Transcript Chapter 17

Chapter 16
WWI revisited
• Left Europe devastated
• Infrastructure was so severely damaged that it
greatly hindered the Europe’s ability to function
after the war
• Victors of WWI were in no mood to be generous
• Germany was held accountable under the War
Guilt clause
Legacies of WWI
• Federal Government exceeded its authority with
the Espionage and Sedition Acts
▫ Sedition – anything that leads towards insurrection
▫ Activities: subversion, incitement, discontent
▫ Extremely broad concepts to arrest, detain, or expel
• Most did not consider the world “safe for
democracy”
Legacies of WWI
• 1914-1918
• > 8 million died fighting WWI (>112, 000
Americans)
• Mid 1918- an additional 25 million people died
world wide from the Spanish Flu Pandemic
Leaders
• David Lloyd George, Britain
▫ Greatest fear was that Communism would spread
to Europe
• George Clemenceau, France
▫ Germany should be brought to its knees so that
she could never start a war again
Leaders
• Woodrow Wilson, US
▫ Genuinely stunned by the savagery of the war . He
could not understand how an advanced
civilization could have created so much
devastation
• Vittorio Orlando, Italy
▫ Wanted the territory promised to Italy in order for
her to join on the side of the Allies. Left VT
Conference when territory went to Yugoslavia
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
(Main)
1. No more secret treaties
2. Countries must reduce their number of
weapons and armed forces
3. Self- determination- Countries should be able
to govern themselves and should not have one
country govern another
4. All countries should join the League of Nations
Actual Treaty of Versailles Provisions
• Alsace-Lorraine ( industrial territory) given to
France (This alone prevented Germany from
rebuilding her economy)
• Russia was made to give up Estonia, Lithuania,
Latvia
• German army reduced to 100,000.No tanks
No air force , No Submarines, only 6 capital
ships
• Germany was not allowed to unite with
Austria to form one super state
• Germany to admit full responsibility for starting the
war
In reality
The European Allies wanted nothing more than to
bankrupt Germany to keep her economic
potential to a minimum.
Isolationism
• US international policy -20s and the 30s
• Withdrawal from foreign affairs
• Most did not want to cut themselves off
completely
• Wanted to avoid “entangling alliances”
▫ Thomas Jefferson’s inaugural speech, 1801
• Prevented the US from joining the League of
Nations or the World Court
Washington Conference
• Rather than join World
Organizations the US used
diplomacy to promote world
peace
• 1921
• Focused on naval
disarmament and Pacific
security
• Organized by Secretary of
State Charles Evans Hughes
5 Power Treaty
Kellogg-Briand Pact
• US, Great Britain, Japan
destroy or retire some of their
warships to limit their
individual naval strength
• Italy and France would be
added to make 5
• Named for French Foreign
Minister Aristide Briand and
US secretary of State Frank
Kellogg
• 62 nations signed
• Agreed to outlaw war “as an
instrument of national policy”
• Go to war in self defense
• The treaty lacked any
provisions for enforcement
• Japan invaded Manchuria in
1931
“…Secretary Hughes sank more
ships than all the admirals of
the world had sunk in a cycle
of centuries…”
Creditor Nation
• Those nations that loan to other nations
• During the Industrial Revolution European
investors had loaned money to the US to finance
industrial growth
• The US then loaned money to those same
European nations to buy armaments for WWI
• Britain, France and Italy asked the US to cancel
their WWI debts
• The US did cancel part but not all
Dawes Plan, 1924
• The only way that those nations could pay the
US was to collect war reparations or
damages from Germany
• Those reparations were extremely harsh
 100 tons of Gold or $64 Billion
• Caused hyper inflation in Germany
• The Dawes Plan gave Germany more time to pay
reparations to ease economic crisis there
• Hoover gave Germany a year’s moratorium in
1931 which only prolonged the crisis
Dictators Threaten World Peace
Section 1
Benito Mussolini
• Founded the Fascist Party in
Italy
• Extreme right-wing,
authoritarian government with
intolerant views or practice
• Fascists and the Communists
bordered on Civil War
• Blackshirts
• The Fascists marched on Rome
supported by business leaders
who feared Communism
• The Italian King appointed
Mussolini prime minister
granting him dictatorial powers
• He immediately limited free
speech, arrested political
opponents and restricted voting
rights
Invasion of Ethiopia
• Italy lost Ethiopia - colony in
Africa, 1896
• 1935
• Prime target as it was an
independent country
• Modern army against
primitive
• Mussolini had grandiose
idea of building a "new
Roman Empire“
• He was the new Julius
Caesar
• Condemned by the League of
Nations
Josef Stalin
• Amassed extraordinary
political power
• Totalitarian ruler
• Totalitarian state- a country
where the government has
complete control
• forced industrialization
• Many land owners killed when
they protested the taking of
their land
• Stalin eliminated all known
and supposed enemies from
the party and the army
Adolph Hitler
• Austrian-born German
politician and the leader of the
National Socialist German
Workers Party (NAZI)
• Chancellor of Germany, 1933
• Combined the offices of
President and Chancellor into
new office, Führer
• Rearmed Germany to pull
them out of the Depression
• Direct violation of the
Versailles Treaty
What is the Third Reich?
• Vowed to create a new empire or Reich
▫ The First Reich: The Holy Roman Empire (800/962 – 1806)
▫ The Second Reich: The German Empire (1871 - 1918)
▫ The Third Reich: Nazi Germany (1933 - 1945)
Francisco Franco
• 1931 – changes in constitution
limited the powers of the
Catholic Church and the
military. Land reform for
peasants, nationalization of
utilities
• Military felt threatened
• Civil War erupted between
Fascists and Loyalists
• FDR feared getting pulled into
war. Did not send direct aid
• Abraham Lincoln Brigade
• 3000 Americans traveled to
Spain to help fight fascism
• medical, combat and
transportation
For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Novel by Ernest Hemingway published in
1940.
