Interwar and World War II United States

From Heterodontosaurus Balls

This page about the history of the US during WWI and WWII. For the main article of this character, see 🟢 United States of America.

“”The 🟢 world must be made safe for 🟢 democracy.
— 🟢 Woodrow Wilson

Interwar and World War II United States refers to the period from 1917 to 1945, when the United States experienced World War I, the Interwar Period, the Great Depression, and World War II. This would be the time period in which the United States would come out of 🟢 isolationism, rise above all the previous powers, eventually becoming one of the two 🟢 world superpowers at the end of 1945.

In both of the World Wars, United States' participation radically advanced the progress of his allies. The US fought side by side by the 🟢 Entente Powers and 🟢 Allied Powers, he absolutely destroyed the 🟢 German Empire, and played an very important role in defeating the 🟢 Nazis and the 🟢 Japanese.

This era is where America began to be referred to as a "🟢 democracy". Before, America was referred to as a 🟢 republic, like the Founding Fathers intended, who also insisted that America was not a democracy. However, by this time, the word's meaning began to change, from originally meaning "everyone participates" to now used so broadly as referring to anything where everybody is represented, which is partially due to the 🟢 socialist movements who used "democracy" instead of "socialism" due to the latter getting a horrid reputation after the 🟢 Bolsheviks seized power in 🟢 Russia and slaughtered people everywhere. And with the 🟢 President using this term to enter WWI, the word would be equated with America's system.

History

World War I

Is Neutrality Really Worth It?

At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, the United States initially pursued a policy of 🟢 neutrality, aiming to avoid entanglement in the conflict engulfing 🟢 Europe. However, as the war progressed and tensions escalated, maintaining neutrality became increasingly challenging. Plus, unrestricted submarine warfare conducted by 🟢 Germany, which led to the sinking of civilian ships including the RMS 🟢 Lusitania in 1915, resulted in American casualties and escalating 🟢 anti-German sentiment.

Towards the end of WWI, the German Empire deployed 🟢 Lenin to 🟢 Russia and kicked him out of the battlefield. This made Germany very confident, but he realizes that there was another rising power in the west that needs to be taken care of. Germany sent the 🟢 Zimmermann Telegram to 🟢 Mexico, asking him to for a military alliance against the United States on 17 January 1917 in exchange for some American states. The 🟢 Brits intercepted it and showed it to the US.

This was America's last straw.

Into the Battlefields

The formal entry of the United States into the war came on 6 April 1917, after President 🟢 Woodrow Wilson's request to Congress for a declaration of war against 🟢 Germany. Wilson framed the conflict as a crusade to make the world "safe for 🟢 democracy," appealing to both idealistic and 🟢 pragmatic sentiments. The publicly stated goals were to uphold 🟢 American honor, crush German 🟢 militarism, and reshape the postwar world. The 🟢 U.S. military, initially small and underprepared having not fought any major wars since 1865, underwent rapid expansion and mobilization. The Selective Service Act of Spring 1917 was authorized, drafting of four million American 🟢 men and significantly bolstering the ranks of the 🟢 American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) under Genera; 🟢 John J. Pershing.

The war saw many 🟢 women taking what were traditionally men's jobs for the first time. Many worked on the assembly lines of factories, producing tanks, trucks and munitions. For the first time, department stores employed 🟢 African American women as elevator operators and cafeteria waitresses. The 🟢 Food Administration helped housewives prepare nutritious meals with less waste and with optimum use of the foods available. Most important, the morale of the women remained high, as millions joined the 🟢 Red Cross as volunteers to help soldiers and their families. With rare exceptions, the women did not protest the draft.

The AEF played a crucial role in the latter stages of the war, particularly in 1918, providing fresh troops and much-needed support to the exhausted 🟢 Allied forces on the Western Front, supplying badly needed financing, food, and millions of fresh and eager soldiers, arriving at the rate of 10,000 per day. American forces participated in several key offensives, including the Battle of 🟢 Cantigny (28 May 1918, the first major American battle and offensive), Battle of 🟢 Belleau Wood (1-26 June 1918), and the 🟢 Meuse-Argonne 🟢 Offensive (26 September-11 November 1918), which was one of the final and most significant operations leading to the armistice on 11 November 1918. The presence of American troops helped to shift the balance of power, boosting Allied morale and contributing greatly to the ultimate defeat of the 🟢 Central Powers.

On the home front, the war effort prompted significant economic and social changes. The US government mobilized industry through the War Industries Board, ensuring efficient production and supply of war materials. The war also spurred advancements in technology and manufacturing, while 🟢 propaganda campaigns encouraged public support and participation in the 🟢 war effort. Furthermore, the conflict had lasting impacts on American society, including the acceleration of the Great Migration, as 🟢 African Americans moved northward for war-related jobs.

