Transcript The Road to War: WWII

The Road to War
1931-1941
The Rise of Dictators
• The world of the 1930s was a very
unstable place, due to economic crisis
and a slow recovery from WWI
• Several leaders in European nations
catapulted to power on this shaky
foundation, including Joseph Stalin,
Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini
• These leaders used bitterness and
discontent to achieve total power
Totalitarianism and Fascism
• These leaders, in the 1920s and 1930s,
establish totalitarian governments in
Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union –
total control over a nation by using
terror to suppress individual rights
and by silencing all forms of
opposition
• Fascism, adopted in Italy and
Germany, stressed nationalism and
the supreme authority of the leader
Stalin’s Soviet Union
• To stem the economic failures of
communism, the Soviet dictator Josef
Stalin tried to modernize agriculture
and industry by placing all farms
under state control – collectivization
• Stalin seized most of the food farmers
produced and millions died from
starvation, while millions more fled to
the cities – farming production falls
and Stalin begins rationing of food
The Great Purges
• Stalin also punished those that
resisted and conducted a series of
purges – killing or imprisoning
enemies and opposition – to hold
TOTAL power (paranoia)
• By 1939, had arrested more than 7
million people and also sent about 5
million peasants to labor camps in
Siberia (Gulags)
Fascism in Italy
• Fascism, as with Nazism and
communism, arose from the failures
of WW I to solve problems
• Benito Mussolini, calling himself “Il
Duce”, [the leader] began organizing
those dissatisfied, while consolidating
his own power
• He promised an end to riots and
rationing and began to forcibly gain
power
Adolf Hitler
• In Germany, Adolf Hitler, a
discontented WWI vet, rose to power
through the Nazi party, whose
philosophy, Nazism, included
fanatical ideas of nationalism and
German racial superiority (Aryan)
• This charismatic leader began to
promise an end to unemployment and
problems from WWI
Mein Kampf
• In Hitler’s autobiography, he outlined
his plan for the nation
• Germany had been weakened by certain
groups (Jews, Mentally/Physically
Handicapped/Homosexuals) – which he
blamed for Germany’s defeat in WWI
• Hitler proposed strengthening the
military, expanding Germany’s
borders, and purifying the “Aryan
race” – mass genocide
Fascism – Italy and Germany
• Both fascist leaders used force to
silence opposition, and each blamed
his country’s problems after WWI on
“undesirables” in society – Mussolini
blamed communists, while Hitler
blamed whom???
• Both agreed that WAR might be
necessary to right the wrongs they felt
had been done by the Treaty of
Versailles
Adolf Hitler
• As depression hit Germany, Hitler
vowed to rebuild the economy and
restore lands lost after WW I
• In defiance of the Treaty of Versailles,
Hitler and the Nazis began rearming
Germany, while suspending freedom
of speech and press (Brownshirts –
“storm troopers”)
Der Führer
• In 1934, Hitler becomes both
chancellor and president of Germany,
he gives himself the title Der Führer
(the leader)
• Hitler keeps his promise of work,
putting all to work on massive
building projects (autobahn), but
begins to look outward (expansion) as
a way to bolster national pride
Hitler’s Goals and Dreams
• Hitler’s main goal for Germany
becomes the conquest of eastern
Europe and the Soviet Union, but he
needed to assert power within his own
borders and those former German
areas – does this by re-arming!!
• Neither Britain nor France tried to stop
Hitler from rearming, they had not
forgotten the costs of WWI and were
reluctant to challenge Hitler
The Axis Power
• Hitler also signs an alliance with
Mussolini (Italy) in 1936 – their
agreement established an “axis”
between Rome and Berlin – the Axis
Powers (later Japan joins)
• Hitler turns to Austria and invades in
March 1938, Britain and France
protest, but do nothing
Appeasement
• The response of UK and France was
APPEASEMENT – policy of giving
aggressor nations what they want in
order to avoid war – UK and FR wanted
PEACE, not WAR
• Appeasement reached peak at Munich
Conference in 1938 when UK and FR
leaders allowed Hitler to annex part of
Czechoslovakia in return for his promise
to make NO further demands for lands
• Upon his return in Sept 1938, Neville
Chamberlain, the British Prime
Minister, promised that appeasement
meant “peace for our time”
Winston Churchill
• New Prime Minister, Winston
Churchill, disagreed with the policy
of appeasement
• “Britain and France had to choose
between war and dishonor. They
chose dishonor. They WILL have
war.”
