world war ii: involvement (section 2)

7/25/2019 World War II: Involvement (Section 2)

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WORLD

WAR IISECTION 2: FROM ISOLATION TO

INVOLVEMENT



WHY IT MATTERS

• While Britain and France appeased the dictator in Germanyat Munich, American President Franklin Delano Rooseveltcondemned aggression in Asia but did little to stop it

• As !ar e"ploded in #urope, it became increasingly di$$icult

$or the %nited &tates to maintain its neutrality• 'nce again, Americans !ould have to decide !hat role

they !ere !illing to play in shaping !orld events

'ur Focus (uestions)

* Would you drop, drop it+

-o! did Americans react to events in #urope and Asia inthe early years o$ World War ..+



ROOSEVELT OPPOSES

AGGRESSION

• /he unrestrained violence o$ the *012 3apanese attack on4hina shocked Americans, even be$ore the notorious Rapeo$ 5an6ing in December *012

• 3apan attacked !ithout a declaration o$ !ar .ts planes

rained terror on 4hinese cities, especially &hanghai and5an6ing

• /he 3apanese had even killed three American sailors !hen3apanese !arplanes sank the %nited &tates gunboat Panay on the 4hang River

• .n the midst o$ these bloody events, President FranklinRoosevelt critici7ed 3apan8s aggression in a speech in4hicago on 'ctober 9, *012

• :et8s take a listen; <=>



THE SPEECH

• FDR critici7ed 3apan8s aggression in a speech in 4hicagoon 'ctober 9, *012 -e spoke against the ?reign o$ terrorand international la!lessness,@ the bombing o$ civilianpopulations, and the horrible acts o$ cruelty

• -e !as speaking in 4hicago !hich !as a city !hereAmericans !ere super isolationists

• But he suggested that no part o$ the !orld !as trulyisolated $rom the rest o$ the !orld Did you pick that up inthe speech+



WAR ERUPTS IN

EUROPE

• Roosevelt8s !ords $ailed to prevent 3apan $rom e"tendingits control over much o$ 4hina &imilarly, France andBritain8s e$$orts to appease -itler in #urope $ailed to limitthe dictator8s e"pansionist plans

• By the end o$ *01, even the leaders o$ France and Britainreali7ed that -itler8s armed aggression could only behalted by a $irm, armed de$ense

• /he urgency o$ the situation gre! in the spring o$ *010!hen -itler violated the Munich Pact by absorbing the

remaining 47echoslovakia into his German Reich



HITLER LAUNCHES

BLITZKRIEG AGAINST

POLAND

• Finally, British and French leaders sa! the need to take action

• /hey vo!ed not to let -itler take over another country !ithoutconseuences

• Reali7ing that -itler8s ne"t move !ould be against Poland, Britain andFrance signed an alliance !ith Poland, guaranteeing aid i$ -itler attacked

• -itler, ho!ever, !as more concerned about !ar !ith the &oviet %nionthan !ith Britain and France

• -e didn8t !ant to $ight a !ar on t!o $rontsCthat8d be banana cakes &ohe signed the 5a7i=&oviet 5onaggression Pact !ith the &oviets onAugust 1, *010

• /he t!o $ormer rivals publicly promised not to attack one another&ecretly, they agreed to invade and divide Poland and recogni7e eachother8s territorial ambitions

• /he public agreement alone shocked the West and guaranteed a Germano$$ensive against Poland



• War came to #urope in the early hours o$ &eptember *, *010,

!hen a massive German blit7krieg sudden attack> hit

Poland $rom three directions Blitzkrieg means ?lightning !ar@

• .t !as a relatively ne! style o$ !ar$are that emphasi7ed the use o$

speed and $irepo!er to penetrate deep into the enemy8s territory

• /he ne!est military technologies made it devastatingly e$$ective

• Germany basically destroyed Poland8s de$enses and destroyedits air $orce

• /hen the &oviet invaded Poland $rom the east

• France and Britain declared !ar against Germany, but they didnothing to help save Poland

• By the end o$ the month, Poland $ell in de$eat



FRANCE FALLS TO

THE AXIS POWERS

• #urope !as at !ar, 6ust as it had been * years earlier

• /he A"is Po!ers eventually included Germany,

.taly, 3apan, and several other nations

• /he Allied Po!ers included Britain, France, and

eventually many other nations including the &oviet %nion,the %nited &tates, and 4hina

