Week 6 Discussion 2: World War II
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Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
Textbook: Chapter 27
Lesson
Minimum of 1 scholarly source (in addition to the textbook)
Initial Post For the initial post, consider three (3) of the following events:
Treaty of Versailles
Rise of fascism, militarism and imperialism
Failure of the League of Nations
Hitler and the Nazi Party
The Lend Lease Act
Japanese expansion and the bombing of Pearl Harbor
Based on your three selections, choose two (2) of the following and craft a response for your selections:
Assess if the United States foreign policy during the 1930s helped to promote World War II. Could the United States have prevented the outbreak of World War II? If so, how? If not, why not?
Explain if the United States, despite neutrality, aided the Allies against the Axis powers.
Analyze if the use of atomic (nuclear) weapons to defeat enemies in war is a setback for democracy (President Truman’s decision to drop the atom bomb on Japan).
Follow-Up Posts
Compare your selections and analysis of selections with those of your peers. If they chose different events, examine how yours are similar and/or different. If they chose the same events, build on their posts by providing additional information about the events that you have not already noted in your
Peer’s Post:
The terms of the treaty of Versailles, the Russian Revolution of 1917, Germany’s defeat in World War I, the formation of the Totalitarian National Socialist Party or the Nazis, and, Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor led to World War II. OpenStax (2019) states after the Great Depression America did not pay much attention to European affairs because its emphasis was put on building its economy.
Assess if the United States’ foreign policy during the 1930s helped to promote World War II. Could the United States have prevented the outbreak of World War II? If so, how? If not, why not?
Rise of fascism, militarism and imperialism
The United States could have prevented the outbreak of World war II if it had balanced the following: During the time the United States was focussing on issues after the Great Depression, economic depression and political instability were growing in Europe. OpenStax, (2019) states that most Americans, including influential Politicians were cautious getting engaged in European affairs or even involving themselves with other nations that could prohibit America’s ability of acting independently, which meant maintaining the isolationist tradition (p. 788). It is said when the United States was in self isolation, many European countries were suffering and such unstable situations led to organizations such as the Fascism by Mussolini in Italy and the Nazis created by Adolf Hitler who promised Germany to return to greatness and in the end he became a dictator. One Congress member was quoted saying that the “the United States should not be drawn again into an international dispute over matters that did not concern it” referring to what had happened to the United States during World War I OpenStax (2019) in the 1930s, Congress passed a chain of Neutrality Acts which prohibited the sale of weapons to conflicting nations, lending money to belligerent nations.
Explain if the United States, despite neutrality, aided the Allies against the Axis powers.
The Lend-Lease Act
Although the United States preferred to be minding its own economic crises, in my own opinion, it was going to gain from the Lend-lease act and also aiding its allies by selling them war weapons. When Germany raided Poland, President Roosevelt requested Congress to break the neutrality laws in order to authorize the Cash and Carry which was signed by the President in November 1939 (OpenStax, 2019). The United States was prepared for war, even though the country had decided to stay away from armed disputes (OpenStax, 2019, p. 796). It is said since 1939 as a result of Congress’s approval of the Cash and Carry policy, a contract for weapons had begun to trickle in the American factories and this led to increased production of armaments. The production of arms in a large percentage led to the creation of jobs for Americans and big businesses prospered as well. The weapon production led to the building of an army that would later be beneficial during the War. African Americans on a small percentage got employment due to the draft. The United States shipped several materials like aviation gasoline, machine tools, iron, and steel to Japan. It is said that President Roosevelt had connections with China, where he managed to ship one hundred P-40 fighter planes and allowed American volunteers who became members of the Chinese Air Force to fly those planes.
Japanese expansion and the bombing of Pearl Harbor
In July of 1940, the United States started to embargo the shipment of several materials to Japan, which led to a lot tension on them. The sanction did not allow Japan buy essential materials from the United States and yet the the Japanese were determined to get oil by taking control of Dutch East Indies a deal which proved to be impossible due to the route they would take. However, on December 7, Japan attacked the United States Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (OpenStax, 2019, p. 794). The United States sanctions affected Japan greatly because Japan had no mineral wealth of its own, it run its industries on imported raw materials from the United States ( The National Interest) (Links to an external site.)
References
Filseth, T., (2020). The Forgotten Reason Japan Attacked Pearl Harbor. The National Interest https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/forgotten-reason-japan-attacked-pearl-harbor-174121
OpenStax. (2019). U.S. History. OpenStax CNX. Retrieved from https://cnx.org/contents/p7ovuIkl@6.18:gMXC1GEM@7/Introduction
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