I think that one key reason why World War II occurred was because the United States wasn't willing to get involved until 1941. Hitler was able to sweep across Europe with relative ease because nobody was willing to touch him. Most major nations in the world were still recovering from the massive bloodshed of World War I, and they weren't interested in becoming entangled in another fight. The United States was unaffected by Hitler's genocide and invasions of neighboring countries, and American citizens were strongly against another war that would once again significantly damage their already fragile economic structure. They only got involved once Pearl Harbor was bombed, as their nation's security was threatened.
The Soviet Union was the only military power who was willing to initially fight against Hitler, in part because they were geographically and historically involved with the situation. It is questionable whether they would have been able to defeat the Germans without additional assistance from the United States.
Had the US gotten involved sooner, they could have stopped Hitler before Germany grew into a global superpower, thus preventing a World War from breaking out.
I think I pretty much understand your point and I agree that the US could have lessened the casualties of the war if we had entered sooner. I was just wondering if you could explain the connections between Hitler's expansion plan, the Japanese, and the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and maybe how the Japanese would have been effected if the US had entered the war sooner.
ReplyDeleteIf Japan had not attacked us, I very highly doubt that we would have done very much with World War II. The Germans were attacking our ships that were aiding the British, however this was very very small compared to the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. Possibly, we would have entered to try and stop Germany from attacking our ships, however even then I doubt that we would have done very much.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that the US had that much of an impact on the Germans becoming a superpower and the war in general, when the Soviets were the ones who mostly were responsible for driving them back? Also, in response to Dylan's comment, the reason that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor wasn't really to get the US into the war, but because they needed oil and gasoline as they were running out. They would have attacked anyways, so either way the US would have gotten involved.
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