Peace At Any Price

Imperialism Alaska Hawaii Spanish American War (1898) Puerto Rico Guam Philippines Cuba Platt Amendment Great White Fleet Open Door Policy Panama Canal Interventions in Latin America (1890’s through 1930’s)

A Shift Towards Isolationism- 1920’s & 1930’s Foreign Policy Washington Conference (1921-1922) and the 5 Power Naval Treaty An attempt to move away from large navies Small militaries = Smaller chance of war Refusal to join the League of Nations Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) Outlawed war unless it was a defensive war War Debt Policy America insisted that war debts be paid Major mistake…. Germany hyper-inflates its currency to pay off debts Johnson Debt Default Act (1934) US prevented debt-dodging nations from borrowing anything from the US

FDR and Isolationism FDR decided to withdraw from the rest of the world London Conference (1933): An attempt by the Europeans to encourage global trade and alleviate the worldwide depression US pulls out of the conference and the crisis continues Opens the door for dictators to come to power Withdrawal From Asia Tydings-McDuffie Act (1934): Gave the Philippines their independence in 12 years with favorable terms for the US A very dark period ended in American history Latin American intervention is ended with the Good Neighbor policy (1933) Last troops left Haiti in 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act does improve economic relations with Latin America

While America Withdraws…. Fascist Italy Benito Mussolini Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler Communist Soviet Union Joseph Stalin

Francisco Franco-Spain

Neutrality Acts Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, & 1937: when the president acknowledged a foreign war NO business could be done with the belligerent nations Senator Gerald Nye US would not even help innocent nations that were attacked Ignored Democratic Spain being attacked by fascists China being invaded by Japan Ethiopia invaded by Italy

FDR Gives His Quarantine Speech (1937) Response to Japanese and Italian aggression US pledged to stop interacting with these aggressive nations (embargos) Panay Incident (1937) American ship sunk by Japanese and the Americans merely accepted an apology

Appeasement Hitler demanded all German people live under one flag “Britain and France had to choose between war and shame. They chose shame. They will get war too.” Appeasement Hitler demanded all German people live under one flag Germany remilitarized Rhineland was rearmed Annexed Austria Annexed Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia)

Was appeasement a mistake at the time or the right decision?

Appeasement Leads to War Hitler knew that Europe was weak… Europe was ripe for the picking Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact Germany and Soviet Union (Russia) hate each other Hitler doesn’t want a two front war Soviet Union wants some of its territory back Germany and Soviet Union agree to carve up Poland

War in Europe Germany invaded Poland (Sept 1, 1939) Blitzkrieg: Lightning War France and Great Britain declared war on Germany WWII began… Poland fell in one month By 1940 Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, and France fall

Cash-and-Carry Policy (1939) Neutrality Act of 1939 established the Cash-and-Carry policy Cash-and-Carry Policy: US would sell war materials to the allies as long as they could pay for the materials and transport it themselves At this point only 2.5% of Americans supported entering the conflict FDR’s hands were tied War business began to pull the US out of the Great Depression

Destroyers for Bases Deal (1940) British was in horrible position when France fell FDR does what he can to help Destroyers-for-Bases Deal (1940) 50 destroyers for British bases Major violation of neutrality America First Committee led the fight to keep the US neutral “Fortress America”

FDR Gets the Military Ready FDR initiates a peacetime draft (1940) 1.2 million troops and 800,000 reserves drafted and trained for war every year

Lend Lease Act of 1940 FDR won an unprecedented 3rd term Lend Lease Plan Great Britain could no longer pay US for war supplies Plan said President could lend material to any nation whose defense was vital to the US “Billions, not bodies” “The Great Arsenal of Democracy” Fire Hose Analogy Isolationists were very much against this By 1945, the US had lent $50 billion to the Allies

Unofficial War Begins (1941) The Atlantic Charter Churchill and FDR met and made a pledge Post-War World: collective security, disarmament, self-determination, economic cooperation, and freedom of the seas FDR privately ensured Churchill that the US will enter the war Shoot on Sight Unofficial fighting between the US and German navies USS Greer was attacked by a U-boat and USS Reuben James was sunk by a U-boat (1940) FDR instructed US Navy to engage German U-boats on sight Formal Declaration of War seemed inevitable, but…