Moving from
Isolationism to War
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

President at the start of World War II
 Elected to four terms as President
*Other important events during presidency:
• Great Depression
Dictatorship

a country, government, or the form of
government in which absolute power is
exercised by a dictator.
EUROPE - DICTATORSHIPS

ITALY
– Benito Mussolini

GERMANY
– Adolf Hitler

SPAIN
– Francisco Franco
Good Neighbor Policy

The United States wanted to become
better friends with their American
neighbors.

Why?
• Rise of dictatorships in Europe and Asia worried U.S.
about a possible rise in Latin America
• U.S. had to establish friendlier relations with Latin
America or else risk creating hostile neighbors.
Montevideo Conference

(Uruguay)
U.S. pledges NOT to interfere in the
affairs of its neighbors
Constant intervention by U.S. was thought to breed
anti-American sentiment among Latin Americans
Montevideo Pact

“No state has the right to intervene in
the internal or external affairs of another
state”
– U.S. foreign policy change: no longer one
of armed intervention in Latin America
Trade Friendly Partners

Canada, France, and Great Britain

Laid groundwork for political
cooperation in WWII
REVIEW

What was the Good Neighbor Policy?

Who were our trading partners?

Define “Dictatorship.”

Name three, threatening dictators.
Rise of Fascism

System of government concentrating all
political, economic, and cultural power
in the state.
Dictatorship

What type of power does a dictator
have?

Who were the three dictators in
Europe?
DICTATORSHIPS

Hitler

Mussolini

Franco

What countries?
Economic Situation

What were the economic situations in
these countries?

How did that aid the rise of dictatorship?
One last Dictator:
(U.S. friend before the Cold War)

Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union/Russia)
– Friendly to U.S.
• U.S. – suspicious of Stalin (Communism)
PROPOGANDA
Form of advertisement meant nobilize the
home country and demonize the enemy.
Propaganda and War

Governments use propaganda during
times of war
• Why?
Anti-west (Post WWII)
Anti-western Propaganda (Cold War)
Dictators

Mussolini
• Wanted Middle-East and Mediterranean Sea

Japanese War Lords
• Complete control of East Asia

Hitler
• World conquest

Stalin
• Spread communism

Franco
• Less aggressive than the other dictators
• Came to power in Spain after a bloody civil war
Dictators

AGAINST
– Free Speech
– Free Press
– Individual Freedom

FOR
– Glorifying FORCE
– Strong military
On the Move

ITALY
– 1935 invades Ethiopia
• Use bombers
• Poison Gas
• What kind of defenses did Ethiopia have?
Japan 1934-35

Rapidly build up military and navy
• Break pledges made in Washington
Conference
– Washington Conference
» Conference where naval powers of the world
agreed to a set ratio limiting their naval power in
a step toward peace and limiting future arms
races.
Germany 1936

Invade Rhineland

Break Treaty of Versailles
AXIS Powers

Why called Axis?

Which countries were in the Axis?
Axis

Term developed by Mussolini, the line
from Rome to Berlin formed the “axis”
on which the world would turn
thereafter.

Japan / Germany / Italy
American People’s Feelings
About the War

Disillusioned that
WWI did not bring
peace
 Did not bring
disarmament
 Did not bring
democracy
worldwide

Failure to reduce
armaments
 Quarreling among
European powers
 Tariff wars
Failure of the League of Nations

Not an effective
instrument of peace

U.S. wise not to join
because it was
designed to fail

How?

Would U.S. joining have
helped?

League of Nations fail
to check the
aggressions of the Axis
powers

What did the League
lack? WHY did it fail?
U.S. Argument Against War #1
Atlantic and Pacific

A natural protection

Improved relations with Latin America
gave even more protection/even if
dictators won Europe and Asia
U.S. Argument Against War #2
Depression

Many Americans felt the U.S. priority
was fixing the depression

(What did the depression influence in the 1930’s?)
U.S. Argument Against War #3
Pacifism

Belief that ALL war was unjustified

Backed isolationists

Why?
U.S. Argument Against War #4
Money

Unpaid war debts from WWI
 Money from WWI benefited banks and
business
– It is typically viewed as a bad thing to make
money off of something tragic (like war)
Johnson Debt Default Act

Forbade American Government and
private American companies from
lending money to any country that
defaulted on their loans from WWI

How is this a victory for the isolationists?
American Annoyance

Only Finland repaid war debt

NOW countries who had defaulted on
loans were pouring money into building
up armaments

ENTANGLING INVESTMENTS
Neutrality Acts

Prevented shipment of munitions to
belligerents
• belligerent

Authorized President to list things other than
munitions that could be sold to belligerents
only on a “Cash and Carry” basis
• Cash and Carry

Against the law for Americans to travel on
warring vessels
• Lusitania Sinking 1915
• Restricted U.S. citizens on where and how they could
travel
The Other Side

Not ALL Americans were isolationists

Neutrality Acts made it difficult for U.S.
to help victims of aggression
– Moral duty to help victims

Don’t act, may find ourselves
surrounded by powerful enemies
Quarantine Speech

Compared Axis aggression as a disease

Disease needs to be quarantined (like
sick patients)
U.S.S. Panay
SUNK!

