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Chapter 16 World War Looms 1931-1941 Rise of Dictators • The treaty that ended WWI and the economic depression that followed contributed to the rise of dictatorships in Europe and Asia. Mussolini and Italy • One of Europe’s first major dictatorship arose in Italy. • There a former schoolmaster and journalist named Benito Mussolini convinced his country they needed a strong leader after WWI. • In 1919 Mussolini founded Italy’s Fascist Party. • Fascism was a kind of aggressive nationalism. • Fascists believed that the nation was more important than the individual and that a nation became great by expanding its territory and building its military. Backed by the militia known as Black shirts, Mussolini became the premier of Italy and set up a dictatorship. • Fascists were anti-Communist. • After the Communist revolution in Russia, many Europeans feared that Communists allied with labor unions were trying to bring down their governments. • Mussolini exploited these fears by portraying fascism as a bulwark against Communists. • Fascism began to stand for the protection of private property and the middle class. • Once in office, Mussolini worked quickly to destroy democracy and set up a dictatorship. • Weary of strikes and riots many Italians welcomed Mussolini’s leadership. • With support of industrialist, landowners, the title of IL Duce or “The Leader”- embarked on an ambitious program of bringing order to Italy. • In 1917 the Bolshevik Party led by Vladimir Lenin set up Communist governments throughout the Russian empire. • The Russian territories were renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922. • The Communists set up a one-party rule. • After Lenin's death in 1924 a power struggle begin to see who would be the next leader of the USSR. • In 1926 Joseph Stalin would become the new Soviet dictator. • In 1927 Stalin began a massive effort to industrialize his country. • Tolerating no opposition the effort brought about the deaths of 8 to 10 million peasants who resisted the Communist policies. Hitler and Nazism in Germany • Adolf Hitler was fervent anticommunist and an admirer of Mussolini. • Hitler had fought in WWI. Germany’s surrender and the subsequent Versailles Treaty left him and many Germans with a hatred for the victorious Allies and the German government that accepted the peace terms. • After WWI the political and economic chaos in Germany led to the rise of new political parties. • One of these was the National Socialist German Workers’ or the Nazi Party a nationalistic and anti-Communist it did not represent the working class as its name suggested. • Adolf Hitler was one of the Nazis party first recruits. • In November 1923 the Nazis tried to seize power by marching on city hall in Munich, Germany. • Hitler intended to seize power locally and then march on to Berlin the attempt failed and Hitler was arrested. • While in prison Hitler wrote his on autobiography titled Mein Kampf (My Struggle). • In his book Hitler called for the unification of all Germans under one government. • He claimed that Germans particularly blond, blue-eyed Germans belonged to a “master race” called Aryans and they were destined to rule the world. • Hitler argued that Germans needed more living space and called for Germany to expand into Poland and Russia. • According to Hitler the Slavic people of Eastern Europe belonged to an inferior race which Germans should enslave. • Hitler’s racism was strongest against the Jews. • He felt the Jews was the reason for all the world’s problems. • After being released from prison Hitler changed his tactics. • Instead of trying to seize power violently he focused on getting Nazis elected to the Reichstag. • By 1932 the Nazis were the largest party in the Reichstag. • Traditional German leaders supported Hitler’s nationalism. • German leaders thought if they helped Hitler in becoming the leader of Germany legally they could control him. • In 1933 the German president appointed Hitler chancellor or prime minister. • After being elected Hitler would call for new elections. • He ordered the police to crack down on the Socialist and Communist Parties. • Storm Troopers as the Nazi paramilitary units were called began intimidating voters. • After the election of the Reichstag dominated by the Nazis and other rightwinged parties voted to give Hitler dictatorial powers. • In 1934 Hitler became president which gave him control of the army. • Hitler then took the title furher or leader. • The following year Hitler began to rebuild Germany’s military in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. • Extreme nationalists who wanted to expand their territories and build up their military was what contributed to the rise of dictatorships in Europe. Militarist Gain Control in Japan • In Japan as in Germany difficult economic times helped undermine the political system. • Japan industries had to import nearly all the resources it needed to produce goods. • During the 1920s Japan did not earn enough money from exports to pay for its imports which limited economic growth and increased unemployment. • Many of the Japanese officers blamed the country’s problems on corrupt politicians. • Most Japanese officers believed that Japan was destined to dominate East Asia. • Many