US: Age of Global Crisis

1. US: Age of Global Crisis • Section 1: Peace in Peril (1933-1950) • Section 2: Peace with Problems (1945-1960)

2. Peace in Peril • In the 1930s, great changes were happening in Europe and Asia. • Totalitarian regimes rose to power in Germany, Italy, and Japan, threatening the freedom of nations on their borders. • In 1939, the German invasion of Poland launched World War II, which quickly engulfed Europe and much of Asia.

3. Peace in Peril • The United States, still embracing isolationism, tried to maintain neutrality, but the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor drew the nation into the conflict. • Four more years of bloody fighting in Europe and Asia left millions of soldiers and civilians dead and hundreds of cities damaged or destroyed. The United States suffered relatively light losses in comparison to other nations, and it emerged as a world leader with a growing commitment to international involvement.

4. Peace in Peril • n the 1920s and 1930s, the United States pursued a policy of neutrality and isolationism. • In order to understand the reasons for this policy, we must examine the lingering impact of World War I.

5. Isolationism • The United States had been reluctant to enter World War I. • Fighting had begun in Europe in 1914, and the United States stayed out of the war until 1917. • Between April 1917, when the United States formally declared war, and Germany's surrender in November 1918, some48,000 American soldiers were killed in battle, 2,900 were declared missing in action, and 56,000 soldiers died of disease.

6. Isolationism • These losses were far less than those of the European nations, some of which had lost millions of soldiers and civilians. • Nevertheless, the American losses were great enough to cause Americans to take a close look at the reasons for the entry of the United States into the war and at the nation's foreign policy.

7. Isolationism • Isolationism and neutrality are similar foreign policies, but an important difference exists between them. • Isolationism is a national foreign policy of remaining apart from political or economic entanglements with other countries. • Strict isolationists do not support any type of contact with other countries, including economic ties of trade activities.

8. Isolationism • When a country chooses a policy of neutrality, it deliberately takes no side in a dispute or controversy. • Countries following this path are often referred to as being nonaligned or noninvolved. • Neutral nations do not limit their trading activities with other nations, unless a trading partnership would limit that country's ability to stay politically noninvolved.

9. Isolationism • The roots of isolationist and neutralistic sentiments in the United States can be traced to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

10. Isolationism • In his years as President, George Washington set the important precedent of an American foreign policy of neutrality—but not isolationism. • He knew that trade was necessary for the new nation to prosper, but that foreign alliances might force it into war.

11. Isolationism • In 1793, Washington issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, making it clear that the United States would not respond to requests for aid during the French Revolution. • In his farewell address of 1796, Washington warned the United States to steer clear of "entangling alliances," or political commitments to other nations, although he supported economic ties to foreign countries. These basic ideas guided American foreign policy into the twentieth century.

12. Isolationism • The policy that became known as the Monroe Doctrine reinforced the neutral position of the United States toward Europe. In 1823, President Monroe proclaimed that the United States would not interfere in European affairs. He also warned European powers to remain out of the affairs of nations in the Western Hemisphere. This doctrine formed the backbone of American foreign policy for many years.

13. Isolationism • In 1934, when the United States was trying to recover from the worst economic depression in its history, Senator Gerald Nye led an investigation into the reasons the United States entered World War I. • The committee concluded that the United States had gone to war at the encouragement of financiers and armament makers, eager for profits.

14. Isolationism • As a result of this investigation, many Americans supported a return to isolationism. They believed that the country would be secure without worrying about the actions of the rest of the world. • The refusal of the United States to join the League of Nations was reinforced by the Senate's move in 1935 to forbid the United States to join the World Court.

15. Isolationism • That same year, Congress also passed the first of a series of neutrality acts, intended to prevent Americans from making loans to nations at war. • Any sales of goods to such nations were to be strictly on a "cash and carry" basis.

16. Isolationism • In 1937, President Roosevelt made his famous quarantine speech, in which he likened the spreading world lawlessness to a disease. • He stated that the United States would attempt to quarantine the "patients" in order to protect the rest of the community of nations.

