World War II1920 to 1940

As the World Watched

1919 to 1940

Focus QuestionIs the appeasement strategy

utilized to avoid another World War during the 1930’s defendable?

World War IISeeds Planted in WWI

Speaking about U.S. intentions in post WWI Europe, Warren G. Harding said, “We do not mean to be entangled.” Building on the rejection of Wilson’s League of Nations, the United States had no intention of being involved in ‘European Affairs’.

President Wilson

President Harding

World War IISeeds Planted in WWI

Serving as Secretary of State under Warren G. Harding, at the Washington Conference of 1921, Hughes “sunk more ships than the all the admirals of the world have sunk in a cycle of centuries.’The Washington Conference illustrates most of the world’s desire to avoid war.

World War IISeeds Planted in WWI

The Kellogg-Briand Pact was a 60 nation

agreement to outlaw war except in times of “self

defense.” While generally well received, the plan was filled with

loop holes and a general lack of enforcement.

Aristide Briand

Frank B. Kellogg

World War IIGood Neighbor Policy

Through the Good Neighbor Policy the U.S. avoided direct

intervention in Latin American

countries, following the “Nicaraguan

model” formulated during the Hoover administration.

The U.S. and European nation’s isolationist tendencies was a lesson not lost on those who

saw an opportunity to rise to power.

WWIIPost WWI Italy

• High unemployment• High Inflation• Bitter Strikes• Communist take over of land• Frightened middle and upper class

WWIIBenito Mussolini’s Rise to Power

• Demagogue• Restoration of Italy’s

Greatness• 1919 Fascist Party• Black Shirts• Believe, Obey, Fight

Il Duce Benito Mussolini

• Humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles• Reparations ($33 billion)• Inflation• American Tariff system• Popular discontent• Weimar Republic, Communism, Monarchy

WWIIPost WWI Germany

WWIIAdolph Hitler’s Rise to Power

• National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NAZI)

• Mein Kampf• Anti-Semitism• Charismatic

personality• Spell bounding

orationsDer Fuhrer

Mein KampfThroughout Mein Kampf, Hitler refers to Jews as parasites, liars, dirty, crafty,

sly, wily, clever, without any true culture, a sponger, a maggot, eternal

blood suckers, repulsive, unscrupulous, monsters, foreign, menace, bloodthirsty,

avaricious, the destroyer of Aryanhumanity, and the mortal enemy of

Aryan humanity.

Massive demonstrations were held by Nazi officials to “convince” people of the Nazi Party Line.

Here, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels rallys a German crowd.

Adolph Hitler and his Nazi propaganda

machine were masters at mass demonstrations of

pomp and ceremony. With promises of

grandeur complete with a back drop of the past years’ miseries, it is fair

to wonder how the German people could have ever resisted the lure of Adolph Hitler.

• Japan = Montana with 70 million people.• Industrialist with few natural resources.• Suffered with the Great Depression• Military leaders preached expansionism

WWIIPost WWI Japan

WWIIU.S. / Japanese Actions

• The Japanese were insulted by the National Origins Act (1924)

• U.S. sent unintended signals of its unwillingness to protect China

• By virtue of treaties, the U.S. Pacific possessions were open to Japanese attack.

WWII1931 - Japan Attacks Manchuria

• Without civilian government Consent

• Japanese military made Manchukuo a puppet state.

• Violated U.S. Open Door Policy, Kellogg-Briand Pact, Nine Powers Pact, and the League of Nations policies.

WWIIU.S. Reaction to Manchuria Attack

• U.S. Stimson Doctrine: – Did not “recognize” Japanese control of

Manchuria.– A moral tongue lashing– Did nothing else

• League of Nations: – Expressed outrage– Did nothing

The lack of reaction was not lost on Adolph Hitler.

WWII1932 - Japan attacks Shanghai

The indiscriminate bombing of residential districts by the

Japanese prompted an official condemnation by the

League of Nations.

The Japanese withdrew from the League.

WWII1933 Soviet Union / U.S. Relations

New Soviet leader Joseph Stalin focused less on world revolution

and more on modernization.

FDR recognized U.S.S.R:• Depression• Shared fears of Japan,

Germany, Italy• Thawing of hostile

sentiments

WWISpanish Revolution (1936-39)

Francisco Franco reviews his triumphant troops.

In 1931 the Spanish people elected a republic to replace the monarchy.

Francisco Franco and army officers rebelled to overthrow the government.