also believed that democracy was “un-Japanese” and bad for the country. • Japanese military leaders argued the only way for Japan to get needed resources was to seize territory. • They targeted the resourcerich province of Manchuria in northern China as the perfect place to conquer. • Japanese officers decided to act without approval from the government and invaded Manchuria. • After the invasion started the government tried to end the war with China. • When the Japanese prime minister began negotiations officer assassinated him. • From that point on the military gained control of the government. American Turns to Neutrality • The rise of dictatorship and militarism after WWI discouraged many Americans. • The sacrifices they had made during the war seemed pointless. • Americans began to support isolationism or the belief that the U.S. should avoid international commitments that might drag the nation into another war. 25 • Isolationist ideas became even stronger in the early 1930s for two reasons. • When Depression began many Europeans refused to repay the money they borrowed during WWI. • At the same time dozens of books and articles appeared arguing that arms manufacturers had tricked the U.S. in entering WWI. • In 1934 Senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota held hearings to investigate the country’s involvement in WWI. • The Nye Committee documented the huge profits that arms factories made during the war. • The report created the impression that these businesses influenced the U.S. to go to war. • The European refusal to repay their loans and the Nye Committee’s findings turned even more Americans toward isolationism. Legislating Neutrality • Worried that growing German and Italian aggression might lead to war Congress passed the Neutrality Act of 1935 making it illegal for Americans to sell arms to any country at war. General Francisco Franco • In 1936 a rebellion erupted to Spain after a coalition of Republicans, Socialists, and Communists was elected. • General Francisco Franco led the rebellion. • Franco was backed by Spanish Fascists army officers, landowners, and Catholic Church leaders. • The revolt quickly became a civil war and attracted worldwide attention. • The Soviet Union provided arms and government forces while Germany and Italy sent tanks, airplanes, and soldiers to help Franco. • To keep the U.S. neutral Congress passed another neutrality act banning the sale of arms to either side in a civil war. • After the Spanish Civil War began in 1936 Hitler and Mussolini signed an agreement pledging to cooperate on several international issues. • Mussolini referred to this new relationship with Germany as the Rome-Berlin Axis. • The following month Japan aligned itself with Germany and Italy when it signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany. • The pact required the two countries to exchange information about Communist groups. • Together Germany, Italy, and Japan became known as Axis Powers although they did not formally become allies until September 1940. • With the situation in Europe getting worse Congress would pass the Neutrality Act of 1937. • This act continued the ban on selling arms to nations at war but it also required warring countries to buy nonmilitary supplies from the U.S. on a “cash and carry basis.” • After Japan launched a full scale attack on China in 1937. • Roosevelt authorized the sale of weapons to China saying that the Neutrality Act of 1937 did not apply since neither China nor Japan had actually declared war. • President Roosevelt supported internationalismthe idea that trade between nations creates prosperity and helps to prevent war. • Roosevelt warned that the neutrality acts might drag us into war instead of keeping us out, but he did not veto the bills. • The Americans supported isolationism by remaining apart from European conflicts to avoid another war. 1 World War II Begins • Hitler’s first demands would concern Austria and Czechoslovakia. • In late 1937 Hitler stepped up his call for unification of all German-speaking people including those in Austria and Czechoslovakia. • Hitler knew seizing these two countries would also gain food supplies and help defend Germany. 2 • Hitler believed that Germany could only expand its territory by resorting to force. • In February 1938 Hitler threatened to invade German speaking Austria his native land unless Austrian Nazis were given important government posts. • In March 1938, Hitler announced the Anschluss or unification of Austria and Germany. • Hitler claimed the Sudetenland and area Czechoslovakia with a large German speaking population. • Czechs strongly resisted Germany’s demand for the Sudetenland. • France, the Soviet Union and Britain threatened to fight if it attacked Czechoslovakia. • British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain publicly promised to support France Britain's ally. • To prevent another war representatives of Britain, France, Italy, and Germany agreed to meet in Munich to decide the fate of Czechoslovakia. • At the Munich Conference on September 29, 1938 Britain and France agreed to Hitler’s demands a policy that came to be known as appeasement. • In March 1939, Germany sent troops into Czechoslovakia, bringing the Czech land under German control. • Hitler now turned his attention to Poland. • Hitler demanded the return of DanzigPoland’s Baltic Sea port. • He also wanted a highway and railroad across the Polish Corridor. • These demands convinced the British and French that appeasement failed. • On March 31, 1939 the British announced that if Poland went to war to defend its territory Britain and France would come to its aid. • This would encourage the Polish government to refuse Hitler’s demands. • In May 1939, Hitler ordered the German Army to prepare to invade Poland. • Hitler then ordered his foreign minister to begin negotiations with the USSR. Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact • The Germans-Hitler proposed a non aggression treaty with the Soviets- Stalin would agree. • WHY? • He thought it would be the beat way to protect the USSR and to turn the capitalist nations against each other. • The Soviets thought that this pact would protect them if Germany went to war with Great Britain and France. • On August 23, 1939 Germany and the USSR signed the pact. • This pact shocked the world. • WHY? • Communism and Nazism were supposed to be totally opposed to each other. • The leaders in Britain and France understood however that Hitler had made the deal to free himself for war against their countries and Poland. • The pact also had a secret agenda one in which Russia and Germany would divide Poland. • June 1941, Hitler broke the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 and invaded the Soviet Union. On June 22, 1941, Hitler launched a surprise attack on his neighbor. After several months of fighting, Roosevelt decided that to save the United States, the USSR must also be saved. The Lend-Lease Bill was further extended to them, halting Hitler outside of Moscow. Three Reasons European leaders agreed to the policy of appeasement. 1. Wished to avoid war. 2. The goal of unifying German-speaking regions seemed reasonable. 3. Thought the Nazis would be more interest in peace once they acquired more territory. War Begins • On September 1, 1939 Germany and the USSR invaded Poland. • September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germanystarting WWII. • Poland bravely resisted Germany’s onslaught but to no avail. • The Germans used a new type of warfare called blitzkrieg what is this? • Lighting warfare- used large numbers of massed tanks to break through and rapidly encircle enemy positions. • Supporting the tanks were waves of aircraft that bombed enemy positions and dropped paratroopers to cut their supply lines. • On September 27, the polish capital of Warsaw fell to the Germans. • October 5, 1939 the Polish Army had been defeated. The Fall of France • In contrast to the war in Poland western Europe remained quiet. • The Germans referred to this situation as the sitzkrieg or sitting war. • The British called it the “Bore War” while American newspaper nicknamed it the Phony War. • The British had sent troops to France but both countries remained on the defensive waiting for the Germans to attack. • After WWI the French built a line of concert bunkers and fortifications called the Maginot Line along the German border. • When Hitler decided to attack France he went around the fortification by invading the Netherlands Belgium and Luxembourg. • The French and British forces quickly went into Belgium becoming trapped there by Germans forces. • By June 4 about 338,000 British and French troops had evacuated Belgium through the French port Dunkirk and across the English Channel; using any ships of any size. • On June 22, 1940 France surrendered to the Germans on the same rail car which the Germans had surrendered on after WWI. • Germany would then install a puppet government in France. • Hitler thought the British would negotiate a peace treaty with Germany after the French had surrendered. • Hitler did not anticipate the bravery of the British people and the new Prime Minister Winston Churchill who had replaced Neville Chamberlin. • For Churchill however peace was not an option. • The war as he put it was a fight to defend civilization. • On June 4, 1940 Churchill delivered a defiant speech to parliament intended no only to rally the British people but to alert the United States of the British plight. • When Hitler realized that the British would not surrender he ordered his commanders to prepare to invade. • Only the choppy waters of the English Channel separated Britain from the powerful Germany Army. • The English Channel posed a major challenge for Germany, they had few transport ships and the British air force would sink them if they tried to land troops in England. • To invade Britain, Germany had to defeat the British air force. • In the Battle of Britain the German air force the Luftwaffe launched an all out air battle to destroy the British Royal Air Force. • After German bombers bombed London, the British responded by bombing Berlin, Germany. • After the British bombed Berlin Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to stop the bombing British military targets and start bombing London. • Hitler’s goal was to terrorize the British people into surrendering. • The British people would endure the attacks by hiding out in the subway tunnels. • The Royal Air Force was greatly outnumbered yet the British had one major advantage. • They developed a new technology called radar. • Using the radar placed along the coast were able to detect German bombers and would direct its fighters to intercept them. • The Germans would suffer great losses • On October 12, 1940 Hitler would call off the invasion of Britain. 