17. Events Leading To WWII • The rise of totalitarian governments in Germany and Italy in the 1930s set the stage for World War II. • In totalitarian governments, one political party has complete control over the government and bans all other parties. Totalitarian governments rely on terror to suppress individual rights and silence opposition. In other words, totalitarian governments are the opposite of all that the United States considers its tradition of political freedom and liberty.

18. Events Leading To WWII • In Germany and Italy, totalitarian governments were established based on the philosophy of fascism. Fascism places the importance of the nation above all else, and individual rights and freedoms are lost as everyone works for the benefit of the nation. Nazi Germany (led by Adolf Hitler) and Fascist Italy (led by Benito Mussolini) were two fascist governments characterized by extreme nationalism, racism, and militarism (desire to go to war).

19. Events Leading To WWII • Hitler and Mussolini provided military assistance to Francisco Franco, a Fascist leader in Spain who was attempting to overthrow the republican government there and establish a totalitarian one. The devastating Spanish civil war that erupted in 1936 would become a "dress rehearsal" for World War 11. The war in Spain was a testing ground for new weapons and military strategies that would later be used in World War II.

20. Events Leading To WWII • In the United States, opinions about support for the Spanish civil war were divided. Some Americans traveled to Spain to fight for the republican cause. The United States government, however, continued to pursue a policy of neutrality. Congress passed a resolution forbidding the export of arms to either side in 1937. Franco won the Spanish civil war in 1939, established a fascist government, and remained leader of Spain until his death in 1975.

21. Events Leading To WWII • In the Munich Agreement (1938), Great Britain and France allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia with a large German-speaking population. Hitler convinced the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and the French premier EdouardDaladier that Germany would make no further territorial demands in Czechoslovakia after annexing the Sudetenland.

22. Events Leading To WWII • When Chamberlain returned to Britain with this agreement, he told the world that he had achieved "peace for our time." Six months later, however, Hitler seized the rest of Czechoslovakia. • Great Britain and France had resorted to the policy of appeasement, which means to agree to the demands of a potential enemy in order to keep the peace. Hitler demonstrated by his action that he could not be permanently appeased, and the world learned a costly less.

24. Lend-Lease Act • Although the United States was officially committed to a policy of neutrality, President Roosevelt soon found around the Neutrality Acts to provide aid, including warships in the Destroyer Deal, to Great Britain. • In 1941, Roosevelt convinced Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed the United States to sell or lend war materials to "any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States.”

25. Lend-Lease Act • Roosevelt intended to keep the United States out of the war, but he said the nation would become the "arsenal of democracy," supplying arms to those who were fighting for freedom.

26. Pearl Harbor • The United States did not enter World War II until 1941. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, had promised that the United States would not fight in a war in which the country was not directly involved. • However, on December 1941, Japanese war planes attacked the U.S. Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Roosevelt called the attack a day that would “live in infamy," a day that Americans would never forget.

27. Pearl Harbor • This surprise attack shattered the American belief that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would safely isolate the United States from fighting in Europe and Asia. • The attack on Pearl Harbor fueled American nationalism and patriotism. Suddenly the war was no longer oceans away. The day after the attack, Congress agreed to President Roosevelt's request to declare war on Japan.

28. Why? • Roosevelt's goal between August 1939 and December 1941 was to help Britain and its allies defeat Germany. • Much of the British navy had been moved from Asia so the Atlantic to defend against Germany. • As a result, Roosevelt introduced policies to discourage the Japanese from attacking the British Empire.

29. Why? • In July 1940, Congress passed the Export Control Act, giving Roosevelt the power to restrict the sale of strategic materials to other nations. Roosevelt blocked the sale of airplane fuel and scrap iron to Japan. This angered the Japanese, who had signed an alliance with Germany and Italy and became a member of the Axis Powers. • By July 1941, Japan had sent troops to southern Indochina.

30. Why? • This was a threat to the British Empire. Japan was now in a position to bomb Hong Kong and Singapore. • Roosevelt responded by freezing Japanese assets in the United States. He reduced the amount of oil being shipped to Japan, and sent General Douglas MacArthur to the Philippines to build up American defenses there. Roosevelt said the ban on oil would be lifted if Japan would leave Indochina and make peace with China.

