Download Chapter 24: World War Looms - Mrs. Armstrong

World War Looms
Dictators Threaten World Peace
• Nationalism Grips Europe and Asia
• (pride in ones country)
– Failures of the world War I Peace
Settlement
• Treaty of Versailles creates problems in Europe
with the reconfiguration of country boarders
and the creation of new countries. These
problems lead to Dictators being able to seize
power.
– Joseph Stalin Transforms the Soviet Union
• Stalin “man of steel” creates communist state.
By 1939 he establishes a Totalitarian
government that tried to exert control over
every citizen (individuals have no rights and
gov. suppresses all opposition.)
The Rise of Fascism in Italy
• Benito Mussolini who called himself II Deuce
“the leader" establish Totalitarian regime in
Italy. By 1921 he established a fascist party,
(fascism) which stressed nationalism placing
the interests of the state above the individual.
His followers were “Black Shirts”
– Took advantage of wounded national pride, fears over high
unemployment and inflation (high prices for goods, money is
not worth much)
– Made Italy very efficient, but it was done by crushing
opposition and bringing Italy under his control
Dictators Threaten World Peace
• Nationalism Grips Europe and Asia
– The Nazis take over Germany
• Adolf Hitler Der Fuhrer “the leader”, and
Austrian immigrant to Germany rose to
power as a powerful public speaker. Mein
Kampf his book of basic beliefs of Nazism
(German brand of fascism extreme
nationalism) that became the plan of
action for the Nazi party – to unite all
German speaking people into one German
Empire.
Goals of the Nazis
• Wanted racial “purification” = blue-eyed,
blond hair “Aryans” to form a “master race”
• Wanted to expand the national living space to
obtain land and soil that Germans are entitled
to.
– Once elected Prime Minister he takes apart the
Weimar Republic (Democratic government of
Germany) and establishes the Third Reich “Third
German Empire.”
Nationalism Grips Europe and Asia
• Militarists gain control in Japan
– Nationalistic Military leaders seize control of Japan
and pull out of The League of Nations, sharing Hitler’s
desire for more land and living space. They invade
Manchuria province of China and seize it in 1931.
• Aggression in Europe and Africa
– League of Nations doesn’t take action against Japan
and Europe’s dictators take notice of this.
– Hitler withdraws Germany from The League of Nations
and invades Rhineland (region boarding France and
Belgium).
– Mussolini also moves to invade Ethiopia (one of
Africa’s few remaining independent countries!)
Spain
• Civil war Breaks out in Spain
– General Francisco Franco leads rebellion against
Spanish Republic to form a fascist party in Spain.
Americans and African Americans go fight in Spain
to stop spread of fascism “Abraham Lincoln
Battalion”.
• Spain remains technically neutral throughout
the war, but is far more sympathetic towards
the Axis powers
U.S. Response
• The U.S. Responds Cautiously
– Americans cling to Isolationism
• Roosevelt’s foreign policies recognize Soviet Union and
accept them. Congress passes Neutrality Acts first 2
acts that outlawed arms sales or loans to nations at
war. 3rd act extended the ban on arms sales and loans
to nations engaged in civil war (Spain).
• Qqq
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
War in Europe Begins
• Austria and Czechoslovakia Fall
• (Hitler claims that “Germany needs peace . . . .
Germany wants peace.”)
– Union with Austria
• 3/12/1938 German troops take an unopposed Austria
whose 6 mil. People (most Germans) favored
unification.
– Bargaining for the Sudetenland
• Sudetenland western border regions of Czechoslovakia
contained about 3 million German-speaking people,
that Hitler claimed Czech was abusing so they invaded.
Disagreement over how to Handle
Hitler
• France and Britain promise to protect Czech. But
Hitler calls leaders (Edouard Daladier – France
and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin to
Munich to assure them this is his last territorial
demand and they believe him so they do nothing.
– Winston Churchill, Chamberlain’s political rival,
disagreed with the signing of the Munich Agreement.
Appeasement – or giving up principles to pacify an
aggressor – was a shameful policy.
German Aggression Expands
• The German Offensive Begins
– The Soviet Union Declares Neutrality
• Poland has a large German speaking population which Hitler
claims is being abused so he prepares invasion.
• Stalin signs a nonaggression pact with Hitler agreeing that
the two countries will never attack each other.
– Blitzkrieg in Poland
• Or lightning war, used new military technology of fast tanks
and aircraft to make military advances. It worked as fighting
was over in 3 weeks!
– The Phony War (Sitzkrieg or “Sitting war”)
• France and Britain troops on the Maginot Line, a system of
fortifications built along France’s eastern border (pg 744), sit
and stare at Germany waiting to see what will happen.
The Fall of France and Battle of Britain
• France and Britain Fight On
– The Fall of France
• Germany invades and traps French and British on beaches of
Dunkirk next to English Channel. More than 800 vessels
ferry them to safety across the channel.
• Few days later Italy invades France from south in support of
Germany. France is split in two with Germans occupying the
north and Italy in the south.
• French General Charles de Gaulle flees to Britain and sets up
a government of exile “France lost the battle . . . Not the
war!”
– The Battle of Britain
• Germany launches naval and aircraft attacks on London.
