Download The Road to WWII American Isolationism

The Road to
WWII
American Isolationism
• Following WWI,
Americans began to
overwhelmingly
support isolationism, or
avoiding involvement in
international disputes
• This isolationist ideal
was the driving force
behind the US not
joining the League of
Nations
The Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)
• The pact was an
international agreement,
signed by nearly every
free nation in the world,
that essentially banned
war
• The signing nations
agreed to limit the size of
their navies & other
offensive weapons
• There was, however, no
way to enforce the pact,
so it wasn’t very effective
Europe Refuses to Pay
• In 1934, all European
nations in Europe (except
Finland) who had WWIrelated war debts to the US
announced that they were
broke (due to the Great
Depression) and would not
repay what they owed
• This encouraged Americans
to become even more
isolationist
The Nye Committee
• Congress created a special
committee in 1934 to investigate
the role that weapons
manufacturers had in involving
the US in WWI
• The Nye Committee’s report
implied that certain businesses
had profited from the war,
leading many American’s to
believe that they had been
tricked into entering WWI
• Again, this encouraged American
support of isolationism
The Neutrality Acts
• In 1935, Congress passed the first
Neutrality Act, making it illegal
for the US to sell weapons to any
nation at war
• In 1937, Congress expanded the
Neutrality Act to require any nonmilitary supplies sold to nations
at war to be paid for in cash and
transported on their own ships
• In 1939, after WWII had started,
the Act was amended to allow
arms sales to Britain, but still
under “cash & carry” terms
Roosevelt’s Internationalism
• FDR wasn’t an isolationist
• He supported the idea that
trade between nations
increases prosperity for all
and decreases the chances
of war, an idea not
supported by the American
public
• For political reasons, FDR
had to be careful not to
push Americans too hard on
getting involved in foreign
affairs
The Quarantine Speech
• October 1937
• FDR called for a
“quarantine” (political and
economic sanctions) against
any “aggressor” nations
who disregard international
law or attack their
neighbors unprovoked
• The speech angered many
American isolationists
because it called for US
involvement in the foreign
affairs of others
US and European Jews
• 1933 – 39: 350,000
Jews fled Germany,
most seeking to flee
Europe altogether
• Many applied for visas
to emigrate to the US,
but were denied due to
US immigration quotas
and strong American
nativism
Germany Violates the Treaty of Versailles
• Under the Nazis, Germany
began to rebuild its military,
both by increasing its size
and by developing new
weaponry
• In 1936, the German
Wermacht (army)
reoccupied the
demilitarized zone along the
Rhine River
• France & Britain, while
disturbed by Hitler’s moves,
took no action to stop them
Why No Action?
• France was politically
unstable and too weak to
face Germany alone
• France believed their
Maginot Line could
protect them from any
German advances
• France & Britain both
believed that Stalin was a
greater threat than Hitler,
so a strong Germany
might be useful as a
shield against the Soviets
Why No Action?
• Britain, protected by
water, wanted to avoid a
war at all costs
• Britain regretted making
the terms of the Treaty of
Versailles so unfair
• American isolationism
and passage of the
Neutrality Acts led Britain
to doubt that they would
get any support from the
US if they went to war
The Spanish Civil War
• Political divisions in
Spain led to a civil war
from 1936 to 1939
• Hitler used the fighting
as an opportunity to
test German military
weaponry and tactics by
aiding Francisco
Franco’s fascist forces
throughout the conflict
The Anschluss
• In 1938, Hitler, with the
help of Austrian Nazis,
annexed his native country
of Austria to Germany
• Hitler’s new goals were to
create a state that included
all German speaking
peoples and then to provide
them with “lebensraum”
(living room) by taking land
from the “inferior” Slavs of
Eastern Europe
Czechoslovakia
• Later in 1938, Hitler
demanded that
Czechoslovakia
surrender the
Sudetenland (German
territory taken to help
create Czechoslovakia
after WWI)
• The Czechs refused and
called on Britain and
France to back them up
The Munich Conference
• Britain and France, after
receiving promises that
Hitler would engage in no
further aggression if the
Sudetenland was
surrendered, decided on a
policy of appeasement
(letting an enemy have
what they want in order to
avoid war) and agreed to
support Germany’s claim
• The Czechs were left with
little option but to give in
Peace for Our Time
• Britain and France agreed
to allow Hitler to take the
Sudetenland from
Czechoslovakia; Hitler, in
turn, promised that he
would engage in no further
territorial aggression in
Europe
• British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain
returned home declaring
to the British public that “I
believe it is peace for our
time” (it wasn’t!)
