Download How did the Great Depression help cause WWII?

Europe after World War I
Totalitarian Governments
Definition: the individual and his/her rights are
nothing; the only thing that matters is the
state.



Joseph Stalin
Adolf Hitler
Benito Mussolini

Due to economic disaster, the people
looked for a “different” kind of government
to fix their problems
European Alliances

Germany and Italy make an alliance
(1936)
 Japan joins them in 1940 (military
dictatorship)

The Triparte Pact (Axis Powers) start to
expand their countries influence
(Imperialism)
US Responds with Neutrality

The United States will respond with
Neutrality Acts in 1935, 36, 37.
 America refused to be dragged into war like
World War I, not matter what other countries
are doing.

The US was suffering from the Great
Depression, it could not afford to get
involved with Europe
Spanish Civil War (1936-39)

General Francisco Franco will lead a
fascist revolution supported by Hitler
and Mussolini against the democratic
government of Spain

Hitler used Spain as his “trial run” for his
military goals in Europe.
US Responds with Nothing

The United States responded with
nothing – Isolationist

American actually started to weaken
their military (cost too much money)

The United States knew the threat of the
Nazi Party but could not do anything
Japanese Invasion of China

Japan invaded China in 1937 (natural
resources)
 US actually sold war materials to both Japan
and China
 “Rape of Nanking”

Japan attacked the American gunboat
the Punay
 Two killed and 30 wounded
America Responds with Nothing

Japan apologized and paid a fine. Then
tortured Americans in China to kick out
“western influence”

America stayed isolationist

The United states was again afraid to
get involved with problems overseas
Rape of Nanking

Japanese murdered 300,000 Chinese Civilians
(600,000 in Nanking)

The Chinese that surrendered were viewed as
cowards and less than human

“Smiling soliders can be seen conducting bayonet
practice on live prisoners, decapitating them and
displaying several heads as souvenirs, and proudly
standing among mutilated corpses. Some Chinese
POWs were simply mowed down by machine gun
fire while others were tied up, soaked with gasoline
and burned alive.”
Women of Nanking

Women as old as 70 and as young as 8
were dragged off to be sexually abused
 Somewhere between 40,000 to 80,000 were
gang-raped by soldiers then later killed

Pregnant women were give the same
treatment, often raped, then having their
stomachs slit by bayonet and fetuses
removed
Nanking continued….

From Japanese reports:
 After storming houses and encountering a
whole family. Chinese men were forced to
rape their own daughters, sons to rape their
mothers, and brothers their sisters.
 The rest of the family was made to watch

“Comfort Women System”
International Safety Zone

20 U.S. and European missionaries
created a Safety Zone for the Chinese in
Nanking
 Saved over 300,000 lives

The Japanese sought to humiliate and
exterminate the Chinese

Why didn’t the United States respond with
support?
Hitler’s Anti-Jewish Rhetoric

Germany started rounding up its own Jewish citizens
into “ghettoes”

The world new of Hitler’s plan for a master race from
his work in Mein Kampf

Hitler invaded the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia nobody stopped him

Hitler invaded Poland (1939), Britain and France
responded declaring war on Germany
 Germany rounded up all the Jews throughout Poland into
Ghettoes
The U.S. responds…

United States passed the Neutrality Act
of 1939
 The United States would now sell war
materials to both sides on a “cash and carry”
basis

The United States now officially
supported the Axis and Allied Powers
Problems with Japan

Japan was becoming an Imperialist nation in
Asia, and taking over all the countries
previously conquered by America

In protest, the United States cut off all supplies
of Oil to Japan – strangling their economy

Japan planned an attack against the United
States
 Code breakers knew Japan would attack, they just
did not think it would happen in Hawaii as an all out
attack
Pearl Harbor

December 7th, 1941 – “a date that will live in
infamy”

Japanese Kamikaze attacks

3,000 Americans and several ships destroyed

December 8th, 1941 - America declared war on
Japan
 In which Germany and Italy then declared war on the
United States.
America at War

The United States will first gear up for war
against the Japanese.
 “Island hopping”

The United States then entered Africa in
1942 - General Eisenhower

D-Day – June 6, 1944 – The United States
invaded Europe in Normandy, France

How did World War II fix the Great
Depression?
Question of the Day

How did the Great Depression help
cause World War II?