Essential Question: How did the events in Europe impact the debate in the U.S.?
I. The Road to War: Aggression and Response
A. The rise of aggressor states during the 1930s
1. War began in Asia first
a. Stemmed from Japanese aggression in China
2. Aggression also in Europe
a. Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933
-Renounced Versailles Treaty and withdrew from League
b. Aggressive rantings also from Fascist Italy
-Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935
B. Isolationist sentiment and American neutrality
1. U.S. wanted to remain aloof from these developing troubles abroad
2. Legacy of World War I was isolationist sentiment
3. Congress enacted Neutrality Acts1935, 1936, 1937)
a. Arms embargo against belligerents
b. Prohibited loans to belligerents
4. Britain also pursuing isolation and eventually appeasement
a. Did nothing when Germany remilitarized Rhineland in 1936
C. The mounting crisis abroad
1. Japan attacked China in summer of 1937
2. Germany and Italy created �Axis� alliance in Oct 1936
3. Germany annexed Austria in Mar 1938 and announced plans to take
Sudetenland (Czechoslavakia)
D. The outbreak of war in Europe
1. At Munich Conference in Sep 1938, Britain and France sought to
avoid war with Germany
2. Promise of peace destroyed when Germany invaded and conquered all
of Czechoslovakia
3. In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland
4. Britain and France declared war on Axis
5. By June 1940, Germany had overrun Denmark, Norway, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France
6. In the fall of 1940, Germany bombs Great Britain on a daily bases
E. America�s response to war in Europe
1. Official neutrality, but FDR clearly favored Allied powers over Axis
a. Deep down Roosevelt wanted to support Britain�s war effort
2. First peacetime draft initiated in 1940
3. US ultimately abandoned all pretense of neutrality and began providing
war material to Allies (�cash and carry�)
F. An �arsenal of democracy�
1. Lend-lease Act, 1941
a. Response to Britain�s near bankruptcy
b. Would make United States a �great arsenal of democracy�
c. Provoked great opposition in Congress, but passed anyway
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Chapter 26: America During the Second World War (sec 2)
Essential Question: What were the strategies involved in fighting a war in Asia and Europe?
G. Pearl Harbor
1. Japanese threats to European colonies in Asia (Southeast Asia) caused
US to take firmer measures
a. US halted sales to Japan of aviation fuel and scrap iron in 1940
b. US froze Japanese assets in mid-1941
2. Japanese decided on war
a. Act of desperation
3. Surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 Dec. 1941
a. US expected Japanese attack elsewhere, not at Pearl Harbor
4. US declared war on Japan on 8 Dec. 1941
a. Germany and Italy (Axis Powers) then declared war on US
II. Fighting the War in Europe
A. Early months of US involvement in war discouraging
1. Germany rolled into North Africa
2. German submarines sunk 7 million tons of Allied shipping
3. Japan overran huge portions of the Pacific
B. Campaigns in North Africa and Italy
1. Allies (United States, Great Britain, Soviet Union) all agreed to pursue
Europe-first strategy
2. FDR agreed with the British on an invasion of N. Africa (Nov. 1942)
a. North Africa liberated in Apr and May 1943
3. Allies then turned to invasion of Sicily and Italy
4. Calls among US military advisers to begin focusing on Europe
C. Operation OVERLORD (June 1944)
1. Turned tide of battle in the west
2. Within three months, Allied troops had entered Paris
3. As war wound down, horrors of Holocaust became known
4. Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945, shortly after Hitler�s suicide
III. The Pacific Theater
A. Early war in Pacific went Japan�s way
1. Singapore, the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island fell easily
B. Seizing the initiative
1. Japan�s first defeat came in Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942
2. Battle of Midway was costly for Allies, but Japanese were stopped cold
3. Allied advances continued at Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands and
succeeded in seizing the initiative from the Japanese
C. Pacific strategy
1. U.S. decided to go after smaller Pacific islands (island hopping) on their
way to Japan
2. Conquest of Iwo Jima and Okinawa further shortened distance
civilian casualties
D. Atomic power and Japanese surrender
1. Atomic bombs used against two unbombed Japanese cities
a. Japan agreed to surrender on 15 Aug
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Chapter 26: America During the Second World War (sec 3)
Essential Question: How did mobilization for war produce economic and social changes in American life?
IV. The War at Home: The Economy
A. Government�s role in the economy
1. Federal bureaucracy nearly quadrupled in size during the war
a. War Production Board oversaw production
b. War Labor Board dealt with labor-management disputes
c. Office of Price Administration controlled inflation and rationing
2. Economy as a whole grew rapidly during the war
B. Business and finance
1. Dramatic rise in government spending during the war
2. War funded primarily through bond purchased by US citizens
3. Civilian rationing of things like food, fabrics, and gasoline
C. The workforce
1. Many idle workers found jobs during first two years of war
2. Initial focus was on training white men
3. Ultimately, women and minorities were welcomed into the workforce
a. Entered areas previously off-limits to them
b. Still, generally worked in segregated conditions
V. The War at Home: Social Issues
A. Wartime propaganda
1. We need to fight for the �American way of life,� not save the world
B. Gender equality
1. As more women entered the workforce, people began to take seriously
the idea of gender equality
2. Some 350,000 women volunteered for military service during the war
3. Although, propaganda still framed women�s role in traditional terms
C. Racial equality
1. Prewar American society had been sharply segregated
2. Growing acceptance of idea that a democracy like the United States
could accommodate all of the races
VI. Shaping the Peace
A. International organizations
1. New United Nations (an international body to deter aggressor nations)
B. Spheres of interest and postwar settlements
1. Germany became special focus of tensions
a. At Yalta Conference (Feb. 1945), it was decided that Germany
would be divided into four occupation zones
b. Temporary division ultimately solidified into a Soviet-
dominated eastern zone
2. Self determination for small nations (Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia)
3. Fate of European colonies seized by Japan another unresolved issue
a. US would have preferred independence
b. But many anticolonial nationalist movements were pro-
communist (Vietnam)
c. US helped Britain and France regain control of colonies
4. Independent state of Israel proclaimed in 1948, and United States
immediately recognized