Transcript The Road To War

The Road To War
Chapter 17
America’s Foreign Policy 1931 1941
 ISOLATIONISM:
– The Great Depression
– Americans not wanting a
repeat of WWI
– Divided country
• Some favored the ideas of
demagogues like Hitler
– Father Coughlin
• Some felt for the victims
of aggression.
America chooses
NEUTRALITY
 Neutrality and
Isolation:
– Hawley-Smoot
Tariff isolated
America.
• We couldn’t buy
other countries
goods and they
wouldn’t buy ours
because of the
tariff.
America Chooses
NEUTRALITY
 Neutrality Acts
(1935):
– Banned the US from
providing weapons to
nations at war.
– Banned loans to
nations at war.
– Trade with countries at
war as long as:
• Cash and carry
• Non-military items
What was going on in Europe to
make America favor Isolation?
 Totalitarianism
– Government that
exerts TOTAL control
over every aspect of
life in the country.
 Fascism
– Emphasizes the
importance of nation
or of an ethnic group.
Fascism and Totalitarianism
 Strong dictatorial
governments.
 No respect for
individual rights and
freedom.
Players of the European Game:
JOSEF STALIN
 (1888 – 1953)
 Joined the Communist
Party as an insurgent.
 Follower of Lenin.
 Took control of the
Communist Party and the
government in 1926.
 Sole ruler until death in
1953.
Josef Stalin: Personal Life
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Came from poverty.
Little education
Violence in childhood
Treatment of his own
family
 Greatest Talent??
– Creating FEAR
JOSEF STALIN: Economic Plan
 Took away private
land from farmers and
created
COLLECTIVE
FARMS.
– Millions starved to
death.
STALIN: Economic Plan
 Industrialization of
Russia:
– More money to create
steel factories, oil,
coal.
– Ignored housing,
clothing, consumer
needs.
– Millions suffered.
Stalin’s Reign of Terror
 Cult of Personality
 PURGES
– “Purified” the Party by
getting rid of
opponents.
 SHOW TRIALS
– Only one verdict.
– GUILTY!!!
Fascism in Italy
 Italy’s totalitarian
government came out
of the chaos of WWI.
 Benito Mussolini
– “Il Duce”
– Blackshirts
Fascism in Italy
 Blackshirt “thugs”
terrorized people who did
or might oppose
Mussolini.
 Brought control to Italy –
but at a high, high price.
 No democracy
 Outlawed other political
parties
Fascism in Italy
 Mussolini wanted to
rebuild the Roman
Empire.
 “The Country is
Nothing Without
Conquest”
– Invasion of Ethiopia in
1935.
Hitler’s Rise to Power
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Austrian by birth
Poor student
Artist???
WWI became a hero
Blamed Jews and
Marxists for German
losses in WWI.
Hitler’s Rise to Power: The Nazi
Party
 Founded in 1919
– Belief in Hitler
– Belief about German
nationalism
– Belief in racial
superiority
– 1923, tried and failed
to take over German
government.
Hitler’s Rise to Power
 Wrote MEIN KAMPF
in prison
– Defiance of the
Versailles Treaty
ending WWI
– Called to strengthen
German military again
– Purifying the “Aryan
Race”
• Removal of anything
that wasn’t “Aryan”
Hitler becomes Chancellor of
Germany
 Nazi Party promised
Germans to stabilize
the country, rebuild
the economy, and
restore the empire that
had been lost in WWI.
Nazis in Control
 Suspended the rights
of free speech and
press.
 Storm Troopers /
Brown Shirts
terrorized people into
silence.
Germany Rearms and Expands
 1936: Germany took
back the Rhineland.
 1936: Created the
AXIS with Italy
 1938: Annexed
Austria
 1938: Invaded and
took over
Czechoslovakia
What did the world do as Hitler
did this?
 APPEASEMENT
– Giving in to a
competitor’s demands
to keep the peace.
Appeasement
 Britain’s Prime
Minister: Neville
Chamberlain.
 Thought once Hitler
had Czechoslovakia
Hitler would “be
content”
 “Peace in Our Time.”
The Spanish Civil War
 1936 Elections
– Pre-election violence
between political parties.
– The group of liberal parties
– REPUBLICANS – won.
– DO NOT CONFUSE US
REPUBLICANS WITH
SPANISH
REPUBLICANS!!!!!
The Spanish Civil War
 Fascists in the
military did NOT like
the Republican
victory.
 CIVIL WAR in 1936
The Spanish Civil War
 Both sides turned to other
countries to help them.
 Hitler, Mussolini backed
the fascists with money,
troops, and equipment.
 Russia helped the
Republicans.
 40,000 English,
Americans and French
came to fight on the
Republican side.
The Spanish Civil War: Fascism
won
 Fascism ruled from
1939 – 1975.
 Francisco Franco.
– Spanish nationalism
– Totalitarian control
Europe FINALLY goes to war
 “Britain and France
had to choose
between war and
dishonor. They chose
dishonor. They will
have war.”
– Winston Churchill
Invasion of Poland
 Poland was next on
Hitler’s list of
countries to invade.
 BUT
– France and England
had said they would
not go along with this
invasion.
– Stalin was also a
problem.