31. WWII Review • World War II began in 1939, when German forces invaded Poland. The United States entered the war two years later, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. War in Europe ended in May 1945, and fighting in the Pacific ended on August 14, 1945, when the Japanese surrender brought World War II to a conclusion.

32. WWII Review • The war pitted 26 nations united together as the Allies against eight Axis Powers. The major powers among the Allies were Great Britain. the Soviet Union, and the United States. Germany, Italy, and Japan were the major Axis nations • World War II was fought primarily in two major regions: Europe and North Africa, and in the Pacific.

34. WWII Review • During the war, leaders of the Allied nations met in a series of conferences to discuss wartime strategies and plans for the postwar world. Key meetings are described below. • In 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill met on battleships in the North Atlantic to agree on certain principles for building a lasting peace and establishing free governments in the world. • The document containing these agreements was called the Atlantic Charter.

35. WWII Review • Casablanca, Morocco 1943 Roosevelt met with Churchill to plan "victory on all fronts." They used the term "unconditional surrender" to describe the anticipated victory. • Cairo, Egypt 1943 Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek of China planned the Normandy invasion.

37. WWII Review • Tehran Conference, 1943 Roosevelt and Churchill met with Stalin to discuss war strategy and plans for the postwar world. • Yalta, Ukraine 1945 Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin outlined the division of postwar Germany into spheres of influence and planned for the trials of war criminals. • The Soviet Union promised to enter the war against Japan.

39. WWII Review • Potsdam, Germany 1945 Allied leaders (with Truman now replacing Roosevelt) warned Japan to surrender to prevent utter destruction.

40. WWII Review • In an effort to bring the war to a speedy conclusion and to prevent further destruction and loss of life, Allied leaders decided to embark on an atomic research project. • In the spring of 1943, a group of scientists from the United States, Canada, Britain, and other European countries began work on the top-secret atomic research program known as the Manhattan Project. The research was done primarily at Los Alamos, New Mexico, under the direction of Dr. Robert Oppenheimer.

41. WWII Review • Many of the scientists involved in the projects were refugees from Hitler's Germany. • By July 1945, the first atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico. The success of this project left the United States in the position of determining the ultimate use of the new weapon.

42. WWII Review • Within days after the first atomic test, Allied leaders warned Japan to surrender or face "prompt and utter destruction." • Since no surrender occurred. President Truman made the decision to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

43. WWII Review • The bombs killed more than 100,000 Japanese instantly, and thousands more died later from radiation sickness. • For a time after World War II, the United States held a monopoly on atomic weapons. The world had entered the atomic age. • Little Boy and Fat Man

44. WWII Review • Within days of the devastating bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan formally surrendered, and World War II came to an end. • Following Japan's surrender, the United States occupied Japan under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur. • A new constitutional monarchy went into effect introducing democratic reforms to Japan. • Emperor Hirohito retained his throne, but only as a figurehead.

45. Holocaust • When Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, he did so by finding a scapegoat, someone to blame for Germany's problems after World War I. • By appealing to anti-Semitism, feelings of hatred against Jewish people, Hitler encouraged the Germans to turn viciously on all Jewish citizens.

48. Nazi Propaganda Wandering Jew Jewish Worm

49. Holocaust • Early in his rise to power, Hitler had seized Jewish property, homes, and businesses and barred Jews from many jobs. At the Wannsee Conference of 1942, the Nazis set as a primary goal the total extermination, or genocide, of all Jews under their domination. • This effort was to be kept secret from the German people and from the rest of the world. Hitler's plan to eliminate the Jews was known to the Nazis as the Final Solution.

50. Holocaust • In the 1930s, the Nazis began to build concentration camps to isolate Jews and other groups from society and provide slave labor for industry. As Hitler's conquest of Europe continued, the camps became factories of death. • More than six million Jews were killed in the camps as were another four million people—dissenters, Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally and physically handicapped, Protestant ministers, and Catholic priests.