• Britain (RAF) fights back using radar to help identify and
shoot down enemy planes.
• On 9/15/1940 the Royal Air Force (RAF) shoots down 185
Germans only loosing 26 of their own.
• 6 weeks later Hitler called off the invasion.
The Holocaust
(Systematic murder of 11 million Europeans more than half were Jews.)
• The Persecution Begins
– Jews Targeted
• Anti-Semitism or hatred of Jews was common in many
European countries and Hitler builds upon this blaming
them for the economic problems of the German
people.
• Nuremberg laws strip Jews of their German Citizenship,
jobs, and property.
– Kristallnacht “Night of broken glass”
• Nov. 9-10, 1938 Nazi’s attack Jewish homes, stores,
synagogues across Germany. 100 Jews killed – 30,000
arrested.
The Persecution Begins
• A Flood of Jewish Refugees
– 40,000 flee to France – who won’t accept any
more.
– 80,000 flee to Britain – who won’t accept any
more.
– 30,000 flee to Palestine (Israel) – who won’t
accept any more.
– 100,000 come to the U.S. (Physicist Albert
Einstein, Author Thomas Mann, Architect Walter
Gropius) during the Great Depression.
The Holocaust
(Systematic murder of 11 million Europeans more than half were Jews.)
– The Plight of the St. Louis
• Ocean liner’s 943 Jewish passengers fled to America. 740 had
immigration papers. Coast Guard followed liner preventing it from
docking. It returns to Germany and more than ½ of the passengers
were killed in the Holocaust.
The Holocaust Progresses
• Hitler’s “Final Solution”
– Genocide, deliberate and systematic killing of an
entire population
– The Condemned
• Nazis target others who threaten “master race” =
homosexuals, mentally handicapped, mentally ill,
physically disabled and incurably ill.
– Forced Relocation
• Ghetto’s – Jewish forced to live in segregated areas in
certain Polish cities. Pictured above.
– Concentration Camps or labor camps
• Jews were forced from their homes into these camps
which were used to house the “undesirables.” Life in
the camps consisted of hunger, humiliation, and work
that almost always ended in death.
The Final Stage
• Mass Exterminations
– Each Camp had a gas chamber that killed 12,000 people
everyday.
• Doctors separated those strong enough to work from those who
were not and should be killed.
• At first bodies were buried in mass graves.
• Crematoriums were then installed or bodies were then burned in a
mass pit.
– Some were killed: shot, hanged, or injected.
– Others died as a result of medical experiments carried out by
camp doctors.
• The Survivors
– 6 million Jews died in the death camps, some managed to
survive them.
– Others survived through the help of others, that helped them
escape the Holocaust.
America Moves Toward War
• The United States Musters Its Forces
– Moving cautiously away from neutrality
• Cash – carry – Roosevelt passes law that allows warring
nations to buy weapons from US as long as they pay cash
and carry them in their own vessels/vehicles.
– The Axis Threat
• Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact making
them known as the Axis Powers.
– Building US Defenses
• In light of Nazi takeovers in Europe US increases National
Defense spending.
– Roosevelt Runs for a 3rd Term
• Promises to keep U.S. out of the war.
America Moves Toward War
• The Great Arsenal of Democracy
– The Lend-Lease Plan/Act
• Britain runs out of cash so Roosevelt suggests a plan
that the U.S. would lend or lease weapons to any
country whose defense was vital to the U.S.
– Supporting Stalin
• Hitler breaks agreement with Soviet Union and invades.
U.S. sends Lend-Lease supplies to support “the enemy
of my enemy [who] is my friend.”
– German Wolf Packs
• Hitler’s U-boats attack U.S. ships trying to supply LendLease aids to Britain and Soviet Union.
U.S. Plans for War
• FDR Plans for War
– The Atlantic Charter
• Roosevelt and Churchill secretly meet and pledged collective
security, disarmament, self-determination, economic
cooperation, and freedom of the seas.
• Became basis for “Declaration of the United Nations”
(suggested by Roosevelt) expressed the common purpose of
the Allies (those nations fighting the Axis Powers) 26 nations
4/5th of the human race signed the declaration.
– Shoot on Sight
• Roosevelt orders US Navy to shoot German submarines on
sight.
American Entry Into War
• Japan Attacks the U.S.
– Japan’s Ambitions in the Pacific
• French, British, & Dutch colonies lay unprotected in
Asia so Japan moves on them.
– Peace talks are questioned
• 11/5/1941 Japan’s leader orders navy to prepare attack
on U.S.
• Peace talks begin but fail.
• 12/6/1941 Japan rejects all American peace proposals.
“This means war” – Roosevelt declared.
Pearl Harbor
– The attack on Pearl Harbor 12/7/1941
• 180 Japanese war planes launched from 6 carriers
attack Hawaii’s Island of Oahu’s Pearl Harbor.
• 2,403 killed – 1,178 wounded
• Damaged 21 ships = 8 battleships, 300 aircraft, nearly
the whole U.S. Pacific fleet.
– Reaction to Pearl Harbor
• 12/8/1941 Roosevelt speaks to congress “December 7th
1941 is a date that will live in infamy” Congress
approves Roosevelt’s request for a Declaration of War.