Title: Essential Questions:
1- Essential Questions
- What factors led the United States to shift from
isolation in the 1920s 1930s to an active war
participant by 1941? - What caused World War 2?
- How do these factors compare to the reasons for
the outbreak of World War 1?
2American Isolationism Foreign Policy in the
1920s 1930s
3Foreign Policy in the 1920s 1930s
- After WWI, the U.S. assumed a selective
isolationist foreign policy - Americans wanted to maintain the economic boom of
the 1920s desperate for an answer to the
depression in the 1930s - But, the U.S. did play an active role in attempts
at international disarmament economic stability
4Foreign Policy Economic Policy
- In the 1920s, the most divisive international
issue was war debts - European nations owed the U.S. 10 billion
Attempts to reclaim these debts led to
anti-American sentiment in Europe - When Germany could not repay 33 billion in
reparations, the U.S. negotiated the Dawes Plan
5In 1924, Hoover negotiated a reduction in German
debt, an extended time period to repay debts,
U.S. loans to help Germany make payments to
France England
The Dawes Plan helped stabilize the German
economy, allowed Germany to repay the Allies, and
helped France England repay their debts to the
United States
6Foreign Policy Economic Policy
- But the Great Depression made post-war recovery
in Europe difficult in the 1930s - The Hawley-Smoot Tariff in 1930 limited European
attempts to sell their goods in the U.S. - The U.S. was unable to provide loans, leaving
Germany unable to repay reparations Europe
unable to repay its war debts
7Foreign Policy International Peace
- The USA never joined the League of Nations, but
did play a role in attempts to avoid future wars - At the Washington Disarmament Conference in 1921,
world leaders agreed to disarmament, free trade,
collective security - In 1928, almost every nation, including the USA,
signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as
a tool of foreign policy
8The USA, England, Japan, Italy, France signed
the Five-Power Treaty agreed to limit
construction of battleships aircraft carriers
The Nine-Power Treaty reaffirmed the Chinese
Open-Door Policy
England, USA, Japan, France signed the Four-Power
Treaty agreeing to collective security
But, neither the Nine- or Four-Power Acts had
provisions to enforce these agreements
9Foreign Policy International Peace
- These agreements did not last
- Japan needed raw materials to continue its
industrial expansion - Japan began to create an Asian empire by
attacking Manchuria in 1931 China in 1937 - In both occasions, the League of Nations
reprimanded Japan but chose no punitive measures
10Totalitarian Regimes Hideki Tojo Emperor
Hirohito
11Japan Invades Manchuria
In 1937, Japanese pilots bombed the USS Panay, a
U.S. gunboat stationed in China, killing 3
Americans. The U.S. accepted Japan's apology
promise against future attacks
Unlike the USS Maine or Lusitania, few Americans
called for war against Japan
12Totalitarian Regimes Benito Mussolini
13Totalitarian Regimes Hitler
14(No Transcript)
15The Munich Pact
Peace in our time
16Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis
17Foreign Policy International Peace
- In the 1930s, FDR Congress were preoccupied
with the Great Depression to adequately plan for
new world conflicts involving totalitarian
dictators - The rising threat of war in Europe Asia
strengthened Americans desire to avoid
involvement in another world war
18Foreign Policy Citizen Attitudes
- In the 1920s 1930s, most Americans wanted to
avoid another meaningless war - Munitions makers bankers were labeled
merchants of death were blamed for American
involvement in WWI - Passivism swept across college campuses Students
staged walk-outs anti-war rallies
19The Lost Generation
All Quiet on the Western Front portrayed WWI as
brutal
20- Ernest Hemingway was the Lost Generation's leader
in the adaptation of the naturalistic technique
in the novel. Hemingway volunteered to fight with
the Italians in World War I and his Midwestern
American ignorance was shattered during the
resounding defeat of the Italians by the Central
Powers at Caporetto. Newspapers of the time
reported Hemingway, with dozens of pieces of
shrapnel in his legs, had heroically carried
another man out. That episode even made the
newsreels in America. These war time experiences
laid the groundwork of his novel, A Farewell to
Arms (1929). Another of his books, The Sun Also
Rises (1926) was a naturalistic and shocking
expression of post-war disillusionment.
21The Neutrality Acts
- The merchants of death charges were led by
North Dakota Senator Gerald Nye from 1934 to
1936 - Reaction to the Nye Committee report led to
popular support to avoid making the same mistakes
that led America to enter WW1 - Congress passed 3 neutrality acts to avoid future
wars
22The Neutrality Act of 1935 banned arms sales to
nations at war warned citizens not to sail on
belligerent ships
The Neutrality Act of 1936 banned loans to any
warring nation
The Neutrality Act of 1937 made the 1935 1936
acts permanent required all trade to be on a
cash carry basis
23- Essential Question
- How did the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor alter
the course of World War 2?