Hitler’s Solution?
 Make a pact with
Stalin.
 Only have to fight
Britain and France –
IF they would fight.
Hitler’s BLITZKRIEG
 “Lightning War”
 Fast and concentrated
land and air war.
 Take enemy by
surprise.
 Terrorize civilian
populations and
troops.
Poland
 Held out for a month.
 Stalin’s Russia took
part of the territory.
 Germany came in
with their laws and
started to put Jews
into Concentration
camps.
What happened next?
 NOTHING!!!
 “Phony War”
 Britain and France
feared the potential
losses.
France
 Maginot Line
– Why didn’t it work?
France
 April 9, 1940
Germany attacks.
 NOT through the
Maginot Line.
 They went round and
attacked through
Belgium.
 Blitzkrieg!
Dunkirk
 German drive to
capture British and
French soldiers.
 Drove the allies to the
coastal city of
Dunkirk.
Dunkirk
 Over nine days one of
the greatest rescues in
the history of warfare
happened.
 Over 900 boats of all
types braved the
LUFTWAFFE to save
340,000 soldiers.
Fall of France
 June 10, 1940
 Reaction of the
French?
– Collaborators (worked
with the Nazis)
– Resistance ( fought the
Nazis as guerrillas /
insurgents)
Battle of Britain
 August 1940 – May
1941
 Luftwaffe attacks day
and night.
 1,000 planes bombed
Britain
The Blitz
 Firebombs!
 Heat of 1400-degrees
Farenheit
 Melted asphalt and
glass.
– Trapped people
 People in shelters hit
literally exploded
from the heat.
England Replies
 RAF (Royal Air
Force)
 Flying 6 – 7 missions
a day.
 Tried to avoid the
German fighter planes
and shoot down the
bombers before they
unloaded.
England’s RAF
 Flew Spitfires and
Hurricanes
 80% died
 But they took out
more Germans.
England’s RAF
 Meanwhile – England
bombers were
bombing German
cities.
Japan Builds an Empire
 US Great Depression
affected industry in
Japan.
 1930s – rise of
nationalism and
fascism in Japan.
The Manchurian Incident
 Japan needed raw
materials and food.
 Why not invade
Manchuria to get it?
The Manchurian Incident
 PUPPET STATE:
– Supposedly
independent country
but under the control
of a more powerful
country.
– Manchuria 1932
Manchuria
 Japan sent a million
farmers, businessmen,
and soldiers to make
Manchuria their
colony.
1937 - Japan invades China
 The Rape of Nanking
 The world was
horrified.
 The world did
nothing.
1940 Japan finds new allies
 Germany and Italy
 The Axis Powers
What was America doing in
1940?
 America First
Committee
– Blocked any aid to
England.
– Strict Isolation
– Charles Lindbergh a
leader
1940 Election
 Roosevelt won.
 “Your boys are not
going to be sent to
any foreign war.”
Lend Lease
 November 1940
 “If your neighbor’s
house is on fire, you
don’t sell him a hose.
You lend it to him and
take it back after the
fire is out.”
– FDR
– $49-billion in aid
given.
Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor
 Most American
attention was on what
was happening in
Europe.
 That included FDR
Before the Attack
 Roosevelt did use the
Neutrality Acts to
keep iron, steel and
oil from being
exported to Japan.
 1940 froze all
Japanese investments
in the United States.
Before the Attack
 October 1941 – General
Tojo Hideki became
Prime Minister of Japan.
– Tojo
– MAJOR fascist
– Admired Hitler
– Believed any country that
tried to keep Japan from
needed supplies was an
enemy.
Before the Attack
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Admiral Yamamoto
American education
Brilliant tactician
Did NOT favor a war
with the US
Yamamoto
 When he saw he
could not stop Japan
from a war with the
US – it was his duty
to try to make Japan
win.
America: The Sleeping Giant
 “America is a
sleeping giant. Once
awakened, his wrath
will by mighty.”
– Yamamoto
Japan negotiates with the US
 October – December
1941.
 BUT: US had cracked
Japanese coded
messages.
 US KNEW on
November 27 and
December 6 an attack
was going to happen.
Before Pearl Harbor
 But what the US
DIDN’T Know was
WHERE the attack
would be.
Why Pearl Harbor?
 Little known port
 Half the fleet would
be there in December
 The harbor is only 3
miles square
December 7, 1941
 Shortly after 7 AM it
started.
Specifics of the Attack
 The Arizona
 Hit by 1,760 lb. Bomb
in the forward ammo
magazine.
 Went down in 9
minutes
 Half the dead of Pearl
Harbor
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941
 By 9:45 the attack was
over.
 2,400 lives lost
 1,200 injured
 200 warplanes destroyed
 18 warships sunk or
heavily damaged
– 8 of the nine battleships of
the fleet.
Back in Washington DC
 The Japanese blew it.
– Diplomatically
speaking.
– The Declaration of
War on the US came
AFTER the attack.
Yamamoto knew Japan would
lose too
 The three primary
targets weren’t in the
harbor when they
attacked.
– The Enterprise
– The Lexington
– The Saratoga
FDR
 “December 7, a day
that will live in
infamy.”
– FDR, Declaration of
War speech
The West Virginia