Appeasement Fails
• In March 1939, Hitler
broke his promise and
invaded Czechoslovakia,
quickly conquering the
nation
• Believing they were
next, Poland panicked
and sought guarantees
of protection from
England in France
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
• In August 1939, Germany and the
Soviet Union stunned Europe by
announcing they had signed the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a nonaggression pact (not an alliance,
just an agreement not to fight
one another)
• The two countries had also
secretly agreed to jointly invade
Poland and split the country
between them
• This removed the Soviet Union as
a potential ally for Britain and
France if a war with Germany
broke out
The Invasion of Poland
• September 1, 1939
• German forces invaded
from the west, while Soviets
invaded from the east
• By the end of September,
Poland had been conquered
• At the same time, the
Soviets also moved against
Finland and the Baltic States
(Latvia, Lithuania, and
Estonia)
Blitzkrieg
• During the invasion of
Poland, the Germans
debuted a new military
tactic which they had
perfected in the Spanish
Civil War
• Blitzkrieg, or "Lightning
War,” German tactic of
striking with tremendous
speed and force, with
the intention of knocking
out your enemy before
they can react to your
attack
Poland Falls
• After the attack, Britain
and France, honoring
their pledge to defend
Poland, finally declared
war against Germany
• From September 1939 to
April 1940 (a period
called the “Phony War”),
no fighting took place as
both sides prepared for
the war to come
Germany’s Next Moves
• To secure their northern
border, Germany invaded
both Norway and
Denmark, winning easy
victories in April of 1940
• By late spring, Germany
was able to turn its
attention west and
invaded Belgium,
Luxembourg, and the
Netherlands in preparation
for an attack against
France
The Miracle at Dunkirk
• Allied forces had moved into
Belgium to meet the German
advance, but quickly found
themselves cut-off and
surrounded
• Allied forces raced to reach the
port of Dunkirk on the English
Channel, their only means of
escaping defeat & capture
• The British were able to safely
evacuate over 300,000 men to
England by using every available
ship in Great Britain, but were
forced to abandon all of their
heavy equipment
The Fall of France
• The evacuation of Allied
troops across the
English Channel left
France undefended
• Germany captured Paris
on June 13th and the
French government
formally surrendered on
June 22nd, 1940
The Axis Powers
• In September 1940, a new megaalliance was created with the
signing of the Tripartite Pact
• The pact formally joined Italy,
Germany, and Japan in a military
alliance
• Each power expected to control
its own sphere of interest –
Germany would dominate Europe
and Russia, Italy would dominate
the Mediterranean and Africa,
while Japan would have sway in
East Asia and the Pacific
Destroyers for Bases Deal
• Spring 1940: FDR
agreed to trade 50
surplus US Navy
destroyers to Britain
(who needed them to
protect shipping) in
exchange for allowing
the US to build naval
bases in Britishcontrolled territories
Isolationism Debate
• The Destroyers for Bases Deal
opened a new debate over what
role, if any, America should have
in the war
• Some people wanted the US to
take an active role in the war (Ex.
Fight for Freedom Committee)
• Some wanted the US to increase
aid to the Allies but not get
involved in the fighting (Ex.
Committee to Defend America by
Aiding the Allies)
• Some opposed ANY involvement
in the war (Ex. America First
Committee)
FDR’s “Four Freedoms” Speech
• January 1941
• Roosevelt argued that
the US & Britain were
natural allies because
they both stood for:
• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of worship
• Freedom from want
• Freedom from fear
Lend-Lease Act
• March 1941
• US declared that it would
lend or lease weapons
(since it couldn’t sell
them due to the
Neutrality Acts) to nations
considered “vital to the
defense of the US”
• US went on to send $40
billion in weapons to the
Allies over the course of
WWII
Hemispheric Defense Zone
• To help protect British
shipping, FDR declared the
entire Western Atlantic to
be part of the Western
Hemisphere and thereby
under the protection of the
US per the Monroe Doctrine
• FDR then ordered the US
Navy to patrol this part of
the Atlantic, leading to
several deadly encounters
between US destroyers and
German U-boats
Winston Churchill
• 1874 – 1965 (life)
• 1940-45 & 1951-55 (British Prime
Minister)
• Although Britain now stood alone
against Germany, they remained
defiant, with Churchill vowing “…
we shall defend our Island,
whatever the cost may be, we
shall fight on the beaches, we
shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in
the streets, we shall fight in the
hills; we shall never surrender”
The Battle of Britain
•
•
•
•
To be able to invade Britain, Germany
would first need to destroy the Royal
Air Force (RAF) and soften beachhead
defenses through aerial bombing
From June to October of 1940, an air
battle was waged between the RAF
and the Luftwaffe (German Air Force)
Despite being outnumbered, the
British managed to win the air battle,
forcing Hitler to abandon his plans to
invade Britain
“Never in the field of human conflict
have so many owed so much to so
few.” - Churchill
“The Blitz”
• Sept. 1940 – May 1941
• Sustained bombing campaign by
Germany against major British
cities, targeting British civilians
• London was bombed 57 nights in
a row
• 43,000 civilians killed
• German objective was to instill
fear in the British people in hopes
that they would sue for peace;
instead the British grew more
determined to win the war
• British retaliated with firebombing raids on German cities
The Atlantic Charter
• August 1941
• FDR met with British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill
to lay out a post-war plan
for economic prosperity
• Many question whether or
not this is where FDR
promised Churchill that he
would find a way to get the
American people to support
the US entering the war
The Axis in the Mediterranean
•
•
In The Balkans, Italian and German
forces seized control of most of the
peninsula by late 1941, but still had
to deal with partisan uprisings,
especially in Greece & Yugoslavia,
throughout the war
In North Africa, Axis forces fought
mostly British troops in back-andforth battles throughout most of
1940, 1941, & 1942; Germany’s
inability to decisively win on the
“Southern Front” of the war would
prove costly
Operation Barbarossa
•
•
•
•
In June 1941, Germany broke the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and
attacked the Soviet Union
Stalin was not prepared for the
German attack and the Wehrmacht
(German Army) had made deep
advances into Soviet territory by
December
Soviet forces resorted to a “scorched
earth” campaign, burning everything
of use to the Germans as they
retreated across the Ukraine
Finally, the harsh Russian winter
stalled the Germans, buying the
Soviets time to regroup and stop the
German advances
Siege of Leningrad
•
•
•
Sept. 1941 – Jan. 1944
Hitler was obsessed with capturing
the Soviet city of Leningrad due
both to its symbolical importance
as the “City of Lenin” (Lenin had led
the Bolshevik Revolution) and its
military importance as a naval port
on the North Sea
1.5 million Soviets died during the
siege, mostly from starvation and
disease; the population resorted to
eating sawdust, boiled leather, rats,
pets, horses, and, eventually, each
other!
Battle of Stalingrad
•
•
•
•
July 1942 – February 1943
Bloodiest battle in history
1.5 million killed
Vicious urban warfare as the
Germans and Soviets fought
street by street, building by
building for control of the city
• Soviets eventually encircled the
German army, which was forced
to surrender en masse
• 500,000 Germans captured, but
few of them survived being
imprisoned in the brutal Soviet
gulags (prison camps)
Japan Takes Advantage
• 1940 - 41: As war raged
in Europe, Japan
occupied French
Indochina (Vietnam,
Laos, & Cambodia) and
positioned itself to
threaten British
colonies and the UScontrolled Philippines
US Embargo of Japan
• In response, US cut off
Japan’s access to critical
war materials such as steel
and oil (both of which
Japan bought almost
entirely from America) to
put pressure on Japan to
make peace with China
and Britain
• Japan considered this an
act of war and began to
plan an attack on US
military facilities in Hawaii
and the Philippines
Pearl Harbor
• December 7, 1941
• Japan launched a surprise
attack against US naval base in
Hawaii
• 4 battleships destroyed, 4
more seriously damaged, but
Japan failed to destroy US
aircraft carriers
• Support vessels and facilities
suffered massive damage
• 2403 Americans killed, 1178
wounded
• Japanese lost only 29 aircraft
and 65 men
US Declares War
• Dec. 8, 1941: US and
Britain declared war
against Japan
• Dec. 11, 1941: Germany
and Italy declared war
against the US,
believing that by
helping Japan against
the US, Japan would
help them against the
Soviets