WWII

CONCEPTS

Rise of Dictators-

Several dictators came into power in the 1920s and 1930s. They were able to do so by taking advantage of the European public’s anger and distress, especially over the Treaty of Versailles and fear of the economic depression of the 1930s (the Great Depression). Leaders claimed they could fix the nation and make them great, influencing citizens to join them, upon which they were able to claim total power and rule their people by force.

Fascism

A dictatorial government that stresses the greatness of a race or nation, made popular by Mussolini

Totalitarian Rule

In a totalitarian state, leaders crush all opposition and totally control all aspects of society, imposed in Germany by Hitler.

World Domination in WWII

Germany

Hitler wanted to dominate other nations, claiming that Germany had a right to expand. Breaking the Treaty of Versailles, he rebuilt Germany’s military.

In March 1936, Hitler ordered his troops into Germany’s Rhineland, which the Treaty of Versailles had forbidden. However, there was little complaint.

Hitler then insisted German-speaking Austria to be unified with Germany, again with only mild complaint.

Then, he claimed the people of the Sudetenland (a part of Czechoslovakia with many German-speaking people) were being mistreated, declaring Germany’s right to the territory.

Japan

Japanese military leaders thought Japan needed more land and resources. In September 1931, the Japanese army invaded Manchuria (China’s mineral-rich northeastern region).

While the war went on in Europe, Japan continued its expansion in the Far East. After France fell, Japan seized French Indochina and planned to take the Dutch East Indies, British Malaya, and the American territory of the Philippines.

The U.S. applied economic pressure to Japan in order to halt its expansion. FDR froze Japanese funds in U.S. banks and stopped the sale of gasoline and other resources. The PM (Fumimaro Konoye) wanted to hold talks with the U.S. as he thought Japan would lose in a war against America. General Tojo disagreed, influencing Konoye to resign. On November 20th, talks went forward in Washington, while Tojo planned the Pearl Harbor attack.

Japanese (+ Japanese-American) Issues

During the 1930s, Japan suffered from a lack of jobs/food shortages during the Great Depression.

Despite the fact that second-generation Japanese Americans served in the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat team, units that became the most decorated in the history of the U.S. military, military and political leaders worried what they would do if Japan invaded the U.S. Therefore, FDR imposed the Internment Policy.

U.S. Foreign Policy

In the 1930s, Americans followed isolationism and neutrality (not siding with either party in a disagreement), wanting to stay out of other nations’ issues. To bolster this, Congress passed the Neutrality Acts. However, most Americans sided with the Allies.

Roosevelt vowed to remain neutral, but prepared for the possibility of war. In 1938, Congress voted to increase the size of the navy; the following year it revised the Neutrality Acts so warring nations could buy the goods if they paid in cash and transported them themselves.

In 1940, Roosevelt made a deal with the British to give them 50 destroyers from the U.S. fleet in exchange for leases on eight British military bases. He also signed the Selective Training and Service Act.

War Strategies

Germany

Blitzkrieg (“Lightning War”): Germany’s offense, used swiftly and fiercely to conquer Poland. Whilst German planes hit their targets, German tanks plowed through defensive lines, and thousands of German soldiers entered the country.

Bombing Raids: German warplanes bombed British air bases, shipyards, factories, and cities. Hitler thought the bombing raids would destroy the British air force and break British morale.

Japan

Kamikaze Strategy: Becoming desperate, the Japanese unleashed suicide pilots (kamikaze) that crashed their planes into U.S. ships and sank several destroyers during the battle for Okinawa.

U.S.

Navy: Roosevelt also instructed the navy to protect British ships when they were close to American shores. After Germans fired on U.S. ships, Roosevelt ordered Americans to shoot German and Italian ships on sight in certain areas.

Civil Defense: Many civilians took part in civil defense (protective measures taken in case of attack). Volunteer spotters scanned the skies for possible enemy aircraft; coastal cities enforced blackouts at night so lights couldn’t serve as beacons for enemy pilots (Germans also did this); the Office of War promoted patriotism to unite Americans behind the war effort.

