Transcript Prelude to War

The Shadows of War
Chapter 24
AP Notes
London Economic Conference
 66
nations
 Goal: stabilize currencies by
organizing a global attack on the
depression
 U.S. refused to participate ….
 Effect ….
Philippines
 Tydings-McDuffie
Act of 1934
 Independence for Philippines in
12 years
 U.S. gave up army bases
 Retain naval bases
 Economic limitations
Rationale
 Maintaining empire was expensive
 Labor resented competition of low
wages
 Am sugar resented competition
 Effect
 Japan believed they had nothing to
fear from U.S.

Soviet Union
 Recognized
Soviet Union in 1933
 Trade
 Bolster
Europe
the S.U. to offset fascism in
Latin America
Good Neighbor Policy
 FDR renounced armed intervention
 FDR wanted to form friendships and
support to help protect W.
Hemisphere
 Marines pulled out of Haiti
 Cuba released from Platt Amendment
 Relaxed grip on Panama
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Reciprocal Trade Agreement 1934
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Sec. of State Cordell Hull
Low tariffs – amended Hawley Smoot rates –
could lower as much as 50% as long as
corresponding country did same
21 pacts by 1939
Designed to lift Am. exports – relief and
recovery
Reversed high protective tariff policy
Led way for free-trade international
economic system
Rise of Dictators
 Rise
•
of dictatorships during 1920s
in Germany, Italy, and Japan
Fascism:
-totalitarian organization of
government and society by a
single-party dictatorship, intensely
nationalist, racist, militarist, and
imperialist
Communism v. Fascism
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Poor and
underdeveloped
countries – Russia
and China
Pre-democratic
Coercive way of
industrializing an
underdeveloped
society
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Wealthier and advanced
technology – German,
Italy, and Japan
Post-democratic
Based on brutality and
mass support – the
more brutal, the more
popular
Propaganda
Appealed to:
industrialists and land
owners and lower
middle class
Opposed communism
Italy – Benito Mussolini
Short changed in
Treaty of
Versailles
 1919 formed
Fascist party with
other veterans
 Wanted to restore
the former glory
that was Rome’s
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Mussolini – Il Duce
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1922 threatened to march on Rome unless
his authority was recognized
King Victor Emmanuel III asked him to
become prime minister
1925- declared dictatorship
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Efficiency and order would make Italy great
Suspended elections
Centralized the economy
Modernized the military
Make the Mediterranean an Italian Sea – Attacked
Ethiopia in 1935
Italo – Ethiopian War 1935-36
Italy attacked primitive Ethiopia with a
modern air force
 Emperor Haille Salasi appealed to the L of
N
 League branded Italy the aggressor nation
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Minor economic sanctions
 Failed to embargo oil
 Italy conquered an annexed Ethiopia
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Hitler
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Corporal in WWI
Enraged at
Germany’s defeat
and terms of
Versailles Treaty
National Socialist
German Workers
Party - Nazi
Munich Putsche
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November 1923
Attempted to seize
Munich
Hitler was guilty of
high treason
Jailed for 9 months
Wrote Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Book written while Hitler was jailed
 Diagnosed Germany’s problems and how
to cure them
 Expressed hatred for the Jews and
Russians
 Hatred for communism
 Said Germany needed Lebensraum
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Conditions in Germany
People had little faith in the weak existing
democratic government
 A multi-party system hindered the growth
of a strong “center” party
 Fear of communism
 Avenge defeat of WWI
 Unemployment severe, inflation,
depression

Conditions in Germany
German middle class hungered for stability
– even at the cost of liberty
 Police and military high command offered
no serious opposition when Nazis used
strong-arm methods to gain control

