Chapter 27

Axis Powers

(1935-1945) This alliance's original members were Italy and Germany in 1935. In 1940 Japan joined the alliance when it signed the Tripartite Pact. During World War II the Axis powers of Japan, Italy, and Germany fought the Allied powers (Britain, France, the Soviet Union, (1941), and the United States (1941

Allied Powers

(1938-1945) This alliance's original members were Great Britain and France. Russia joins the alliance in 1941 after the Nazi invasion and the United States joins in 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Fall of France/ Dunkirk

(1940) Hitler's launched his blitzkrieg on France in 1940. The British were already being driven back when Hitler attacked Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. • Britain evacuated 338,000 men from Dunkirk Beach across the English Channel. Mussolini attacked from the South at the same time, and on June 22 France surrendered.

Neutrality Act of 1935

(American Attitudes toward Intervention) Placed an arm embargo against any victim or aggressor in a military conflict and gave the president the power to warn American citizens if they traveled on ships of nations at war they did so at their own risk.

Neutrality Act of 1937

(American Attitudes toward Intervention) Put "cash and carry" policy into place which meant belligerent nations could only buy nonmilitary goods from the U.S. They also had to pay cash and provide their own ships to get the goods home.

Neutrality Act of 1936

(American Attitudes toward Intervention) Renewed the provisions of the 1935 Act

Isolationism

(American Attitudes toward Intervention)(1930s-1941) American public opinion during this period, although very sympathetic toward Britain and France, was strongly isolationist because the majority of Americans believed the country should use any necessary means to stay out of war

Nye Commitee

(American Attitudes toward Intervention)(1934) Senate committee that investigated U.S. entry into World War I and concluded that munitions makers and bankers had pressured Wilson to enter the war. Its findings were highly publicized and contributed to the strong isolationist sentiment during the 1930s-1941.

Neutrality Acts

(American Attitudes toward Intervention)(1935-1937) These acts were passed in the wake of aggression by fascist powers. Congress, looking at the neutrality issues they felt had pulled us into World War I, passed this series of acts designed to keep us from being dragged into the European war.

FDR's Quarantine Speech

(American Attitudes toward Intervention)(1937) After Japan's invasion of China in 1937, FDR tested the American public's commitment to isolationism by proposing that democracies ban together to "quarantine" Japan or any other aggressor nation that broke world peace. Roosevelt was vague about what that meant - whether it was breaking diplomatic relations or included economic sanctions, nevertheless, U.S. public reaction was hostile so he dropped the idea.

Americas First Commitee

(American Attitudes toward Intervention)(1940) Interest group who supported American neutrality and opposed entry into the European or Asian War. Its members included prominent Americans such as Charles Lindbergh and Senator Henry Nye (Nye Committee). It had the backing of many respected American newspapers and the tacit support of many Republicans.

Recognition of the Soviet Union

(Foreign Relations) (1933) The United States had never recognized the Communist government established in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. So in 1933 Roosevelt recognized the Soviet Union and established diplomatic relations in an attempt to increase U.S. trade and help the economy.

Four Power Pact

(Foreign Relations)(1921) Britain, France, and Japan pledge to respect one another's possessions in the Pacific and work together to prevent aggression.

Washington Conference

(Foreign Relations)(1921) Called to prevent an impending naval arms race between America, Britain, and Japan. Three treaties come out of this conference. Five-Power Pact, Four-Power Pact, Nine-Power Pact

Five Power Pact

(Foreign Relations)(1921) Set limits for total naval tonnage and put a ten year moratorium on building large battleships. It also set a ratio of armaments for those signing this pact. For every 5 tons of American and British warships, Japan got 3 and France and Italy 1.75. These terms still gave Japan dominance in East Asia since it had only the Pacific to patrol in contrast to America and Britain which had both the Pacific and Atlantic.

Nine Power Pact

(Foreign Relations)(1921) restated the open door policy

Dawes Plan

(Foreign Relations)(1924) This plan attempted to solve the reparation issue by setting up a plan where American banks loaned Germany money to make the reparation payments and, in turn, Britain and France agreed to reduce the amount of the reparations they were owned. • The plan doesn't solve the problem because the American banks and the large loans they were making to Germany (and Britain and France) were still the source of the flow of international payments.

