C6 - The impact of the Second World War

Question 1

What was isolationism?

Answer 1

The political policy followed by America after WW1, which meant that they stayed out of the affairs of other countries.

Question 2

What did the USA do to support the allies in WW2?

Answer 2

The Cash and Carry Plan - America sold Britain and France weapons, which created valuable production jobs at a time of rising unemployment
Lend Lease - from March 1941, America started to ‘lend’ weapons to Britain. The USA struck a similar deal with the USSR when Germany attacked it in June 1941.

Question 3

How did the American people react to the USA’s possible involvement in WW2?

Answer 3

• organisations like the Mother’s Crusade and the America First Committee held big ant-war demonstrations
• others saw the economic benefits. As America began to rearm in case it was forced to enter the war, millions found jobs building fighter planes, battleships and tanks, or in the armed forces

Question 4

What was Pearl Harbour and what impact did it have of WW2?

Answer 4

• during the 1930s, Japan started invading neighbouring countries and seizing food and raw materials
• FDR vowed not to sell any oil or steel to Japan in protest
• on Sunday 7 December 1941, Japanese bomber planes attacked Pearl Harbour (an American Naval base in Hawaii). 21 US warships were sunk or damaged, 177 US planes were destroyed and over 2000 men were killed
• the next day, America and Britain declared war on Japan. Three days later, Germany and Italy, Japan’s allies, declared war on America

Question 5

How did weapon making in America change as a result of WW2?

Answer 5

• the War Production Board (WPB) was created to convert industries from peacetime work to war work
• each factory received all the materials it needed to produce the most war goods in the fastest time
• in 1943, US factories produced 86,000 planes and 96,000 in 1944 (28,000 more than Germany and Japan combined)

Question 6

What happened to unemployment as a result of WW2?

Answer 6

• unemployment dropped as America began to rearm
• by 1941, around 4 million people had found jobs in the armed forces or building fighter planes, battleships and tanks. Between 1939 and 1944, unemployment dropped from 9.5 million to just 670,000
• farmers prospered because they supplied food to the military
• the traditional industries of coal, oil, steel and iron were all boosted by the demands of war

Question 7

How did WW2 a impact women?

Answer 7

• before the war, women worked in ‘female’ jobs like nursing and teaching
• as millions of men joined up, women filled their places in factories, railways and shipyards
• around 350,000 women joined women’s sections of the armed forces
• between 1940 and 1945, the number of women in work rose from 12 million to 19 million - women now occupied a third of all America’s jobs

Question 8

How did WW2 impact African Americans?

Answer 8

• Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) set up to prevent discrimination against African Americans in defence and government jobs
• there was discrimination against African Americans in the armed forces: black soldiers were not allowed to train as officers, the Air Force wouldn’t train black pilots. As the war went on, the barriers began to break down: the Air Force allowed African Americans to train as pilots, black officers were trained, African American women were permitted to become nurses.