24The Road Towards American Intervention
25From Neutrality to Undeclared War
- As Europe headed toward war, FDR openly expressed
his favor for intervention took steps to ready
the U.S. for war - In 1937, FDR unsuccessfully tried to convince
world leaders to quarantine the aggressors - Everything changed in 1939 with the Nazi-Soviet
Pact the German invasion of Poland
26(No Transcript)
27From Neutrality to Undeclared War
- When WW2 began in 1939, Congress imposed a cash
carry policy to aid the Allies - The U.S. would trade with the Allies but would
not offer loans - The U.S. would not deliver American products to
Europe - In addition, FDR traded 50 old destroyers with
England for 8 naval bases in Western Europe
28The destroyer-for-bases deal is the most
important action in the reinforcement of our
national defense that has been taken since the
Louisiana Purchase FDR
FDR responded with all-out aid to the Allies but
did not call for war
29From Neutrality to Undeclared War
- Isolationists
- Were appalled by this departure from neutrality
FDRs involvement of the U.S. in foreign war - Their fortress of America idea argued that
Germany was not a threat to the U.S.
- Interventionists
- Groups like the Committee to Defend America by
Aiding the Allies called for unlimited aid to
England - They argued that the events in Europe did impact
the security of U.S.
30From Neutrality to Undeclared War
- By 1940, interventionists had the majority of
American public sentiment on their side - in 1940, Congress appropriated 10 billion for
preparedness - FDR called for Americas first ever peacetime
draft - In the election of 1940, FDR was overwhelmingly
elected for an unprecedented 3rd term
31From Neutrality to Undeclared War
- By 1940, England remained the only active
opposition to Hitler but was running out of
money - FDR called for a Lend-Lease Act
- U.S. can sell or lend war supplies to Allied
nations - Congress put 7 billion to allow England full
access to U.S. arms
U.S. Cash and Carry Program
X
32Lend-Lease Supply Routes
33From Neutrality to Undeclared War
- England desperately needed help escorting
U.S.-made supplies through the u-boat infested
Atlantic - FDR allowed for U.S. patrols in the western half
of the Atlantic - German attacks on U.S. ships in 1941 led to an
undeclared naval war between USA Germany
U.S. Cash and Carry Program
X
X
34From Neutrality to Undeclared War
- In 1941, FDR Churchill met to secretly draft
the Atlantic Charter - The U.S. Britain discussed a military strategy
if the USA were to enter the war - They discussed post-war goals of free trade
disarmament - In 1941, Germany broke the Nazi-Soviet Pact
invaded Russia
35From Neutrality to Undeclared War
- FDR brought U.S. to the brink of war opened
himself to criticism - In Sept 1941, polls showed 80 of Americans
supported remaining neutral in WW2 - FDR had to wait for the Axis to make a decisive
movewhich Japan delivered on Dec 7, 1941
36Pearl Harbor
37Showdown in the Pacific
- Japan took full advantage of the European war to
expand in Asia - Attacked coastal China
- Seized French Dutch colonies in East Indies
Indochina - Signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany Italy
in 1940 - FDR retaliated against Japan with fuel, iron,
oil sanctions
38The U.S. now faced a possible 2-ocean war
but Germany was still seen as the primary danger
39The Greater East Asia-Prosperity Company
Rich in Tin, Oil, Rubber
40Showdown in the Pacific
- In 1941, the U.S. Japan were unable to
diplomatically resolve their differences, so the
USA - Froze all Japanese assets in USA
- Banned all oil sales to Japan
- Hideki Tojo sent an envoy to negotiate for a
resolutionbut secretly ordered an attack on the
U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor
41This was really a stall tactic intended to hide
Japanese military preparations for an attack on
Pearl Harbor
U.S. wanted the Japanese removed from China
Japan wanted an end to sanctions a free hand to
China
42On Dec 7, 1941, the U.S. naval fleet in the
Pacific was crippled by the attack 8 battleships
were sunk 2,400 Americans were killed
43Showdown in the Pacific
- After Pearl Harbor
- Congress declared war against Japan on Dec 8,
1941 - Italy Germany declared war on the U.S. on Dec
11, 1941 - American public opinion was now fully behind the
war effort to defeat the fascist threat in Europe
to seek revenge against Japan