WWIIWorld Reaction to the Spanish Civil War

• Germany and Italy aided Franco.• The U.S.S.R. aided the Spanish loyalists at

first then withdrew after two years.• 3,000 Americans fought for the loyalists of

the democratically elected Spanish government.

• Great Britain, France, and the United States chose not to intervene.

WWIIThe Spanish Civil War

“In a sense, Spain was the first battle ground of the coming world war.”

“Democracy had lost.”

WWII1935 - Italy

Unable to restore economic stability in

Italy, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia.

Fearing war, lost trade, and a stronger

relationship between Mussolini and Hitler, the

world did little.With the Leagues of Nation’s

inaction, they ceased to be taken seriously.

WWIIRome-Berlin Axis

What the world had tried to prevent through inaction happened anyway.

WWIIGermany - 1935

Germany declared it would no longer remain disarmed.

This amounted to a blatant violation of the Treaty of Versailles.

Once again, the former Allies did nothing.

WWIIGermany and the Rhineland (1936)

Hitler attacked the demilitarized area between

France and Germany.

Hitler later admitted, “If the French had then

marched into the Rhineland, we would have had to withdraw with our tails between

our legs.”

WWIIHitler’s “Justification”

Hitler argued that he wanted to “liberate” the German speaking

peoples who had unfairly been

segmented into countries formed by

the Treaty of Versailles.A “humble and respectful”Hitler

meets with Hindenburg.

WWIIReasons for British / French Inaction

• Memory of WWI• Fear of Soviet Communism• Unease with the Versailles Treaty• Hope for compromise with Germany

WWIIAppeasement

Appeasement was the practice of giving into Hitler’s demands in the hope that he would reach a point of

satisfaction, and thereby a war (with all its death and destruction)

would be avoided.

WWIIHitler on the Move

• 1936 Rhineland Nothing• 1938 Austria Nothing• 1938 Sudetenland Munich Pact• 1938 Czechoslovakia outrage, no action

Year Area Attacked World Reaction

WWII1938 - Munich Pact

Upon “making peace” with Hitler, English Prime Minister Chamberlain

said to the his countrymen,

"My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace withhonour. I believe it is peace for our time... Go home and get a nice quiet sleep."

Adolph Hitler signs the Munich Pact.

While it may or may not have reasonable to think Hitler was

sincere in his promise to seek

more conquests, the events of the near

future would suggest otherwise.

Neville Chamberlain would become

synonymous with weakness.

While Rhode Islanders paid attention to the Munich Pact, on September 21, 1938 something

else competed for …. and won their attention

1954 Hurricane Caroline

WWIINon-Aggression Pact

Moltov signs non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR

In August, 1939 Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact.

WWIISeptember 1, 1939

Utilizing the blitzkrieg, the Germans stormed Poland in a surprise attack.

By the time the British and French could react, Poland was under Hitler’s control.

England and France declared war on Germany.

WORLD WAR II

HAD

BEGUN

WWII1939 - Soviet Activity

• Stalin attacked and occupied Eastern Poland• Stalin had a free hand to occupy Estonia,

Latvia, Lithuania• Invaded Finland (defeated in 1940)

WWII1940

• “neutral” Denmark• “neutral” Norway• Belgium• the Netherlands• France (Vichy Govt.

established in south)• Dunkirk

Hitler’s Prey in the Phony war

WWIIThe Free French

The Free French, under the

leadership of Charles

DeGaulle, lead underground

attacks against the German

occupation of France.

Free French

Charles DeGaulle

With England standing alone, and a German attack imminent, the new prime minister, Winston Churchill said,

“We Shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them in the fields and in the streets,

we shall never

surrender.”

WWIIBattle of Britain

While the British were outnumbered by the

German planes, armed with radar the British shot

down hundreds of German pilots.

Still, Hitler was able to bomb civilian populations

and production centers.

The British responded in kind.

WWIIBattle of Britain

By October 1940, Hitler decided not

to invade Great

Britain.

Adolph Hitler had experienced his first set back.

WWIIRome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis In

September, 1940, Japan

signed a mutual

assistance pact with Germany and Italy.

With so much at stake in Europe and the Pacific, many looked to the United States for action.

Publicly Franklin Roosevelt committed the United States to neutrality .

Privately, however, Roosevelt knew it would just be a matter of time before the United States

entered the conflict on the side of the British.

1919 to 1940

Focus QuestionIs the appeasement strategy

utilized to avoid another World War during the 1930’s defendable?