Island Hopping: The U.S. was prepared to go on the offensive against Japan. U.S. commanders General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz chose a strategy called island hopping, in which key islands that got attacked and captured would become bases from which to attack others. This would allow the allies to approach the Philippines/Japan. Between August 1942 and February 1943, U.S. forces fought for control of Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands. Though the Japanese put up stiff resistance, U.S. forces were able to secure the island after intense fighting.

Soviet Union

Force (?): Stalin forced Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Finland to allow Soviet military bases on their soil - Finland protested

Scorched-earth policy: Upon Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, Stalin ordered his troops to burn cities, destroy crops, and blow up dams that provided electric power, making it more difficult for Germans to supply their troops and keep advancing.

American Mobilization

The attack on Pearl Harbor united Americans. Rapidly, they prepared to fight.

Before Pearl Harbor,

. Now that the country was at war, over 15 million more Americans joined the armed services as volunteers/draftees.

Women in the Workforce

Many women rushed to join the workforce, laboring on assembly lines that turned out tanks and airplanes. Ultimately 2.5 million women worked in shipyards, aircraft factories, and other manufacturing plants. Though the majority left the factories after the war, their efforts changed American attitudes about women in the workplace.

U.S. Government + Paying for the War

The U.S. spent over $320 billion on the war effort, which was 10x the spending in WWI.

To raise money, the government relied on taxes, specifically via the Revenue Act of 1942. It also borrowed money from citizens by selling war bonds, or certificates promising to pay the buyer a set amount at a future date. Celebrities urged people to buy bonds to support the war effort.

• Ex: A citizen pays $75 for a bond that could be cashed in for $100 later. The government gets to use the $75 for a time, and the buyer ultimately earns $25.

American Sacrifices for War

Many people had to deal with shortages of products needed for the war effort due to government-imposed rations (consumers could only buy limited amounts of them). People received government-issued ration stamps that allowed them to purchase their limited share of gas, tires, shoes, sugar, coffee, meat, etc.

Many also had to undergo the separation from a family member serving overseas. Those on the home front lived in fear of being told that a loved one had been captured, wounded, or killed.

Despite this, people found creative ways to aid the war effort, such as planting “victory gardens” to grow vegetables and ease food shortages. Children also collected scrap metal for industry.

African Americans in WWII

WWII changed attitudes about minority groups. Around 1 million African Americans served in WWII, initially receiving low-level assignments and only serving in segregated units but, in 1942, beginning to be trained by the army alongside whites. In 1944, African Americans started to fill combat assignments. African Americans made key contributions in combat.

Native Americans in WWII

Thousands of Native Americans worked in defense industries/served in the armed forces.

Latinos in WWII

100s of 1000s of Latinos served in the U.S. military; 13 Mexicans won the Medal of Honor (nation’s highest medal).

Latinos also contributed at home. Because of the wartime need for labor, U.S. labor agents recruited thousands of farm/railroad workers from Mexico. However, Mexican Americans suffered from discrimination (like the African Americans) and were not welcomed in some cities.

Concentration on the European Theater

Japan was taking territories in the Pacific, but the Allies decided to focus on the European Theater

The situation in the European Theater was at a critical point, as Axis armies occupied most of Europe and North Africa, as well as threatening the Soviet Union. If the Germans won there, they might be unstoppable.

The Final Solution / Holocaust / Concentration Camps

The Nazis’ Final Solution was genocide. Discovered as the Allies freed German-held areas, the Nazis had murdered 2/3 of Europe’s Jews (6 million people), along with Slavs, Roma (Gypsies), communists, homosexuals, and disabled people.

Since Hitler had gained power in 1933 the Nazis had persecuted German Jews, taking away their rights. They terrorized and abused Jews in the lands they conquered, forcing them to identify themselves by wearing a yellow Star of David.

The mass extermination of Jews started when the German army invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. Special Nazi forces carried out these murders, rounding up thousands of Jews, shooting them, and throwing them into mass graves. They crammed thousands into railroad cars en route to concentration camps and tattooing camp numbers on their arms. Here, prisoners often had only bread crusts or watery soup to eat, and thus many got sick and died.

In January 1942, the Final Solution was decided on. They build death camps, such as Auschwitz and Treblinka, all of which were in Poland. Here, many died in poison gas chambers, of starvation, or due to cruel experiments carried out by Nazi doctors. An estimated 1.6 million people died at Auschwitz, 1.3 million of which were Jewish.

