1. Causes of WWII

2. 1930s
Depression- Most countries focusing on their own economic problems
U.S. Isolationism
Foreign policy was not the most important thing on American’s minds
Concentrating on getting through the depression
Many attempts at creating peace, reducing arms and economics cooperation by the powers of Europe

3. Dictators Stalin- Soviet Russia, USSR Adolf Hitler- Germany
Benito Mussolini- Italy
Tojo (Prime Minster) and Hirohito (Emperor)- Japan

4. Dictator
Country
Philosophy
Characteristics
Josef Stalin
Soviet Union
Communism
Rapid industrialization; state control of farms and industry; violent political purges
Benito Mussolini
Italy
Fascism
Loss of individual freedoms; need for expansion; violent gang raids
Adolf Hitler
Germany
Nazism
Extreme German nationalism and racial superiority; expansion through military conquest

5. Cause #1- Aggression
Aggression by totalitarian powers (Germany, Italy, Japan)
Japan invades Manchuria (China) and sets up a puppet government (Manchukuo)
Italy and Germany set up dictatorships

6. Cause #2- Nationalism
German desire to unite all Germans (get the territory they lost from the Treaty of Versailles back. Germany lost about 13% of her land and 6 million people living there)
Japanese desire for expansion

8. Cause #3- Failures of the Treaty of Versailles
Germany was angry over disarmament, reparations, blame, and territory lost

9. Cause #4- Weakness of the League of Nations
The U.S. never joined
The League cannot enforce its decisions

10. Cause #5- Appeasement Appeasement= giving into an aggressor’s demands
Britain and France appease Germany because they cannot afford to get into another war
Examples:
Ethiopia, 1935
Rhineland, 1936
China, 1937
Sudetenland, 1938

11. Cause #6- Isolationism and Pacifism
The US = isolationist during the 20s and 30s
Britain and France disarm during the 20s and 30s
Kellogg-Briand Pact- international agreement in which conflicts would be resolved peacefully signed by 26 nations

12. Hitler
War Breaks Out
Hitler invades Poland in 1939
Poland

13. Sides Allied Powers  Britain France Smaller European countries
Axis Powers 
Britain
France
Smaller European countries
Germany
Italy
Japan
Soviet Union

14. The War in Europe
1939 invasion of Poland by Germany and then Soviet Union
During the first 2 years of the war, the U.S stayed neutral, while Germany overran France and pounded Britain from the air
In mid-1941 Hitler turned on his former partner and invaded the Soviet Union

15. U.S. Feelings
Despite strong isolationist sentiment at home, the US increasingly helped Britain. It gave them war supplies and old warships in return for naval bases in Bermuda and the Caribbean
The Lend- Lease Act gave the President authority to sell or lend equipment to counties to defend themselves against the Axis powers
FDR likened this to “lending a garden hose to a next-door neighbor whose house is on fire.”

16. The War in Asia
During the 1930s, a militarist Japan invaded and brutalized Manchuria and China as it sought military and economic domination over Asia
The U.S. refused to recognize Japanese conquests in Asia and imposed an embargo on exports of oil and steel to Japan
Tensions rose, but both nations negotiated to avoid war…

17. Pearl Harbor
While negotiating with the U.S. and without any warning, Japan carried out an air attack on Pearl Harbor, HI on December 7, 1941
The attack destroyed much of the American Pacific fleet and killed several thousand Americans
FDR called it a “date which will live in infamy” as he asked Congress to declare war on Japan

19. It’s on!
After Pearl Harbor, Hitler honored a pact with Japan and declared war on the U.S.
The debate over isolationism in the U.S. was over.
WWII was now truly a world war, and the U.S. was fully involved