• But a$ter the Polish campaign, the !ar entered an eight=

month period o$ relative uiet kno!n in Britain as thephony !ar

• But things !ould not be uiet $or longC



• /he ne"t storm erupted !ith raging $ury in the spring o$*0E

• Germany8s nonaggression pact !ith the &oviet %nion$reed -itler to send his army !est

• 'n April 0, *0E, Germany attacked Denmark and 5or!ay

• /he t!o countries $ell almost immediately

• 'n May *, he sent blit7krieg $orces into the 5etherlands,Belgium, and :u"embourg

• /he small nations $ell like tumbling dominoes -itlerseemed invincible< his army unstoppable



FRANCE FALLS TO

THE AXIS POWERS

• -itler ne"t set his sights on France France had prepared$or Germany8s invasion by constructing an interconnectedseries o$ $ortresses kno!n as the Maginot :ine along itsborder !ith Germany

• Additionally, France had stationed its $inest armies alongits border !ith Belgiumthe route that Germany had usedto attack France in *0*E

• .n bet!een the Maginot :ine and Belgium lay theArdennes, a hilly, $orested area that military e"perts

considered invasion=proo$



• 'nce again, the military e"perts !ere !rong .n early May*0E, German tanks rolled through the Ardennes, ripped ahole in the thin French line there, and raced north to!ardthe #nglish 4hannel

• /he German plan involved attacking the French and British$orces $rom the $ront and the rear and trapping themagainst the channel

• .t A:M'&/ !orked

• 'nly a $e! tactical errors gave Britain enough time to

evacuate its $orces $rom the French port &ome 11,British and French troops escaped to Britain

• -ad they not escapedCit is doubt$ul i$ Britain could haveremained in the !ar



WINSTON CHURCHILL

SAYS…

• /his !as a proud moment $or Britain, ya kno! escaping,but Winston 4hurchill cautioned Parliament, ?!ars are not!on by evacuations@

• Although the British army escaped, the Germans took Paris

and $orced the French to surrender in the same rail!ay carthat the French had used $or the German surrender in *0*

• France !as then divided into t!o sections) a largernorthern section controlled by the Germans and kno!n as'ccupied France and the smaller southern section

administered by the French and kno!n as %noccupiedFrance or Hichy France, a$ter its capital city

• Although Hichy France !as o$$icially neutral, it collaborated!ith the 5a7is



THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN

IS FOUGHT IN THE AIR

• France had $allen to -itler in 6ust 19 days

• -itler ne"t turned his $ury on Britain

• A$ter the evacuation at Dunkirk, 4hurchill made it clearthat he had no intention o$ continuing the policy o$appeasement -e told his nation)

• “We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we

shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with

growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we

shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we

shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing

grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we

shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”---Winston Churchill, une !, "#!$



• 4hurchill8s !ords stirred his nation as the British readiedthemselves $or battle

• -itler8s plan to invade Britain !as code=named 'peration&ea :ion and it depended upon Germany8s Luftwaffe air

$orce> destroying the British Royal Air Force• .t began 3uly *0E /he British lost nearly * planes and

the Germans more than *2

• Germany bombed civilian as !ell as military targets,destroying houses, $actories, and churches and

conducted a month=long bombing campaign against:ondon itsel$, kno!n as ?the blit7@



• /he British held on and, sensing $ailure, -itler made atactical decision to postpone the invasion o$ Britaininde$initely

• Which side seemed to be !inning the !ar at the end o$*0E+



AMERICANS DEBATE

INVOLVEMENT

• Winston 4hurchill re$erred to the %nited &tates in many o$his speeches during the crisis in France and the Battle o$Britain

• /he $ight against -itler, 4hurchill implied, !as more than

simply a #uropean struggle• 5a7i aggression threatened the $reedoms and rights

cherished by democratic nations every!here



AMERICANS FAVOR

ISOLATION

• President Roosevelt shared 4hurchill8s concerns, but atthe beginning o$ the !ar in #urope he understood that thema6ority o$ Americans opposed %& intervention

• /he severe economic crisis o$ the Great Depression had

served to pin the nation8s attention $irmly on domestica$$airs throughout the *01s

• .n addition, many believed that %& involvement in WorldWar . had been a deadly, e"pensive mistake