FIGURES + GROUPS

Benito Mussolini

The dictator of Italy and the first dictator to rise in postwar Europe. He appealed to Italians that wanted order in an unsettled time and Italians angry about winning little in the Treaty of Versailles. He made fascism popular.

Called Il Dulce (the leader), he outlawed rival political parties and ended democratic rule in Italy, along with stopping civil liberties and free press. He built up Italy’s army, conquering Ethiopia in 1935 and Albania in 1939, with only small protest from the League of Nations.

Adolf Hitler

The Nazi dictator of Germany, he used the Great Depression and its resulting business failures and job losses to gain support, as well as bitterness over the Treaty of Versailles (Germany had to accept the blame for WWI and lose territory under the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles). He ended German democracy and set up totalitarian rule.

Joseph Stalin

Stalin became the Communist leader of the Soviet Union in the late 1920s. He killed rivals and sent millions of people he considered “disloyal” to labor camps.

Emperor Hirohito

Japan’s leader

Hideki Tojo

Japanese army general and later Japan’s prime minister. Tojo was one of the generals who led the invasion/the military, which held great power and played a key role in setting an aggressive course for Japan.

National Socialist Party (Nazis)

This group believed Germans were superior to other people. As a result of Hitler’s claims, they blamed ALL (not just non-German) Jews for Germany’s problems. This aversion to Jewish people was called antisemitism.

Allied Powers

Britain, France, the U.S., the Soviet Union (+22 other nations)

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, Japan

• Germany - Italy alliance formed in 1936

• Later, Japan joined

Winston Churchill

Great Britain’s prime minister

Charles de Gualle

The leader of the French not under German control

Franklin D. Roosevelt

President of the United States. He was reelected in 1940 after promising “Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.” He was elected over Republican candidate Wendell L. Willkie, who agreed with most Roosevelt policies, because Americans preferred to keep a president they knew.

He died while on vacation on April 12, 1945 before seeing V-E Day. He had led the U.S. for 12 years.

America First Committee

Isolationists formed this committee to promote the idea that the U.S. should stay out of Europe’s problems.

Women’s Military Groups

For the first time, many women served in the military. Around 250,000 served in:

• Women’s Army Corps (WAC)

• Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) in the navy

• Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs)

• women’s units in the Marines/Coast Guard/Army Air Corps

Women didn’t fight in combat; many worked in military offices, became nurses, or, in the case of WASPs, flew to and from bases for repair, served as co-pilots on night searchlight missions, flew weather planes, etc.

National War Labor Board

As equipping troops required changes to the nation’s economy, the government set up new agencies to speed war preparations. For example, the National War Labor Board helped settle labor disputes that could slow down war production.

War Production Board

As equipping troops required changes to the nation’s economy, the government set up new agencies to speed war preparations. For example, the War Production Board supervised the change from peacetime industries to war production. It helped automakers shift from making cars → building trucks, jeeps, tanks, and planes.

By the summer of 1942, almost all major industries and some 200,000 companies had changed over to war production.

Rosie the Riveter

Rosie was an image of a strong woman hard at work at an arms factory. She came to symbolize America’s new group of wage earners as the nation welcomed the growing amount of women into the workplace.

Tuskegee Airmen

Pilots trained at the Tuskegee Army Air Field, they destroyed over 250 enemy planes

Benjamin Davis (Jr + Sr)

Sr.: first African American general in the army

Jr.: commander of one of the Tuskegee Airmen units, later became the first African American general in the Air Force

A. Phillip Randolph

Outside of the military, African Americans sought change. In 1941, Randolph, a labor leader, demanded the government outlaw job discrimination in American defense industries. In response, FDR signed an executive order that created the Fair Employment Practices Committee.

Fair Employment Practices Committee

The executive order signed by FDR that created this committee states:

Ira Hayes

A member of the Pima tribe, Hayes became a hero in the battle for Iwo Jima in the Pacific.

Navajo Code Talkers

A group of Navajo formed a unit called the code talkers. They used a code based on Navajo language to send vital military messages regarding troop movement/battle plans. The Japanese never broke this code.

Mercedes Cubría

This Cuban became the first Latina woman officer in the Women’s Army Corps.