Kellog Briand Pact

(Foreign Relations)(1928) The United States proposed this treaty which outlawed war as an instrument of national policy. Fourteen nations initially signed it and forty-eight nations eventually join it. • It is a symbolic act only - there was no means to enforce it -- its effectiveness rested on the "moral force" of world opinion

Chiang Kai-Shek/ China

(Foreign Relations)(1928-1975) Leader of Nationalist forces in China. In 1926 Chiang commanded the army which aimed to break the power of the warlords and unify China. He also defeated the Communist army and forced the survivors to make the infamous Long March. Chiang eventually established a government in Nanking. When Japan invaded the heartland of China in 1937, Chiang was forced to move his capital from Nanking to Chungking. • He lost control of the coastal regions and most of the major cities to Japan. In an effort to beat the Japanese he agreed to collaborate with Mao Zedong and his Communist army.

Stimson Doctrine

(Foreign Relations)(1932) Secretary of State Henry Stimson issued this policy that the United States would uphold the Nine Power Treaty (which had reaffirmed the Open Door policy) and furthermore would not grant diplomatic recognition to any government (such as Manchuria) that had been established by force.

World Disarmament Conference

(Foreign Relations)(1932) This effort to bring major reductions in arms and a 30% reduction in land and naval forces ended in failure.

Good Neighbor Policy

(Foreign Relations)(1932-1945) President Hoover's administration initiated a new approach to Western hemispheric relations. The policy declared American's intention to use cooperation and friendship in place of threats and armed intervention in its dealing with Latin America. • Hoover's cooperative approach was extended and elaborated by President Roosevelt who pledged a policy of the good neighbor toward other countries in the Western Hemisphere. • He did this because dollar diplomacy no longer made sense since American business lacked the money to invest in foreign countries and the rise of Germany and Japan caused Roosevelt to try to get Latin America's help in defending the region from future danger.

London Economic Conference

(Foreign Relations)(1933) An international conference called by the League of Nations to resolve the issue of war debts and to take action to reinforce the gold standard. President Roosevelt broke with conventional wisdom because he decided to let the gold value of the dollar fall so that American goods could compete in world markets. • Consequently, FDR's announcement caused the conference to break up without reaching a resolution and it is 1936 before the Roosevelt administration participated in talks to stabilize Western currencies.

Pan American Conferences

(Foreign Relations)(1933,1936) Roosevelt carried out his Good Neighbor Policy at these two conferences. • At the 1933 Conference the United States pledged never again to intervene in the internal affairs of a Latin American country. • At the 1936 Conference Roosevelt pledged that the United States would submit future disputes to arbitration and warned that countries in the Western Hemisphere would work together if any European power tried to commit an act of aggression.

Tydings-McDuffle Act

(Foreign Relations)(1934) President Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass this act which gave the Philippines the right to elect a president under a new constitution in 1935, and provided for the complete independence of the islands by 1945 and the gradual withdrawal of American troops. • FDR's motivation was to cut federal costs since governing the Philippines was expensive.

Reciprocal Trade Agreement Act

(Foreign Relations)(1934) Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull crafted this act which reduced U.S. tariffs up to 50% for any nation that agreed to comparable reductions for U.S. imports. This was intended to fight the Depression by increasing international trade.

Japan- Invasion of Manchuria

(International Aggression in the 1930s)(1931) Japan invaded northern Manchuria in 1931 in part because Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalist government was trying to expand its power to Manchuria (officially this was part of China, but Japan controlled Manchuria's economy since 1905). The U.S. protested, but did not join with the League of Nations in imposing economic sanctions on China.

Italy-Ethiopia

(International Aggression in the 1930s)(1935) In a bid to expand Italian colonial holdings in Africa, Mussolini sent troops to invade Ethiopia. Both the League of Nations and the U.S. objected, but did nothing beyond that and Ethiopia was conquered after a year of bitter fighting.

Germany-Rhineland

(International Aggression in the 1930s)(1936) The Treaty of Versailles had demilitarized this region in western Germany, but Hitler openly defied the treaty by sending German troops into the Rhineland.