2 Nazi Persecution of the Jews • During the Holocaust the catastrophe that ravaged Europe’s Jews, the Nazis killed nearly 6 million Jews. • Nazis also killed millions of people from other groups they considered to be inferior. • The Hebrew term for Holocaust is Shoah meaning catastrophe but it is often used specifically refer to the Nazi campaign to exterminate the Jews. 3 Albert Einstein • Among the Jews who left Nazi Germany in the early 1930s was Albert Einstein. • Einstein never really practiced Judaism but he did proudly identify himself as a Jew. • Soon after Hitler became chancellor, Einstein renounced his citizenship and left for Belgium. Nazi Ideology • Once the Nazis took power in Germany, they acted swiftly to implement the political racial policies Hitler had outlined in Mein Kampf. • The Nazis persecuted anyone who dared to oppose them as well as the disable, Gypsies, homosexuals, and Slavic people they reserved their strongest hatred for the Jews. Nuremberg Laws • After the Nazis took control they moved quickly to deprive the German Jews of many of their rights. • In 1935 the Nuremberg Laws took citizenship away from Jewish Germans and banned marriage between Jews and Germans. • Jews were not allowed to hold public office or vote. • Pass ports would be marked with a red J to clearly identify them as Jewish. "I am the greatest pig in town - I have affairs with Jews only." This scene, organized for the press in Hamburg in 1935, appeared in all German newspapers. The man's sign says: "I only take German girls to my room." The Nuremberg laws of 1935 criminalized sexual relations between Jews and "Aryans." Kristallnacht • On November 7, 1938 a young Jewish refugee named Herschel Grynszpan shot and killed a German diplomat in Paris. • In retaliation for the killing Hitler ordered his minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, to stage attacks against the Jews. • On the night of November 9, this plan played out in a spree of destruction. • The anti-Jewish violence that erupted throughout Germany and Austria that night came to be called a Kristallnacht or the “night of the broken glass” because broken glass littered the streets afterward. • Following the night of violence the Gestapo the government secret police arrested at least 20,000 wealthy Jews releasing them only if they agreed to emigrate and surrender all their possessions. • Between 1933 and the beginning of WWII in 1939, about 350,000 Jews escaped Nazi-controlled Germany. • Emigrants included Albert Einstein and businesspeople like Otto Frank who resettled his family in Amsterdam in 1933. • Otto’s daughter Anne Frank would later keep a diary of her family’s life in hiding after the Nazis overran the Netherlands. • Many of the Jews emigrated to the United States. • Millions of Jews remained trapped in Nazidominated Europe because they could not get visas to the U.S. or to other countries. • Jews remained in Germany even though they were persecuted because of restrictions on immigration to other countries, they thought conditions would improve because it was their home and they had on money help them emigrate. Final Solution • On January 20, 1942, 15 Nazi leaders met at the Wannsee Conference held in a Berlin suburb to determine the final solution of the Jewish question. • Previous “solutions” had included rounding up Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs from conquered areas, shooting them, and piling them into mass graves. • Another method required forcing Jews and other undesirables into trucks and then piping in exhaust fumes to kill them. • At the Wannsee the Nazis made plans to round up Jews from the vast areas of Nazi controlled Europe and take them to detention centers known as concentration camps. • Here the healthy individuals were used as slave labor. • The elderly, the sick, and young children were sent to extermination camps to be killed in gas chambers or burnt in furnaces. Concentration Camps • Buchenwald one of the first and largest concentration camps was built near the town of Weimar in 1937. • During operation over 200,000 prisoners worked 12-hour shifts as slave laborers in the factories. • There were no gas chambers at Buchenwald, still many would died as a result of exhaustion and being starved. Extermination • Treblinka and Auschwitz were the two most famous extermination camps. • Auschwitz alone housed about 100,000 people in 300 prisoner barracks. • Its gas chambers were built to kill 2,000 people at a time, sometimes gassed 12,000 a day. Camps • Of the 1.6 million people who died at Auschwitz about 1.3 million were Jews. • The methods that Hitler used to exterminate the Jews were; disease, malnutrition in the camps, executed in gas chambers and some died of exhaustion. • In only a few years Jewish culture had been virtually obliterated by the Nazis in the lands they conquered. 3 FDR Supports England • The Japanese attack on December 7, 1941 surprised many Americans. Most thought Germany posed the greatest danger. • Many Americans didn’t realize the causes of the Japanese attack could be traced back more than two years when President Roosevelt’s policies helped the British against the Germans. 