The Gathering Storm: The Road to WWII

An Interactive Internet Activity

The Objective1. This Power Point takes you through a timeline of events in

the 1930s that lay out the road to America’s eventual entrance into WWII.

2. White slides explain events occurring in the world; blue slides depict what was going on at the same time in the United States.

3. Some of the information should be familiar to you. However, this activity is designed to help you put everything together in context and chronological order, combining world events with what was happening back home in America.

4. When you get to slides with RED text, you will find small additional tasks designed to add to and more fully develop the timeline. Answer each of the questions as thoroughly as possible in bullet point form. You will be called upon to share your slides in class.

1930: In the World

• Great Depression has hit Germany hard • 1930 was a Reichstag (parliamentary)

election year• Hitler and the Nazi Party promises work to

the unemployed, prosperity to failed business people, profits to industry, expansion to the Army, social harmony and an end of class distinctions to idealistic young students, and restoration of German glory to those in despair.

Hitler Promises Work

Hitler visits a factory and is enthusiastically greeted. Many Germans were grateful for jobs after the misery of he depression years.

1930: In the World

• On election day September 14, 1930, the Nazis received 6,371,000 votes, over 18% of the total, and were thus entitled to 107 seats in the German Reichstag.

• Overnight, the Nazi party went from the smallest to the second largest party in Germany.

1931: In the World (Japan)• Japan was growing

overpopulated• Manchuria was rich in

minerals, forests, farm land: the perfect solution to their problems

• Sept. 18: Japanese army invades the Chinese territory of Manchuria, establishing a puppet government and renaming it “Manchukuo”

1932: In the World

• Hitler runs for President against 85 year old Paul von Hindenburg: his slogan was “Freedom and Bread”

• Hitler got over 11 million votes or 30% of the total; Hindenburg got over 18 million votes or 49%, leading to run-off.

• April 10, 1932 run-off: Hitler won 36%, and Hindenburg won 53%, winning another 7 year term.

• Hitler LOST!

1933: In the World

• Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor on January 30

• Why? Look at the last few paragraphs of this page: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/collapse.htm

• Massive fire at the Reichstag (Parliament) building, February 28, 1933

• Enabling Act passed on March 23, 1933

How did these two laws help Hitler?

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_Fire_Decree• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933

How did life change for Germany’s Jews when Hitler came to power? What laws were

instituted?• http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?ModuleId=10005681

1933 in America

• March 4: Franklin D. Roosevelt sworn in as President of the United States

• “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

• Unemployment rate over 25% in the U.S.

1934: In the World• Hitler begins a massive arms build-up, in

violation of the Treaty of Versailles• August 19: Hitler becomes Fuhrer of Germany• September: Nuremberg Nazi Party Day

1934: In America

• A special committee led by Senator Gerald Nye begins Senate hearings into the involvement of banks and corporations in financing WWI and supplying arms to Allies; hearings continue for 3 years

• The majority of Americans begin to believe that weapons makers and bankers were primarily responsible for getting the U.S. into WWI: weapons makers are called “merchants of death”

• Widespread isolationist sentiment grows in America

1935: In the World

• Hitler announces a plan to build a 500,000 man army, also in violation of the Treaty of Versailles

1935: In the World

• Hitler and the Nazis announce the Nuremberg Laws

• October 3: Italy invades Ethiopia in the hopes of building Mussolini’s “New Roman Empire;” it takes Italy seven months to conquer a country fighting with spears and 19th century rifles!

• Hitler and Mussolini believe that the democracies are weak and powerless to stop them!

Map of Mussolini’s Conquests

What were the Nuremberg Laws, and how did they change life for German Jews?

• http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/nurlaws.html

1935 in America

• FDR reluctantly signs the first Neutrality Act, preventing U.S. companies and banks from selling arms or loaning money to warring nations (this act was a direct response to Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia)

• A best-selling book in the U.S.: The Road to War, 1914-1917; first in a long line of books arguing that the U.S. was dragged into WWI by banks and corporations; other anti-war books are best-sellers (All Quiet on the Western Front, etc.)

1936: In the World• May 7: Germany remilitarizes

the Rhineland, which borders France, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles

• Berlin-Rome Axis created: alliance between Germany and Italy

• Germany hosts the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin

Germany and the Rhineland

The Spanish Civil War…

• Mussolini and Hitler send troops, weapons, and money to Fascist Francisco Franco

• Fascists engage in massive bombing of civilian populations (the first time in human history)

• Loyalists supporting the democratic government in Spain receive no help from U.S. due to Neutrality Act!

What were the “Abraham Lincoln Brigades” that fought in the Spanish Civil War?

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_Brigade

Famous Spanish painter Pablo Picasso’s most famous painting was called Guernica. Here it is! Why did Picasso make this painting, and

what connection does it have to this era of history?

• http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/guernica/gmain.html

What was the outcome of the Spanish Civil War when it ended in 1939?

• http://www.answers.com/topic/spanish-civil-war

Watch this entire online exhibit. Explain how Hitler used the 1936 Olympics to his benefit. Videos in upper tight corner.

