Chapters 33 and 34 Flashcards
The London Conference
1933
Aim: to organize a coordinated international attack on the global depression by stabilizing currencies and exchange rates. The British went off the gold standard in Sept 1931. Other central banks were forced to drop the gold standard as well
FDR pulled the US out of the conference and took the US off the gold standard in april 1933
The Good Neighbor Policy
FDR announced he would renounce armed intervention (the Roosevelt Corollary) in Latin America
Latin Americans held FDR in high esteem. Cuba was released from the Platt Amendment 1934. Panama received more freedom in 1936 (but US still has canal)
Conflict in Mexico as Mexican oil took over US oil? There was also an embargo and so Mexico started selling oil to the nazis?
The Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act
1934
This allowed the president to lower tariff rates by as much as 50% (provided that the trade partner was willing to do the same)
Sec of State Cordell Huff believed that tariff barriers choked off foreign trade
The senate didn’t have to approve the tariff agreements
US foreign trade increased as the traditional high protective tariff policy was reversed
Stalin/Hitler/Mussolini
Totalitarian regimes emerged in Europe: Stalin (USSR), Mussolini (Italy), and Hitler (Germany)
Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933. Italy and Germany united in 1936s Rome-Berlin axis (japan later joined the axis powers)
Nye Committee & Neutrality Acts (1935-37)
The Nye Committee found that munitions makers had made money from the Great War. Had they pushed for war in order to make money? People feared this
The Neutrality Acts (1935-37) stated that when the president proclaimed the existence of a foreign war, no American could legally sail on a belligerent ship, sell or transport munitions, or make loans to a belligerent
The Spanish Civil War
(1936-39)
Spanish rebels led by fascist Gen. Franco rose against the Loyalist republican gov. Franco was aided by Hitler and Mussolini. The Loyalists were aided by Stalin
Congress applied an arms embargo to both sides
3k Americans headed to Spain to fight as volunteers in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade
Franco took over Spain and served as dictator until his death in 1975
When FDR called for military preparedness, he was labeled a warmonger. THe US Navy declined in strength. Only in 1938 did Congress vote for naval construction
The Quarantine Speech
Many consider the Marco Polo Bridge Incident (1937) to be the start of WW2
Japanese militarists (present in China since 1931) touched off an explosion near Beijing that led to an all-out invasion. FDR called this an incident instead of a war
FDR’s “Quarantine Speech” fall 1937, called for endeavors to quarantine aggressive nations (like embargoes)
Isolationists were upset as FDR had retreated from his isolationist stance. FDR believed that the Neutrality Acts did not apply to Japan bc there had been no formal declaration of war between Japan and China
The Panay Incident
In the Panay incident (dec 1937) japanese planes bombed and sank an American gunboat in Chinese waters (2 killed and 30 wounded)
The Japanese apologized and paid an indemnity
Munich Conference
Appeasement: at the Munich Conference (sept 1938), Hitler was allowed to take Sudetenland because the allies believed his promise that this was his last territorial claim. In March 1939 (around 6 months after), his forces took the rest of Czechoslovkia
Nonaggression Treaty (Hitler & Stalin)
Hitler and Stalin signed a nonaggression treaty in August 1939.
Hitler then attacked Poland on Sept 1, 1939. Britain and France declared war on Germany
“Cash-and-Carry”
FDR issued a statement of neutrality, but quickly realized that the Allies were unprepared for the war
The updated Neutrality Act of 1939 allowed Euro democracies to buy American war materials on a “cash and carry” basis
The US would thus avoid war loans, debts and the torpedoing of its vessels.
Don’t want to endanger American lives, Allied ships can come to US docks and buy supplies, US didn’t want to bring stuff overseas (thus cash-and-carry)
Only lasted for a few years because countries didn’t have unlimited cash. Churchill (British Prime Minister- England) asked for loans from FDR because they were hella broke
blitzkrieg
The Germans blitzkrieged (a rapid attack) Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, and Belgium, and France in June of 1940
France was a big target, Germans went all the way to Paris. Southern France became puppet govt for France
British soldiers were evacuated from Dunkirk, France. Britain was Hitlers next target
America was finally motivated to help. Congress appropriated 37 billion to the war effort. 1.2 million troops and 800k reserved were drafted each year
Maginot Line
a line of defensive fortifications built before World War II to protect the eastern border of France but easily outflanked by German invaders
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht (night of crystal– night of broken glass) (Nov. 9, 1938) resulted in deaths of at least 91 Jewish people in Germany
At this point it became clear to German citizens that Jewish people were being targeted. Mobs ransacked Jewish businesses, homes, synagogues, etc
Jewish people were sent to concentration camps
The Nazis blamed Jewish people for the German loss in WW1
The America First Committee
The America First Committee argued that America had to concentrate on its own defense over helping other countries. Charles Lindbergh was its prominent spokesperson
The Destroyer Deal
(1940)
FDR agreed to transfer 50 old destroyers to the British in exchange for a 99 yr lease on defensive base sites in Newfoundland and the Caribbean
This followed the British attack on the French navy off the coast of Algeria (bc the Brits didn’t want the Germans to get the ships)
All of these bases have been closed (most right after ww2)
Lend-Lease
(MARCH 1941)
Churchill told FDR in Dec 1940 that the Brits could no longer afford to pay for war materials.
FDR declared that the US would be the “Arsenal of Democracy”
This bill was called “An Act Further to Promote the Defense of the United States
Isolationists called it “the blank-check bill.”
By the time lend-lease ended in 1945, the US had sent about 50 billion in arms and equipment to the allies. US factories geared up for production
Lend-lease was clearly an economic declaration of war that abandoned any pretense of neutrality
FDR’s Four Freedoms
Jan 6, 1941. FDR”s State of the Union address outed his beliefs about democracy.
Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear
The Atlantic Charter
Churchill and FDR secretly met off the coast of Newfoundland in Aug 1941. The Atlantic Charter, a broad statement of US-British war aims, was similar to Wilson’s Fourteen Points.
The postwar world would be characterized by free exchanges of trade, self-determination, disarmament, and collective security
Churchill wanted the US to join the war. FDR wanted a promise that the Brits had no secret treaties and assurance of repayment of Lend-Lease
Pearl Harbor
PRELUDE PEARL HARBOR
Beginning in 1937, the US started to cut off trade with the Japanese (esp steel, scrap iron, oil, and gas)
The Japanese had taken China and were trying to take over Indochina. The Japanese signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy and a neutrality pact with the Soviet Union. China received Lend-Lease Aid from the US
In mid 1941 Japanese assets in the US were frozen and all shipments to Japan were stopped
PEARL HARBOR (DEC 7, 1941)
The State Dept had cracked the Japanese diplomatic code and knew they had decided to attack but he didn’t know exactly where the attack would take place bc the naval code has not been cracked yet
While the Japanese prolonged negotiations with Washington, Japanese bombed attacked PEarl Harbor
2403 people died and the battleship fleet was virtually wiped out, Three aircraft carriers went in the harbor
COngress officially declared war on Japan on Dec 8.
Germany and Italy declared war on Dec 11
