[Music] what's going down internet people today we're taking a look at the path the road to World War II we're also looking at Franklin Roosevelt's foreign policy between the years of 1932 to 1941 and to start off it's really key that you understand that Roosevelt's going to do a few things differently than previous presidents for example example he is going to open up formal recognition of the Soviet Union up until Roosevelt ever since the Russian Revolution happened during World War I the US had not opened up diplomatic relations and Roosevelt is doing this for a number of reasons one he's worried about the Growing Power of Germany and more importantly he's really interested in possible trade with Soviet Union Roosevelt's going to attempt to improve the relations with Latin America if you recall call there were all sorts of us interventions in Latin American countries and he is going to adopt something called The Good Neighbor policy which he announces in his inaugural address couple of examples of things he's actually going to do the Marines are going to leave Haiti in 1934 in Cuba he's going to get rid of the plat Amendment which said the US can intervene we are going to keep the base at Guantanamo and other things trying to kind of patch things up between us and our Southern homies in 1934 the reciprocal Trade Agreement is going to be put into effect and this is a reduction of us tariffs if other countries do the same in fact for a very long time tariffs were extremely high and they really ruined International Trade they had been high ever since really the Civil War they were increased remember the Holly Smoot Tariff and foreign trade had decreased so this plan basically said if other nations reciprocate a reduction in tariffs the US would do the same however the bulk of this video is going to be about World War II and you can't understand that without the rise of totalitarianism and what was happening is all sorts of regimes really in the 1920s and also in the 30s are going to emerge and what all these regimes have in common is the ultimate power was in the hands of the state in the government so for example in 1922 in Italy musolini and the fascist party comes to power in the Soviet Union you have the rise of Joseph Stalin in Germany you have the rise of the Nazi party Adolf Hitler is elected in 1933 and in Japan a militaristic government comes to power and really in 1941 you have Hideki Tojo as the leader and all of these different governments start pursuing different policies that militarize their countries and seek to expand their borders and a couple of examples occur in 1931 Japan conquers maneria which is a huge threat to the open door polic policy of the United States and Japan also withdraws from the League of Nations and begins to build up their Navy Italy's also going to make some moves in 1935 they're going to attack Ethiopia and in all of these examples the League of Nations does nothing to intervene now how are these threats responded to back home in America and the reality is many Americans were disillusioned with their participation in World War I in fact there was a commission setup called called The Nigh Commission in 1934 not that guy this guy and what the commission decided in their investigation was that the real cause of American involvement in World War I was the result of American bankers and arms manufacturers they caused us entry it wasn't so much the German submarines sinking ships it was really the desire of these groups to make money and the findings of the N commission and the general feeling of the American public remember we're going through the Great Depression leads many Americans to support us neutrality in fact Congress passes a series of laws to guarantee the US would stay out of a potential conflict in Europe and you could see that in this political cartoon these laws are known as the Neutrality Acts there are various acts passed in 1935 1936 and 1937 and the whole purpose of them was to keep us out of a potential conflict couple of examples in 1935 the Neutrality Act said no American citizen could Sail on the ships of belligerant Nations so Nations that were at War US citizens were forbidden from traveling on those ships remember what happened with the Lucitania they want to avoid things like that the Neutrality Acts also outlawed the sales of arms or weapons to countries that are at War once again trying to keep us out of a potential conflict and the Neutrality Acts also outlawed the giving of loans to Nations at War important to note is the US could not help out even if a country was the innocent victim of aggression so when Japan attacks China the US cannot provide them any help now Roosevelt was reluctant to sign these into law but the sentiment of the United States was to preserve our neutrality to ensure it at all cost now the policy of impas is really not going to work it's going to backfire and you're going to see that happening in a series of events that take place you know in Spain there is a civil war the fascist government of Francisco Franco is going to attack and eventually overthrow the loyalist government in fact Francisco Franco is getting Aid by Hitler and musolini and from 1936 to 1939 eventually that civil war ends and a military dictatorship is put into place and the neutrality laws keep the US from sending weapons to help the loyalist government Hitler is going to open openly violate the Treaty of versailes in fact there's a whole bunch of examples of this he occupies the Rin land in 1936 it was supposed to be demilitarized he starts to build up the German military he annexes Austria in 1938 and then he Demands a piece of Czechoslovakia called the Sudan land in the Sudan Land There was a large german-speaking population and Hitler claims they need to be a part of the German nation in response to Hitler's demands for the Sudan Land There is a meeting called the Munich conference where the leaders really England is taking a lead role here they agreed to hand over the Sudan land to Germany Hitler must promise that this will be the last of his territorial demands and he does promise that that's it if he gets it and this is known as the policy of appeasement really though it's important to keep in mind the Munich conference comes to symbolize the failed policy of appeasement because just 6 months later Hitler is going to take over the rest of Czechoslovakia going back on his word at Munich events are not just looking bad in Europe in fact Japan invades the rest of China in 1937 because of the neutrality laws Roosevelt is unable to help China he does issue a kind of quarantine notice and really once again Japan's invasion of China is seen as a threat to the open door policy of the United States and once again tensions are running high in fact Japan sinks a US gunboat called the the pan and quickly apologizes So to avoid war between Japan and the US so how does this war begin well Germany and the Soviet Union shocked the world when they signed a non-aggression pact in August of 1939 they agree that they're not going to attack one another creepy image right there of Stalin and Hitler getting married and this allows Hitler to attack Poland without having to worry about a two-front war he doesn't have to worry about the Soviets or possibly England or France on the other side Hitler and Stalin secretly agreed to divide Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union England and France finally take a stand they recognize that appeasement was failing and they pledged