End of the Great War

After WWII ended in 1918, President 🟢 Wilson played a key role in the 🟢 Paris Peace Conference and the drafting of the Treaty of Versailles, advocating for his Fourteen Points and the establishment of the 🟢 League of Nations. Wilson had a vision for a lasting 🟢 peace and a 🟢 new international order.

A popular Tin Pan Alley song of 1919 asked, concerning the 🟢 United States troops returning from World War I, "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?". In fact, many did not remain "down on the farm"; there was a great migration of youth from farms to nearby towns and smaller cities. The average distance moved was only 10 miles (16 km). Few went to the cities with over 100,000 people. However, agriculture became increasingly mechanized with widespread use of the tractor, other heavy equipment, and superior techniques disseminated through County Agents, who were employed by state agricultural colleges and funded by the Federal government.

That same year, Wilson tried to convince 🟢 Congress to approve the Treaty of Versailles and allow the United States to join the League of Nations, the international organization he helped create to prevent future wars. He refused to accept compromises proposed by 🟢 Republicans, and the treaty failed because it did not receive enough votes. While traveling across the country to promote the League, Wilson suffered several strokes. He never fully recovered and lost much of his ability to lead or negotiate. As a result, the 🟢 Senate rejected the treaty, and the United States never joined the League of Nations.

After the war, 🟢 Germany was left politically unstable and deeply in debt due to the heavy reparations he was required to pay to the victorious countries. 🟢 Britain and 🟢 France, in turn, owed large sums of money to the United States for war loans. To stabilize Germany's 🟢 economy, American and British banks provided loans under the Dawes Plan. This helped Germany rebuild his industry and pay reparations. During the 1920s, both European and American economies grew rapidly, reaching new levels of production and prosperity.

Interwar Period

The interwar period can be divided into subperiods, and is usually not considered a period on itself at all in US 🟢 history, unlike in other countries such as 🟢 France.

1919: Strikes, Riots, Scares

Urban America was in turmoil throughout 1919. The huge number of returning veterans could not find work, something the Wilson administration had given little thought to. After the war, fear of subversion resumed in the context of the 🟢 Red Scare, massive strikes in major industries (steel, meatpacking) and violent 🟢 race riots. Radicals bombed Wall Street, and workers went on strike in 🟢 Seattle in February. During 1919, a series of more than 20 riotous and violent black-white race-related incidents occurred. These included the 🟢 Chicago, 🟢 Omaha, and 🟢 Elaine Race Riots.

A phenomenon known as the Red Scare took place in the US from 1918 to 1919. With the rise of violent 🟢 Communist revolutions in 🟢 Europe, leftist radicals were emboldened by the 🟢 Bolshevik Revolution in 🟢 Russia and were eager to respond to 🟢 Lenin's call for 🟢 world revolution. On 1 May 1919, a parade in 🟢 Cleveland protesting the imprisonment of the 🟢 Socialist Party leader, 🟢 Eugene Debs, erupted into the violent May Day Riots. A series of bombings by the far left in 1919 and assassination attempts further inflamed the situation. Attorney General 🟢 A. Mitchell Palmer conducted the Palmer Raids, a series of raids and arrests of non-citizen 🟢 socialists, 🟢 anarchists, 🟢 radical unionists, and immigrants, charging them with planning to overthrow the government. By 1920, over 10,000 arrests were made, and the immigrants caught up in these raids were deported back to Europe, most notably the anarchist 🟢 Emma Goldman, who years before had attempted to assassinate industrialist 🟢 Henry Clay Frick.

Women's Suffrage

Main article: 🟢 Women's Suffrage

During WWI, 🟢 Women's rights advanced, highlighted by their critical contributions to the workforce. After a long period of agitation, US 🟢 women were able in 1920 to obtain the necessary votes from a majority of 🟢 men to obtain the right to vote in all state and federal elections. Women participated in the 1920 presidential and congressional elections. The 19th Amendment was passed, officially granting women's right to vote.

🟢 Politicians responded to the new electorate by emphasizing issues of special interest to women, especially 🟢 prohibition, child health, public schools, and 🟢 world peace. Women did respond to these issues, but in terms of general voting they shared the same outlook and the same voting behavior as men.

Second KKK

In the 1910s-1920s, the 🟢 Second Klan, a powerful revival of the infamous 🟢 white nationalist hate group, peaked in the U.S. and claimed some 3-6 million members and significant 🟢 political influence, promoting 🟢 Protestantism and opposing 🟢 Catholics, 🟢 Jews and 🟢 blacks before rapidly declining by the late 1920s due to 🟢 sexual and 🟢 financial scandals and public backlash.