Japan-China

(International Aggression in the 1930s)(1937) Japan widens its invasion of China. After Japan's invasion of China in 1937, FDR tested the American public's commitment to isolationism by proposing that democracies ban together to "quarantine" Japan or any other aggressor nation that broke world peace. Roosevelt was vague about what that meant - whether it was breaking diplomatic relations or included economic sanctions, nevertheless, U.S. public reaction was hostile so he dropped the idea.

Sudetenland

(International Aggression in the 1930s)(1938) Hitler demands this strip of land in Czechoslovakia on the grounds that it "belonged" to Germany since most people in the region were German-speaking. An attempt to resolve this crisis was made through a conference of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy in Munich. Roosevelt encouraged this meeting in the hopes of maintaining peace.

Germany-Austria

(International Aggression in the 1930s)(1938) On the pretense of the mistreatment of ethnic Germans living in Austria, Hitler sent German troops into the country and proclaimed a union with Austria.

Munich Conference/ appeasement/ Neville Chamberlain

(International Aggression in the 1930s)(1938) This conference was synonymous with the policy of appeasement (policy of giving in to hostile demands to keep the peace). British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain and the French president, Edouard Daladier, gave in to Hitler's demands on the Sudetenland territory, accepting Hitler's word that this would be his last territorial demand. • Chamberlain announced that the agreement guaranteed "peace in our time." In about six months time, Hitler broke the agreement by first demanding and then invading the rest of Czechoslovakia.

Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact

(International Aggression in the 1930s)(1939) Stalin, who advocated a popular front against fascism, signed a pact with Nazi Germany on August 1939 agreeing not to make war on each other and secretly divided up Poland (in a planned attack on Sept. 1) between the USSR and Germany. • In contrast to World War I, this freed Germany, at least momentarily, from the danger of a two-front war.

Czechoslovakia

(International Aggression in the 1930s)(March 1939) Hitler broke the Munich agreement by sending troops to occupy all of Czechoslovakia. And, in April, Hitler started making threats against Poland and then Britain and France assured the Polish government they would come to its aid if Germany attacked.

Poland

(International Aggression in the 1930s)(September 1, 1939) Hitler's troops attacked Poland on Sept.1, 1939. On September 3, Britain and France declare war on Germany and this marked the advent of World War II.

Pearl Harbor

(Japan)(December 7,1941) On the morning of December 7, scores of Japanese dive-bombers and torpedo planes flew across Oahu to bomb the ships that were anchored in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and to strafe the planes parked side by side at nearby air bases. • In less that 3 hours, over 300 aircraft were destroyed or damaged, and 8 battleships, 3 light cruisers, and 3 destroyers were sunk or crippled. It was the worst loss of U.S. arms in history. • The historical controversy has been did Roosevelt break the Japanese code and know the attack was going to occur? • The attack unified America. War was declared on Japan on December 8th (with only one dissenting vote in Congress). The issue of whether we would go to war only with Japan was resolved on December 11th when Germany and Italy honored their treaty with Japan by declaring war on the United States.

Trade Embargo with Japan/ freeze Japanese assets in the United States

(Japan)(July 1941) In response to Japanese troops occupying French Indochina, President Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets in the United States and put a total trade embargo into place which limited Japan's ability to buy crucial supplies such as oil.

US & Japanese Negotiations

(Japan)(Summer-Fall 1941) This was an attempt to resolve the U.S. embargo on oil - both sides realized if it did not end, the Dutch East Indies would be Japan's next target. The United States would not lift the embargo unless the Japanese agreed to withdraw from China and Japan refused to do this. Roosevelt's military advisors wanted to avoid war until U.S. military forces in Asia were stronger while Japan was committed to quick action before they used their limited oil supplies. Negotiations were still ongoing when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Weimar Republic

(Rise of Fascism)(1919-1933) Democratic government established in Germany after World War I. By the late 1920s, the Weimar Republic had almost entirely lost public support (rampant inflation contributes to this). German political groups on the left and the right targeted the Republic as an ineffective government Hitler and the Nazi contended that the German army had not lost World War I on the field, but on the home front. In 1932, Hitler lost his bid to be elected chancellor, but came to power a year later.

