
fascist leader in Spain who was then the
victor of the war.
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In 1937 Japan went and invaded china, but
since Franklin D. Roosevelt did not consider
this a war trade was not cut off between them
and the U.S.
Also during this time Franklin D. Roosevelt
gave a speech called the Quarantine Speech
hoping to make the American citizens be
against the communist countries.
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During this Hitler was busy doing things over
in Germany, first he violated the Treaty of
Versailles in two ways and then he wrote a
book which led to the Germans persecuting
the Jewish people.
Also he took Austria and said that he wanted
the German people to be most of the
population in Sudetenland.
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In 1939 Germany and Russia signed the RussoGerman Nonaggression Pact which basically said
they would not fight against each other.
As a result Hitler decided he wanted to attack
Poland, knowing that Britain and France said if
Germany attacked Poland they would retaliate
they attacked Poland anyway. This now meant
that WW2 had started.
Due to the neutrality acts the U.S. was not
allowed to get involved, but FDR passed a
Neutrality Act of 1939 which said the U.S. could
sell war materials on a Cash-and-Carry basis
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The German military used a very quick, but
brutal attacking system which helped them
conquer many places very quickly. They used
planes, tanks, and ground troops. The attack
on France was very quick and short and
France surrendered very quickly, luckily the
French troops were able to get away and now
Britain was the last European country between
the U.S. and Germany
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Due to the fact that Britain was the last
country between the U.S. and Germany
Franklin D. Roosevelt started to strengthen
the military by having 1.2 million troops
trained each year and 800,000 reserves. The
main concern was that Germany would try
and attack the different colonies of Latin
America
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Next country to be attacked by Germany was
Britain, Hitler decided to start by using
bombing to gain control of the air, but as a
result Britain’s air force fought back and the
first all air war called the Battle of Britain.
The isolationists and interventionists both
tried to have FDR on there side and as a
result the U.S. started to be leaning towards
intervention in the war.
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In 1940 was another election year and
Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated to run
for his third term as President against
Wendell L. Willkie. One thing that he
promised if elected was to not send
Americans to a foreign war, this promise
ended up back firing against him.
Franklin D. Roosevelt won 449-82
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At this time Britain was in need for money,
but Franklin D. Roosevelt did not want to be
owed thoughts of money like in WW1, so
instead of loaning money he wanted to loan
them weapons and such.
As a result the Lend-Lease Act was passed
and in little time America had sent over $50
billion dollars worth of supplies to the Allie
troops.
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In 1941 Germany attacked Russia which made
the democracies happy because Germany and
Russia would beat each other up. Also during
this time the Atlantic Charter was formed and
agreed to by the Soviet Union, Britain, and
America it went along with some of Wilson’s
14 points from WW1.
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Trying to get the war materials from the U.S.
to Britain turned out to be very challenging
with the German U-Boats around so FDR used
the escorting system by having the merchant
ships escorted to Iceland by U.S. warships
and then Britain would have to figure it out
from there. Due to the attacks by Germans on
U.S. warships congress trashed the neutrality
act of 1939 and said that merchant ships
could be armed when in combat areas.
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Japan was still trying to become a big power
nation and were still in control of the war in
China so the U.S. created an embargo against
them and cut off oil to them which angered
them.
The U.S. figured that they would try to
retaliate, but they were not sure how and they
never thought the Japanese would attack
Hawaii.
They were wrong and on December 7, 1941
Japan had a surprise attack of Pearl Harbor.
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Now that they had been forced into the war
the U.S. was not going to hold back anything,
because for most of the war the U.S. had
been wanting to stop everything that Japan
and Germany had been doing.
On December 8, 1941 U.S. declare war on
Japan, then Germany and Italy dclared against
the U.S. and the U.S. declared right back, the
U.S. was officailly in WW2.
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1-What was the goal of the London Conference?
2-What Act released the Philippines from the
U.S.?
3-What is the Tripartite Pact?
4-Why was the Spanish-Civil War a preview of
WW2?
5-How did Germany attack France?
6-How did the U.S. help out Britain? What Act was
this?
7-True of False Franklin D. Roosevelt had more
than 2 terms as President.
8-True or False The Atlantic Charter had some
ideas from Wilson’s 14 points.
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1-Create an international fix to the Great
depression.
2-Tydings-McDuffe Act
3-Pact created by Germany, Italy, and Japan
4-Because it was Fascist government v.s.
Republican government
5-very quickly with planes, tanks, and ground
troops
6-By giving them war materials and supplies and
it was the Lend-Lease Act
7-True
8-True