Following World War I, the United States adopted an isolationist stance. Starting in 1935, Congress even passed various neutrality acts to enforce the will against foreign entanglement. But by December of 1941, President Roosevelt’s formal declaration of war made this legislation irrelevant. Although America attempted isolationism, European and Asian affairs brought global tension that eventually hit the country’s traditional allies. An aim of World War I had been “to make the world safe for democracy”,

1. Modern US History by Haytham Al Fiqi
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1979740143/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_Yk5EAb2CNDQ4K
Modern US
History

2. Modern US History by Haytham Al Fiqi
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1979740143/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_Yk5EAb2CNDQ4K
Following World War I, the United
States adopted an isolationist stance.
Starting in 1935, Congress even
passed various neutrality acts to
enforce the will against foreign
entanglement. But by December of
1941, President Roosevelt’s formal
declaration of war made this
legislation irrelevant. Although
America attempted isolationism,
European and Asian affairs brought
global tension that eventually hit the
country’s traditional allies. An aim of
World War I had been “to make the
world safe for democracy”, but
democracy in the 1930s was
increasingly endangered. The roots of
World War II lay in the totalitarian
leaders of Asia and Europe and their
agendas for expansion.
Totalitarianism emerged in the Soviet
Union, Italy, Spain, and Germany.
The fascist leaders had expansionist
goals and soon crushed neighboring

3. Modern US History by Haytham Al Fiqi
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1979740143/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_Yk5EAb2CNDQ4K
societies. Italy invaded Ethiopia and
established Italian East Africa.
Meanwhile, Japan invaded
Manchuria, seized Chinese land, and
occupied French possessions in
Southeast Asia. In 1938 Europe, the
war officially began when Germany’s
Adolf Hitler invaded Austria and took
Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland, which
was home to 3.5 million ethnic
Germans. Hitler claimed he was only
“restoring rightful boundaries”, since
Germany had lost territory in World
War I. But Hitler had ideas of
widespread domination. In 1939 he
and Mussolini created the Rome-
Berlin Axis alliance, a military
agreement designed to last ten years.
Japan entered the pact later that year.
Hitler had the confidence to invade
Poland in 1939. Poland’s allies,
England and France, therefore
declared war on Germany. America’s
traditional allies were at war. Initially,
President Franklin Roosevelt limited

4. Modern US History by Haytham Al Fiqi
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1979740143/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_Yk5EAb2CNDQ4K
his aid to arms sales, which were
restricted in a neutrality act. But
Hitler’s invasions continued. He took
Denmark, Norway, and Holland, and
the Belgian king surrendered his
army shortly thereafter. And in June
of 1940, France succumbed to Nazi
forces. The Axis alliance now
dominated Europe from the North
Cape of Africa to the Pyrenees. Great
Britain’s Winston Churchill vowed to
continue the battle for democracy.
Churchill soon needed military aid,
and Roosevelt declared that the
United States must become “the great
arsenal of democracy”. By 1941, he
officially ended the country’s
isolationist stance by passing the Lend
Lease Act, which lifted restrictions on
supporting foreign troops with
defense gear; the Act first
appropriated $7 billion to lend or
lease supplies to any countries the
president designated. President
Roosevelt also started to call US

5. Modern US History by Haytham Al Fiqi
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1979740143/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_Yk5EAb2CNDQ4K
National Guard members to war
training. Next, the Americans built a
base in Greenland. Then, stationed
aboard warships near Newfoundland,
Roosevelt and Churchill issued the
Atlantic Charter in June of 1941.
Although the US had not officially
entered the war, the Atlantic Charter
presented the two countries’ goals for
a war against fascism. It included
their disinterest in acquiring new
territories through the war. Shortly
thereafter, the US became involved in
the years-long Battle of the Atlantic.
The United States officially entered
World War II in December of 1941.
Japanese military leaders, led by
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, attacked
a US naval base in Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii. The Japanese aimed to
destroy the US fleet docked in the
Pacific, thus leaving the Japanese free
to pursue oil mines in the region. A
series of aerial attacks by 361
airplanes succeeded in compromising

6. Modern US History by Haytham Al Fiqi
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1979740143/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_Yk5EAb2CNDQ4K
eight important warships. The air
attacks also killed more than 2,300
people. The following day, President
Roosevelt asked Congress for a
declaration of war against Japan.
Congress obliged. By the time of this
official declaration, there were battles
to fight on many fronts, but
“Remember Pearl Harbor!” became a
rally cry for the war.
Modern US History by Haytham Al Fiqi
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1979740143/ref=cm_s
w_r_tw_dp_U_x_Yk5EAb2CNDQ4K

7. Modern US History by Haytham Al Fiqi
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1979740143/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_Yk5EAb2CNDQ4K
eight important warships. The air
attacks also killed more than 2,300
people. The following day, President
Roosevelt asked Congress for a
declaration of war against Japan.
Congress obliged. By the time of this
official declaration, there were battles
to fight on many fronts, but
“Remember Pearl Harbor!” became a
rally cry for the war.
Modern US History by Haytham Al Fiqi
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1979740143/ref=cm_s
w_r_tw_dp_U_x_Yk5EAb2CNDQ4K