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World War II
The Road to War: Aggression and
Response
• International political instability arose from:
– Built-up resentments from WWI
– Worldwide depression of the 1930s
– Ultra-nationalist movements in Japan, Italy,
Germany
The Rise of Aggressor States
• National Socialist (Nazi) Party
– Adolf Hitler
• Benito Mussolini
Isolationist Sentiment and
American Neutrality
• Neutrality Acts (1935, 1936, 1937)
• “Cash and carry”: The U.S. would sell war
materials to countries if they paid and
picked it up themselves.
The Outbreak of War in Europe
• Munich Conference (1938)
– Appeasement
– Gives Hitler the Sudentenland in Czechoslovakia
• Germany annexes Czechoslovakia
• Stalin-Hitler Pact: Appeasement
– Divide Poland between them
• World War II
– Germany Occupies all of Poland (1939)
• Blitzkrieg: Hitler moves to take Denmark, Norway,
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France
America’s Response to War in
Europe
• Roosevelt tries to mold American opinion
against Axis powers
• “Cash and carry"
• Selective Training and Service Act (1940)
• Destroyers for bases deal
• Robert Wood and the America First Committee
– Worry about ourselves
• American Anti-Semitism
Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor
• December 7, 1941
• Roosevelt called it the day that would “live
in infamy.”
• Surprise attack that showed Americans
the Pacific and Atlantic did not make them
safe
• Fueled nationalism and patriotism
• War declared on Japan
Major Powers
• Allies: 26 countries that included Great
Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S.
• Axis: Germany, Italy, and Japan
Major Events
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Fought in 3 major areas: Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific
1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union
1942: Battle of Midway (the U.S. gains naval control in Pacific)
1942-1943: Battle of Stalingrad
June 6, 1944: D-Day (Allied invasion of Normandy, France)
1944-45: Iwo Jima in the Pacific
December 1944: Battle of the Bulge
April 12, 1945: Roosevelt dies; Allied troops meet in Germany and
Hitler commits suicide
• May 8, 1945: V-E Day
• August 1945: bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• September 2, 1945: V-J Day
D-Day
Wartime Diplomacy
• Atlantic Charter Meeting, 1941: Roosevelt and Churchill
met in North Atlantic to agree on peace principles and
establishing free governments
• Casablanca, 1943: Roosevelt and Churchill use the term
“unconditional surrender.”
• Cairo, 1943: Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek
plan D-Day
• Tehran, 1943: The “Big Three” meet
• Yalta, 1945: The “Big Three” outline division of Germany
and trials of war criminals. S.U. promises to help with
Japan.
• Potsdam, 1945: Allies warn Japan to surrender.
Yalta Conference