World War II

The Road to War: Aggression and Response

• International political instability arose from:– Built-up resentments from WWI– Worldwide depression of the 1930s– Ultra-nationalist movements in Japan, Italy,

Germany

The Rise of Aggressor States

• National Socialist (Nazi) Party– Adolf Hitler

• Benito Mussolini

Isolationist Sentiment and American Neutrality

• Neutrality Acts (1935, 1936, 1937)

• “Cash and carry”: The U.S. would sell war materials to countries if they paid and picked it up themselves.

The Outbreak of War in Europe

• Munich Conference (1938)– Appeasement– Gives Hitler the Sudentenland in Czechoslovakia

• Germany annexes Czechoslovakia• Stalin-Hitler Pact: Appeasement

– Divide Poland between them• World War II

– Germany Occupies all of Poland (1939)• Blitzkrieg: Hitler moves to take Denmark, Norway,

Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France

America’s Response to War in Europe

• Roosevelt tries to mold American opinion against Axis powers

• “Cash and carry"• Selective Training and Service Act (1940)• Destroyers for bases deal• Robert Wood and the America First Committee

– Worry about ourselves

• American Anti-Semitism

Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor

• December 7, 1941

• Roosevelt called it the day that would “live in infamy.”

• Surprise attack that showed Americans the Pacific and Atlantic did not make them safe

• Fueled nationalism and patriotism

• War declared on Japan

Major Powers

• Allies: 26 countries that included Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S.

• Axis: Germany, Italy, and Japan

Major Events• Fought in 3 major areas: Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific• 1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union• 1942: Battle of Midway (the U.S. gains naval control in Pacific)• 1942-1943: Battle of Stalingrad• June 6, 1944: D-Day (Allied invasion of Normandy, France)• 1944-45: Iwo Jima in the Pacific• December 1944: Battle of the Bulge• April 12, 1945: Roosevelt dies; Allied troops meet in Germany and

Hitler commits suicide• May 8, 1945: V-E Day• August 1945: bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki• September 2, 1945: V-J Day

D-Day

Wartime Diplomacy

• Atlantic Charter Meeting, 1941: Roosevelt and Churchill met in North Atlantic to agree on peace principles and establishing free governments

• Casablanca, 1943: Roosevelt and Churchill use the term “unconditional surrender.”

• Cairo, 1943: Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek plan D-Day

• Tehran, 1943: The “Big Three” meet• Yalta, 1945: The “Big Three” outline division of Germany

and trials of war criminals. S.U. promises to help with Japan.

• Potsdam, 1945: Allies warn Japan to surrender.

Yalta Conference