Apush Chapter 25 Analysis

Throughout time scholars have examined human history and many events come to mind. While many of these events have good explanations or just reasons why they occurred, there are a handful of events that had no rhyme or reason, and these events will continue to baffle scholars for centuries to come. There is one event that continues to stand out when considering the events of the 1900's. The events of World War II are extremely broad and abundant, from the advances in technology and warfare to the use of genocide to gain power. However, three main catalysts that brought the U.S. into the war include Adolf Hitler, the Holocaust, and the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In the book, America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience, Robert H. Zieger discusses the events between 1914 through 1920 forever defined the United States in the Twentieth Century. When conflict broke out in Europe in 1914, the President, Woodrow Wilson, along with the American people wished to remain neutral. In the beginning of the Twentieth Century United States politics was still based on the “isolationism” ideals of the previous century. The United States did not wish to be involved in European politics or world matters. The U.S. goal was to expand trade and commerce throughout the world and protect the borders of North America.

The U.S was extremely reluctant to be drawn into the wars that emerged in Asia in 1937 and European nations in 1939. Disillusioned with the experience of the first World War, when huge number of trench warfare casualties had led to a peace that Americans believed betrayed the objectives they had fought for, the U.S sought to deflect from all forms of entangling alliances. Between the Manchurian crisis and invasion of Germany in the 1930s, the U.S edged slowly along the road that resulted in the second World War (Allison, Grey and Valentine, 252). During the 1930s, the U.S largely preferred to remain a bystander, even going to an extend of enacting neutrality legislation in the mid-1930s, in a bid to prevent involvement in any potential war.

During the onset of this fighting, the United States was determined to remain neutral for a variety of reasons. With the Great Depression not improving, there was a

The United Sates planned to stay neutral dunning both World War I and World War II. When President Woodrow Wilson took office he had little experience handling foreign affairs, he believed that America had a moral duty to stay at peace during the outbreak of World War I unless it affected domestic affairs. I disagree with President’s Woodrow decision to practice Isolationism and moral diplomacy, because staying neutral did not help improve the world’s condition during wartime. There was a moral reason for World War I. By staying neutral America seemed to have weak leadership. By not commenting on the assassination of Franz Ferdinand or getting involved in the war America didn’t set the moral standard that the moral diplomacy sought to aim

The 1930s were a difficult time for most Americans. Faced with colossal economic hardships—unprecedented in American history—many Americans turned inward to focus on the worsening situation at home. The United States became increasingly insensitive to the obliteration of fellow democracies at the hands of brutal fascist leaders like Hitler and Mussolini. The U.S. was determined to stay out of war at all costs—even if its allies were in trouble; Americans believed that they were immune from Europe’s problems as long as they refused to get involved. However, as the “free” countries fell, one by one, to the Nazi war machine, Americans began to realize the folly of their foolish optimism and clamored for increasing involvement in foreign

As Franklin Roosevelt began to have more internationalist views, Americans, under no circumstances, wanted to be drawn into another foreign war. The result was a relative stand still in American foreign policy. Congress pacified isolationists by passing the Neutrality Act of 1935, which was designed to isolate America from the growing Nazi monster. First, it created an embargo on the sale of arms to all belligerent nations and second it stated that American citizens that traveled on belligerent ships were doing so at their own risk. The Act was basically an attempt to prevent the World War I nightmare from happening again. Roosevelt was required to sign the bill though he would have rather it had different provisions regarding the embargo of arms to belligerent nations. He was in favor of creating selective embargoes

By December of 1941, the second World War had been raging across Europe for more than two years and the United States was already, but not officially, involved. Deteriorating conditions in Europe and continual advancement of Nazi victory across nations was certainly cause for global concern, though many Americans were still clinging to anti-war neutrality. However, America had already proved to be less than neutral, aiding Great Britain with weapons and the lend-lease act, clearly siding with the Allied powers. But official involvement without support of public opinion was rather tricky. So you could say that, for many European nations, this tragedy might have been cause for celebration, as it was bringing the battle right to America’s back doorstep, and could no longer be ignored. With an overwhelming public majority opposed to involvement in European conflict, it should have come as no surprise that Roosevelt would use this as an opportunity to rally Americans in a war against Japan, and ultimately Germany and the other Axis powers.

