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Japan intended to create a sphere of economic domination. This started aggression toward China and Indochina. In response to this, the US chose to place an embargo on resources like iron and gas, which Japan didn't like that.
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Britain and France appease Hitler by allowing him to take more land and in exchange for Hitler not seek more land. Hitler would then break this pact 6 months later.
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Also known as the "Night of broken glass," the nazis torched synagogues, torched Jewish homes, schools, businesses, and killed around 100 jews.
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Germany invades Poland using the blitzkrieg war tactic and launches air raids on Britain. In the US, FDR, in response to this sought the Neutrality Acts to be amended to aid the Allies. This would allow cash for and carry and the Lend-lease policies.
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The Neutrality Acts were made to keep the US in a neutral position in the war. This allowed nations at war to buy goods from the US as long as they directly pay the cash.
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Congress allows Roosevelt to lease any government and defense article. Roosevelt thought it was necessary for the defense of the United States.
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FDR issued Order 8802 which probits ethnic or racial discrimination in the nation's defense industry.
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Churchill, FDR, and Stalin decide on what to do with Europe after the war. These would be the final plans regarding Europe during the war.
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A broad statement of the US and British aims endorsing self-determination and a system of general security. It also showed FDR's commitment to opposing German and Japanese aggression.
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A surprise attack by the Japanese on the Pearl Harbor naval base as a response to the US embargo. The day after FDR gives a speech asking Congress to declare war on Japan, which in turn caused Germany to declare war on the US.
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FDR issued Order 9066 which authorizes the internment of Japanese Americans and Japanese into internment camps. They were ordered to sell their belongings and properties for deportation to camps in the inland deserts.
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Prior to this, the US was using the island-hopping war strategy against Japan. The Battle of Midway stopped the Japanese advance and forced them on the defensive.
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Operation Torch is the invasion of North Africa to free the Mediterranean Sea from Germany and protect the oil fields in the Middle East, meanwhile, the resistance to the Germans at Stalingrad would turn the tide on the eastern front. Italy surrendered after this.
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The invasion of Normandy would finally provide the western front. Germany would now be engaged in 3 fronts and had to divert resources to a western front against the Soviet Union, Italy, and France.
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The Battle of the Bulge was the last German offensive. This would be the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany.
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Fred Korematsu, a Japanese American refused to leave his home when Order 9066. He took this to Supreme Court saying that it violated his rights. Korematsu lost this case and the Supreme Court upheld the internment as constitutional.
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President Truman chose to drop atomic bombs onto Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later to prevent the necessity for fighting on Japanese territory. The bombings resulted in Japan surrendering. This can also be seen as retaliation for the Bombing of Pearl Harbor.
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The US plays a key role in organizing and starting the United Nations as the United Nations is based on the idea of Woodrow Wilson. The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization with the goal of cooperation between nations and to keep order.
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The Nuremberg Trials would set the precedent that all individuals are responsible for their actions for future trials on war crimes. This would also bring notice to genocide throughout the world.
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This policy pledged to contain communism in Europe. This policy was first applied when the US supplied military and financial aid to Greece and Turkey to resist any communist rebel forces.
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This policy was made out of fear that a weak Western Europe would elect communist governments. The Marshall Plan is a policy that promoted economic rebuilding and preventing the fall of European countries to communism.
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The US supported the determination of the Jewish people with the creation of Israel. The US recognized and supported Israel.
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The first test of US policy by the Soviet Union came when they blockaded Berlin, the US won the confrontation using the Berlin Airlift. The Berlin Airlift supplied the people with food water and other resources by air drops.
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NATO(North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is established by the US. NATO establishes a military alliance aimed against the Soviet Union.
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The Soviet Union builds an atomic bomb and tests it out. It would lead to the US accelerating the development of a hydrogen bomb and begin an arms race.
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Communist North Korea invades South Korea. The Truman administration believed this was orchestrated by the Soviet Union and urged the United Nations to take action, the United Nation voted unanimously demanded a ceasefire and support police action to defend South Korea. The conflict resulted in North Korea getting contained above the 38th parallel.
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The Eisenhower Doctrine is a policy that extended containment into the Middle East. This was made in reaction to his intervening in the Suez Crisis in 1956.
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The Soviet Union launches Sputnik into space making them the first to ever launch a satellite into space. This would spark the space race.
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The US passed the National Defense Education Act which promotes math and science. The National Defense Education Act also counteracts the fear that consumerism had made Americans less competitive.
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After World War II, Germany was divided into East, which belonged to the USSR, and West, which belonged to the Allied Powers. The Berlin Wall would then literally divide East and West Germany and become a symbol of the Cold War.
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The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to prop up a friendly government. While most of it was done in secret, the US supported the Afghanistan resistance movement because of its containment policy. The Soviets would withdraw in 1989.
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The Cold War mainly ends due to the changes in the Soviet Union and the movement for liberation in Eastern Europe. But the Fall of the Berlin Wall is treated to be the end of the Cold War.