CHAPTER 24 THE WORLD WAR
LOOMS
SECTION 1
DICTATORS THREATEN WORLD PEACE
Big Idea
• The U.S. remains isolated from the world
affairs as economic and political factors lead
to the rise of nationalist/fascist/totalitarian
leaders in the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy,
Japan, and Spain.
Europe after Treaty of Versailles
Nationalism Grips Europe and Asia
• The Failure of
Versailles
• Treaty of Versailles caused
anger and resentment
• Germans felt it wasn’t fair nor
secure – they took the blame
for the entire war and were
stripped of overseas colonies
and border territories
• Problems not solved by Weimar
Republic (democratic
government in Germany postWWI)
• With no democratic traditions,
many countries turned to
authoritarian leaders to solve
social and economic problems
• Joseph Stalin
• Took over the Soviet
Union (Communist) in
1924.
• Agriculture and
Industrial growth were
economic goals
• Abolished all privately
owned farms.
• 2nd Largest Industrial
Power
• 8-13 million people died
Stalin’s Crimes
• Mass Starvation
– Tens of Millions
• Mass Murder (Purges)
– 500,000-1 million
Communism
• A theory or system of
social organization
based on the holding of
all property in common
• Actual ownership
belongs to community
or state
• Francisco Franco
• Spanish General, who
repelled against Spanish
republic. Civil War
broke out. 500,000
people died. Franco
gains victory in 1939.
Became Spain’s fascist
dictator.
• Totalitarian
• Benito Mussolini
• Government with
complete control over
citizens. Individuals
have no rights.
• Took control in Italy.
Great speaker and
appealed to the people
as a strong leader.
• Fascism
• Black Shirts
• Il Duce
• Stressed nationalism
and placed the interests
of the state above those
individuals.
• Thousands of
supporters who
marched to Rome
• Mussolini called himself
Il Duce or “the leader”
he achieved efficiency
but crushed all
opposition making Italy
a totalitarian state
Adolf Hitler
Facts
• WWI veteran
• Leader of the Nationalist
Socialist Party
• Nazis for short
• Became Chancellor in
Germany in 1933
• Installed brutal dictatorship
• Adolf Hitler
• Nazism
• Jobless soldier after
WWI. Quickly became a
leader due to his
powerful speeches.
• the German brand of
fascism, was based on
extreme nationalism
and racism.
• Racial Purification
• Inferior races
(Untermensch)
• Chancellor (prime
minister)
• Germans & Aryans
(blue eyed, blond
haired) should be
master race.
• Jews, Slavs, & all
nonwhites were to
serve the Aryans
• Appointed in 1933,
dismantled the
democratic Weimar
Republic. Create more
living space.
• Japan
• Military leaders shared
Hitler’s belief in needing
more living space.
Seized control of
Manchuria (Chinese
province) in 1931.
• League of Nations
• Condemned Japan, but
no action taken. Japan
drops out.
• Germany
• Pulls out in 1933.
• 1935, builds up military
(violation of the Treaty
of Versailles)
• 1936, sent troops into
Rhineland
(demilitarized zone)
• Italy
• 1936 invaded Ethiopia,
independent African
country.
The United States Responds
Cautiously
•
•
•
•
Neutrality Acts
1935
1936
1937
• first two acts outlawed
arms sales or loans to
nations at war. Third
act extended the ban
on arms sales and loans
to nations engaged in
civil wars.
• FDR reacts
• Japan launches new
attack on China in 1937
• Sent arms and supplies
to China cause War was
not declared on China.
• FDR met with a lot of
criticism because of his
actions of trying to lead
country into a war.
SECTION 2
WAR IN EUROPE
AUSTRIA AND CZECHOSLAVAKIA FALL
• Austria
• Sudetenland
• German troops march
into Austria unopposed
on March 12, 1938.
Majority of 6 million
people were German
• Western border region
of Czechoslovakia.
• Neville Chamberlain
• Munich Agreement
• British prime minister
met with Hitler along
with French premier.
• Promised to protect
Czechoslovakia.