to defend Poland and on September 1st 1939 Germany invades Poland and very quickly France and England declare war and this is the beginning of World War II it will last from 1939 to 1945 but what you need to realize is very quickly in fact by June of 1940 Hitler had quickly conquered most of Europe with his Blitz C or lightning warrant all those you see in the light yellow color were controlled by the access powers by 1942 the United States remains neutral but it's important to understand that in spite of this neutrality they do not want the access powers to win the Dilemma for Roosevelt is how do we help the Allies while also preserving our neutrality and what you're going to see is there is a real Prospect of Hitler taking over all of Europe France Falls relatively quickly and as a result Congress amends the neutrality legislation and this is the Neutrality Act of 1939 this is a shift and Amendment to the previous laws and it says this countries could buy weapons as long as they paid for them in cash and They carried them in their own ships this is the cash and carry provision what this does is it lifts the arms embargo and allows the United States to help out countries that were the victims of access power aggression however there were severe limits to this because many countries did not have enough cash available nor did they have the ability to carry weapons from the United States to help them fight the nations of Japan Italy or Germany in fact China is completely unable to take advantage of the cash and carry act with this revision you have to really think about are we really neutral we are trying to help out the Allies while also maintaining as much neutrality as possible well in spite of the cash and carry act by June of 194 most of France is defeated there's Hitler's selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower in September of 1940 the United States adopts the first peacetime draft to get ready for a potential conflict and in August of 1940 you have the Battle of Britain taking place in which Germany begins bombing England preparing for a potential invasion of England us and involvement increases in fact there's a huge debate as England is getting bombed about what we are going to do what policy we're going to pursue and you have some people joining groups such as the committee to defend America they advocated helping England and the allies and the reason was if we help out England this would help America by avoiding a conflict coming to our Shores another group you should know about is the America First committee they opposed us involvement Charles Lindberg was one of their speakers and they were staunch isolationists they did not want the United States to get involved at all in fact they opposed any amendments to the Neutrality Acts as England was struggling in its fight against Germany another plan is adopted called the Destroyers for bases in September of 1940 the program said the US would give England US destroyers old ships in exchange for military bases in the Western Hemisphere and this was a win for England they needed get some ships and this was Roosevelt's way of helping out England without once again actually doing the fighting in that same year in 1940 Roosevelt breaks the two-term tradition of Washington and wins an unprecedented third term in fact Republicans criticize him for running for a third term but there's this belief that we want a trusted leader to lead the nation during this time of Crisis and one of the big things that Roosevelt had to address in his third term was the fact that England was barely holding on against German attacks in fact the leader at the time Winston Churchill I like to imagine a fictional conversation we need help damn Neutrality Acts Roosevelt would say help I have a plan and that plan was this it's called the Len Lease Act and the Len Lease Act is really a result of Roosevelt worried about the threat of an access power Victory and so the Len lease bill was passed in March of 1941 and it eliminated the cash and carry requirements and it said the US would send supplies to countries that were the victim of of aggression and the justification for this program was this by being the great arsenal of democracy Roosevelt called it the US would avoid having to fight Roosevelt likened the Len Le act to a neighbor giving a hose to one of his neighbors when their house was on fire and at the end of the war the idea would be the used weapons or equivalent items would be sent back to the United States there's no question now that the US was not truly neutral we are openly siding with the British and the other allies this by many accounts as an economic declaration of war against the access power and as us factories shift to allout war production the Great Depression is effectively over and a bad move occurs on June 22nd 1941 operation Barbarosa Hitler decides to go back on his pledge with Joseph Stalin and he invades the Soviet Union with a sneak attack and what this does is it puts Russia as you can see in the bottom right cartoon into the bed with the rest of the Allies so how do we get to war we're so close well Roosevelt decides to further his assistance to the Allied Powers with the Allied convoy system the US begins escorting the Len Le supplies across the Atlantic Ocean German OTS made traveling the Atlantic very dangerous and the US is actually making sure that equipment gets to countries such as England and this is really an undeclared war against Germany because Roosevelt gives the authority to shoot on site if you see German ships fire an important meeting takes place called the Atlantic conference FDR meets Church Hill secretly off the coast of New Foundland and they developed something called the Atlantic Charter and this document is really nothing more than the goals for the post-war World it calls for self-determination free trade no territorial gains as a result of this war there should be a new Collective Security Organization no more League of Nations something better and other things however us entry into World War II will not come as a result of events in Europe it's actually going to be our beef with Japan that'll bring us into this war quick reminder remember the US was alone in trying to check Japanese expansion into Asia they start with Manera in 1932 and Roosevelt in response to allout war against China which really begins in 1937 orders an embargo against Japan remember Japan is an island nation so their resources are limited and Roosevelt shuts off trade of things like steel and iron as a result of this embargo and also because of their own territorial desires Japan occupies French Indochina really Vietnam Thailand and so on in July of 1941 in fact you could see the expansion of Japanese territory each year on that map Roosevelt orders all Japanese assets Frozen and a ban on oil sales Japan desperate for these oil resources and also wanting to unfreeze their Assets in the United States enters into negotiations between the US and Japan but as those negotiations are ongoing Japan secretly attacks the United States on December 7th 1941 at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and that attack will forever be known as a day which will live in infamy that's going to do it for today hopefully you learned a whole bunch if you did click like on the video if you haven't done so subscribe tell like everyone you know to do the same if you have any questions or comments post them in that little section called comments and have a beautiful day peace