Course-U.S. History
Unit-The Great Depression
Module-Progressive Era
Lesson Title-New Deal Diplomacy
State/National Correlations

ACHIEVEMENT TARGETS

A student should be able to demonstrate understanding of the international background of World War II by:

1. Analyzing the factors contributing to the rise of Fascism, National Socialism, and Communism in the in the war period. [Analyze multiple causation]

2. Explaining the breakdown of the Versailles settlement and League of Nations in the 1930s [Challenge the arguments of historical inevitability]

3. Explaining President Roosevelt's emphasis on hemispheric solidarity as exemplified in the Good Neighbor Policy. [Draw upon data in historical maps]

4. Analyzing the reasons for American isolationist sentiment in the interwar period and its effects on international relations and diplomacy. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

5. Evaluating the Roosevelt administration's response to aggression in Europe, Africa, and Asia from 1935 to 1941. [Formulate a position or course of action on an issue]

6. Analyzing the growing tensions with Japan in East Asia. [Marshal evidence of antecedents circumstances]

PLANNING THE LESSON

Content Overview

The students will trace the rise of dictatorships, American reactions to events that led to World War II, and the eventual introduced into World War II.

Suggested Pacing
Give yourself one class period to explore the key reading, the primary source materials, and to complete selected activities.

Key Terminology

• Totalitarianism
• Isolationism
• Four Freedoms
• Atlantic Charter
• Good Neighbor Policy

TEACHING THE LESSON

Get Started

Listen to Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech. Have students discuss how and why did the United States enter into World War II.

Build Background

Briefly review the history of United States Foreign Policy from 1789 to World War I.

Use the Key Reading

After reading the section on New Deal Diplomacy, have the students make a time line of world events from 1928 to 1941. Make a chart listening various world leaders in the 1930s. Analyze what types of governments they headed. How many of them were still in a leadership position in 1945? Debate "Was the United States prepared to enter World War II?"

EXPLORE THE ONLINE RESOURCES

• Archived Readings
• Current Readings
• Web sites
• Four Freedoms

MEETING INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

Tips for Different Learning Styles

Students with disabilities or ESL students may need more visual activities or hands-on.

Multiple Intelligences

The suggested assignments provide various methods for tapping into a broad range of student abilities and classroom situations. http://www.metronet.com/~bhorizon/teach.htm Contains a brief summary of Gardner's view of intelligence and a discussion of learning environments.

PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER

Discussion Questions

1. What factors contributed to the rise of Fascism, National Socialism, and Communism in the inter-war period?
2. What events led to the breakdown of the Versailles settlement and League of Nations in the 1930s?
3. What was President Roosevelt's emphasis on hemispheric solidarity as exemplified in the Good Neighbor Policy?
4. What were the reasons for American isolationist sentiment in the interwar period and its effects on international relations and diplomacy?
5. What was the Roosevelt administration's response to aggression in Europe, Africa, and Asia from 1935 to 1941?
6. What led to the growing tensions with Japan in East Asia?

Assignments/Research Topics/Exercises

Use political and physical maps to examine the global involvement of nations and people before World War II. Identify the geographic features that affected the U.S. policy of isolationism before World War II. Locate countries in the Western Hemisphere affected by Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy. Locate countries that were affected by prewar events such as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War, the Munich conference over Czechoslovakia, and German demands for the Polish Corridor. Locate countries that formed the Allied and Axis powers at the beginning of World War II.

Locate Pearl Harbor and describe the events that brought the United States into World War II in 1941.

Using newspapers, draw upon historical sources to construct a historical narrative explaining the rise of Italian Fascism, German Nazism, and Soviet Communism between the First and Second World Wars.

What economic factors contributed to the rise of dictatorships in Europe? How did political instability contribute to the rise of Mussolini and Hitler? To what extent was nationalism a factor contributing to the rise of dictatorial regimes in Europe?

Debate "The failure to enforce the Treaty of Versailles led to World War II;" or "The lack of support for the League of Nations encouraged aggressive policies by dictatorial regimes."

Construct a historical narrative comparing the Roosevelt administration's response to Italian aggression in Ethiopia, the Japanese invasion of China, German militarism and European appeasement, and fascist support for Spain during the Civil War. What were American interests in Europe and Asia? To what extent did the Neutrality Acts limit Roosevelt's options in dealing with international aggression? Would public opinion have supported U.S. intervention in Africa, Asia, and Europe in the 1930s?

Construct a time line from 1929 to 1941 listing the events that caused tensions between the United States and Japan. Draw from a variety of sources such as newspaper stories and editorials, treaties, international agreements, propaganda graphics, and documentary photographs to explain the reasons for rising tensions.

Draw on examples of Roosevelt's foreign policy toward Latin America and explain the reasons for the "Good Neighbor Policy" in Latin American. Compare the "Good Neighbor Policy" to Theodore Roosevelt's "Big Stick Policy," Taft's "Dollar Diplomacy," and Wilson's "Watchful Waiting." Develop a chart on the goals, methods, and results of each of the policies.

Use speeches and laws to decide whether the U.S. was already at war in the Atlantic when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Why did FDR use the metaphor of a "quarantine" in his speech of October 5, 1937? Did this speech contradict American neutrality? Was the arming of American merchant ships an offensive or defensive act? Did FDR make the right decisions in calling for "cash and carry," "destroyers for bases," "lend lease," and the arming of merchant ships? What were his alternatives? What were the consequences of each action?

Analyze the effect of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939 on the U.S. Communist party. How did the U.S. Communist party react to the Soviet pact with Nazi Germany? To what extent did the Non-Aggression Pact weaken the antiwar movement in the U.S.?

Using letters, laws, and newspaper articles, identify Roosevelt's immigration policy toward Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany before 1941.

Compare Norman Rockwell's illustration of FDR's Four Freedoms speech in January 1941 with the ideas presented in the speech. What images of America do both convey? Is Rockwell's portrayal accurate? To what extent is FDR's speech idealist? Rockwell's paintings?

Draw upon historical data and evidence from maps to explain why Germany and the USSR signed a non-aggression pact in 1939. What military strategy did Germany use in its conquest of France in 1940? What was the Japanese strategy in East Asia and the Pacific?

Assessments

Additional Resources/Reading List

Interview older people to find out where they were on December 7, 1941.