Horacio Rivero

This Puerto Rican became the first Latino four-star admiral to serve in the U.S. Navy since Civil War hero David Farragut.

Erwin Rommel

The German Field Marshal “Desert Fox” had major success in desert warfare and was a major threat in North Africa.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Soon after El Almein, U.S. and British forces under the command of U.S. General Eisenhower landed in Morocco and Algeria (in the western part of North Africa). This force moved east while British forces moved west from Egypt. They closed in on Rommel and in May 1943 drove the Germans out of North Africa.

George Patton + Bernard Montgomery

After their victory in North Africa U.S. and British forces moved into southern Europe, taking the island of Sicily and landing on Italy’s mainland in September 1943 (organized and directed by Eisenhower). U.S. General Patton and British General Montgomery led the troops.

Harry S. Truman

EVENTS (invasions, attacks, battles, etc)

Invasion of Poland

Germany’s blitzkrieg was very effective, such that Britain and France couldn’t help Poland; the country fell within weeks. The Allies believed that after this, Germany would turn west and attack France.

Attack in the North

In April, Germany attacked to the north (NOT the west as the Allies had expected) on Denmark and Norway.

Attack in the West + Happenings in Dunkirk, France

In May, the Germans finally turned west to invade the Netherlands and Belgium.

After undergoing bombing raids, the Netherlands surrendered. Despite having help from the Allies, the Germans overwhelmed Belgium.

After Belgium collapsed, Allied troops retreated to a port called Dunkirk. Here, they were trapped between Germans and the French coast of the English channel. Over 800 British warships, ferries, and fishing boats crossed the channel, rescuing over 300,000 French and British soldiers.

Attempted Defeat of Britain

In the summer of 1940, the only thing preventing Hitler from controlling Western Europe was Great Britain, who was preparing for invasion.

First, in August 1940, German warplanes bombed British air bases, shipyard, factories, and cities (the last of which destroyed parts of London and killed many people).

Hitler thought the bombing raids would destroy the British air force and break British morale, but the British didn’t give up (in part because of Churchill, who refused to surrender when Hitler demanded it).

Attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

7:55 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941: Japanese warplanes launched a surprise attack on the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Ships and airplanes, which were grouped together, made easy targets, and thus many were destroyed.

Over 2,300 soldiers, sailors, and civilians were killed; over 1,000 people were injured. Roosevelt called the day “a date which will live in infamy” and asked Congress to declare war on Japan. On December 11th, Germany and Italy (Japan’s allies) declared war on the U.S.; Congress then declared war on them, officially bringing the U.S. together with the Allies in its fight against the Axis.

Invasion of North Africa

Stalin wanted the Allies to cross the English Channel and attack Hitler’s forces in Europe, forcing Hitler to pull back forces that were pounding the Soviet Union. Churchill, who thought America and Britain weren’t ready for such a fight, wanted to attack the edges of Germany’s empire; FDR agreed. The Allies made plans to invade North Africa, giving U.S. troops combat experience while helping take pressure off British forces already in Egypt.

Battle of El Alamein

German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, or “Desert Fox” from his success in desert warfare, led the Axis forces in North Africa.

In November 1942, the British beat Rommel at the battle of El Almein in Egypt, . However, Rommel’s forces remained a threat in North Africa.

Invasion of Italy

While the Allies advanced, the Italians forced Mussolini from power. Italy’s new government surrendered to the Allies, though German forces in Italy fought on. In June 1944, the Allies took Rome (Italy’s capital).

Attack of Leningrad

After it invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, German troops advanced on Leningrad, a military center and symbol of the Soviet state. The citizens of Leningrad joined Red Army troops in defending the city whilst Germany began a siege (military blockade) of Leningrad which lasted almost 900 days. Food ran out and hundreds of thousands of people died, but the Soviets refused to surrender. In early 1944 Soviet troops finally broke the siege.

Germany also attacked other Soviet cities, approaching Moscow (the capital) in 1941. Heavy losses and wintry weather slowed the Germans; when they reached Moscow a Soviet counterattack forced them to retreat.

Battle of Stalingrad

In 1942, Germany targeted Stalingrad, an industrial city. Germany took most of the city, but then the Soviets surrounded the city and cut off German supply lines. Many Germans died of starvation and the cold; the few that survived surrendered in February 1943.

