1. Unit 6: World War II and Postwar America (1950s) PowerPoint #1

2. Daily Essential Questions:
Why did totalitarian states rise after World War I, and what did they do?
Why did the US enter World War II after trying to remain isolated and neutral?
How did the United States react to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?
How did Americans mobilize for war on the home front?

3. What are the characteristics of a Totalitarian State?
EQ #1 Why did totalitarian states rise after World War I, and what did they do?
What are the characteristics of a Totalitarian State?
Summarize in one sentence or a few words for your notes. 3

4. What countries were totalitarian?
WWI and the Great Depression had devastating effects throughout the world.
Overwhelming economic problems led some nations to turn to a new form of government called totalitarianism.
Totalitarian States in the 1930s
Country
Leader
Soviet Union
Joseph Stalin
Italy
Benito Mussolini
Germany
Adolf Hitler

5. 4. Notes on Totalitarian Leaders Write 5 facts for each leader from the video clips.
Hitler
Stalin
Mussolin 5min
Hitler 4min
Stalin 4min

6. 5. Japan did not become a totalitarian dictatorship, but it did come under the influence of strong military leaders which led aggressive military conquests.
Japanese Expansion,
DO NOT WRITE:
Japan invaded Manchuria, then China.
The attack on Nanjing was especially brutal.

7. What acts of Aggression in Europe and Asia led to WWII?
Do not write BUT listen!
Germany
• rebuilt military
• reclaimed Saar region from France
• invaded the Rhineland
• Anschluss
• invaded the Sudetenland
Italy
• invaded Ethiopia
Spain
• Fascists rebelled against the government
Spanish Civil War
Japan
• conquered Manchuria and parts of China
union, especially the political union of Austria with Germany in 1938

8. 1. A weak League of Nations did little to stop the aggression. Why?
What did the League of Nations do to stop the aggression of the totalitarian states or of Japan?
1. A weak League of Nations did little to stop the aggression. Why?
Other countries wanted peace.
Some believed the Soviet Union posed a greater threat than Nazi Germany.
Others embraced a policy of isolationism. 8

9. But peace was not to come.
2. The policy of Appeasement - policy of granting concessions to a potential enemy in the hope that it will maintain peace.
Example: Munich Pact Britain and France sacrificed the Sudetenland to Germany in return for peace.
But peace was not to come.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and Hitler in Munich 9

10. EQ #2. Why did the US enter World War II after trying to remain isolated and neutral?
The Big Three: The Allied Leaders: Prime Minster Winston Churchill (UK), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (US), and First Secretary Joseph Stalin (USSR) 
Hitler

11. How did World War II begin in Europe?
Hitler violated the Munich Pact taking over the remainder of Czechoslovakia in 1939.
– He invaded Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, France, and Britain.
1939 – After the invasion of Poland Britain and France declared war on Germany starting WWII.
Nazi soldiers in Paris

12. What alliances were formed by the major powers?
1. Axis Powers
Germany
Italy
Japan
The Tripartite Pact bound these nations together.
2. Allies
Britain
France
Soviet Union
United States
China
People in train station photo pg. 783
Milkman photo pg. 783 12

13. 3. German Aggression, 1936–1941
Many feared that Hitler was unstoppable.

14. How did the US respond at the beginning of the war?
The Neutrality Act of 1939 contained a cash-and-carry provision favoring the Allies. (sold weapons for cash)
The Selective Service Act provided for a military draft.
FDR agreed to give Britain battleships in exchange for defense bases.
4. In the early days of the war, Congress declared neutrality. But as the war raged on in Europe, the United States began to take steps to support Europe’s democracies.
Photo of Edward R. Murrow pg. 783

15. What was the difference between the isolationist and the interventionists?
Photo of Edward R. Murrow pg. 783
Do not write word for word…. Summarize each viewpoint in one sentence each. 15

16. What was the difference between the isolationist and the interventionists?
Photo of Edward R. Murrow pg. 783
Do not write word for word…. Summarize each viewpoint in one sentence each. 16

17. What did President Roosevelt believe about the war?
1. In a speech to Congress, he highlighted four freedoms precious to Americans.
freedom of speech
freedom of worship
freedom from want
freedom from fear
2. All of these freedoms, he argued, were threatened by German and Japanese militarism.
Poster photo pg. 787

18. How did the US help the Allies?
1. In March 1941, Congress approved the Lend-Lease Act -
a law that allowed the US to lend, lease, sell, or otherwise provide aid to other nations if doing so helped in the defense of the US.
2. In August 1941, Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter.
Germany firing on American ships.
Roosevelt ordered the navy to attack the U-boats on sight.
This led to:
US Prepares for War 3.30min

19. EQ #3 How did the United States react to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?
1. In early December 1941, the US had engaged in warlike activity, but had not yet committed itself to join in World War II.
2. On Dec. 7th, a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, ended the debate between isolationists and interventionists.
USS West Virginia and USS Tennessee
3min Pearl Harbor Attacked
5min FDR Speech to Congress about going to war

20. Damage at Pearl Harbor
3. The United States suffered terrible losses, but key parts of the fleet survived.

21. EQ #4 How did Americans mobilize for war on the home front?
A wave of patriotism swept the United States following the attack.
Americans joined the military, the Red Cross, and other organizations.
Women responded by joining the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), Army Nurse Corps, and other military auxiliaries.
Americans took new jobs making weapons and supplies that supported the war effort. 21

22. 4. The peacetime economy soon shifted to a wartime economy.
Companies built ships, planes, and tanks.
5. Defense spending finally ended the Great Depression and put people to work.
Which country was building the most?