• September 30, 1938Sudetenland over to
Germany without a
single shot
• Hitler said it would be
last territorial demand
• Winston Churchill
• Appeasement
• Chamberlain’s political
rival was not happy
about Munich
agreement.
• Giving up principles to
pacify an aggressor.
The German Offensive Begins
• Czechoslovakia
• Poland
• March 15, 1939,
Germany takes over rest
of country.
• Large German speaking
population, eastern
neighbor of Soviet
Union, aided by France
and Britain
• Nonaggression pact
• Germany & Soviet
Union agree not to
attack one another.
Also decided to divide
Poland between them.
• Blitzkrieg
• Lightning War. Fast
tanks, powerful aircraft.
Surprise and quickly
crush the enemy.
September 1, 1939 in
Poland. 2 Days later
France & Britain declare
war.
• Phony War
• Next
• 3 weeks and Poland
ceased to exist. WWII
had begun.
• French & British troops
sit on Maginot Line
staring at Germans,
German troops sit at
the Siegfried Line
staring back
• By April 9, 1940,
Denmark, Norway,
Netherlands, Belgium &
Luxembourg
France and Britain Fight on
• Fall of France
• Charles de Gaulle
• June 22, 1940, with
help from Italy as they
attacked from the
south.
• French general, fled to
England. Set up a
government in exile.
• Battle of Britain
• 2,000 German planes
bomb London for 2
weeks straight
• Britain used a Radar
system to shoot down
planes. 185 on Sept 15
of 1940,
• Hitler calls off invasion
• Both countries continue
to bomb one another.
SECTION 3
THE HOLOCAUST
THE PERSECUTION BEGINS
• April 7, 1933
• Hitler orders all “non
Aryans” be removed
from government jobs.
This is first the move
against Jews
• Holocaust
• 11 million people across
Europe killed, more
than half were Jews
• Scapegoat
• Nuremberg Laws
• Star of David
• Jews were blamed for
all the problems that
Germany had (economy
& WWI)
• 1935, stripped Jews
from citizenship, jobs, &
property
• Jews had to wear this
bright yellow star on
clothes so they can be
identified
• Kristallnacht
• November 9-10, 1938,
Nazi troops attacked
Jewish businesses,
homes, & synagogues
across Germany.
• 100 killed, hundreds
injured, 30,000
arrested, hundred of
synagogues were
burned
• Nazi’s blamed Jews for
the destruction
• Refugees
•
•
•
•
• Ship of St. Louis
• German ocean liner
with 943 passengers.
Coast Guard prevented
ship from docking in
Miami and was forced
back to Europe
France 40,000
Britain 80,000
Palestine 30,000
U.S. 100,000
HITLER’S “FINAL SOLUTION”
• Genocide
• In 1939, a deliberate &
systematic killing of an
entire population. Only
¼ of Jews left in
Germany, but millions
more in territories
occupied by Hitler
• Enemies of the state
• Gypsies- Inferior race
• Freemasons- supporters
of the Jewish conspiracy
to rule the world
• Jehovah’s Witnessesrefused to join German
army and salute Hitler
• Germans- homosexuals,
mentally ill, physically
disabled, & incurably ill
• Nazi Death Squads
• Hitler’s elite Nazi
“security squandrons
(SS)” rounded up jews
in Poland and shot
them on the spot.
• Ghettos
• Jews sent into
overcrowded cities in
Poland; barbed wire &
stone walls
• Concentration camps
• Warehouse for
undesirable
• Hunger, humiliation,
work that almost always
ended in death
• Overcrowded barracks
shared meager meals.
• Inmates worked dawn
to dusk, 7 days a week
till they collapsed.
• Those who were weak
were killed.
THE FINAL STAGE
• Poison Gas
• Built 6 death camps in
Poland
• Each camp had several
huge gas chambers in
which 12,000 people
could be killed a day
AUSCHWITZ
• Auschwitz
• Prisoners separated into
2 groups (workers &
would be killed)
• Belongings left behind
and would get later
• Group that was being
killed was led to gas
chamber, told they
were going to shower
and handed a bar of
soap each
• Cyanide Gas
• Used to kill the inmates
while cheerful music
played.
• Some were buried in
mass graves
• Crematoriums were
used at some camps as
well to burn the dead
and living
• 6 million Jews died in
the death camps
SECTION 4
AMERICA MOVES TOWARD WAR
U.S. MUSTERS ITS FORCES
• Cash and Carry
• Possibly too late
• Sept. 1939, Roosevelt
persuaded Congress to
allow warring nations to
buy U.S. arms as long as
they paid cash and
transported them in
their own ships
• France falls in summer
of 1940 & Britain under
attack
• Axis Powers
• Roosevelt Responds
• Germany, Italy, & Japan
(the Triparite Pact) sign a
mutual defense treaty.
• Each nation agreed to
come to defense if either
nation was attacked by
U.S.
• Sends Britain 500,000
rifles, 80,000 machine
guns, traded 50 old
destroyers for military
bases in Caribbean and
Newfoundland
• Building U.S. defense
• Congress increases
spending on defense
• Selective Training and
Service Act- 16 million
men between 21-35
were registered. 1
million drafted but for 1
year only in Western
Hemisphere.
• Roosevelt runs for 3rd
Term
• He wins 55% of the
vote. Republican
nominee Wendell
Wilkie supported
Roosevelt for aiding
Britain. Very little
difference so people
chose who they already
knew.
“The Great Arsenal of Democracy”
• Lend-Lease Plan
• Late 1940, Britain had
no more money for
arsenal. Lend or Lease
arms & other supplies
to any country whose
defense was vital to the
United States.
Isolationists once again
against it but Congress
passes it anyway in
March of 1941.
• Supporting Stalin
• United States started to
supply the Soviet Union
after Hitler broke his
agreement with Stalin
and invaded the Soviet
Union in June of 1941.
• German Wolf Packs
• U-boats & aircraft would
sink ships carrying
supplies. 350,000 tons in
a single month.
Roosevelt tells Navy to
fire in self-defense.
FDR PLANS FOR WAR
• Extend the term of
draftees
• Roosevelt asking for
more terms of the
draftees because he
knows war is close.
House of Reps passes it
but only by 1 vote.
• Atlantic Charter
• Roosevelt meets with
Churchill.
• Collective security
• Disarmament
• Self-determination
• Economic cooperation
• Freedom of the seas
This charter became basis
of a new document called
“A declaration of the
United Nations”
• United Nations
Allies against the Axis
powers. 26 Nations
signed it.
• Shoot on Sight
• Pink Star
• U.S. destroyer Kearny
• U.S. destroyer Reuben
James
• Navy to fire on German
submarines on sight
after U.S. destroyer
Greer was fired on by
German submarine
• American Merchant
ship sank off Greenland
• Was torpedoed and 11
lives lost
• Sank and more than
100 sailors killed
JAPAN ATTACKS THE UNITED STATES
• Hideki Tojo
• Chief of staff of Japans
Army, launched invasion
into China.
• Japan’s Goal
• Wanted to unite East
Asia under Japan. Took
over Vietnam,
Cambodia, Laos.
• United States Protest
• Peace talks
• Cut trade off with Japan
of embargoed goods,
including oil.
• Tojo promised the
emperor to preserve
peace with America but
is preparing navy to
attack.
• Dec 6, 1941, Roosevelt
received decoded
message that Japan’s
peace envoy to reject all
American peace
proposals
• Pearl Harbor
• Dec 7, 1941, early in the
morning, Japanese
warplanes struck.
• 2,403 killed
• 1,178 injured
• 21 ships sunk or
damaged including 8
battleships
• 300 aircraft were
damaged or destroyed
• Greater losses than all
of WWI
• Reaction
• Congress approves
Roosevelt’s request to
declare war on Japan
the following day.
• 3 days later, Germany
and Italy declare war on
U.S.
• Isolationist
• Supported an all out
American effort.