-
The first act of European aggression
The first act of European aggression was not committed by Nazi Germany. Fascist DICTATOR BENITO MUSSOLINI ordered the Italian army to invade ETHIOPIA in 1935. The League of Nations refused to act, despite the desperate pleas from Ethiopia's leader HAILE SELASSIE.n event/ circumstance abroad (in another country) leading up to America’s entry into WWII. -
The NEUTRALITY ACT OF 1935 /1936
The NEUTRALITY ACT OF 1935 prohibited the shipping of arms to nations at war, including the victims of aggression. The NEUTRALITY ACT OF 1936 renewed the law of the previous year with additional restrictions — no loans could be made to belligerent nations. Nor were any Americans permitted to travel on the ships of nations at war. There would be no more LUSITANIA incidents. -
n event/ circumstance abroad (in another country) leading up to America’s entry into WWII.
The following year Hitler and Mussolini formed the ROME-BERLIN AXIS, an alliance so named because its leaders believed that the line that connected the two capitals would be the axis around which the entire world would revolve. Later in 1936, Hitler marched troops into the Rhineland of Germany, directly breaching the TREATY OF VERSAILLES, which was signed after World War I. -
NEUTRALITY ACT OF 1937
A NEUTRALITY ACT OF 1937 limited the trade of even non-munitions to belligerent nations to a "CASH AND CARRY BASIS." This meant that the nation in question would have to use its ships to transport goods to avoid American entanglements on the high seas. Isolationists in Congress felt reasonably confident that these measures would keep the United States out of another war. But as the decade passed, President Roosevelt was growing increasingly skeptical. -
Rape of Nanking
Reports of the "RAPE OF NANKING," the sacking of the Chinese capital reached the American mainland in the summer of 1937. The brutalities prompted President Roosevelt to abandon cooperation with Congressional isolationists to pursue a more forceful approach against the Japanese. -
skirmish between Chinese and Japanese troops broke out
On July 7, 1937, a skirmish between Chinese and Japanese troops broke out at the MARCO POLO BRIDGE near Beijing. The cause of the fracas is unknown, but the Japanese government used it as a pretext to launch a full-scale invasion of China -
Congressional leaders to repeal the arms embargo of the earlier Neutrality Acts.
In May 1939, Roosevelt urged Congressional leaders to repeal the arms embargo of the earlier Neutrality Acts. Senators from both parties refused the request. Another bombshell crossed the Atlantic on August 24. Adolf Hitler and JOSEF STALIN agreed to put their mutual hatred aside. Germany and the Soviet Union signed a ten-year NONAGGRESSION PACT. Hitler was now free to seize the territory Germany had lost to Poland as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. -
the United States had ended shipments of scrap metal, steel, and iron ore to Japan.
By the end of 1940, the United States had ended shipments of scrap metal, steel, and iron ore to Japan. Simultaneously, the United States began to send military hardware to CHIANG KAI-SHEK, the nominal leader of the Chinese forces resisting Japanese takeover. -
Negotiations between Japan and the U.S.
Negotiations between Japan and the U.S. began in early 1941, but there was little movement. By midsummer, FDR made the fateful step of freezing all Japanese assets in the United States and ending shipments of oil to the island nation. Negotiations went nowhere. The United States was as unwilling to accept Japanese expansion and Japan was unwilling to end its conquests. -
Pearl Harbor
All these assumptions were wrong. As the bombs rained on PEARL HARBOR on the infamous morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, almost 3,000 Americans were killed. Six battleships were destroyed or rendered unseaworthy, and most of the ground planes were ravaged as well. Americans reacted with surprise and anger.