Chapter 24-A World in Flames 1931-1941

1. Chapter 24-A World in Flames 1931-1941 Sections-4 America Enters the War

2. CHAPTER 24-A world in flames Section 4-America Enters the War

3. Chapter Objectives Section 4: America Enters the War • Explain how Roosevelt helped Britain while maintaining official neutrality. • Trace the events that led to increasing tensions, and ultimately war, between the United States and Japan. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

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5. FDR Supports England • Two days after Britain and France declared war against Germany, President Roosevelt declared the United States neutral.  • The Neutrality Act of 1939 allowed warring countries to buy weapons from the United States as long as they paid cash and carried the arms away on their own ships. (pages 725–726) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

6. FDR Supports England (cont.) • President Roosevelt used a loophole in the Neutrality Act of 1939 and sent 50 old American destroyers to Britain in exchange for the right to build American bases on British-controlled Newfoundland, Bermuda, and Caribbean islands. (pages 725–726)

7. The Isolationist Debate • After the German invasion of France and the rescue of Allied forces at Dunkirk, American public opinion changed to favor limited aid to the Allies.  • The America First Committeeopposed any American intervention or aid to the Allies. (pages 726–727) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

8. The Isolationist Debate (cont.) • President Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented third term as president in the election of 1940.  • Both Roosevelt and the Republican candidate, Wendell Willkie, said they would keep the United States neutral but assist the Allied forces.  • Roosevelt won by a large margin. (pages 726–727) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

9. Edging Toward War • President Roosevelt proposed the Lend-LeaseAct,which stated that the United States could lend or lease arms to any country considered “vital to the defense of the United States.”  • Congress passed the act by a wide margin. • In June 1941, in violation of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, Hitler began a massive invasion of the Soviet Union. (pages 727–728) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

10. Edging Toward War (cont.) • President Roosevelt developed the hemisphericdefense zone,which declared the entire western half of the Atlantic as part of the Western Hemisphere and therefore neutral.  • This allowed Roosevelt to order the U.S. Navy to patrol the western Atlantic Ocean and reveal the location of German submarines to the British. (pages 727–728) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

11. Edging Toward War (cont.) • In August 1941, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed to the Atlantic Charter. • This agreement committed the two leaders to a postwar world of democracy, nonaggression, free trade, economic advancement, and freedom of the seas. (pages 727–728) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

12. Edging Toward War (cont.) • After a German U-boat fired on the American destroyer Greer, Roosevelt ordered American ships to follow a “shoot-on-sight” policy toward German submarines.  • Germans torpedoed and sank the American destroyer Reuben Jamesin the North Atlantic. (pages 727–728) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

13. Japan Attacks the United States • Roosevelt’s primary goal between August 1939 and December 1941 was to help Britain and its allies defeat Germany.  • When Britain began moving its warships from Southeast Asia to the Atlantic, Roosevelt introduced policies to discourage the Japanese from attacking the British Empire. (pages 728–730) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

14. Japan Attacks the United States (cont.) • In July 1940, Congress passed the Export Control Act, giving Roosevelt the power to restrict the sale of strategic materials–materials important for fighting a war–to other countries.  • Roosevelt immediately blocked the sale of airplane fuel and scrap iron to Japan.  • The Japanese signed an alliance with Germany and Italy. (pages 728–730) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

15. Japan Attacks the United States (cont.) • By July 1941, Japanese aircraft posed a direct threat to the British Empire.  • Roosevelt responded to the threat by freezing all Japanese assets in the United States and reducing the amount of oil shipped to Japan.  • He also sent General MacArthur to the Philippines to build up American defenses there. (pages 728–730) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

16. Japan Attacks the United States (cont.) • The Japanese decided to attack resource-rich British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia, seize the Philippines, and attack Pearl Harbor.  • Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, sinking or damaging 21 ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, killing 2,403 Americans, and injuring hundreds more.  • The next day, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. (pages 728–730) Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

17. Japan Attacks the United States (cont.) • On December 11, 1941, Japan’s allies–Germany and Italy–declared war on the United States. (pages 728–730)

19. Geography and History The map below shows Nazi concentration and extermination camps. Study the map and answer the questions on the following slides.

20. World HistoryIn addition to the Jews, millions of others were exterminated by the Nazis. To learn more about how the Poles were treated by the Nazis, read Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1934-1944, by R. C. Lukas (Lexington, Kentucky, 1986).

21. GeographyTo gain direct access to natural resources, Japanese military leaders aimed to build an empire in the Pacific. The U.S. Pacific Fleet was headquartered at Oahu island in Hawaii–approximately 70 warships, including 8 battleships and 24 auxiliary vessels, were stationed at Pearl Harbor on the island. Thus, Japanese military leaders saw the fleet as an obstacle that had to be destroyed if they were to achieve their goals.

22. The Battle of DunkirkHitler’s invasion of Poland fueled the fears of Americans who preferred not to become involved in Europe’s conflict. In contrast, the evacuation from Dunkirk less than a year later generated very different reactions. For example, soon after the evacuation, the New York Times wrote: “So long as the English tongue survives, the word Dunkirk will be spoken with reverence. For in that harbor, in such a hell as never blazed on earth before, at the end of a lost battle, the rages and blemishes that have hidden the soul of democracy fell away. There, beaten but unconquered, in shining splendor, she faced the enemy.” Indeed, the Battle of Dunkirk would soon help to lift the United States out of its isolationism. Despite the success of the evacuation of Dunkirk, Churchill warned Parliament, “Wars are not won by evacuations.”

23. A section of Amy Tan’s popular novel The Joy Luck Club was set during the troubles between China and Japan during the 1930s.

24. The Baltic city of Gdansk (Danzig in German) has alternated through its history between being a politically free city, or part of Poland or German-speaking Prussia. It was a part of Prussia until the Treaty of Versailles, when it became a free city again. Identification with Germany has been strong however. In the 1930s, Nazi officials were voted into the majority of the city assembly. Gunter Grass writes of this era in his book The Tin Drum.

25. At the time of the invasion, the Polish military consisted of outdated infantry and horse cavalry. They were ineffectual against the 1,500 planes, including Stuka dive bombers, and the panzers, or German tanks. Also, they were not prepared for their invaders, whom Hitler had instructed to “close their hearts to pity.”

26. During the bombing of Great Britain from August 1940 to May 1941, large areas of London and the entire city of Coventry were reduced to rubble.

27. Isolationist sentiment in the United States arose in part from the fact that the nation was an ocean away from the conflict in Europe and Asia.

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29. Political SymbolsThe word fascist comes from the Latin word fasces, or the rods and axes that Roman officials carried in ancient times to represent their authority.

30. Complete DestructionHolocaust means a sacrifice consumed by fire, especially a complete or thorough sacrifice or destruction.