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WWII
Causes and US Entry
American History
Boesel 2011
The Road to World War II
Why it Matters
After World War I, Europe was unstable. Fascists
led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy,
and Adolf Hitler and the Nazis took control of
Germany. Meanwhile, Japan expanded its
territory in Asia. As the Nazis gained power,
they began a campaign of violence against
Jews. When Germany attacked Poland, World
War II began. The United States clung to
neutrality until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
Dictators
•
In 1917 the Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin, set up
Communist governments throughout the Russian empire.
• By 1926 Joseph Stalin had become the new Soviet dictator.
Millions of peasants who resisted Stalin’s industrial incentives and
Communist policies were killed.
• In 1919 Benito 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. Facists were anti-Communist.
• In Germany, the Nazi Party was nationalistic and anti-Communist.
Adolf Hitler, a member of the Nazi Party, called for the
unification of all Germans under one government. He believed
certain Germans were part of a “master race” destined to rule the
world.
Dictators
• Difficult economic times in Japan after World
War I undermined the country’s political system.
• Many Japanese officers and civilians wanted to
seize territory to gain needed resources.
• In 1931 the Japanese army, without the
government’s permission, invaded the resourcerich Chinese province of Manchuria.
• The military took control of Japan.
January 1933: Hitler became
Chancellor of Germany
Hitler soon ordered a program of
re-arming Germany
Hitler visits a factory and is enthusiastically greeted. Many
Germans were grateful for jobs after the misery of he
depression years.
Overview:
• Most devastating war in human history
• 55 million dead (55,000,000)
• 1 trillion dollars
• Officially began in 1939 as a European
Conflict
• Widened to include most of the world
• Historians today recognize Japan’s annexation of
invasion of Manchuria in 1931 as part of the war’s
beginning
Quick Facts Human Costs
How It Began
• WWI leftovers
• Germany defeated in and had to pay cost of war. In
huge economic depression
• Italy victorious but wanted more territory
• Japan victorious but wanted China and much of Asia
• Outside factors…
What Were These Outside
Factors?
•
•
•
•
Germany reduced size
Organized League of Nations
France and Britain adopt policy of appeasement
U.S. isolationist - Congress passed the Neutrality
Act of 1935 making it illegal for Americans to sell
arms to any country at war.
– Congress passed the Neutrality Act
of 1937, which continued the ban of selling arms to
countries at war and required warring countries to buy
nonmilitary supplies from the United States on a “cash
and carry” basis.
Rise of Hitler
• Nazi Party
organized, 1920s
• Nazi party
largest in
Germany, 1932
• Hitler voted as
chancellor, 1933
• New, feeble,
Reichstag created
Hitler Gets to Work
• German federal states dissolved – Nazi
governors appointed – April, 1933
• Gestapo Created -- April, 1933
• Jewish Boycott – April, 1933
• Trade-union leaders arrested – unions
dissolved – May, 1933
• Jewish Books Banned & Burned – May, 1933
• People’s Court established to try treason
cases – in secret – with no appeal – May,
1933
Hitler Gets to Work
• 27,000 People in Camps – July, 1933
• National Socialist Party declared sole party of
Germany – July, 1933
• Law for the Prevention of Hereditary and
Defective Offspring was proclaimed – July, 1933
(authorized surgical sterilization of mentally
challenged, mentally ill, alcoholic or genetically
diseased.
• 60,000 People in Camps – 1938
• Illegal to Leave Germany – October, 1941
March 1936: German troops marched
into the Rhineland
The Rhineland was a
region of Germany that
was ‘demilitarised’ after
the Treaty of Versailles.
Germany was not
allowed to have troops
in the region.
Hitler’s actions showed
how he was willing to
directly challenge the
treaty.
The Rhineland
March 1938: Nazi Germany annexed
Austria
Again, this went
against the terms
of the Treaty of
Versailles which
banned Germany
from uniting with
Austria.