This was a devastating defeat for the Germans, marking a major turning point in the war. From then on, the Soviets were on the attack and German forces were in full retreat.

D-Day

JUNE 6, 1944: the massive Allied invasion of Normandy, France.

Ships carried troops and equipment across the English Channel to Normandy, a French region. Planes dropped paratroopers into areas around the beaches. Over 9,000 Allied troops were killed/wounded only in the first day (though most troops made it through). Almost 35,000 U.S. soldiers came ashore at Omaha with another 23,000 at Utah. Over 75,000 British and Canadian soldiers landed at Gold, Juno, and Sword, and began to move inland. The invasion was successful but had great costs.

Within a few weeks, the Allies landed 1 million troops, which pushed across France and drove the Germans back. On August 25th, French and American soldiers marched through joyful crowds to free Paris from the German army.

Battle of the Bulge

By the fall of 1944, Germans fought for survival as Soviets pushed from the east and U.S. and British forces pushed from the west. Their advance was so fast that many thought the war would end soon.

In December of 1944 the Germans attacked along a 50-mile front in Belgium, pushing back the Allies and creating a bulge along their lines. Eventually, the Allies pushed back the Germans then headed into Germany.

In the east, the Germans were losing ground, having been driven by the Soviets from Russia into Poland then into Germany. By February 1945 Soviet troops stood just outside Berlin. Having realized the fight was hopeless, Hitler killed himself on April 30.

V-E Day

May 8th was V-E Day (Victory in Europe), as

on May 7th, ending the war in Europe.

Kristallnacht

The night of November 9th, 1938 was the Night of Broken Glass. Nearly 200 synagogues (Jewish places of worship) were destroyed, over 8,000 Jewish shops were sacked and looted, and tens of thousands of Jews were removed to concentration camps. The pogrom (an organized massacre of an ethnic group) got its name from

the glass that was smashed during the anti-Jewish riots taking place through Germany and Austria that night.

Attack on Wake and Guam

While the Japanese were attacking Pearl Harbor they also were bombing U.S. airfields in the Philippines, along with Wake and Guam, key U.S. bases in the Pacific. In the days that followed they invaded Thailand and Malaya, capturing Guam, Wake Island, and Hong Kong.

In June 1944, U.S. forces captured Guam and other nearby islands, providing U.S. bombers a base from which they could reach targets in Japan.

Fighting at Bataan

In mid-December, Japanese troops landed in the Philippines, quickly capturing Manila (the capital) and forcing General Douglas MacArthur’s American and Filipino troops to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula, west of Manila, and to the island of Corregidor.

Fighting at Bataan persisted for months, with Allied troops surrendering on April 9, 1942. The troops at Corregidor held out until May.

The 76,000 prisoners of war at Bataan - many sick and starving - were forced by the Japanese to march to a prison camp over 60 miles away in the Bataan Death March. Only around 54,000 made it to the camp.

Several weaks before the troops surrendered FDR ordered MacArthur to leave the Phillipines and go to Australia; MacArthur promised the Filipinos that he’d return.

Air Raid on Tokyo

With the Japanese victories in the Pacific, American moral decreased. In April 1942, U.S. airplanes from an aircraft carrier in the Pacific bombed Tokyo, led by Lieutenant Colonel James “Jimmy” Doolittle. This did little damage to Japan but lifted U.S. spirits.

Battle of the Coral Sea

In May 1942, the U.S. Navy came into conflict with Japanese forces in the Coral Sea off Australia. This was the first time in naval history that enemy ships fought a battle without seeing each other, as war planes launched from aircraft carriers fought the battle. There was no clear victory and both sides suffered losses, but the U.S. successfully blocked Japan’s push towards Australia.

Battle of Midway

In June 1942, at Midway (northwest of Hawaii), the navy destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers and hundreds of planes. As the war was mainly fought among scattered islands in a wide ocean, Japan’s losses at Midway were crippling.

Battle of Leyte Gulf

In October, U.S. ships destroyed the majority of the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines.

Capture of Iwo Jima and Okinawa

U.S. forces were closing in on Japan, seizing the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa respectively in March and June of 1945. This brought the Allies within easy reach of Japan, but was very costly with thousands of deaths and thousands of injuries.

