1. World War II (Part I) Focus Questions:
Explain why the Treaty of Versailles was seen as a failure.
Identify the totalitarian dictators who took power in Europe before WWII.
What was the American response to the looming fog of war throughout the world?
Describe the events that led to the outbreak of WWII.
Explain how the United States aided Britain yet still remained neutral.
Explain how the invasion of Russia was a turning point in the war.
Analyze why the United States eventually joined the war effort.
The purpose of the focus questions is to help students find larger themes and structures to bring the historical evidence, events, and examples together for a connected thematic purpose.
As we go through each portion of this lecture, you may want to keep in mind how the information relates to this larger thematic question. Here are some suggestions: write the focus question in the left or right margin on your notes and as we go through, either mark areas of your notes for you to come back to later and think about the connection OR as you review your notes later (to fill in anything else you remember from the lecture or your thoughts during the lecture or additional information from the readings), write small phrases from the lecture and readings that connect that information to each focus question AND/OR are examples that work together to answer the focus question. 1

2. War Clouds:

3. Totalitarianism: Rise of Dictators
Benito Mussolini (Italy)
•Fascism

4. Adolf Hitler (Germany) •National Socialist Workers Party (NAZI)

5. Francisco Franco (Spain)

6. Joseph Stalin (Russia)
•Communism

7. Japan
●Emperor Hirohito

8. Postwar isolationism ●Evidences of isolationist sentiment
*Washington Naval Conference 1921
*Neutrality Acts ( )
*Quarantine Speech (1937)
●World involvement
●War-debt Problems

9. Events leading to War ●Italian invasion of Ethiopia, 1935 ●Appeasement
●Hitler’s occupation of the Rhineland, 1936
●Spanish Civil War, 1936
●Japanese invasion of China, 1937

10. Events leading to War (cont.)
●Hitler’s Anschluss with Austria and the Sudetenland, 1938
●The Munich Agreement, 1938
●Invasion of Poland, 1939
●Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, 1939

12. *German Blitzkrieg (Lightning War) *The Fall of France: May 1940
The Storm in Europe
*German Blitzkrieg (Lightning War)
*The Fall of France: May 1940

14. The Battle of Britain, June-October 1940

15. America’s Reaction ●Neutrality Acts (1935-37)
●U.S. aid to embattled Britain
●The Lend-Lease program
●Election of 1940

16. German invasion of Russia: 1941

18. Awaking a Sleeping Giant

19. Attack on Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941
●Declaration of war: December 11, 1941
(Sinking of USS California)

20. USS Arizona in New York

21. USS Arizona

23. Pearl Harbor Attack:

25. Declaring War: