US Involvement in WWII

American Involvement in World War II

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• I can describe key events leading up to American involvement in World War II, including the Lend-Lease Act and the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

​The End of WWI

• The Treaty of Versailles ended WWI

• This angered Germany, Austria & Hungary as it blamed them for starting WWI and they were forced to pay reparations

  • these reparation payments made economic hardships within these nations worse

Open Ended

Look at these pictures of Europe after WWI.

What do you notice??

​The End of WWI

• WWI devastated Europe & European nations suffered from

  • deaths of million of soldiers and civilians

  • damage and destruction to factories and infrastructure, like roads, railways, airports, & power plants

  • lack of money to rebuild

• Many Europeans were out of work and the production of goods slowed down, which in turn slowed trade

​Post-WWI

• The Great Depression that hit the United States in the 1920s & 1930s also struck Europe hard

  • banks failed, countries that relied on U.S. loans suffered, and trade declined

• European nations were dealing with WWI debt, protectionist policies that were meant to eliminate foreign economic competition, & other political and economic instability

• In an attempt to help, many European governments printed more money, which did NOT help!

  • caused inflation and made the financial situation worse

• Japan also suffered economically and blamed the U.S. & European nations

​Post-WWI

• Fascist leaders emerged in Europe & Asia and appealed to the fear of desperate citizens

  • citizens wanted these leaders to solve their problems and bring their countries out of economic depression

  • Adolf Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy, Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, and Hideki Tojo in Japan

• These leaders not only blamed previous government officials for their decisions, but also blamed other nationalities & ethnicities for their current financial crisis

  • Hitler, Mussolini, & Tojo promoted extreme nationalism, where they held up their own nation's race as superior

  • led to human rigths violations & leaders used military might & aggression to expand their nation's agenda and power

Multiple Choice

Which event did NOT lead to the rise of fascist leaders in Europe and Asia?

• global depression caused by economic hardships

• citizens blamed fascists for their problems

• struggling citizens turned to fascists to solve their problems

• fascists convinced citizens that they had the right answers & could help

Multiple Choice

How did fascist leaders expand their power?

• they promoted nationalism and used military might and aggression

• they engaged with people through religion

• they had support from other foreign leaders

​Start of World War II

• As fascist leaders came to power & spread their nationalistic beliefs, racial and political tensions increased in Europe and around the world

• WWII began on September 1, 1939, when Germany, under Hitler's rule, invaded Poland

• The sides of WWII

  • Axis Powers - Germany, Italy & Japan

  • Allied Powers - Great Britain, France, Poland, Canada (& later on the Soviet Union and U.S.)

    • The Soviet Union originally signed an agreement to side with Germany, but when Germany invaded them in 1941, they joined the Allied Powers

​The U.S. at the start of WWII

• At first, the U.S. held the isolationist belief that the war was between foreign nations & was a European problem

• As the war grew, the U.S. worked to provide support to the Allies without getting involved itself

• However, as the U.S. watched Hitler's military sweep across Europe & invade country after country, it realized it could not remain uninvolved

• Great Britain's Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, worried Germany would soon invade Great Britain

  • he asked the U.S. for needed supplies and to help defend against a German attack

Multiple Choice

Did the United States want to get involved in WWII when it first started?

• Yes

• No

​The Lend-Lease Act

• On March 11. 1941, U.S. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act

  • this allowed President Roosevelt to lend and lease weapons, supplies & equipment to any country whose defense was ciritical to U.S. security

  • gave Britain & the Allied Powers more than $50 billion in supplies, including ammunition, tanks, airplanes & food

• Through this aid, Rosevelt hoped to help win the war against the Axis Powers without committing U.S. troops to fight in Europe

• Reasons Roosevelt & Congress passed the Act:

  • to protect trade with European nations

  • help the Allies win the war

  • to give the U.S. time to prepare its military & areseal for war

​Results of the Lend-Lease Act

• Churchill and other leaders of the Allied Powers believed they also needed the support of the U.S. military in order to win against the Axis Powers, BUT the U.S. was not ready yet

• The Lend-Lease Act bought the U.S. some time to prepare for the war at home, in Europe, and in the Pacific

• Preparing for war at home/in the U.S.:

  • factories converted to produce warplanes and warships

  • military facilities were built to train new recruits

  • President Roosevelt established the first peacetime draft

    • Over 16 million men between the ages of 21 and 35 were required to register for military service

​Results of the Lend-Lease Act

• Preparing for war in Europe:

  • the United States gave 50 U.S. warships to Great Britain in exchange for permission to build U.S. military bases on several British islands

  • the United States established bases on Greenland and Iceland to protect U.S. trade ships from German submarine attacks

  • the United States gave U.S. ships permission to fire if threatened by German submarines

• Preparing for war in the Pacific:

  • the U.S. helped China in its struggle against Japan

  • the U.S. stopped selling war materials such as iron, steel, and oil to Japan

  • the U.S. sent more troops to U.S. military bases in the Philippines

  • the U.S. established a navy in the Pacific and positioned its naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii

Multiple Choice

Which is NOT true of the Lend-Lease Act?

• it helped to send weapons, supplies & equipment to Great Britain

• Roosevelt hoped it would prevent U.S. troops from having to fight in Europe

• it helped to give the U.S. more time to prepare for the possibility of entering WWII

• it was meant to provide aid to the Axis Powers, specifically Japan & Germany

​Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor

• The U.S. and Japan had ongoing tensions due to their rivalry over control of the Pacific Islands & the U.S. trying to help China by sending them aid and putting embargoes on Japan

• In the early years of WWII, Roosevelt decided to move the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet to the Pearl Harbor naval base

  • this caused Japan to feel threatened

    • even though the U.S. was still neutral, since it had more resources & manpower, Japan planned to strike quickly and without warning

• On December 7, 1941, Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor

  • more than 2,000 American were killed & the military lost 8 battleships, 13 other ships & 188 airplanes

​Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor

• After the attack on Pearl Harbor, most Americans were united in support of going to war and no longer saw the war as a European problem.

• On December 8th, 1941, one day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made a speech to both houses of Congress in which he called Pearl Harbor an attack that “will live in infamy.”

• In that speech, as a direct result of the attack, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan, which it did.

• The U.S. was no longer neutral!

• On December 11th, 1941, four days after the attack, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.

• Isolationism had not worked—the U.S. was at war in both Europe and Asia.

Multiple Choice

What event led to the U.S. entering WWII?

• the Treaty of Versailles

• the passing of the Lend-Lease Act

• some Europeans nations had fascist leaders or dictators

• the bombing of Pearl Harbor

​The U.S. Enters WWII

• After joining the war in 1941, the U.S. sent troops to fight the war on both the Atlantic & Pacific Fronts

• The leaders of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union became the leaders of the Allied Powers and were known as the “Big Three.”

  • Those leaders included President Franklin D. Roosevelt and later President Harry Truman of the U.S.; Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain; and General Secretary Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union.

• The Axis Powers had been winning before the Soviet Union and the U.S. joined the war, but soon the Allied Powers, led by the “Big Three” turned the tide.

​The U.S. Enters WWII

• Every person in the U.S. was impacted by WWII & was aksed to sacrifice resources, goods, and services in the name of the war effort

  • men ages 21-35 were required to register for the draft to help fight

  • women took wartime jobs in factories, volunteered with the Red Cross & many signed up for military service even though they could not see combat

  • most faced scarcity as factories stopped normal productions to focus on supplies to help the military instead