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Hitler Comes to Power
Hitler comes to power in Germany, and the U.S. and U.S.S.R. set up diplomatic relations. -
Italy Attacks Ethiopia
Also the U.S. passes the Neutrality Act, forbidding US companies to sell war goods to anyone at war. -
Germany Invades the Rhineland
Aslo F. Franco takes over Spain in a revolution. The U.S. passes the “cash and carry plan” in which belligerents (those at war) could buy non-military goods in the US and take them away in their own ships. -
Hitler Invades Sudetenland
The people there have Germanic roots and should be part of Germany. Hitler also takes Austria. Very worried, England asks to meet with Hitler. The result is the Munich Pact, an agreement in which Hitler is given the Sudetenland if he promises not to invade any other countries. He promises (a promise he will not keep), and the English Prime Minister Chamberlain says they have “peace with honor…peace in our time.” Unfortunately, he is wrong. -
Breaking the Munich Pact
Hitler invades Czechoslovakia, breaking the Munich Pact. Wanting to make sure that the U.S.S.R. does not invade Germany from the east, Hitler signs a non-aggression pact with the U.S.S.R., with both countries agreeing not to invade each other (although Hitler will later invade the U.S.S.R. anyway). In Italy the dictator there, B. Mussolini, invades Albania. On September 1, Hitler invades Poland. Because England and France had promised Poland that if they were invaded, they would support Poland, -
Hitler Keeps Incading in Europe
He captures Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and France. When France surrenders, the U.S. realizes that only England stands between Hitler’s total control of Europe. Roosevelt responds by calling on Americans to come to England’s aid. Some Americans resist and form the America First Committee that calls for the U.S. not to get involved in the war in Europe. But America begins to gear up for war. Hitler starts attacking Britain with heavy air attacks, bombing London and the surround -
Japan Invades Southern and Eastern China
Japan sinks the Panay, a U.S. gunboat patrolling on the Yangtze River in China. Japan apologizes to the U.S. and offers to pay $2 million for the boat, and the U.S. agrees. President Roosevelt gives his “ quarantine speech” where he says that the free nations of the world must quarantine the aggressor nations and stop them. -
Lend Lease Act
The U.S. begins this year by passing the Lend-Lease Act, which declares that the U.S. would loan war supplies to any world democracy that needed them. After this the U.S. cannot even pretend to be neutral, and Hitler says that U.S. ships could be sunk. After several are sunk by German submarines, Roosevelt gives U.S. merchant ships permission to carry weapons. In June, Hitler attacks the U.S.S.R. in order to quickly destroy it and seize the oil resources there. Roosevelt immediately offers help