Dictators Threaten World PeaceEQ 1: How did Americans react to events in Europe and Asia in the early years of WWII?

Failures of the Treaty of Versailles

• 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

• the US and Britain feared war but did nothing•Spain will sit out WWII

Appeasement in Action

• Munich Pact, 1938• Britain signed a treaty with Hitler that he would not take any more territory

• this appeasement just encouraged the fascists• Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939

• Mussolini seized Albania

Rhineland, 1936

Austria, 1938

Czechoslovakia, 1938

German Propaganda

What does this suggest about the German Empire?

Take notes on what you are seeing.

                               

          

1936 Olympic Games

Nazi – Soviet pact

• Non-Aggression Pact, 1939• Germany and Russia agreed to not fight each other

• this meant no second front if war began

World War II Begins

• Invasion of Poland, 1939• Germans invade, USSR invade two weeks later•September 1, 1939

• Poland fell within a month• France and Britain declared war •official beginning of the war•Polish government fled to Britain

World War II Begins

• Invasion of Western Europe (France)• German forces knock out France in May•German forces will take Denmark and Norway in April

•the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg will fall in May

• Britain tried to hold out against the Nazis air force alone• Germany used airbases in Norway

• Germany bombed London nightly• Britain lost 1000 planes• Germany lost 1700 planes

• Hitler gave up and decided to attack Russia in the spring

“We shall not flag or fail. 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 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.”

Battle of Britain, 1941

Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy

• Americans favor neutrality• US passed neutrality acts in 1935, 1936, and 1937•German subs attacked US merchant ships

• in 1939, FDR started limited arms sales to the Allies•If they fall, we fall

Timeline of US Neutrality

Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy

• Lend-Lease Act, 1941• the US “leased” military supplies to the Allies as the “great arsenal of democracy”•$45 billion was given•$20 billion went to Britain

• Hitler invaded the USSR in 1941 and the US sent aid

Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy

• Four Freedom’s Speech, 1941• FDR’s state of the union address included goals for four basic freedoms we should fight for•speech •worship•freedom from want •Freedom from fear

Essential Question 1:

• How did Americans react to events in Europe and Asia in the early years of WWII?