Gunboat and 3 U.S. oil tankers

Yangtze River

Several Americans killed, many
wounded
Secretary of State Cordell Hull

Demands full apology from Japan

Compensation

Promise not to have any future similar
incidents.
STILL Isolationist Attitude
Prevailed – even after Panay Incident

54% of Americans believed U.S. should
withdraw completely from China
Aggression Continues

How long will the U.S. hold out?
Europe and the Axis Advance

1938
– Hitler moves his forces into Austria
– Announces a German-Austrian union
under Germany
Hitler invades Sudeten Land

Sudetenland – western part of
Czechoslovakia (1938)

Why?
• Large area of Germany speaking people
Hitler – Uniting the Germans

Hitler saw his conquest of Austria and
Czechoslovakia as uniting German
Speaking peoples (Germans).
Czechoslovakia
Did not want to “unite” with Germany
 Had a well trained army
 Fellow democratic nations backed them

• Who?
Hitler
Demands Sudetenland
 Czechoslovakia refuses

• WHY?
Munich Conference
Hitler and Mussolini attended
 Great Britain and France attended

• Great Britain forges a policy of appeasement
• Will allow Hitler to invade as long as he will not
move any farther
• Hitler agrees
• Appeasement?
Prime Minister Chamberlain

Believed a step toward peace
Munich Conference

Appeasement
"The settlement of the
Czechoslovakian problem
which has now been
achieved is in my view only
the prelude to a larger
settlement in which all
Europe may find peace."
Appeasement

Why dangerous?

What did it encourage?

What did it show Hitler?
Appeasement

Hitler has the power to make demands

Nation’s see the writing on the wall:
begin to build up armaments at a faster
speed.
American Concern
July 1938
 Roosevelt asks Congress for
appropriations to build up defenses

• Appropriation

Congress approves $1 Billion for a two
ocean navy.
Roosevelt
Contacted Mussolini and Hitler
 Asked them to settle differences with
negotiations and international
cooperation


Why did Mussolini and Hitler ignore the
U.S.?
• Isolationism
Roosevelt

Extends Monroe Doctrine to Canada

Buenos Aires Conference of 1936
(threat to one is a threat to all)
• Reaffirmed
• 1938 Lima, Peru
• 21 nations – Protect Western Hemisphere
Pan-American Union

To protect Western Hemisphere
– Western Hemisphere
Roosevelt’s Annual Message to Congress

January 1939

Need appropriations for National
Defense

Reconsider Neutrality Legislation
Axis Aggression

Germany takes rest of Czechoslovakia
– March 1939

Italy takes Albania
– April 1939
Verge of World War
Great Britain
 France

• If Germany invades Poland, it means war.
• What happens?
• What does G.B. and France do?
Soviet Union

Great Britain and France

Sign non-aggression pact with Germany
– What does this mean for Germany?
• No two front war
• Cleared way for invasion of Poland
Soviet Union

Invades Poland from the east

Germany invades Poland from the west

Germany and Soviet Union split Poland
Review

What drew Britain and France into WWII

Appeasement

Why did Hitler invade Poland when he
did?
Great Britain and France

Need military equipment

U.S.A. can supply it

Germany has plenty of armaments

Neutrality Acts – How are they hurting Great
Britain and France?
Roosevelt

“I regret that Congress passed the act”
The Neutrality Acts favored Germany
 Britain and France really needed the
military equipment

Neutrality Laws Amended

Anyone can buy munitions/arms from
U.S.

Must be transported on foreign ships.
Declaration of Panama

Pan American Union warns belligerents
to keep war vessels out of a safety zone
surrounding the continent (300-1000
miles wide)
Disagreement

Germany, France, Great Britain argue
that no nation of group of nations had
the right to close the high seas to their
ships.

