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Peace treaties (Appeasement)
After the events of WWI, multiple peace treaties between countries were made, such as the U.S-German Peace Treaty which was signed after WWI, a separate peace treaty other than the one in Versailles. Treaties such as that one were yet another discouraging factor from America entering the war as a participant. -
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WWII
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Interwar Foreign Policy
America's attempt at staying out of the war due to the public's opinion and not wanting to get involved in the first place, as the nation was recovering from the Great Depression, and mothers didn't want to send their sons off to some foreign place for them to be shot or killed. -
Opportunities/Economy
Many opportunities would be opened up to those of the minority in America, such as blacks or women, to jobs or eliminating segregation within certain groups. Groups like the NAACP were able to gain ground in the military during WWII by having black involvement in many branches instead of only black draftees, resulting in groups such as the Tuskegee Airmen. -
International Investment
As WWII would start in the time America was recovering from the Great Depression, the opportunity for the economy provided by the war was astounding. The Lend-Lease act was an example of exploiting this opportunity, with President Roosevelt having free reign to lend or lease weapons to countries vital to the defense of the United States. -
American Motivations for War
Differing ideology and the necessity to pay the Japanese back for the bombing of Pearl harbor on December 7,1941, were some of the main American motivations for war. America needed to stop fascism and the growing hostile ideologies within the East, and the people were pushing for war due to not wanting to idly stand by after being attack in a national tragedy such as that. -
War with Japan (Pearl Harbor)
Due to Japan's unprovoked attacks on Pearl Harbor after talks of peace, America was thrown into WWII by public outrage and FDR's convincing of Congress to declare war. -
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Mobilization
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, rallying the American people to fight was a massive focus of the government now as involvement in the war could not be avoided now. -
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Military
Multiple strategies and weapons were developed in order to end the war, with strategies such as island hopping being employed, or destructive weapons such as the atomic bomb that forced Japan to surrender. -
Government Programs
In order to mobilize effort, programs such as the War Production Board, which supervised war production during WWII by asking factories such as Ford to focus on military development, were able to increase production of weapons as well as preparing those for war. -
Executive Order 9066
Executive Order 906, issued by FDR, was an order that moved all those deemed a "threat to national security" from the west coast to relocation centers. Those who moved were of Japanese ancestry, and was a result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. -
Propaganda
To rally people towards the war effort even more, the OWI, or Office of War Information, was founded to produce propaganda in order to recruit and rally the American people for WWII. -
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a project led by America and supported by both Great Britain and Canada to develop the first functional atomic weapons during WWII. Led by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the project was successful and ended up giving America access to the world's first atomic bomb, a weapon to be used to end Japan's fighting against the U.S. -
Select Military Intervention
Operation Torch was the first time America was actually involved in fighting in WWII on a very small scale, involving themselves with an Allied Victory secured in North Africa. -
Island Hopping
A military strategy mainly employed by the U.S, island hopping consisted of not targeting well defended bases with all out atacks, but instead going for easier bases to take in order to gain little spots of territory on multiple islands in order to secure as many bases as they could and get close enough for a mainland invasion of Japan, and the plan was successful. -
D-Day
Codenamed Overlord and commonly known as D-Day, the Normandy landing was a joint Allied invasion of Normandy in the largest seaborne invasion in history. Within a year of the landing in Normandy, the war would end in the Allies favor.