Key U.S. Foreign Policy and World War II Events (1933-1941)

London Economic Conference

A 1933 international meeting that attempted to fight the Great Depression by stabilizing currencies and restoring global trade.

Good Neighbor policy

FDR's approach to Latin America that emphasized non-intervention and friendly cooperation instead of military force.

Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act

A 1934 law allowing the U.S. to lower tariffs if other nations lowered theirs to promote mutual trade.

Rome-Berlin Axis

The 1936 political and military alliance formed between fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.

Johnson Debt Default Act

A 1934 law prohibiting loans to countries that had defaulted on their World War I debts to the United States.

Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937

Laws passed to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars by banning arms sales, loans, and travel to warring nations.

Abraham Lincoln Brigade

A volunteer group of Americans who fought for the democratic side in the Spanish Civil War.

Quarantine Speech

FDR's 1937 call to isolate aggressive nations to stop the spread of war.

Appeasement

The policy of giving in to an aggressor's demands to avoid conflict, most associated with Britain and France toward Hitler.

Hitler-Stalin pact

The 1939 nonaggression agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union that secretly divided Eastern Europe.

Neutrality Act of 1939

A law that allowed "cash-and-carry" arms sales to warring nations, benefiting the Allies.

Kristallnacht

The 1938 Nazi-organized attack on Jewish synagogues, homes, and businesses across Germany and Austria.

War Refugee Board

A U.S. agency created in 1944 to help rescue Jews and other persecuted groups from Nazi territories.

America First Committee

An isolationist organization that opposed U.S. involvement in World War II.

Lend-Lease Bill

The 1941 program allowing the U.S. to send military aid to Allied nations fighting the Axis.

Atlantic Charter

The 1941 joint declaration by FDR and Churchill outlining shared war aims and plans for a peaceful postwar world.

Pearl Harbor

The December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on a U.S. naval base that brought America into World War II.

Benito Mussolini

The fascist dictator of Italy who allied with Hitler and led Italy into World War II.

Adolf Hitler

The Nazi dictator of Germany who started World War II and orchestrated the Holocaust.

Francisco Franco

The authoritarian leader of Spain who rose to power after winning the Spanish Civil War with help from Hitler and Mussolini.

Cordell Hull

FDR's secretary of state who promoted free trade and helped shape early World War II diplomacy.

Wendell L. Willkie

The Republican candidate who ran against FDR in the 1940 presidential election and supported aid to the Allies.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The U.S. president who led America through the Great Depression and most of World War II.

Winston Churchill

The prime minister of Britain who led the nation against Nazi Germany during World War II.

Neville Chamberlain

The British prime minister best known for his appeasement policy toward Hitler before World War II.

1933

FDR torpedoes London Economic Conference; United States recognizes Soviet Union; FDR declares Good Neighbor policy toward Latin America; Hitler becomes German chancellor; Germany quits League of Nations.

1934

Tydings-McDuffie Act provides for Philippine independence on July 4, 1946; Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act; U.S. Marines vacate Haiti.

1935

Mussolini invades Ethiopia; U.S. Neutrality Act of 1935; Japan quits League of Nations.

1936

U.S. Neutrality Act of 1936; Mussolini and Hitler form Rome-Berlin Axis; Stalin begins Great Purge; German troops invade Rhineland.

1936-1939

Spanish Civil War.

1937

U.S. Neutrality Act of 1937; Panay incident; Japan invades China.

1938

Hitler seizes Austria; Munich Conference; Kristallnacht in Germany.

1939

Hitler seizes all of Czechoslovakia; Nazi-Soviet pact; World War II begins in Europe with Hitler's invasion of Poland; U.S. Neutrality Act of 1939.

1940

Fall of France; Hitler invades Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, and Belgium; United States invokes first peacetime draft; Havana Conference; Battle of Britain; Bases-for-destroyers deal with Britain; FDR defeats Willkie for presidency.

1941

Lend-Lease Act; Hitler attacks Soviet Union; Atlantic Charter; Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.