Chapter 19 Notes
I. The Rise of Dictators
A. Treaty of Versailles led to:
1. Economic Depression
a. 1920…
4 German Marks = 1 US Dollar
b. 1923…
4,000,000,000 Marks = $ 1
2. Feeling shortchanged
-- Italy felt slighted with minimal
gains at end of WWI
B. Italy
1. Adopted Fascism (1919)
a. extreme nationalism promoting
importance of nation over the
individual
b. gain power by seizing territory and
strengthening military
2. Led by Benito Mussolini with his
renegade Blackshirts
3. Complete gov’t. control of finances
and industry by 1930
4. 1935 – invasion of Ethiopia… why?
1939 – invasion & annexation of
Albania… why?
C. USSR
1. By 1926 Joseph Stalin became the
new Soviet dictator
2. Killed nearly 8 – 10 million people
who opposed him
D. Japan
1. Fight along side Allies in WWI, but…
a. “Forced” reduction of naval power
(1921 Washington Conference)
b. 1924 Immigration Exclusion in US
2. 1931 invasion of Manchuria… why?
3. US recognition of USSR by 1933…
WHY???
4. 1937 aggressive invasion of China
(FDR’s “Quarantine the Aggressors”)
E. Germany
1. Embarrassed and devastated by
Treaty of Versailles
2. 1923… Beer Hall Putsch
a. Failed gov’t. takeover (Erich von Ludendorff)
b. Hitler jailed & writes Mein Kampf
3. (1/30/33) Hitler appointed chancellor
a. Reichstag burnt…
Communists blamed
(Marinus van der Lubbe, a mentally unstable 24-year-old Dutch communist)
b. Enabling Act passed
4. 1934 assassination plot… 77 killed
5. 1936… reoccupy Rhineland
6. 1938… Munich Agreement
a. Exchange Sudetenland
(Czechoslovakia) for “peace in our
time.”
b. Begins appeasement (Danzig, etc.)
7. (11/9-10/38)… Kristallnacht
8. Lebensraum
II. America Turns to Neutrality
A. Americans largely adopt policy of
isolationism…WHY???
1. rise of dictators
2. default on loan payments
3. Nye Committee findings
a. “Merchants of death” profit from
war (bankers & munitions makers)
b. Ex. DuPont’s earnings went from
$5 million in 1914 to $82 million
in 1918
B. Neutrality Act(s)
1. 1935 – In response to Italy’s invasion
of Ethiopia
(illegal to sell weapons to belligerents)
2. 1937 – “Cash and Carry”
(could buy nonmilitary goods, but
belligerents must ship them home
themselves)
3. No citizens travel on belligerent ships
** As Poland and Britain are attacked…
neutrality changes **
4. 1939 – “Lend / Lease”
(US lent 50 old battleships to Britain
in exchange for right to build strategic
bases)
FDR believed in internationalism...
-- trade creates prosperity &
prevents war
Teams are set…
ALLIES
1. Great Britain
(Churchill)
2. Russia
(Stalin)
3. USA
(FDR / Truman)
vs.
AXIS
1. Germany
(Hitler)
2. Italy
(Mussolini)
3. Japan
(Tojo / Hirohito)
C. (8/23/39) Non-Aggression Pact
1. signed between Russia and Germany
2. secret plans are to divide Poland
III. The War Begins
A. (9/1/39) Germany invaded Poland (start)
1. by Oct. 5 Polish Army is defeated
2. Hitler to troops…
“close your hearts to pity.”
-- Norway – 18 days
B
L
-- Belgium – 17 days
I
-- Denmark / Holland – 5 days TZ
K
-- Poland – 6 weeks
R
-- France – 6 weeks
I
E
G
B. Maginot Line
C. Miracle at Dunkirk
1. (6/4/40) French and British troops are
trapped at port of Dunkirk
2. Hitler stopped and allowed 338,000
troops to flee to safety
a. left many major tools of war
b. Churchill on “Miracle”
“wars are not won by evacuations.”
3. 3 weeks later French surrender
a. puppet government set up in Vichy
b. led by Marshal Philippe Petain
D. Battle of Britain
1. Luftwaffe vs. British RAF
2. London and Berlin hit (strategy?)
-- Brits use subway tunnels for safety
3. development of radar
a. outnumbered British fighters
inflict heavy losses on German
bombers
b. Churchill –
“Never in the field of human conflict was so
much owed by so many to so few.”
4. Invasion of Britain called off
IV. Nazi Persecution
A. Nearly 6 million Jews and millions of
other “undesirables” (Gypsies, Russians,
homosexuals, etc.)
B. SS St. Louis (937 passengers)
1. (May 13, 1939) German Jews given
permission to flee Germany…
heading to Havana, Cuba
(propaganda)
2. Quotas very tightly enforced during
war
a. Depression, Nativism, and
Anti-Semitism
b. “try to keep out political refugees.”
3. 907 were returned to Europe
a. only 365 survived the Holocaust
b. becomes known as Voyage of the
Damned
C. The Final Solution
1. The Wannsee Conference
a. use of concentration camps and
extermination camps to rid Europe
of the “undesirables.”
(Untermenschen – plural; sub-human)
b. Examples…
-- Auschwitz, Dachau, Birkenau,
Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald,
Treblinka
V. America Enters the War
A. The Isolationist Debate
-- America First Committee
B. Edging Toward War
1. Hemispheric defense zone
a. Monroe Doctrine???
b. could patrol and “aid” British
i. Greer & Kearny incidents lead
to undeclared unrestricted war
vs. Germany
ii. Reuben James sunk by German
U-boat… 115 sailors lost
2. Atlantic Charter
-- FDR & Churchill met & discussed:
i. fight on same principles as
WWI (14 Points)
ii. US pledges to join post-war
peacekeeping body
(United Nations)
C. Japan Attacks
1. In response to “sanctions” put in place
by the US:
a. bombed Pearl Harbor
(December 7, 1941)
i. 2,400 + killed
ii. 7 most powerful battleships are
sunk or disabled
b. Admiral Yamamoto
-- “What I have achieved is less than a
grand slam.”
19-3 Individual Analysis and Documentation:
*** List at least six (6) examples of ways in which Jews were
persecuted under Nazi control:
1. (Example) Segregation from the rest of the population
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Continue Analysis in outline form from previous day’s discussions:
IV. Nazi Persecution of the Jews
-- Holocaust - (define)
-- Shoah (define)
A. Nazi Ideology
1. ???
2. ???
B. Kristallnacht (means)
V.
1. Who, What, When, Where, Why?
C. Attempts to Flee
1. After the Anschluss…
2. SS St. Louis - ?
The Final Solution
(Who were the “targets” of these policies? How were extermination
policies carried out? Continue summarization through conclusion)
Also…
***
When and why did Albert Einstein leave?