World War II was an exceptional war for the United States. The United States emerged from the war as a world superpower and protector of all other nations. There were many reasons why the United States entered World War II, however President Franklin Roosevelt was in some way directly connected to every reason. Roosevelt wanted to enter World War II as soon as it started for political and economic needs. However, the American people did not want to enter in another war, such as World War I, that costs so many lives and money. Therefore, Roosevelt schemed a plan to enter the United States into World War II that would change the minds of the American people,

With such events occurring quickly in such a small time period, the second World War came as a massive shock. Yet again, Americans called for isolationism and neutrality as they believed America should focus on ending the Great Depression, not worrying about and dealing with the international issues of other nations and peoples. By analyzing Document 5, it is clear that many Americans still believe in isolationism during the Great Depression. Bennett Champ Clark states in his Defense of the First Neutrality Act that “the desire to keep the United States from becoming involved in any war between foreign nations seems practically unanimous among the rank and file of American citizens.” Americans influenced the US foreign policy yet again as the First Neutrality Act was passed in 1935. By analyzing Document 6, it is clear that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the choices he made were still influenced by isolationist sentiment as he states in his Quarantine Speech that “it is my determination to adopt every practicable measure to avoid involvement in war.” However, it is clear in President Roosevelt's speech that he knew that entering the war was inevitable as he states that the “peace of the world and the welfare and security of every nation, including our own is today being threatened by that very thing (war).” Although the United States tried its best to not enter the second World War for many years, it could not avoided by the end of 1941. On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. The federal government’s response to this attack can be analyzed in Document 7, President Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor Address to the Congress of the United States. In response to the attack, Roosevelt calls for Congress to “declare . . . a state of war has existed between the United States and the

On December 7, 1941, with Japanese attack on Perl Harbor, all debate over avoiding war and the policy of American isolationism was gone. It was the beginning of a great war that brought death, devastation and finally the victory and power to United States. At the time of Roosevelt’s appointment in 1933, historically crucial events were taking place in Japan, Italy and Germany which had to shape the future and the fate of United States. This paper studies and analyses the major factors which contributed to American success both at home and abroad during WWII in addition to world’s view about American participation in war and bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

When World War II began, the United States was not initially apart of it. What sparked the beginning was Nazi Germany’s attack on Poland in September 1939. Even though we were not at the center of the action, our country did take steps to assist and protect weaker countries, like the United Kingdom. Roosevelt felt it was important to “be the great Arsenal Democracy…[he believed] we must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war.” Because of this, the zeal and patriotism America showed was greatly increased. We took advantage of the power we had and the American Industry began to put forth collective efforts in supporting the Allies.

Yet another factor that led to this decision of Neutrality by President Roosevelt was the American Economy. The health of the American economy could not be jeopardized, whatever was happening elsewhere. It was Roosevelt’s view that the United States would fare well (economically speaking) whether Europe went to war or not. Gold was flowing in from Europe’s capitals, orders were mounting daily for equipment and supplies of all kinds, and America was building a battleship for Stalin. For most of the 1930’s the United States traded as openly with Germany and Japan, as it did with any other country. Japan relied on fuel oil and scrap iron until 1941. Germany was one of the United States’ most important markets during the 1930’s. American investments in Germany increased by forty percent

Intro: From the late 1930s through the mid 1940s, a time period known as World War II, a select number of countries fought for a common goal: to become a superpower. The main officiator of this group was Germany, which then Italy joined, followed by Japan and others; and was known as the Axis Powers. They sought to conquer most of Europe and promote their ideals of Nazism and Fascism, both of which were opposed by many countries and their people. In opposition to the Axis, a group known as the Allied powers formed: comprised of France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, and China. During this time of war, the United States attempted to maintain a state of neutrality as they had already felt dire repercussions from the previous

2. The causes of the Second World War and the American response to this war.