• It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young
American in the International Brigades
attached to a republican guerrilla unit during
the Spanish Civil War
Japanese Militarists
• Japanese aggression
threatened Asia
• Wanted to lessen Japan’s
reliance on foreign imports
• Reduce the number and
influence of foreign powers in
Asia
• Japan wanted control over
territories that produced iron,
petroleum, rubber, and timber
• Invaded Manchuria in 1931
• Expanded into Nanking, 1937
• December of 1937
• Japanese Imperial Army
captured capital city of
Nanking
• Proceeded to murder 300,000
out of 600,000 civilians and
soldiers in the city
• The six weeks of carnage
would become known as the
Rape of Nanking
US-Soviet Relations
• Fear of Japanese expanding into USSR
• Soviets approached the US in 1933
• FDR was the 1st president to formally recognize
the Soviet Union
War in Europe
Section 2
Germany occupies the Rhineland,
1936
• As part of the
Versailles Treaty
Allied troops occupy
the Rhineland for 15
years.
• Rhineland was a
demilitarized zone
(DMZ) occupied by
Allied troops
• Allied Troops leave
• Hitler takes his chance
in 1936 and occupies
the Rhineland.
Hitler annexes Austria, March, 1938
• 1938
• annexation or Anschluss
of Austria
• propaganda and
Austrian Nazis
• At the time, Britain desperate to avoid another
war
• Appeasement was a popular and seemingly
pragmatic policy
• Now widely discredited as a policy of weakness
Munich Agreement and the
Sudetenland, September, 1938
• Hitler met with
Chamberlain and
demanded the ethnically
German Sudetenland
under threat of war
• Given to Germany
without Czechoslovakia’s
consent
• Germany annexed all of
Czechoslovakia 6 months
later
Appeasement
• Policy of giving into demands in order to avoid a
larger conflict
• instituted in the hope of avoiding war
• September, 1938
• Munich Conference
• Pact gave Germany control of the Sudetenland,
an area of Czechoslovakia
• Underestimated Hitler and his goals to expand
Neville Chamberlain (Britain), Édouard Daladier
(France), Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy)
Justification
• “Blessed are the Peacemakers”
• Legitimate fear of
another post-war
economic catastrophe
• If you satisfy the brute he
will back off
• Give the NAZIs time they
will become respectable
• Germany had been
wronged at Versailles
Joseph Kennedy
• US ambassador to Great Britain, 1938-1940
• Staunchly supports appeasing Hitler
• Fiercely critical of Winston Churchill's calls for a
stronger policy against the Nazi threat
Winston Churchill
Churchill’s response to Neville
Chamberlain and
appeasement…
"You were given the choice
between war and dishonour.
You chose dishonour and you
will have war."
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping
it will eat him last.”
~ Winston Churchill
The Holocaust
Section 3
We will cover at a later time
America Moves Towards War
Section 4
Neutrality Acts
• 1935-1939
• Acts passed by Congress to prevent the US from
entering European Affairs
• Evolved as public opinion shifted from neutrality
to involvement
Neutrality Acts-1935,1936
• Response to Italian invasion of
Ethiopia
• Restricted sale of arms and war
materials to all countries at war
• The 1936 act banned loans to
countries at war
Neutrality Acts- 1937
• When the Spanish Civil War erupted
prior acts extended to include Civil Wars
▫ U.S. citizens were forbidden from
traveling on ships of countries at
war
▫ Companies could sell supplies to
countries at war in Europe as long
as it was cash and carry
Neutrality Acts- 1939
• American citizens and ships were
barred from entering war zones
designated by the President
Non-Aggression Pact
• 1 week before invasion of Poland
• Germany and the Soviet Union
• Secret clause▫ Poland was to be divided
▫ The Soviets would also take the Baltic
States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
Why bother?
• Hitler had every intention to invade the Soviet
Union
• The Non-Aggression Pact kept Germany from
fighting on two fronts
War
• Germany invaded Poland on 9/1/1939
• Two days later Britain and France declared war
on Germany
• The Soviets stood by and watched
• Mid-September, The Red Army invaded Poland
from the east
Blitzkrieg
• Lightening war
• Tactic depends on speed and surprise
• Overwhelm your enemy with technology then send
in manpower
▫ Air strike
 dive bombers sent in to “soften up” the area
 destroy all rail lines, communication centers and
major rail links
 Planes withdraw at the last minute then overrun
with artillery
▫ Tanks and artillery
▫ Infantry
Axis Powers
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Military alliance
Tripartite Pact of 1940
Germany-Italy-Japan
"Rome-Berlin –Tokyo Axis"
Pact of Steel
A Japanese propaganda poster
for the Tripartite Pact: "Good
friends in three countries".
WWII Opponents
Allied Powers
Axis Powers
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•
•
• Germany
• Italy
• Japan
Britain
France
US
USSR will join after Hitler
turns on Stalin and invades in
June, 1941
Lend-Lease Act
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•
•
Eventually Neutrality Acts repealed late 1941
War materials sent to Britain
Britain had little cash to pay
$7 billion appropriated for ships, planes, tanks,
supplies to non-Axis countries more specifically
Great Britain
Winston Churchill
• Called out of Retirement
• Appointed First Lord of the
Admiralty
• Became a member of the War
Cabinet as he had been during the
first part of the First World War
• In the spring of 1940, Neville
Chamberlain came under
mounting pressure to resign as
prime minister
• Churchill becomes Prime Minister
in May, 1940
Text Readings for European Theatre
• Chapter 17 section 1
pp 562-568
• Chapter 17 section 2
pp 569-577