However, the
arrival of German
troops was met
with great
enthusiasm by
many Austrian
people.
March 1939: Germany invaded
Czechoslovakia
Hitler had ordered the
occupation of a part of
Czechoslovakia known as
the Sudetenland (in October
1938). Many hoped that that
this would be the last
conquest of the Nazis.
However, in March 1939, he
ordered his troops to take
over the remainder of
Czechoslovakia. This was
the first aggressive step that
suggested that a war in
Europe would soon begin.
Those Who Ally
• Stalin and the Soviet
Union, 1939
• Betrayed by 1941 - in
violation of the Nazi-Soviet
Pact, Hitler began a massive
invasion of the Soviet
Union.
• Mussolini and Italy, 1939
• Off and on betrayal until
Italian defeat in 1943
War Begins
• World War II officially began with the Nazi
invasion of Poland and the French and
British declaration of war on Germany in
September 1939.
• The desire of the French and British to
avoid another war helped encourage Hitler’s
aggression in Europe. (Appeasement)
September 1939: Germany invaded
Poland
The non-aggression
pact allowed Germany
to march into Poland
without fear of an
attack from Russia.
On 3rd September
1939, Germany
invaded Poland and
started a War with
Britain and France.
German troops marching
into Warsaw, the capital
of Poland.
War Begins
• On August 23, 1939, Germany & USSR signed a
nonaggression treaty, with a secret agreement to divide
Poland.
• On September 1, 1939, they both invaded Poland.
• On September 3, Britain and France declared war on
Germany–starting World War II.
• The Germans used a blitzkrieg, or lightening war, to
attack Poland.
• The Polish army was defeated by October 5.
• On April 9, 1940, the German army attacked Norway and
Denmark and conquered both within a month.
German Territorial Gains
• Austria – March, 1938
– In March 1938, Hitler announced the Anschluss, or unification, of
Austria and Germany.
• Border of Czechoslovakia – Sept., 1938
– At the Munich Conference on September 29, 1938, Britain and
France, hoping to prevent another war, agreed to Hitler’s demands
in a policy known as appeasement.
• All of Czechoslovakia – March, 1939
• Poland – Sept., 1939 – The war begins
• By Summer of 1940, Germany Controlled Most of Europe
• World shocked as France falls to Germans
May 1940: Germany turned west and
invaded France and the Netherlands
In May 1940, Germany
used Blitzkrieg tactics to
attack France and the
Netherlands.
British troops were
forced to retreat from the
beaches of Dunkirk in
northern France.
Captured British
troops, May 1940
France Falls
• After World War I, the French built a line of
concrete bunkers and fortifications called the
Maginot Line along the German border.
• When Hitler decided to attack France, he went
around the Maginot Line by invading the
Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
• The French and British forces quickly went into
Belgium, becoming trapped there by German
forces.
By June 1940, France had
surrendered to the Germans
Britain now stood
alone as the last
remaining enemy of
Hitler’s Germany in
Western Europe.
Adolf Hitler tours Paris after his
successful invasion.
France Falls
• By June 4, about 338,000 British and French
troops had evacuated Belgium through the French
port of Dunkirk and across the English Channel,
using ships of all sizes.
• On June 22, 1940, France surrendered to the
Germans.
• Germany installed a puppet government in France.
Maginot Line
German Territorial Gains
Animated map of the invasion of France:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/launch_ani_fall_france_campaign.shtml
Links to all kinds of info:
http://www.besthistorysites.net/WWII.shtml
Footage of Dunkirk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUJlZuy5wKE
Start at 7:20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt44LvKq61g
September 1940-May 1941: the Blitz
For the following nine months, the German
air force (Luftwaffe) launched repeated
bombing raids on British towns and cities.
This was known as the BLITZ and was an
attempt to bomb Britain into submission.
Britain Remains Defiant
• Hitler thought that Britain would negotiate peace
after France surrendered.
• He did not anticipate the bravery of the British
people and their prime minister, Winston
Churchill.