Roaring Twenties

Between the First and Second World Wars, the United States experienced significant 🟢 social, 🟢 economic, and 🟢 political changes. In the U.S. 🟢 presidential election of 1920, the 🟢 Republican Party returned to the White House with the landslide victory of 🟢 Warren G. Harding, who promised a "return to normalcy" after the years of 🟢 war, 🟢 ethnic hatreds, 🟢 race riots and 🟢 exhausting reforms. Harding used new advertising techniques to lead the GOP to a massive landslide, carrying the major cities as many 🟢 Irish 🟢 Catholics and 🟢 Germans, feeling betrayed, temporarily deserted the 🟢 Democrats.

The 1920s, often referred to as the "Roaring Twenties", was a decade of economic prosperity, technological advancements, and cultural flourishing, marked by the widespread adoption of automobiles, radios, and 🟢 jazz music. Except for a recession in 1920-21, the economy enjoyed a long period of prosperity. New industries flourished especially electric power, movies, automobiles, gasoline, tourist travel, highway construction, and housing. The stock market was up, everyone was happy, they partied every night and employment was at an all-time high. On 17 January 1920, under the 18th Amendment passed back in 1919, the US banned the production, importation, transportation, and sale of 🟢 alcoholic beverages, starting the 🟢 Prohibition era.

Agriculture went through a bubble in soaring land prices that collapsed in 1921, and that sector remained depressed. Coal mining was shrinking as oil became the main energy source. Otherwise all sectors prospered and had a good time. Construction flourished as office buildings, factories, paved roads, and new housing was evident everywhere. Automobile production soared, suburban housing expanded and the nation's homes, towns and cities were electrified, along with some farms. Prices were stable, and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew steadily until 1929, when the financial speculation bubble burst as Wall Street crashed.

Great Depression

The period of growth known as the Roaring Twenties ended abruptly with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, a sudden collapse of U.S. stock prices that wiped out billions of dollars in wealth and helped usher in the Depressing Thirties Great Depression, a time of severe economic hardship, high unemployment, and widespread poverty throughout the 1930s. The US tried to recover and help the victims, and President 🟢 Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented the New Deal, a series of programs and reforms that 🟢 expanded government control and involvement in American life. These initiatives aimed at 🟢 economic recovery, financial reform, direct relief for the unemployed and poor through public works programs, 🟢 banking regulations, 🟢 social welfare policies, and 🟢 labor protections. While the New Deal restored confidence in the financial system and provided immediate assistance to millions, it failed to end the Depression and may have prolonged economic stagnation by discouraging private investment and market adjustment.

🟢 Politically, the era saw the rise of 🟢 isolationist sentiments, again. Traumatized by the costs of World War I and focused on domestic recovery, many Americans opposed foreign entanglements and resisted involvement in 🟢 international conflicts, a stance reinforced by neutrality legislation and widespread public opinion during the decade.

In 1932, the "🟢 Bonus Army" (a group of World War I veterans) marched on 🟢 Washington, D.C. demanding early payment of promised service bonuses. They were forcibly removed by the 🟢 U.S. Army under President 🟢 Hoover.

The nadir of the Great Depression occurred in 1933, when unemployment peaked and economic output reached its lowest point. The same year, under the 21st Amendment 🟢 alcohol was unbanned. In 1934, the Banana Wars ended. A partial recovery of the economy followed over the next several years, aided by New Deal spending and monetary reforms, but this progress was interrupted by the recession of 1937-38, which exposed the fragility of the recovery. Unlike the 1920s, the 1930s saw no major new industries large enough to drive sustained economic expansion; automobiles, electrification, and construction had already matured, leaving the economy without a comparable engine of growth until the mobilization for World War II at the end of the decade.

World War II

“”No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb. We know now that a nation can have peace with the 🟢 Nazis only at the price of total surrender.
— 🟢 Franklin D. Roosevelt

The United States' involvement in World War II was pivotal in determining the outcome of the conflict and reshaping 🟢 global politics. Initially adhering to a policy of neutrality, the US sought to avoid entanglement in the growing hostilities in 🟢 Europe and 🟢 Asia throughout the 1930s, just like how he did in WWI. This stance was solidified through a series of Neutrality Acts aimed at preventing the kind of entanglements that had drawn the nation into World War I. However, as the 🟢 Axis Powers expanded aggressively, President 🟢 Franklin D. Roosevelt began to prepare the country for the possibility of 🟢 war. He tried to avoid repeating what he saw as Woodrow Wilson's mistakes in World War I, often making exactly the opposite decision. Wilson called for neutrality in thought and deed, while Roosevelt made it clear his administration strongly favored 🟢 Britain and 🟢 China, also emphasizing the need to support the 🟢 Allies through measures like the Lend-Lease Act of 1941, which provided critical aid to nations like 🟢 Britain and the 🟢 Soviet Union. This kept Britain and USSR fed and fueled throughout the war.

