Prelude To A War
Problems Around The World
Chapter 34
Threats to World Peace
Do Not Write
 The Treaty of Versailles
and its punishing
provisions would create
hard feelings throughout
Europe and would prove
to be a roadblock to
lasting peace.
 Finland- only nation to
pay back U.S. after
WWI
Kellogg-Briand Pact
 1929
 Countries promised never to make
war again and to settle future
disputes by peaceful means
 Still permitted defensive war
 Not enforceable
Joseph Stalin: “The Man of
Steel”
 1924-came into power
 He tried to create the
model Communist
state.
 He “Purges” all
opposition
Fascist #1: Benito Mussolini
 Establishes the Fascist
Party in Italy in 1921
Turns Italy into a
socialist country.
 Unlike communism,
Mussolini did not try to
control the farms and
factories, but like the
USSR, Italy would soon
become a totalitarian
state.
Fascism vs. Communism
  Fascism- dictatorship,
central control of private
enterprise, repression of
opposition, extreme
nationalism. Emphasizes
class division.
  Communism-Classless
society in which all
property and wealth is
controlled by the state.
  Both are totalitarian
Adolph Hitler (Der Fuhrer)
Fascist #2
 He joined the Nazi Party
in 1919.
 Hitler rose to power and
was eventually elected by
exploiting the following:
 Hardships of the
Depression
 Anger because of
Versailles Treaty
 Fear of Communism
 The prejudices against
Jewish people.
 His ideas established in
his book- “Mein Kampf”
Fascist #3Francisco Franco
 Spanish Civil War
 Francisco Franco
fights to
overthrow the
monarchy
 Assisted by Hitler
and Mussolini
Picasso’s “Guernica” depicting the slaughter
at that town during the civil war
Rise of Japan
 Nationalist military
leaders take control.
 Japan had small land Prime Minister Hideki Tojo
area that was
becoming overpopulated and needed
(like, Hitler) more
“living space” and
access to natural
resources.
 In 1931 Japan invades
Emperor Hirohito
resource rich
Manchuria
Prime Minister Hideki Tojo
The World Response
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 When the League of Nations failed to take any
action against Japan, this gave the signal to
Hitler and Mussolini that they could start
aggressions:
 Hitler pulls Germany out of the League of
Nations (’31)
 In 1935 Hitler begins to rebuild the German
military violating the Treaty of Versailles.
 In 1935 Italy invades Ethiopia to re-establish
the Roman Empire.
 In 1936 Germany re-occupies the Rhineland.
 In 1936 Germany and Italy announce the
signing of the Rome-Berlin Axis Pact.
Stimson Doctrine
 U.S. would not recognize any
territorial gains made by force
Reciprocal Trade
Agreements
1934
U.S. lowered tariffs as much as 50%
to increase exports
Quarantine Speech
 October 1937, Chicago, FDR
 Resulted in a wave of protests by
isolationists
 FDR- expressed fears about Germany,
Italy and Japan
-He said we needed collective security on
the part of peace loving nations
-He said the U.S. needed to “quarantine”
the aggressor nations
American Anti-War
Feelings
 Nye Committee -would go on to document
the large profits made by manufacturers
during the war.
 A 1937 poll would show that 70% of
Americans believed that the U.S. should
never have entered WWI.
 Beginning in 1935 Congress would pass a
series of Neutrality Acts designed to keep
America out of future wars.
Isolationism
 America reacted to the aggressive
actions of Germany, Italy, Japan
by retreating further into
isolationism.
 Neutrality Acts (35, 36, 37)
 No travel-ships belligerents
 No arms sales-warring nations
Nazi Expansion In Europe
 March 12, 1938 Germany invades
and annexes
Austria.
 Hitler then
demands the
Sudetenland (a
predominantly
German area)
back from
Czechoslovakia.
Munich Conference and
Munich Pact
 Hitler, Daladier (Czech)
Chamberlain
 This agreement would
turn the Sudetenland
(part of Czech) over to
Germany.
 In return, Hitler
promised no more
territorial demands.
 Chamberlain came home
and announced that they
had achieved “… peace
in our time.”
Appeasement
 The actions of
Britain and France
are referred to as
appeasement.
 March 15, 1939 –
Germany invades
and occupies the rest
of Czechoslovakia.
Chamberlain declaring
“peace in our time”
Non- Aggression Pact
 Secret between Russia and
Germany
 Germany and Russia divide Poland
 Russia could take Finland
The Blitzkrieg
 Sept. 1, 1939 – Germany
invades Poland by land
and air.