By this time, the Allies had destroyed the majority of Japan’s air force and navy, with bombers pounding Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

These showed that even in the face of sure defeat, the Japanese would fight on (ie with their suicide bombers).

Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Before using the bomb, the Allies warned the Japanese in the Potsdam Declaration to surrender or face destruction. Japan ignored the warning, so Truman ordered the use of the bomb.

On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber (the Enola Gay), dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It leveled Hiroshima and killed 80,000 - 120,000 people.

On August 9, 1945, the U.S. dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing between 35,000 and 74,000 and injuring thousands more from burns and illness caused by atomic energy.

V-J Day

Faced with the destruction from the bombs, Japanese Emperor Hirohito said that “the unendurable must be endured.” He ordered his government to surrender. August 15, 1945 became V-J Day, with the formal surrender being signed by Japan on September 2 aboard the battleship Missouri. Americans expressed happiness and relief that the fighting was over, with sorrow that so many people had died.

Nuremberg Trials

After the war, Allied authorities put the top Nazi and Japanese leaders on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Allies held the trials in Nuremberg, Germany and Tokyo, Japan. The Trials upheld the idea that people are responsible for their actions, even in wartime.

PROCEEDINGS

Neutrality Acts

Passed in 1937, Congress passed the Neutrality Acts, which banned selling weapons and making loans to nations at war. One reason for the Acts was that European nations still hadn’t paid back their WWI loans.

The Acts were revised in 1938, so that warring nations could buy U.S. goods if they paid cash and moved the goods in their own ships.

These Acts were reversed by the Lend-Lease Act.

Munich Conference

Czechoslovakia was ready to fight Germany over the Sudetenland, but Britain and France wanted to avoid the outbreak of war. They thought they could come about a peaceful solution by giving in to Germany’s demands in a policy called appeasement.

On September 1938, European leaders met at the Munich Conference in Germany, telling Czechoslovakia to give up the Sudetenland or fight Germany on its own. In return, Hitler promised not to try to expand German territory anymore. The British leader thought this would bring peace.

Hitler then broke the Munich Agreement when in March 1939 German troops took the rest of Czechoslovakia.

Soviet-German Nonaggression Pact

Hitler planned to invade Poland, which bordered the Soviet Union, but worried that this would threaten Stalin. Hitler and Stalin signed the Soviet-German Nonaggresion Pact in August 1939. This allowed Hitler to freely attack Poland without fearing a response from the Soviets

According to their Pact, Hitler and Stalin divided Poland between then in late September 1939.

Hitler was left shaken from Germany’s defeat in Britain. Deciding Germany needed the Soviet Union’s resources and “living space,” he broke the Pact in June 1941 by attacking the Soviet Union. In the early phase of Hitler’s invasion, German troops destroyed Soviet planes and tanks and captured 500,000 Soviet soldiers. Stalin slowed Germany by ordering a scorched-earth policy.

World War II

On September 1, 1939, Hitler sent his armies into Poland. Two days later Great Britain and France declared war on Germany, officially beginning WWII.

Spanish Civil War

In 1936, civil war erupted in Spain: the Spanish fascist-style military against the country’s elected government. Hitler and Mussolini supplied the fascist forces with troops, weapons, and aircraft.

In April 1939, Spain’s army declared victory, establishing a dictatorship. Germany and Italy supported the creation of another European fascist nation.

War Between Soviet Union / Finland

Upon Stalin attempting to force his military bases upon Finnish soil, war was sparked between the two nations. The Finns held out until March 1940, when they surrendered.

Selective Training and Service Act

The first U.S. peacetime draft, this Act called men ages 21-35 to serve in the military.

Lend-Lease Act

Passed in March 1941, this Act reversed the Neutrality Acts as it allowed the U.S. to sell, lend, or lease weapons to any country “vial to the defense of the U.S.” Isolationists opposed the law, believing that it would bring the U.S. closer to war.

Atlantic Charter

FDR and Churchill drew up the Atlantic Charter. This was not a military alliance, but it did set goals for the world after “the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny.” The two nations urged disarmament (giving up weapons) and the creation of a “permanent system” for preserving peace.

Revenue Act of 1942

This act raised business taxes and required most Americans to pay income tax. Congress approved withholding taxes from workers’ paychecks - a practice still in effect today.