Winston
Churchill –
British Prime
Minister
Spanish Civil War
• In Spain, the military was waging a
brutal war against a new republican
govt
• General Francisco Franco
overthrew the govt and established a
fascist state in Spain that lasted until
1975
• Germany and Italy provide weapons
and men – a “practice run” for
soldiers
Polish Promise
• Munich agreement failed to appease
Hitler – in Mar 1939 took rest of
Czech and demanded Poland – UK
and FR pledged to defend Poland –
asked Soviets to join alliance
• Hitler was willing to go to war with
UK and FR, but not Soviets
• He did not think UK and FR would
defend
Non-Aggression Pact
• To prevent such an attack, Hitler
signed the NON-Aggression Pact
with Stalin in Aug 1939 – this pact
promised that Stalin would not invade
from the east in exchange for lands in
newly conquered areas
• This pact opened the way for Hitler to
invade Poland (Sept 1, 1939)
Blitzkrieg and Poland
• On Sept 1, 1939, Germany invaded
Poland in a blitzkrieg attack –
“lightning-quick” – land and air assault
that conquered Poland in less than a
month
• UK and FR declare war on Germany,
and France prepared defenses along
the Maginot Line, a massive string of
fortifications along France’s border
with Germany
Maginot Line
• However, France was open to attack
through Belgium, and in April 1940,
Hitler launched another blitzkrieg,
conquering Norway, Denmark, the
Netherlands, and Belgium
• He then attacked France from behind
the Maginot Line, and pushed UK and
FR troops all the way to the English
Channel
Battle of Dunkirk
• UK and FR troops were thoroughly
defeated by superior German troops
and were trapped in the city of
Dunkirk, where 340,000 troops were
rescued by a makeshift armada of
boats that carried them to Britain
• Europe was now in the hands of Hitler
and Mussolini
Vichy France
• Germany conquered nearly all of
France by June 1940, leaving only an
area in the south under French
supervision
• Called Vichy France, this French govt
entered into collaboration – close
cooperation – with Germany
• Many French continue to fight back
against the Germans through
underground Resistance movements
Battle of Britain
• Until the summer of 1940, Hitler had
experienced nothing but success, but that
changed when he turned his attention to
the island of Britain and launched a
series of bombings and air attacks to
prepare for an invasion
• Called the Battle for Britain, the people
remained steadfast, often sleeping in the
subways and going without electricity,
food, and water – thousands killed
“To the Rescue”
• “We shall defend our island, whatever
the cost may be. We shall fight on the
beaches…the landing grounds…on
the fields and in the streets…We shall
never surrender….until, in God’s good
time, the New World (?), with all its
power and might, steps forth to the
rescue and liberation of the Old.”
- WC
Courageous Defense
• Hitler’s Luftwaffe (air-force) was
unable to defeat Britain’s Royal Air
Force (RAF) even though the RAF
was outnumbered and outgunned
• Britain’s new PM Winston Churchill
praised the courage shown by the
RAF pilots: “Never in the field of
human conflict was so much owed by
so many to so few.”