Agreement showed cooperation of
American countries
Fall of France
• April 9, 1940

Blitzkrieg
– Lightning war

Denmark, Norway, Netherlands,
Belgium, Luxembourg, N. France
Italy declares war on France

June 10, 1940

Sensed France was doomed

Declares war on France
France Signs Armistice

Armistice

June 22, 1940

a temporary suspension of hostilities by
agreement of the warring parties
Charles De Gaulle

French National Committee pledges to
continue resistance

Rallied parts of French colonial empire
against the Nazis

Marshal Petain – new leader of German
controlled French government.
Battle of Britain
Britain

France has fallen

Stood alone, and almost defenseless
Winston Churchill

Replaces Neville Chamberlain as Prime
Minister of Britain.
Churchill

Rallied the British people
 Strengthened will to fight
 British will never surrender
 If Britain fell, it’s Empire
beyond the seas would
carry on the fight.
Churchill

“If we can stand up to him [Hitler], all Europe
may be free and the life of the world may
move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if
we fail, then the whole world, including the
United States, including all that we have
known and cared for, will sink into the abuses
of a new Dark age… Let us therefore brace
ourselves to our duties, and so bear
ourselves that, if the British Empire and its
Commonwealth last for a thousand years,
men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’
British
August 1940 – Hitler unleashes
blitzkrieg
 Royal Navy, Royal Air Force
 Hopelessly outnumbered
 Flew day and night
 Shot down 100 Nazi bombers in 1 day.

Royal Air Force
Hitler’s Reaction

Adviser’s warn
Hitler that an
invasion of
Britain would
be suicidal
American Response

Building up defenses
Alien Registration (Smith) Act

Illegal for any person in the U.S. to
advocate the overthrow of the
government by force or violence, or to
belong to an organization that
advocated the violent overthrow of the
government
America Plans

Act of Havana
– Any American colony in danger, the
American republics collectively would take
control of the colony and maintain control
through a group of trustees from the
American republics.

Permanent Joint Board of Defense Plan
– Plan to defend the Western Hemisphere
– Prime Minister Mackenzie of Canada
Burke-Wadsworth Act

September 1940
– All men 21-35 to
register for the draft
and made them liable
for one year of military
training.
Lend Lease Program

War materials flowing to Britain

Britain does not have the cash for war
materials

Raise production of war materials so
U.S. can LEND or LEASE materials to
Allies
Lend Lease Program

FOR
– Best hope for
keeping us out of full
participation in war

AGAINST
– Involve America in a
shooting war
Lend Lease Program

$7 Billion for ships, planes, tanks, and
anything else needed for Allies.
Hitler invades Russia

Non aggression pact?

Two front war

Lend Lease available to Russia
The Atlantic Graveyard

Ships being sunk by German
submarines

American ships convoy (accompany)
merchant vessels carrying supplies

Merchant ships would be armed,
ordered to “shoot on sight”
Atlantic Charter

Churchill, Roosevelt

Principals for a lasting peace.
• Pledge for a world after war free of aggression
• Every nation would have the right to adopt its
own form of government
Threat from Japan

Occupied French Indonesia
America’s Response

Freezes Japanese assets
 Embargo on the shipment of
•
•
•
•

Gasoline
Machine Tools
Scrap Iron
Steel
Trade between U.S. and Japan practically
ends
 U.S. extends Lend-Lease to China.
Japan
America stiffening
resistance
 Plans an attack
 Sends a ‘peace
mission’ to U.S.

Peace Mission

November 1941

DEMANDS
– U.S. must unfreeze assets
– Supply Japan with as much gasoline as it
wants
– Cease aide to China
United States

Refuses Japanese demands
Sunday December 7, 1941
Japan- further negotiations were
useless
 U.S. showed no conciliation


Before message got to U.S. planes
were already attacking.
Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941
Pacific Naval fleet damaged
 Pacific Air fleet nearly destroyed

2000 soldiers and civilians killed
 2000 more wounded

Pearl Harbor

Roosevelt asks Congress for a declaration of
war on Japan (Dec 8).
 Senate declares war unanimously, House
only had one dissenting vote.

American people, completely on board.

December 11, 1941- Germany and Italy
declare war on U.S. (U.S. then declares war
on them)
Pearl Harbor

The United States enters WWII
Essay

Explain the 3 parts of the U.S. Neutrality
Laws. What was the goal of the Neutrality
Laws? In explaining the three parts, be sure
to include what the Neutrality Laws prevented
the shipment of, what they prevented U.S.
citizens from doing, and explain the cash and
carry policy. Name one country the laws
favored? Name two countries the law hurt.
How were the Nuetrality Laws amended
(changed) and what country did the change
favor?
Essay

Explain the Battle of Britain. Who was the
Battle of Britain between? What role did
Prime Minister Churchill play prior to, and
during, the Battle of Britain? What challenge
was the Royal Air force facing (think in terms
of numbers)? For Hitler to invade Britain,
what did he first have to gain control of? What
two secret weapons/military intelligence did
the British have against the Germans? If
Britain fell, what did this mean for the United
States?