America: Pathways to the Present Text

America: Pathways to the Present | Chapter 17: World War II (1931–1941)

This chapter explores the origins of World War II and the United State’s entrance into the conflict. The chapter is divided into four sections: The Rise of Dictators, Europe Goes to War, Japan Builds an Empire, and From Isolationism to War.

Section 1: The Rise of Dictators

Main Ideas

  • Depression-era Europe was a fertile ground for the rise of dictatorships. Four dictators came to power between WWI and WWII: Stalin, Mussolini, Franco, and Hitler.
  • WWII-era dictatorships were brutal and repressive governments that were only concerned with a desire for power.

Summary and Analysis
During the 1920s and ’30s, the discouraging economic condition of Europe as well as lingering resentments from the Versailles Treaty helped to create a situation in which four major powers fell prey to repressive totalitarian regimes led by dictators. The first of these was a direct legacy of World War I. In 1917, the Russian monarchy had fallen to a Communist regime lead by Lenin. However, Lenin passed away in 1924, and the reins of control were seized by Joseph Stalin. Stalin’s repressive government killed millions. He starved the peasants in order to take state control of the farms and even used purges to kill members of his own Communist party to stamp out any remnant of dissent to his rule.

The other three dictatorships were fascist. Fascism is a political philosophy that is based on the supposed superiority of a nation or ethnic group and the supreme authority of the leader. In Italy, fascism was led by Benito Mussolini, who had been an injured soldier in World War I. He was disillusioned that Italy did not receive additional land from the Versailles Treaty. Called “Il Duce,” he led Italy in the conquest of Ethiopia. Francisco Franco brought civil war to Spain, finally taking control in 1939 and remaining in power until 1975. In Germany, Adolph Hitler came to power and plunged Europe into another devastating war.

Hitler was also a veteran of World War I, and he felt that the Germans had suffered injustice from the harsh terms of the Versailles Treaty. Hitler joined the National Socialist Worker Party, also called the Nazi party, and quickly became its leader with his charismatic speaking abilities and his passionate love of Germany. Hitler was infuriated by the humiliating terms of the Versailles Treaty, which had demilitarized Germany and had given the country huge war reparations to repay. His message of German pride resonated with Germany’s working classes as did his message of anti-Semitism. In 1933, Hitler became the chancellor of Germany and began to rearm the country, giving a boost to its weak economy as well as to its pride. Hitler soon found out that Europeans were not interested in enforcing the Versailles Treaty, so he ignored it and began his expansion plans, taking control of Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia in 1938. France and Britain pursued a policy of appeasement, believing that if they gave Hitler what he wanted he would not go to war. Hitler also made alliances with Mussolini in Italy. Joined later by Japan, this alliance created the Axis Powers.

Section 2: Europe Goes to War

Main Ideas

  • Appeasement did not stop Hitler, and in 1939 he plunged Europe into the Second World War.
  • Hitler astounded the world by conquering Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France during a period of only three months. Only Britain was able to withstand Hitler’s attack.

Summary and Analysis
In the fall of 1939, Neville Chamberlain—Britain’s prime minister and a supporter of appeasement—met with Hitler and claimed that there would be “peace in our time.” Only a year later, on September 1, 1939, Hitler’s forces attacked Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. One week before invading Poland, Hitler had signed a nonaggression pact with Stalin so that he would not have to fight a war on two fronts and could use all his forces against the west. Hitler’s forces overran Poland in less than a month as he unveiled his new war tactic called the blitzkrieg, which consisted of a fast-moving, surprise attack by air and land. After Poland fell, there was a lull for a few months while the French prepared their key defense along the German border called the Maginot Line. When the Germans finally attacked France, they defeated this defense by avoiding it and coming through Belgium.

In April of 1940, Hitler went on the attack by first invading Denmark and Norway, both of which fell to the blitzkrieg in a matter of days. Next he took Holland and then Belgium. Using Belgium as his door, he now turned his attention to France. Hitler’s armies moved so fast that they split the French troops from their English allies. French and British forces in the north were forced to retreat to Dunkirk on the coast. It seemed that the forces were stranded there when the British performed a heroic rescue with a makeshift fleet of fishing boats, tugboats, yachts, and other small private craft. Traveling back and forth across the channel, 900 private vessels rescued 340,000 British and French soldiers. By June 22, 1940, France had fallen and the puppet government of Vichy was set up in southern France. The Free French under Charles de Gaulle continued to fight from England. But now England stood alone. The Battle of Britain began with massive bombings in August of 1940 and continued until the end of 1941. The British stood firm. The small Royal Air Force protected the country as best it could, bringing down hundreds of German planes. The people of London and other cities suffered through countless bombing raids, but Britain persevered until the Soviet Union and America entered the war.

Section 3: Japan Builds an Empire

Main Idea

  • Japan’s military took over the Japanese government and began to expand into China and Southeast Asia, threatening America’s Pacific territories.

Summary and Analysis
Japan entered the world stage during the late 1900s, but by the turn of the twentieth century, it had become a prominent power in the South Pacific, controlling Korea and having a great influence in the Chinese province of Manchuria. Japan had a constitutional government, but the emperor was still the titular head of the nation. During the 1920s and 1930s, Japan’s economy suffered recessions and then felt the effects of the Great Depression. These economic difficulties led to a rise in nationalism and a rejection of Western culture. Japan had also experienced an enormous population growth and had its eye on Manchuria, a sparsely populated Chinese province. In 1931, the Japanese army on its own initiative took Manchuria and made it an independent state with a puppet government under Japanese control. In July 1937, the Japanese went to war against China. The West, including the United States, condemned Japan’s actions. After the beginning of World War II, Japan began to eye European possessions in the Pacific. In September 1940, Japan allied with Germany and Italy. Then Japan signed a neutrality pact with the Soviet Union in 1941. Now Japan was ready to challenge both the European and American presence in the Pacific.

Section 4: From Isolationism to War

Main Ideas

  • The United States chose neutrality early in the war, but many in the country slowly came to support the Allies and began to give Britain material support.
  • The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States immediately into World War II with the full support of the American public.

Summary and Analysis
The painful memory of World War I and the still struggling economy of the late 1930s kept American attention turned to domestic rather than foreign affairs. However, most Americans sympathized with the victims of the totalitarian regimes that had come to power in Europe. When war broke out in 1939, although many Americans were sympathetic to the Allied cause (France, Britain, and Poland), they still wanted to remain neutral. Public sentiment for the Allies grew stronger as Hitler conquered nearly all of western Europe. Although Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts, designed to keep the U.S. out of any conflicts, Roosevelt really wanted to aid the British people, who were bravely standing alone against Hitler. By 1940, Congress passed the Lend Lease Act to allow Roosevelt to help countries whose defense was necessary to American security. Because Roosevelt was convinced that Hitler would use all the resources of Europe to attack the U.S. if he was successful in Britain, the act enabled FDR to give aid to Britain. Many Americans were against getting involved in the war. The America First Committee, an isolationist organization, attracted over 800,000 members.

Opposition to the war disappeared, however, on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. While most of the country’s attention had been focused on Europe, Roosevelt had been aware of Japan’s aggressive actions in the Pacific and had limited Japan’s purchase of scrap metal and steel, materials that could be used to make weapons. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor sank 18 ships, destroyed nearly 200 warplanes, and killed 2,400 Americans. The U.S. declared war on Japan the next day, and Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. on December 11. Again the United States was involved in a worldwide conflict.

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