4 Neutrality Act of 1939 President Roosevelt officially claimed the U.S. was neutral two days after the British and French declared war on Germany. Despite the declaration Roosevelt was determined to still do all he could to help them against Hitler. After the war started he called Congress into session to ask them to revise the neutrality laws. He asked Congress to eliminate the ban on the sale of arms to nations at war. • In the spring of 1940 the United States faced its first test in trying to remain neutral. • Prime Minister Winston Churchill began to ask Roosevelt to transfer old destroyers to Britain. • The reason for this request was that the British had lost half of its destroyers and needed more to protect its cargo ships. • Determined to give Churchill the destroyers Roosevelt used a loophole in the provision of the Neutrality Act that required cash for purchases. • In exchange for the right to build American bases on British-controlled Newfoundland, Bermuda, and islands in the Caribbean, Roosevelt sent 50 old destroyers to the British. • After the German invasion of France and the rescue of Allied forces at Dunkirk American public opinion changed to favor aid to the Allies. • Roosevelt’s destroyers – for-bases deal led to the founding of the America First Committee a isolationist group who opposed American intervention or aid to the Allies. Election of 1940 • President Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented third term as president. • Both Roosevelt and the Republican candidate Wendell Willkie said they would keep the U.S. neutral but assist the Allied forces. • Roosevelt won the election by an overwhelming majority. Why did Roosevelt win an unprecedented third term in office? • Americans wanted to stay with a president that they knew during this period of unrest. • With the election over Roosevelt could now focus on expanding the nation’s role in the war. • Britain was fighting for democracy he said and the United States had to help. • Speaking to Congress he listed the “Four Freedoms” for which the U.S. and Great Britain stood for: 1. Freedom of speech 2. Freedom of worship 3. Freedom of want 4. 4. Freedom of fear. Lend-Lease Act • By December of 1940 Great Britain had run out of funds to wage war against Germany. • Roosevelt proposed the Lend-Lease Act which stated that the U.S. could lend or lease arms to any country considered “vital to the defense of the United States.” Congress passed the act by a wide majority. • The President warned that if Britain fell an unholy alliance of Germany, Japan and Italy would keep trying to conquer the world and then “all of us in all the Americans would be living at the point of a gun.” • The president argued that the United States should become the “great arsenal of democracy” to keep the British fighting and make it unnecessary for Americans to go to war. • In June 1941, in violation of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, Hitler launched a massive invasion into the Soviet Union. • Although Churchill detested communism and considered Stalin a harsh dictator, he vowed that any person or state “who fights against Nazism will have our aid.” Roosevelt also supported this policy. • President Roosevelt developed the hemispheric defense zone which declared the entire western half of the Atlantic as part of the Western Hemisphere and therefore neutral. • This allowed Roosevelt to order the U.S. Navy to patrol the western Atlantic Ocean and reveal the location of German submarines to the British. • After a German U-boat fired on the American destroyer Greer, Roosevelt ordered American ships to follow a “shoot on sight” policy toward German submarines. • The Germans torpedoed and sank the American destroyer Reuben James in the North Atlantic. Japan Attacks the United States • Roosevelt’s primary goal between August 1939 and 1941 was to help Britain and its allies to defeat Germany. • When Britain began moving its warships from the Southeast Asia to Atlantic Roosevelt introduced polices to discourage the Japanese from attacking the British Empire. • Roosevelt started to put economic pressure on the Japanese by cutting key materials. • In July 1940 Congress passed the Export Control Act, giving Roosevelt the power to restrict the sale of strategic materials important for fighting a war to other countries. • Roosevelt immediately blocked the sale of airplane fuel and scrap iron to Japan. • By July 1941 Japanese aircraft posed a direct threat to the British Empire. • Roosevelt also responded by freezing Japanese assets in the U.S. and reducing the amount of oil shipped to Japan. • He then sent General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines to build up the American defenses. • The Japanese decided to attack resource-rich British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia and seized the Philippines • Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 sinking or damaging 21 ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet killing 2,403 and injuring hundreds more. • The next day President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. • On December 11, 1941 Japan alliesGermany and Italy declared war on the United States.