Japanese Expansionism
• The US and Europe weren’t the only
nations affected by WW I and the Great
Depression
• In Asia, Japan emerged from
isolationism in the 1920s only to be hit
hard by the GD – massive layoffs,
strikes, and political discontent
• Radical nationalistic groups formed and
assassinated several key people in
hopes of gaining power
Japanese Expansionism
• Japanese expansion was seen as a way
of securing new markets for trade and
new sources of raw materials
• During WWI, Japan had helped the
Allies, but only to GET something –
only to lose those possessions in the
Treaty of Versailles
• From this anger, the military began to
look for solutions to their problems
Manchurian Incident
• The problem was that most of the
young military officers supported
these terrorists and used these events
to gain more power for the military
• In 1931, in the Manchurian
Incident, the Japanese army seized
Manchuria from Chinese troops and
set up a puppet state – controlled by
Tokyo
Japanese Aggression
• Although Europe and the US
protested the Manchurian Incident,
nothing was done, and Japan’s
military continued to gain power
• Manchuria became a base for
Japanese expansion, and in 1937
Japan resumed its war against China
• The Japanese army occupied major
cities thru superior weapons
Greater East Asia CoProsperity Sphere
• With European countries caught up in
the war, Japan announced it would
free Asia from European colonizers
• In 1940, Japan named itself leader of
a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity
Sphere – an area that Japan would
control in order to secure new areas
for markets and new raw materials
Looking Beyond China
• The GEAC-PS immediately set its
sights on colonies such as the Dutch
East Indies and French Indochina
(Vietnam)
• Later in 1940, Japan allied itself with
Germany and Italy in the Tripartite
Pact, moving troops into French
Indochina
• In 1941, Japan signed a neutrality pact
with the Soviet Union
Setting the Stage
• All of these Japanese events would set
the stage for Japan to challenge the
Europeans and Americans for
supremacy in Asia and for all of the
Pacific
Isolationism in America
• During the 1930s the US was focused
on solving domestic problems ??
• The govt did NOT want to get
involved in foreign affairs, even when
Germany, Italy and Japan threatened
world peace
• Under FDR, the US maintained its
neutrality through a series of
Neutrality Acts
Neutrality Acts
• To prevent being drawn into war,
Congress passed Neutrality Acts in
1935, 1936, and 1937 – These laws
barred the transportation or sale of
arms to warring nations and banned
loans to nations at war outside the
Western Hemisphere
• Did NOT please FDR – felt would drag
us into war, NOT keep us out
Cash and Carry
• One of the Neutrality Acts (1937),
permitted trade with fighting nations
in non-military goods as long as those
nations paid cash and transported the
cargo themselves – Cash and Carry
• FDR believe these laws actually
encouraged aggression by not
fighting the “good fight”
FDR and Neutrality
• FDR felt these acts gave him little
power to decide between “good
nations” and bad ones – called for
abandonment of isolationism –
American people forced him to drop
that idea
• “It’s a terrible thing to look over
your shoulder when you’re trying to
lead – and find no one there.” – FDR
American Public Opinion
• However, American opinion changed as
German aggression increase, and after
the fall of Poland/France, public
opinion favored increasing aid to
Europe (not involvement, just aid)
• Congress responds by giving Britain 50
old destroyers in exchange for
permission to build military bases on
British soil in the Western Hemisphere
America First Committee
• This move prompted a group of
isolationists to form the America
First Committee
• This group lobbied to block any aid to
Britain
• Despite this opposition, FDR
proposed “lending” war supplies to
Britain, and he persuaded Congress to
pass the Lend-Lease Act in 1941
Lend-Lease Act
• This law gave the President the
authority to aid any nation whose
defense he believed was vital to the
security of the US
• The result of Lend-Lease was that
Germany began sinking American
merchant ships – led to the arming of
US trade ships and virtual war by
1941
FDR Response to Japan
• Japan’s aggression in the Pacific left
only one obstacle to total domination
– the USA
• In response to Japan’s alliance with
the Axis Powers, FDR restricted
trade with Japan (scrap metal)
• As Japan continued its aggression,
FDR extended embargo to other wartype materials (OIL)
• And when Japan refused to abandon
Pacific conquests, FDR, in July 1941,
cut off all trade with Japan and
ordered US forces to prepare for war
• Just as Japanese and American
diplomats met in Washington to try to
avoid war, Japan’s military struck
• On December 7, 1941, a massive
Japanese air attack on the US Navy
base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii killed
2,400 and wounded 1,200
• Nearly 200 airplanes were destroyed;
18 warships were sunk or damaged,
including 8 of the 9 battleships – Japan
had lost only 29 planes
• Japan had wanted to deal a decisive
blow to the US ability to interfere in
Asia, what they had not counted on
was the American peoples’ responses
as FDR proclaimed December 7, 1941,
“a date which will live in infamy”