Rise to Power
1920 – National Socialist Workers Party
 1923 – Tried to seize Munichjailed for 9
months
 Promised to stabilize country and rebuild
economy
 Promised to revive German Empire
 1933 – Nazis largest party in Reichstag
 Hitler named chancellor
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Hitler Seizes Power
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Reichstag burns
down
Hitler suspended
civil liberties
Received dictatorial
powers
New government –
Third Reich
Der Fuhrer
Anti-Semitism
Hatred of the Jews
 Blamed Jews for Germany’s problems
 Germans were the Master Race
 Ordered boycott of Jewish shops, burned
books, imprisoned Jews in concentration
camps
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Neutrality Acts
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Designed to avoid the same issues that
caused U.S. to enter WWI
1st Neutrality Act
 Prohibited sale of war implements to
belligerents
 Prohibited loans to belligerents
 Prohibited Am. From sailing on ships of
belligerents
 Restricted entry of U.S. merchant ships
into war zones
Japan
Wanted to be a world power
 Chain of islands in Pacific
 Limited resources
 Japan needed raw materials for industrial
economy
 Depended upon the U.S. for iron, coal,
and petroleum
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Two factions in Japan
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Moderates – wanted
strict observance of
treaties and
conciliations to U.S.
Militarists – wanted
an end to the power
of the West in the W.
Pacific
Roots of American Isolationism
 Disillusioned
by WWI…..
 Nye Committee …..
 America First Committee – Henry
Ford – Charles Lindbergh –
denounced any move by the gov’t
toward involvement
Spanish Civil War
1936-37
 Rebels – army, Churchmen, fascists –
Franco
 Gov’t of Spain – anticlericals, industrial
workers, socialists, and communists
 Italy and Germany sent “volunteers” to
help the Rebels
 S.U. sent volunteers and arms to gov”t
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Spanish Civil War
27 nations involved
 England and France embargoed arms to
both sides because of danger of world war
 Majority of Am. Refused to take sides
 Minority of Am. Supported loyalists –
Abraham Lincoln Brigade
 U.S. invoked neutrality laws and refused to
sell arms
 Dress rehearsal for WWII
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Sp. Civil War
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Franco won
Loyalists fell from
power
1931 – Moderates in Japan
weaken
Naval limitations placed upon Japan were
degrading
 Great depression
 American racial discrimination not
forgotten
 Northern advance of the Chinese
Nationalists made future of Manchuria
uncertain
 Military responsible to the Emperor