• http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/olympics/

1936: In America

• FDR reluctantly signs The Neutrality Act of 1936, closing the loopholes in the 1935 Act by prohibiting trade in war materials (steel and oil) as well as loans or credits to belligerents.

1937: In the World

• Japan invades China, murdering 300,000 in The Rape of Nanking. The U.S. sends loans to China but does not get militarily involved (7 million total Chinese killed)

• Japan attacks an American ship: the Panay

1937: In the World

• Hitler declares his desire for lebensraum, or living space for his “master race.” He announces his intention to get it through territorial expansion.

What was the U.S. response to the Panay incident in 1937?

• http://www.answers.com/topic/panay-incident

1937: In America

• 70% of Americans polled believed that the U.S. should have stayed out of WWI and felt it was a mistake.

• Neutrality Acts of 1937: further tightened restrictions on aiding warring nations and made it illegal to travel on the ships of nations at war; FDR signs it, once again, reluctantly.

• FDR gives his famous “quarantine speech” (see next slide)

What did FDR mean by “quarantine?”

• http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/archive/resources/documents/ch29_03.htm

1938 in the world

• Mar. 28: Germany annexes Austria peacefully in the Anschluss (union) without a single shot fired!

• Sept. 29-30: Munich Conference: Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany sign a pact allowing Hitler to annex the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia- Hitler promises that he will make no further demands for territory

• Nov. 9-10: Kristallnacht

How did Hitler take control of Austria, without firing a single shot?

• http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-austria.htm

Why was British Prime Minister Chamberlain blamed for “appeasement?” What does this word mean in

reference to Munich?

• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWappeasement.htm

What was Kristallnacht? Why was it considered a turning point? Write a summary and find two

pictures.

• http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/kristallnacht/frame.htm

1938: In America

• Isolationist, anti-war organizations begin to form: America First Committee, led by Charles Lindbergh

• Congressman Louis Ludlow proposes a constitutional amendment requiring a national vote before ever going to war!

• 75% of Americans do not want to allow more Jewish exiles into the US

Why was Charles Lindbergh America’s most famous celebrity? What were his beliefs about the war?

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lindbergh/sfeature/fallen.html

Please carefully examine each of the next five slides, which

each have a photograph. Study them closely, and type in

what you think is going on in each picture.

1939: In the World

• Mar. 15: Hitler takes over the rest of Czechoslovakia, in violation of the Munich Pact

• Aug.: Hitler and Stalin sign a non-aggression treaty, agreeing to divide up Poland between the two powers

• Sept. 1: Germany invades Poland; World War II officially begins.

• Sept. 3: Great Britain and France declare war on Germany, fulfilling treaty obligations.

• Sept. 17: Stalin marches into Poland from the east- he and Hitler divide it.

Analyze this 1939 cartoon carefully. What is the message of this cartoon?

1939: In America

• FDR submits a $1.3 billion defense budget, saying that “Hitler and Mussolini were madmen who respected force and force alone”

• Neutrality Act of 1939 passed: allowed sale of weapons to Britain, France, and China on a “cash and carry” basis (countries that want to buy weapons must use their own ships and pay cash- no credit!)

1940: In the World• May 10: German Blitzkrieg (lightning war) begins in

Europe• Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister• Within ONE MONTH, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium,

and Luxembourg all fall to Nazis.• June 22: France surrenders to Hitler.• July 10: Battle of Britain begins. “The Blitz” unleashed

on London and other major cities.• Aug 1: Japan announces plan to build an Asian empire:

the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere: “Asia for Asians”

• Sept 27: Japan, Italy, and Germany sign Tripartite Pact, creating the “Axis”

What are the terms of the Tripartite Pact? Summarize them below.

• http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ww2/tripartite.html

Hitler takes Paris

The Blitz in London

The Blitz Continues

The Tubes

1940: In America

• July: Despite the raging war in Europe, FDR promises Americans that he will not send your boys to any foreign wars”

• July: “Destroyers for bases” deal gives 50 destroyers to Britain in exchange for the rights to eight bases in the Caribbean

• Sept.: Selective Service Act passed: first peacetime draft ever; 16 million registered

• FDR wins reelection• Dec. 29: FDR calls upon Americans to become

“the arsenal of democracy”

1941: In the World

• Japan invades Indochina; the U.S. embargoes metal and gas shipments to Japan (80% of Japan’s gas came from the US)

• Oct. 18: General Hideki Tojo becomes the Premier of Japan

• Will Japan stop plans to conquer Asia expansion or go to war with the U.S.? Plans are made for a Pearl Harbor attack!

1941: In America

• Lend-Lease Act is passed: FDR given the power to sell or lease arms to Britain and Soviet Union; Germans use U-boats to attack ships

• July 26: FDR freezes trade with Japan, including oil

• Dec. 7: Japan bombs U.S. base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii: America is at war. The day that “will live in infamy.”

• U.S. and G.B. declare war on Japan, Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S.

What were the “Four Freedoms” guaranteed in the Atlantic Charter written by FDR and Churchill? These were the four goals of the Allied forces in the war, the four goals that they wanted to

meet.

• http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/workbook/ralprs36b.htm

• Freedom of

• Freedom of

• Freedom from

• Freedom from

Pearl Harbor: Day of Infamy 12/7/41