Adolph Hitler/ National Socialist (Nazi) Party

(Rise of Fascism)(1920s-1945) The Nazi party was the German counterpart of Italy's Fascist party. The Nazi originated in the 1920s and gained popular support in the economic chaos after the war and the national resentment over the Treaty of Versailles. • The Nazi proclaimed "Aryans" (Germans) the master race and made Jews the scapegoats for all the problems of German society. • With his personal army of "brown shirts" Hitler gained control of the German legislature in 1933.

Benito Mussolini/ Facist Party

(Rise of Fascism)(1922-1943) Mussolini was the leader of the Fascist party (which attracted war veterans, nationalists, and those who feared Communism) in Italy. Mussolini and the Fascists came to power in the early 1920s. Mussolini was a dictator and the militaristic and nationalistic Fascists moved quickly to kill any democracy in Italy. Along with Germany and Japan, Italy was an aggressor state in the 1930s. Italy invades Ethiopia in 1935 and the League of Nations and United States objected, but did nothing to stop it and the country was conquered after a year of fighting.

Japan Militarists

(Rise of Fascism)(1931) Nationalists and militarists in Japan increased their power in the 1920s-1930s. Japan's military leaders seized control of foreign policy from liberals in 1931 after the moderate government of Japan did not block Chiang Kai-Shek's effort to take over control of Manchuria.

Election of _____: Franklin Roosevelt (D) v. Wendell Wilkie (R)

(The United States Moving from Neutrality toward War) The Republicans nominated a charismatic, politically inexperienced businessman. Roosevelt broke the tradition of Presidents running no more than two terms for office. • Both parties agreed they would keep the country out of the war, but give the Allies substantial non-military aid. • Wilkie relied on the issue of the danger of a President running for a third term. FDR won 55% of the popular vote to Willkie's 45%. • Two things that contributed to FDR's victory was the rebounding of the economy due to defense purchases and the fear of a possible war with an inexperienced President at the helm. FDR advocated the nation's first peacetime draft and wanted an increase in military spending.

Atlantic Charter

(The United States Moving from Neutrality toward War)(August 1941) FDR met Churchill to discuss joint military strategy. Their public statement expressed their ideas of a postwar world, and frowned upon aggression, affirmed national self-determination, and endorsed the principles of collective security and disarmament. The Charter was signed prior to the U.S. entry into the war.

Four Freedoms

(The United States Moving from Neutrality toward War)(January 1941) President Roosevelt proposed lending money to Britain for the purchase of U.S. war materials and argued the policy was necessary to defend the "four freedoms " - that the United States must support nations committed to "freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear."

Lend Lease

(The United States Moving from Neutrality toward War)(March 1941) President Roosevelt argued that aiding Britain would help America's own self-defense and he asked Congress for a $7 billion Lend-Lease plan. This allowed the president to sell, lend, lease, or transfer war materials to any country whose defense he declared was vital to the United States.

Destroyers for Bases Deal

(The United States Moving from Neutrality toward War)(September 1940) Great Britain stood alone during this time and was under constant German air attacks and German submarines were threatening her control of the Atlantic. Roosevelt came up with a way to give her destroyers without upsetting the isolationists by trading 50 older U.S. destroyers in exchange for Britain giving the U.S. the right to build military bases on British islands in the Caribbean. • The significance of this deal is the U.S. was looking for every possible way to help the Allies short of joining the war.

Selective Service Act

(The United States Moving from Neutrality toward War)(September 1940) President Roosevelt asked for the first peacetime draft in U.S. History. This act registered all American men between 21-35 and trained 1.2 million troops in just one year. • The isolationists opposed this, but its passage was an indication that public opinion had shifted away from strict neutrality.

Shoot on Sight Policy aka Undeclared Naval War/ Greer Incident

(The United States Moving from Neutrality toward War)(September 1941) In July 1941, President Roosevelt ordered the U.S. Navy to begin escorting British ships carrying Lend-Lease materials from the U.S. The purpose of the policy was to protect British ships in the north Atlantic from German submarines. When the U.S. destroyer Greer was attacked by a German submarine it had been hunting, Roosevelt issued a "shoot-on-sight" policy for all German ships. This amounted to an undeclared naval war against Germany.