AP U.S. History

Chapter 34:Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War, 1933-1941

Focus Question

Prior to American involvement in both the First and Second World Wars, the U.S. adopted an official policy of neutrality. Compare the policy and its modification during the period 1914-1917 to the policy and its modification during the period 1939-1941.

Learning Objectives

  • What were the main characteristics of Roosevelt’s foreign policy?
  • Why was the American public bent on isolationism during the 1930s?
  • What were the steps that America took to try and remain neutral as Europe headed into World War II?
  • What steps did Germany and Japan take to lead America into the European conflict?

Questions

The London Conference(778)

  1. Why did Franklin Roosevelt "torpedo" the London Economic Conference?
  2. What was the result of Roosevelt's withdrawal from the conference?

Freedom for (from?) the Filipinos and Recognition for the Russians (779)

  1. What considerations motivated the United States to promise the Philippines independence?
  2. What was a significant internationalist action by Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first term in office?
  3. What were Roosevelt's reasons for recognizing the Soviet Union?

Becoming a Good Neighbor (779)

  1. Why did Franklin Roosevelt embark on the Good Neighbor policytoward Latin America?
  2. What was the net effect of most of Franklin Roosevelt's early foreign policy moves?
  3. What practical changes did Roosevelt implement as part of the Good Neighbor policy?

Secretary Hull's Reciprocal Trade Agreements (780)

  1. How did the 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreements Actincrease America's foreign trade?
  2. How did President Franklin Roosevelt's foreign-trade policyattempt to increase trade?

Storm-Cellar Isolationism (780)

  1. How did the American people respond to the aggressive actions of Germany, Italy, and Japan throughout most of the 1930s?
  2. What were the major examples of fascist aggression in the 1930s?
  3. What were the major causes of Americans' fervent isolationism in the 1930s?
  4. What proposal for a constitutional amendment received strong nationwide support in the mid-1930s?

Congress Legislates Neutrality (782)

  1. What did the Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 stipulate?
  2. What were the results of the passage of the Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937?

America Dooms Loyalist Spain (783)

  1. What was the effect of America's neutrality policy during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939?
  2. How did Americans react to Franco's efforts to stage a coup in Spain?

Appeasing Japan and Germany (784)

  1. What was the result of Franklin Roosevelt's Quarantine Speech in 1937?
  2. To what did Britain and France agree at the Munich Conference of September 1938?

Hitler's Belligerency and U.S. Neutrality (784)

  1. How did Adolf Hitler signing a nonaggression pact with Joseph Stalin serve as the trigger to start World War II?

The Fall of France (785)

  1. What nations were conquered by Hitler's Germany between September 1939 and June 1940?
  2. How did the fall of France change Americans' attitudes toward World War II?
  3. When did America's attempt to remain neutral in the war between the Axis powers and the Allies come to an end?
  4. What was Congress's first response to the unexpected fall of France in 1940?

Examining the Evidence (787)

  1. When did the era of informal polling techniques come to an end?

Refugees from the Holocaust (788)

  1. What factors hindered efforts to bring large numbers of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany to the United States?
  2. How did the War Refugee Board produce one of the few successful wartime American efforts to save Jews from perishing in the Holocaust?
  3. About how many Jewish refugees from Nazism did the United States admit?

Bolstering Britain (789)

  1. What were the provisions of the "destroyers for bases" deal?
  2. By 1940, where was the majority of American public opinion on the question of what to do concerning the ongoing war in Europe?

Shattering the Two-Term Tradition (790)

  1. How did Wendell L. Willkie become the surprise Republican presidential nominee in 1940?
  2. What were Franklin Roosevelt's stated motivations in running for a third term in 1940?
  3. Why, in 1940, did Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie avoid attacking Roosevelt for his increasingly interventionist policies?

A Landmark Lend-Lease Law (791)

  1. What laws reflected the transition of American policy on arms sales to warring nations over the course of the years prior to U.S. entry into World War II?
  2. What were the fears of those, such as members of Massachusetts' Woman's Political Club, who opposed to the Lend-Lease program?
  3. What were the provisions of the 1941 lend-lease program, and how did it differ fundamentally from the "destroyers for bases" trade?

Charting a New World (792)

  1. What was the U.S. response when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941?
  2. What were the principles agreed to by President Roosevelt and British prime minister Churchill at the Atlantic Conference off the coast of Newfoundland in August 1941?

U.S. Destroyers and Hitler's U-boats Clash (793)

  1. What events led to Congress authorizing the arming of United States merchant vessels?

Surprise Assault on Pearl Harbor (794)

  1. Why, by 1941, did Japan believe that it had no alternative to war with the United States?
  2. Why did the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 came as a great surprise to the U.S., despite officials in Washington knowing that Japan had decided for war?
  3. How many of America's aircraft carriers were destroyed by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor?

America's Transformation from Bystander to Belligerent (795)

  1. On the eve of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, what did a large majority of Americans desire regarding U.S. participation in the war?

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