Japanese resentment
 Resented
dependency
 High U.S. tariffs prohibited
Japanese imports to U.S.
 Japan couldn’t sell in the U.S.
 Led to prolonged depression in
Japan
Greater Asian Co-Prosperity
Sphere
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Japanese Monroe Doctrine
Japan announces interest in maintenance of
order in the W. Pacific
1931 Japan attacked Manchuria
1932 Japan controlled Manchuria
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Set up a puppet government
Manchukuo
League of Nations condemned Japanese
aggression
Japan continued
Japanese aggression
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1937 – Shanghai –
Nanjing – Beijing
Belief in American
weakness
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Neutral position on
Manchurian Crisis
Steps toward
Philippine
independence
Efforts toward
American Naval
disarmament
Undeclared War
July, 1937 – an “undeclared” war on China
 Americans are sympathetic and do not
invoke neutrality laws
 Oct. – L of N condemned Japan
 FDR – Quarantine Speech – denounced
aggressor nations and asked peace-loving
nations to preserve order, as “a
community approves and joins in
quarantine” against disease
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Panay Incident
U.S. gunboat on the Yangtze River
 Japanese attacked in broad daylight
 2 Americans killed and other wounded
 Engaged in legitimate business
 Flying the American flag in broad
daylight
 We protested and they apologized
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Hitler Repudiates the Treaty of
Versailles
1.
2.
3.
4.
Insisted on equality of arms
Announced withdrawal from League of
Nations
1935 – announced rearmament of
Germany
Remilitarized the Rhineland – 1936 – a
section of W. Germany from which
Treaty of Versailles excluded German
forces after WWI
Treaty of Versailles Con’t
5.
6.
7.
Formed the Axis with Mussolini – 1936 –
pledged to protect Europe from
communism
Annexed Austria – 1938 – Anschluss
Demanded Sudetenland – 1938 – part of
Czechoslovakia inhabited by ethnic
Germans – Czech began to mobilize and
had treaties with France and S.U.
Munich Conference
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1938
Great Britain and
France met with
Hitler
Hitler said “last
territorial claim”
Chamberlain of G.B.
said: “We have won
peace in our time.”
Appeasement
 Policy
of G.B. and France toward
Hitler
 Keep peace by giving in to Hitler’s
demands –
 Gave Sudetenland to Hitler
Repudiation of Treaty Con’t
Germany overran all of Czech by
1939
9. 1939 Germany and S.U. announced
a non-aggression pact
10. Germay attacked Poland – Sept. 1,
1939
11. England and France declared war
against Germany – Sept. 3, 1939.
8.
Challenges to Neutrality
 Sept.
1939 to April 1940 – “Phony
War”
 Neutrality laws amended to “cash
and carry”
 April, 1940 attacks began –
Blitzkrieg – Denmark, Norway,
Netherlands, Belgium, and
Luxembourg
Fall of France
Maginot Line
Maginot
Line
Fall of France
11 days
 Maginot Line
 Germans invade through the Ardennes
Forest
 Evacuation at Dunkirk – “Miracle at
Dunkirk” – 338,000 British soldiers
evacuated
 Italy declared war against France
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Paris Falls – June, 1940
Fall of France
 Italy
declared war - attacked from the
south – “knife in the back”
 Occupied France – German occupied
north and west – disarmed
 Vichy France – Marshall Petain –
collaborationist regime
 Free French – Charles DeGaulle
Battle of Britain
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Round the clock bombing
Ultra and the development of radar
Role of RAF
Operation “Sea Lion” - Postponed
We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost
may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall
fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the
fields, and in the streets, we shall fight on the
hills; we shall never surrender …W. Churchill
Election of 1940
Democrats “drafted” FDR – Henry Wallace
was his running mate
 Wendell Wilkie nominated by the
Republicans
 Issues:
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Third term
 Intervention
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FDR won an unprecedented third term
Arsenal of Democracy
Roosevelt moved to help Great Britain –
PM Winston Churchill asked for destroyers
to convoy supplies across the Atlantic
 FDR gave 50 old American ships in return
for sites on which to build 8 naval and air
bases
 Lend – lease: The U.S. will lend-lease
goods to any country whose defense is
necessary for the defense of U.S.
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War in the Atlantic
Undeclared
 “wolf – packs” hunted Am. Supply ships
 Germans cut off England
 Summer 1941
 10,000 tons sank daily
 U.S. began to convoy ships
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War in the Atlantic
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September, 1941 – US destroyer Greer
attacked
FDR ordered our ships to shoot German
subs on sight
Ordered our merchant ships to be armed
Oct. 31 – destroyer Reuben James sunk with
115 crew members
Congress permitted the transporting of
material to Europe – repealed cash and carry
Bill to extend draft for one more year passed
the House by only one vote
Atlantic Charter
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Roosevelt and
Churchill
Condemned
aggression
Affirmed national
self-determination
Disarmament
Collective security
Japan sought control of SE Asia
–began to attack
European possessions in SE
Asia
 1940 – signed an alliance with
Germany and Italy
 1941 – invaded southern IndoChina – a colony of France
 1940
Pearl Harbor
Tension between U.S. and Japan: 1940 –
the U.S. stopped selling airplanes to
Japan – terminated trade agreementsembargoed scrap metal and oil to Japan
 Japan attacked French Indo-China – U.S.
froze Japanese assets in U.S.
 U.S. naval fleet in Pearl Harbor stood in
the way of Japanese dominance in Asia
and Pacific

The Attack
Knock out the Pacific fleet before and
all-out military conflict
 Dec. 7, 1941
 Lost: 5 battleships, 3 cruisers, several
smaller vessels, 200 airplanes, 2,400
people
 Missed: Aircraft carriers
 Dec. 8 – U.S. declared war on Japan
 Germany and Italy declared war on the
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