HIST 405N Week 6 Discussion 2 World War II

Sample Answer

For this week’s discussion, I selected the Treaty of Versailles and the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party as a pathway way leading the U.S. into WWII.
To settle WWI, President Wilson began the process to have peace without a declared victory. It was the Treaty of Versailles that concluded the war. Over 13% of the German territory was lost, it required massive payments of reparation and required the Germans to accept total guilt for the war. The German people were thrust into economic and political crises post-war and no government leadership was ever resolved. (United States Holocaust Museum).

The punitive nature of the Treaty did not sit well with the Germans and gave way for a charismatic, ex-solider, Adolf Hitler, to stand out by wanting to restore Germany to power and supremacy. It seemed Germany wanted revenge and Hitler was beginning to rise onto the political scene. He wanted to clean Germany from the ethnic races, the Jews, and restore military power. Wanting to control his political influence he was invited into the government cabinet in hopes of controlling his power, but now giving him even more political clout. He began active invasions and wanted to take back the territory from France. (Corbett et. al. 2014)

Japan too, sought to be a world empire, and the government was considered militaristic. The country was concerned about the rise in communists and waged in mutual assistance with Germany against Russia and China. They began to successfully invade China. (Embargo of Japan. Under the embargo by America, their resources were stretched, they were in need of an oil and so they began to negotiate with the U.S. and when it was felt that no solution could be arrived at, they declared war on America and attacked. This leading to the use of the first nuclear bomb. America knew the veracity of the Japanese warrior and harbored resentment against the attack in Hawaii. It was felt that it is was the only answer to peace. (DiPalo, 2007)

Before the war, America had adapted a noninterventionist policy and President Harding even reduced the U.S. Military. Roosevelt turned a blind eye to what the Nazi and Japanese aggression. He did not aid any of the people feeling Germany, but he did pull the American Ambassador. He traveled to Canada to meet Churchill to draft the Atlantic Charter in the hope to avoid war. This Charter said all counties should have the right to self-determination and self-government. But this quickly changed when there was concern that Britain was not able to protect itself and the U.S. government gave them access to weapons.

America had been engaged in aggressive diplomacy with Japan and was denying them access to goods and much-needed fuel. This aggressive stance and the belief that Japan did not have the resource to reach the U.S. led to the attack of Pearl Harbor and leading the U. S. right into war. (Corbett et al. 2014.)

• DiPaolo, B. (2007). Pearl Harbor attack. In Pearl Harbor Attack. New York Facts On File. Retrieved October 5, 2020, from online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=239824&itemid=WE52&articleId=592484.
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Treaty of Versailles. https //encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/treaty-of-versailles
• Corbett, P.S., Janssen, V., Lund V., Pfannestiel, T., Waskiew, S, V., (2014) U.S. History.
  https //openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/27-1-the-origins-of-war-europe-asia-and-the-united-states