On 16 June 1941, after negotiation with 🟢 Churchill, Roosevelt ordered the United States occupation of 🟢 Iceland to replace the British invasion forces.

The turning point for American involvement and Allied victory came on 7 December 1941, when 🟢 Japan launched a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, 🟢 Hawaii. This devastating assault resulted in significant loss of life and damage to the 🟢 Pacific Fleet, which enraged the US, galvanized American public opinion, and prompted a swift response. On 8 December 1941, the United States declared war on Japan, and shortly thereafter, 🟢 Germany and 🟢 Italy declared war on the United States, bringing America fully into World War II on both the Pacific and European fronts. The US also started rapidly producing military equipment, war ships, planes, tanks and much more, also ending the Great Depression in the process. USA shipped 2,000 locomotives, 11,000 railcars, 400,000 trucks, 14,000 aircraft, and $210 billion in total supply to the USSR (factoring inflation), and effectively rebuilt the Soviet supply network for the war effort.

In the European Theater, American forces initially focused on the North African Campaign, successfully pushing Axis forces out of the region by 1943. The subsequent invasion of Italy was a crucial step in weakening Axis positions in Europe. One of the most significant contributions came on 6 June 1944, known as D-Day, when Allied forces, including a substantial number of American troops, launched the largest amphibious invasion in history on the beaches of 🟢 Normandy, 🟢 France. This operation was a turning point that led to the liberation of 🟢 Western Europe from Nazi control. American cloth, steel and meat kept the 🟢 Red Army clothed, equipped and fed while they marched into 🟢 Berlin and 🟢 raped all their women. American forces continued to advance through France and into Germany, eventually defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945.

The U.S. was also secretly working on atomic weapons in the 🟢 Manhattan Project program, hoping to make them before the Germans figures out how.

In the Pacific Theater, USA funded the 🟢 Chinese defense effort while soloing the 🟢 Imperial Japanese Navy. America adopted an island-hopping strategy to gradually reclaim territory from Japanese control. Key battles included the Battle of 🟢 Midway in 1942, which turned the tide in favor of the Allies, and the grueling campaigns at 🟢 Guadalcanal, 🟢 Iwo Jima, and 🟢 Okinawa. Each victory brought American forces closer to Japan.

On 12 April 1945, FDR, who had clung on to power since 1933 due to war reasons, died. 🟢 Harry S. Truman takes over. The Nazis were crumbling and 🟢 Hitler tried negotiating with the new administration, to no avail.

Japan sees surrendering as dishonorable and was determined to fight until his last breath, so not wanting the war to drag on and potentially threaten the American mainland, the decision to use atomic weapons was made. The bombs named "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" were dropped on the cities of 🟢 Hiroshima and 🟢 Nagasaki in August 1945. These bombings, coupled with the 🟢 Soviet Union's declaration of war on Japan, led to Japan's unconditional surrender on 15 August, effectively ending World War II and ushering in a new era where America becomes a 🟢 world power and dominated half of the globe.

List of Leaders

🟢 Presidents of the United States of America during World War I, the Interwar Period, and World War II 🟢
Name Number Party Years
🟢 Woodrow Wilson 1 (28th) 🟢 Demoratic Party 1917-1921
🟢 Warren G. Harding 2 (29th) 🟢 Republican Party 1921-1923
🟢 Calvin Coolidge 3 (30th) 🟢 Republican Party 1923-1929
🟢 Herbert Hoover 4 (31st) 🟢 Republican Party 1929-1933
🟢 Franklin D. Roosevelt 5 (32nd) 🟢 Demoratic Party 1933-1945
🟢 Harry S. Truman 6 (33rd) 🟢 Demoratic Party 1945-1945

Relationships

Friends

Enemies

How to Draw

48-Starred Flag of USA, used from 1912 to 1959.

Interwar and World War II United States has a drawing rating of intermediate.

There is no specific shade of colors needed to draw the flag of USA. So, you can draw in any shade of red, white and blue you want! But the preferable shades are listed below.

  1. Draw a ball.
  2. Draw 7 red stripes separated by 6 white stripes.
  3. Draw a small blue rectangle covering the left of 4 red stripes.
  4. Draw 48 stars (or dots if you are lazy) inside the blue rectangle.
  5. Draw a pair of sunglasses on the ball and you are done!
Color Name HEX
Independence (American Blue) #002664
Upsdell Red (American Red) #BB133E
American White #FFFFFF
  • Manhattan Project
    Manhattan Project
  • World War I
    World War I
  • World War I
    World War I
  • Allies gang
    Allies gang
  • To be modified and used for something else…
    To be modified and used for something else…

See Also

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