 Sept. 3, 1939 – Britain
and France declare war
on Germany.
 Poland would fall before
Britain and France had a
chance to make a
difference.
 The USSR would also
invade Poland from the
east to take its share of
the land.
Blitzkrieg in the West
  April 9, 1940 – Germany
invades Denmark and
Norway, and follows with
attacks on the Netherlands,
Belgium and Luxembourg.
  DO NOT Write Below…
  Britain and France would
now send troops into Belgium.
  This attack was anticipated
by Germany, who cut off and
surrounded the allies, driving
them to the seacoast.
The Fall of France
 While the Germans
invaded France from
the north, Italy now
enters the war and
Invades France from
the south.
 Within a month France
had fell.
 (French General
Charles de Gaulle
escapes he becomes the
leader of “Free France”
while in exile.)
The Battle of Britain
Do Not Write
 After the fall France,
only Britain is left to
fight in Europe. The
Battle of Britain was
an air campaign
  Continual bombing in
an attempt to knock
out the RAF (Royal
Air Force) and destroy
Britain’s will to fight.
The U.S. Response
 Even though we had
proclaimed
neutrality, the Axis
powers would view
the U.S. as neutral in
name only.
 FDR would slowly
begin to prepare for
the war that was
becoming more and
more inevitable.
 Cash-and-Carry
(1939) – selling arms
to nations as long as
they paid cash and
carried them in their
own ships.
 Who were we selling
to?
The American Response
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 FDR asks Congress to increase spending
on the military. Years of isolationist
policies and the depression had left
America very weak
 In 1940 Congress would dramatically
increase defense spending
  Passes the first peacetime military draft
in American history(over one million
men drafted in the first year)
 1940 FDR wins a third term
Operation Barbarossa
 June 22, 1941 –
Germany invades the
 “If Hitler invaded Hell, I would be
Soviet Union.
prepared to work with the devil himself.”
 The U.S. would give
Winston Churchill
supplies to the
Soviets just as we did
the British.
  Churchill defended giving aid
to Stalin and the Communists
by saying…
Scorched Earth Policy
 Russia
 Policy of destroying anything that
could be of use to the Germans as
they were invading Russia
Finland
 The only nation to pay the U.S.
back in full after WWI
Good Neighbor Policy
 Friendship with Latin America
 Other actions include
 Withdrew marines from Haiti
 Nullified Platt Amendment- Cuba now
free
 Removed troops from Panama
U.S. Recognizes U.S.S.R.
 Internationalist action
 Developed a diplomatic counter to
the rising power of Germany and
Japan
Nuremberg Laws
 Laws against Jewish people by the
German government
 Kristallnacht- 1938
 “Night of broken Glass”
 Nazi’s gangs burned, looted, and killed Jews
in response to a German diplomat that had
been killed in Paris by a Jewish refugee
 Jewish community fined and put in camps
Holocaust
 Genocide- the systematic
destruction of a race of people
 Death camps and gas chambers
America’s Response
 Allowed 150,000 Jewish refugees
into America
 Did not bomb camps
 Did not want to divert military
resources
British Prime Minister
 Neville Chamberlain replaced by
Winston Churchill (1940)
 Churchill- “blood, toil, sweat and
tears”
“The Arsenal of
Democracy”
 By 1940 Britain had no more cash to buy
arms. FDR offers a new plan called ‘lend
lease’ (1941).
 Under this plan the president could lend
or lease arms to any country whose
defense was vital to the United States.
 What countries would that be?
Wolf Packs
 Groups of German subs
Atlantic Charter
  This agreement signed by
FDR and Churchill would
spell out the reasons for
fighting WW II – even though
the U.S. was not in the war
yet.
  Later, the Atlantic Charter
would become the basis of a
new document called “A
Declaration by the United
Nations”
  Through the summer and fall
of 1941 the U.S. and Germany
will be fighting an undeclared
naval war.
Destroyer agreement
 1940
 Gave Britain 50 old destroyers
 U.S. got use of 8 naval bases
Japanese Expansion
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 By 1941, only the U.S.
islands in the Pacific
kept Japan from
having total control of
the region.
 In the summer of 1941
the U.S. will cut off the
oil trade with Japan
because of its actions
in the Pacific.
“… a date that shall live in
infamy.” Dec. 7, 1941
 The Japanese fleet
attacks the American
fleet at Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii.
 We thought an attack
would be in Malaysia or
Philippines
 The raid would sink 18
ships, destroy 350
planes and killed over
2,000 people
 US aircraft carriers
would be out of port.
Pearl Harbor