Bracero Program

Responding to the wartime need for labor, U.S. labor agents recruited thousands of Mexican farm and railroad workers. The program encouraged emigration from Mexico.

U.S. Internment Policy

Fearing what would happen if Japan invaded the U.S., FDR ordered the relocation of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans on the West Coast. The army forced them into crowded internment camps. 2/3 of those detained in the camps were American-born. Most prisoners were forced to stay in the camps for 3 years, many losing businesses and homes.

Operation Overlord

After Stalingrad, the Soviets were pushing towards Germany from the east. Meanwhile, Allied forces under General Eisenhower prepared for Operation Overlord, the invasion of occupied Europe.

Nuremberg Laws

Imposed in September 1935, these laws removed German Jews’ citizenship and banned marriage between Jews and other Germans.

Similar laws banned Jews from voting, holding public office, employing non-Jewish Germans, owning businesses, and practicing law and medicine, cutting off income for many.

Manhattan Project

Since the Japanese wouldn’t surrender, the U.S. decided to use the atomic bomb.

In 1939, German-born scientist Albert Einstein had written to Roosevelt warning that the Nazis might try to use atomic energy in a bomb. Roosevelt then gathered a group of scientists to study this technology. In 1941 they met with British scientists working on the kind of bomb Einstein had described. The research impressed the American scientists, urging Roosevelt to start an American atomic bomb program.

Roosevelt accordingly created the top-secret Manhattan Project. In 1942, scientists at the University of Chicago built the world’s first nuclear reactor, or a device that splits apart atoms, releasing large amounts of energy. After years of work in Los Alamos, New Mexico, another team of scientists and engineers built an atomic bomb. On July 16, 1945, they tested the bomb in the New Mexico desert near a place called Alamogordo.

As they were testing the bomb, U.S. officials debated how and whether to use it. President Truman, who took office after Roosevelt’s death in 1945, didn’t know the bomb existed until a few weeks before he had to decide whether to use it. He said that he '“regarded the bomb as a military weapon and never had any doubts that it should be used.” Truman’s advisers warned that if U.S. soldiers had to invade Japan, casualties would be high. Truman believed it was his duty to use every weapon available to save American lives.

Potsdam Declaration

Before using the bomb, the Allies warned Japan in the Declaration that if Japan didn’t surrender, it faced “prompt and utter destruction.” Japan ignored it.

UNIT 9

Why did Americans buy stocks?

For much of the 1920s, the U.S. economy was very successful. Leaders declared that the nation had entered a new era and that everyone would prosper. The head of General Motors told people to buy stocks, which is a way of investing (using money in hopes of making more money). Many followed his advice.

What is the difference between buying stocks on speculation and margin?

SPECULATION: A person buys stocks, using their own money, in the hopes that they will increase in value and make them a profit. In the late 1920s, the value of stocks increased repeatedly, leading many to heavily invest (1 in 10 households invested by 1929).

MARGIN: Investors borrow money to buy the stock. When stock prices increase, buying on margin works; if the stock price drops, investors use money and have to come up with extra money to pay off the investor.

When did the stock market crash?

On Tuesday, October 29, stock prices plummeted. This was known as Black Tuesday.

What caused the Great Depression?

1. Market crash

2. Issues in the economy in the early 1920s (ie shrinking farm income)

3. Later in the decade factories turned out more goods than people could buy. With auto and construction industries suffering, struggling companies cut wages and laid off workers, who began buying fewer goods - thus harming the companies further

4. Growing gap between rich people and everyone else (most Americans lived in/near poverty)

What happened to American workers during the Great Depression?

By 1932 about 25 percent of American workers were out of work. The unemployment rate remained near 20% throughout the 1930s. Many workers that did have jobs only worked part-time or had their hourly wages cut. Workers became hopeless

How did Hoover respond to the Great Depression?

Hoover thought the economic crisis was temporary and prosperity would come soon, and that the depression couldn’t be cured by legislative action/executive pronouncement.

He asked business leaders not to cut wages or factory output and asked charities to do their best to help the needy. He thought voluntary action by citizens and local governments would rectify the solution. Charities, churches, state and local governments, and volunteers worked to provide relief, but the number of people that needed help was overwhelming.