• On June 4, 1940, Churchill delivered a defiant
speech that rallied the British people and alerted
the United States to Britain’s plight. Roosevelt was
listening.
Britain Remains Defiant
During the bombing of
Great Britain from
August 1940 to May
1941, large areas of
London and the entire
city of Coventry were
reduced to rubble.
Britain Remains Defiant
• 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.
• German bombers bombed London - the British responded
by bombing Berlin, Germany.
• The Royal Air Force was greatly outnumbered by the
Luftwaffe, but the British had radar stations and were able
to detect incoming German aircraft and direct British
fighters to intercept them.
FDR Supports England
• Two days after Britain and France declared war against
Germany, FDR declared the United States neutral.
• The Neutrality Act of 1939 allowed warring countries to
buy weapons from the United States as long as they paid
cash and carried the arms away on their own ships.
• President Roosevelt used a loophole in the Neutrality Act
of 1939 and sent 50 old American destroyers to Britain in
exchange for the right to build American bases on Britishcontrolled Newfoundland, Bermuda, and Caribbean
islands.
Neutrality?
• After the German invasion of France and the
rescue of Allied forces at Dunkirk, American
public opinion changed to favor limited aid to the
Allies.
• The America First Committee opposed any
American intervention or aid to the Allies.
• President Roosevelt proposed the Lend-Lease
Act, which stated that the United States could lend
or lease arms to any country considered “vital to
the defense of the United States.”
• Congress passed the act by a wide margin.
Neutrality?
• President Roosevelt developed the hemispheric
defense zone, - 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.
• In August 1941, President Roosevelt and Prime
Minister Winston Churchill agreed to the Atlantic
Charter. This agreement committed the two leaders to
a postwar world of democracy, nonaggression, free
trade, economic advancement, and freedom of the seas.
Neutrality?
• After a German U-boat fired on the
American destroyer Greer, Roosevelt
ordered American ships to follow a “shooton-sight” policy toward German
submarines.
• Germans torpedoed and sank the American
destroyer Reuben James
in the North Atlantic.
Getting More Involved
• Roosevelt wanted to help Britain and its allies defeat
Germany.
• When Britain began moving its warships from Southeast
Asia to the Atlantic, Roosevelt introduced policies to
discourage the Japanese from attacking the British Empire
in the Pacific.
• In July 1940, Congress passed the Export Control Act,
giving Roosevelt the power to restrict the sale of strategic
materials–materials important for fighting a war–to other
countries.
• Roosevelt immediately blocked the sale of airplane fuel
and scrap iron to Japan.
• The Japanese signed an alliance with Germany and Italy
Alliance That Changes War
• Japan had aligned itself with Germany and Italy, and these
three countries became known as the Axis Powers.
• Japan was “China Hungry”
• Japanese angry over U.S. support of China
– 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.
• Japan agreed to peace negotiations with U. S. – but
attacked while negotiations were going on in Washington
D.C.
Getting More Involved
• By July 1941, Japanese aircraft posed a direct
threat to the British Empire.
• Roosevelt responded to the threat by freezing all
Japanese assets in the United States and reducing
the amount of oil shipped to Japan.
• He also sent General MacArthur to
the Philippines to build up American defenses
there.
• The Japanese decided to attack resource-rich
British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia,
seize the Philippines, and attack Pearl Harbor and
the US Pacific Fleet.
Pearl Harbor
Dec. 7, 1941
US Enters WWII
• Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941,
sinking or damaging 21 ships of the U.S. Pacific
Fleet, killing 2,403 Americans, and injuring
hundreds more.
• The next day, President Roosevelt asked Congress
to declare war on Japan.
• On December 11, 1941, Japan’s
allies–Germany and Italy–declared war on the
United States.
Damages
U. S. Involved In War
President Franklin D.
Roosevelt had always
supported internationalism.
Allies United:
U.S.S.R, England and The U.S.
End Part 1