In the beginning of this section the
leaders of Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union are introduced. The idea of
totalitarianism is also introduced. They give brief descriptions/definitions of
what these leaders believed in and who they were. It eventually gets into the
rise to power for these three men. Halfway around the world, militarists of the
imperial government of Japan launched a surprise attack and took control of the
Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. This led to Japan quitting the League of
Nations; Germany saw this and challenged the League of Nations by pulling out
and building a treaty-breaking army. Francisco Franco leads a civil war in
Spain, which led to Germany and Italy becoming allies (Rome-Berlin Axis).
During all this, the United States stuck to their plan of Isolationism.
Isolationism was the Untied States way of staying out of the war. This brought
on the Neutrality Acts. These acts prohibited the selling of arms and loans to
nation’s war/civil war. Despite the effort, staying neutral was impossible.
Roosevelt tried speaking out about isolationism and got a mixed response. He
backed off the face of criticism but his debate did change a view views.
16.2
Hitler needed “living space”. But,
obtaining this space wasn’t going to be easy. Hitler desperately wanted Austria
and Czechoslovakia. Anschluss was
announced, anchluss meaning “a union”, between Austria and Germany. With such a
large amount of German speaking people, Hitler needed Czechoslovakia. He got
Neville Chamberlin and Edouard Daladier to sign over the Sudetenland without a
single gunshot fired. Winston Churchill was not satisfied. He defined this as
appeasement. Next, Hitler sought out peace with the Soviet Union. To everyone’s
surprise, Soviet Union agreed and signed a nonaggression pact with Hitler. They
also agreed on dividing up Poland. Before all this was possible, Germany needed
to get control of Poland. Using blitzkrieg (lightning war), he did. France and
Britain waited for something to happen with Germany, nothing did. They called
this sitzkreig (sitting war). After Germany saw France was waiting for war,
they sent tanks to France, avoiding British soldiers. Germany invaded Paris. France fell to German
control. Next, Germany knew they had to get Britain. With a strong naval power,
Britain would be hard to beat, so Germany launched an air war as well as a
naval war. Britain fought long and hard, and it paid off. Hitler called off the
invasion.
16.3
During this time, the Jewish people
have always been a target. It became apparent to everyone in 1938 when the
Nuremburg laws were passed to strip Jews of all their rights. November 9-10 become
known as Kristallnacht, otherwise known as “The night of broken glass”. Nazi
storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and churches. Around 100 Jews
were killed. The Jews were fed up at this point and decided to flee. The only
problem was, no one would take them. Then there was St. Louis, a German ocean
liner housing 943 passengers, was forced to turn around and prevented anyone
access to America. More than ½ of the passengers were killed later in the
holocaust. Hitler started to think of this as a plan to eliminate the Jews, a
plan he called “The Final Solution”. This was racial purification and it was in
fact genocide. But, Hitler didn’t only attack Jews. He silenced political
opponents, gypsies, free masons, Jehovah witnesses, etc. Along with the
killings, Jews were forced to move out of their homes into disgusting places
called Ghettos. In a ghetto, life was miserable to say the least. People were
forced to work and many people died of illnesses and what not. Jews not reached
by killing squads were then put into concentration camps. Families were often
separated and put to work. They were forced into cruel wooden bunkers that fit
1000 people in at once. People starved or worked themselves to death. Hitler
was pleased for a little until he thought it was time for mass extermination.
12000 people could be killed at once. He killed people who weren’t strong
enough, physically or mentally, to work. An estimated 6 million people died in
the holocaust. The survivors were never the same. After seeing everything they
saw, their lives were altered forever.
16.4
September 1939; cash and carry came
into play. Cash and carry was a provision that allowed warring nations to buy
US arms as long as they paid cash and picked them up themselves. September 27,
Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a tripartite pact and became known as the axis
powers. The US started selective training and service act, drafting 1 million
boys. This same year Roosevelt ran for third term, breaking tradition, but he
won. Roosevelt spoke about the lend lease plan, often referring to the garden
hose analogy. If your neighbors house was on fire and their hose didn’t reach
the only logical thing to do would be to lend them your hose to prevent fire
from spreading to your house. So with this, the US helped Britain. As a result,
Germany attacked the Soviet Union using lend lease too, and so then the US also
helped the Soviet Union. This became the use of the enemy of my enemy is my
friend. Hitler saw this and wanted to stop it. So he set up U-Boats and
attacked all ships delivering goods. Churchill and Roosevelt developed the
Atlantic charter. The US wanted to stop Germany before they could strike. Days
later, Hitler sunk a US destroyer and killed 100+ sailors. This naval “war”
with Germany was still undeclared. It isn’t what brought us into the war. The
event bringing us into the war was the attack on Pearl Harbor. The US stopped
trade with Japan with the knowledge of the oncoming attack. December 7 1941, a
date which will live in infamy, was the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The
Japanese attacked and killed many Americans and took down many ships and
aircrafts. This brutal attack ultimately brought us into the war.
Klor De Alva, Krieger, Wilson, and Woloch. "Unit 5." The Americans. By Danzer. McDougal Littell. Print.
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