• /he rise o$ $ascism in #urope made the sacri$ices o$ World

War . seem even more pointless



• .n the *01s, numerous books and articles presented ane! theory about !hy the %nited &tates had becomeinvolved in World War . that disturbed many Americans

• .n a nutshell, it said that big business had conspired to

enter the !ar in order to make a huge $ortune selling!eapons

• /his really rein$orced isolationist sentiments



NEUTRALITY ACTS OF

193! 193"! # 193$

• .n order to avoid making the ?mistakes@ that had led to%& involvement in World War ., 4ongress passed the5eutrality Acts o$ *019, *1I, J *012

• /he acts imposed certain restrictions on Americans

during times o$ !ar• For e"ample, .#> Americans !ere prohibited $rom sailing

on ships o!ned by belligerents or selling them arms andmunitions /he acts did not distinguish bet!eenaggressors like Germany and .taly and victims like Poland,

or their allies, France and Britain



INTERVENTIONISTS URGE

SUPPORT FOR THE ALLIES

• 'nce !ar began in #urope, Roosevelt $elt con$ined by thelimitations o$ the 5eutrality Acts

• -e issued a proclamation o$ American neutrality, ho!ever,he !as totally anti=5a7i and !anted to aid the

democracies o$ #urope• /o get around this, 4ongress passes the 5eutrality Act o$

*010, !hich included a cash=and=carry provisionBasically, it allo!ed other nations to buy goods and armsin the %nited &tates i$ they paid cash and carried the

merchandise on their o!n ships• Who do you think this helped+ Kup Britain and the Allies



IN A NUTSHELL…

• .solationists argued $or neutrality /hey did not like the$act that Roosevelt !as directly aiding the Allies !ithoutactually aiding the Allies Make sense+

• /hey started a group called /he America First

4ommittee and their leading isolationist voice !as none

other than 4harles :indbergh

• :indbergh believed that the real threats to America !erethe &oviet %nion and 3apan and he did not !ant to see his

country !eaken itsel$ $ighting in Western #urope to saveBritain



AMERICA TAKES STEPS

TOWARD WAR: TRIPARTITE

PACT AND LEND%LEASE ACT

• As !e kno!n, during the blit7 overseas in :ondon, 5a7is !erebombing not armies or military sites, but civilians A ne!sreporter stationed in :ondon broadcast this in$ormation on theradio to the %nited &tates

• /his, obviously, upset people and convinced many Americansthat %nited &tates needed to A/ :#A&/ prepare to de$end itsel$

• &hortly a$ter the $all o$ France in &eptember *0E, Germany,

.taly, and 3apan signed the /ripartite Pact and became

allies• .n the same month, a$ter much debate, 4ongress passed the

peacetime dra$t, &#:#4/.H# &#RH.4# A4/, providing militarytraining to * million troops and , reserve troops eachyear



• Roosevelt also took an additional step, giving Britain 9 World War .=era battleships in e"change $or eight British de$ense bases

• Roosevelt compared America8s situation to the scenario o$ a $ire in aneighbor8s home .$ a neighbor asked you to borro! your $ire hose toput out the $ire, you !ould not debate the issue or try to sell the hose

#"tending help !as both being a good neighbor and acting to keepthe $ire $rom spreading to your o!n home

• .n March *0E*, 4ongress approved the :end=:ease Act !hich

!as symbolically numbered *22I .t allo!ed Roosevelt to ?sell, trans$er titleto, e"change, lease, lend, or other!ise dispose o$, to any such

government any de$ense article@ -e could do this !henever hethought it !as necessary $or the sa$ety o$ the %nited &tates By *0E9,the %nited &tates had sent more than LE billion o$ aid to the Allies,including the &oviet %nion

• /his !as, let8s be real, an economic declaration o$ !ar



SO WHAT ABOUT

HITLER&

• Adol$ -itler !asn8t blind to !hat !as happening -e kne!the Americans !ere supporting the Allies

• -e also took notice o$ the $act that the %nited &tates hadbegun to escort shipments o$ arms to .celand !here the

British could pick them up and transport them back to#ngland

• .n the $all o$ *0E*, he ordered his German %=boats toattack American ships

• /hese attacks shocked and angered Americans and !ar

!ith Germany seemed inevitableC

• /' B# 4'5/.5%#DC



FDR'S (FOUR

FREEDOMS) SPEECH

https)youtube9i-Ntrir6lK

world war ii: involvement (section 2)

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