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HItler Takes Territory
The process started in 1935, when residents of the Saar region, which had been ruled under a mandate by the League of Nations since the Versailles Treaty, decided to join Germany after holding a popular referendum. Allies, despite the fact that the remilitarization of the Rhineland represented a violation of the Versailles and Locarno treaties.Thus, in September 1938, Hitler moved on to the next phase of his plan: the liquidation of Czechoslovakia. -
American Isolationism
During the 1930s, the combination of the Great Depression and the memory of tragic losses in World War I contributed to pushing American public opinion and policy toward isolationism. Isolationists advocated non-involvement in European and Asian conflicts and non-entanglement in international politics. Although the United States took measures to avoid political and military conflicts across the oceans, it continued to expand economically and protect its interests in Latin America. -
Women In Defense Plants
Throughout the war, women from all backgrounds, and from all over the country, worked at jobs such as welding, riveting and operating cranes while maintaining their traditional duties as mothers and homemakers. -
1939 Appeasement
Great Britain and France increased production of armaments, particularly airplanes and antiaircraft guns. On March 31, 1939, Chamberlain announced complete support of Poland in its long-simmering dispute with Germany over the Polish Corridor and access to Danzig. In April, the first peacetime conscription in British history was announced. Guarantees of protection for other small states menaced by the Axis were also announced by Britain. -
Lend-Lease Act
Proposed in late 1940 and passed in March 1941, the Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. By allowing the transfer of supplies without compensation to Britain, China, the Soviet Union and other countries, the act permitted the United States to support its war interests without being overextended in battle. -
Pearl Harbor Attack
*The road to war between Japan and the United States began in the 1930s when differences over China drove the two nations apart.
*Because Japan was poor in natural resources, its government viewed these steps, especially the embargo on oil as a threat to the nation's survival. Japan's leaders responded by resolving to seize the resource-rich territories of Southeast Asia, even though that move would certainly result in war with the United States. -
Japanese Internment
During the hysterical days following the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, and fear of a Japanese attack on the West Coast ran rampant, military commander John L. DeWitt filed a report accusing Japanese Americans of engaging in espionage and disloyal conduct. Japanese Americans were said to be signaling with lights and by radio to Japanese submarines lying off the West Coast. -
Rationing
In the spring of 1942, the Food Rationing Program was set into motion. Rationing was introduced to avoid public anger with shortages and not to allow only the wealthy to purchase commodities.Sugar rationing took effect in May 1943 with the distribution of "Sugar Buying Cards." -
HItler Becomes Fuhrer
With the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler becomes absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Fuhrer, or "Leader." The German army took an oath of allegiance to its new commander-in-chief, and the last remnants of Germany's democratic government were dismantled to make way for Hitler's Third Reich. The Fuhrer assured his people that the Third Reich would last for a thousand years, but Nazi Germany collapsed just 11 years later. -
The Home Front
The concept of a 'Home Front' - when civilians are mobilised en masse to support the war effort during a conflict - dates from World War One, as far as the British are concerned. It was re-activated in 1938 during the Munich crisis, when civilians were encouraged to enrol in Air Raid Precautions (ARP) or the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS).
A striking message painted onto a pavement in Manchester reminds everyone to carry their gasmask at all times. The picture was taken on 5 September 1939.
