The Road to WWII
1933: London Economic Conference:
66 nations met to figure out how to
fight the Depression; FDR did not go
because he was concerned about
domestic recovery more than
international issues. The collapse of
international cooperation strengthened
the dictators’ position.
1933: Hitler became Chancellor
1935: Hitler called for compulsory military service
1936: Germany marched into Rhineland
1937: Japan invaded China
1937: FDR’s Quarantine Speech: “We should
quarantine the aggressors by economic policy”
1938: Hitler annexed Austria
1938: Kristallnacht
1938: Munich Conference: after Hitler
took Sudetenland, Chamberlain
negotiated “Peace in our time”
1939: USSR/ Germany non-aggression
plan
1939: Hitler broke promise and invaded
rest of Czechoslovakia
September 1, 1939: Poland invaded
Blitzkrieg!
US Reaction:
Congress passed Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1937, 1939:
US citizens could not travel on ships of “belligerent”
nations, no arms sold to “belligerent” nations, and no
loans extended; no arms to either side in Spanish Civil
War
1939: Neutrality is relaxed through “Cash and Carry”
Act: countries could buy US weapons if they paid cash
and used their own ships.
1940: Selective Service Act: All American men 21 – 35
had to register for a draft
Spanish Civil War: 1936-1939: was a
preview of WWII
Franco, helped by Hitler, overthrew the
Spanish government
US remained neutral, refusing to sell arms
to either side, which helped cause the
defeat of the Spanish democracy and
emboldened the dictators.
1940: Hitler overran Denmark, Norway,
Netherlands, Belgium, and France
US Reaction: Bill #1776: Lend-Lease
Act: “Send guns, not sons!” By the end
of the war, US had sent over $50 billion
in arms and equipment.
Japanese war effort based on shipment of
steel, scrap iron, oil from US, but in 1940,
US began embargo.
1941: US/Japan negotiated and US
demanded Japan withdraw from China;
Japan refused
US had cracked Japanese code, but
expected to be attacked at the Philippines
December 7, 1941: The Japanese attacked
Pearl Harbor
3,000 casualties