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Explore the origins of American involvement in WWII, focusing on events leading to Pearl Harbor attack. Analyze how British appeasement policy fueled WWII. Topics covered include League of Nations, Japanese aggression, Soviet Union industrialization, Italian fascism, Hitler's Germany, and the Munich Pact.
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Failure of Versailles Lecture 1
Examine the origins of American involvement in the war, with an emphasis on the events that precipitated the attack on Pearl Harbor. Essential Question: How did the British policy of appeasement contribute to the eruption of WWII? Standard 11.7.1
League of Nations • No way to stop aggressor nations • the geography of Europe almost begged for war • Rhineland • Poland • Yugoslavia • Czechoslovakia • East Prussia
Japan • Hirohito and Imperial Japan • Japan shifted from democratic reform to military rule • wanted to become a world power • needed more resources • invaded Manchuria in 1931 • invaded China in 1937 • Rape of Nanjing
Soviet Union • Stalin and the Soviet Union • tried to industrialize Russia in five-year plans • Collectivization • Terror tactics • Gulags • up to a million “traitors” were killed or sent to Siberia • Purges
Italy • Mussolini and Italy • fascist leader • “black shirts” • outlawed political parties • seized the press • formed secret police • invaded Ethiopia in 1935 • the League of Nations did nothing • “We have buried the putrid corpse of liberty.” (1934)
Germany • Hitler and Germany • the Nazi Party promised a Third Reich • Blamed Germany’s problems on inferior peoples • Jews • Called for all German-speaking people to join in one nation • Time Magazine’s man of the year in 1936 • Hosted the 1936 Olympics
Spain • Spanish Civil War, 1936 • Hitler and Mussolini sent aid to fascist Francisco Franco so he would win the war • used the war to field test their military hardware • US and Britain feared involvement would lead to war and did nothing • Spain will sit out WWII
Munich Pact • Munich Pact, 1938 • Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler in Munich • signed a treaty that Hitler would not take any more territory • appeasement or just encouraged the fascists • Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939 • Mussolini seized Albania