Реферат The American Wars of the 20th and 21st century

military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million people serving in military units. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it resulted in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities. These deaths make the war the deadliest conflict in human historyevents began happening in Europe that would eventually lead to World War II, many Americans took an increasingly hard line towards getting involved. The events of World War I had fed into America's natural desire to isolationism, and this was reflected by the passage of Neutrality Acts along with the general hands off approach to the events that unfolded on the world stage.number of historical misconceptions circulate about America < span align = "justify"> s role in the Second World War. They include the idea that America began helping Britain only when attacked herself, and that American aid to Britain before that date came in the teeth of pervasive hostility by the American public, stirred up by anti-British isolationists . The fact that America was brought fully into the war in December 1941 by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, with Germany declaring war four days later, has created the false impression that America was completely separated from the war before unprovoked Axis aggression reluctantly forced the US into the conflict. Before Pearl Harbour, America began to starve Japan of oil with an oil embargoimposed an enormous pressure on Japan which meant that, without huge territorial gains of oil-producing territory, Japan would run out of oil in one month. This embargo had been imposed in a large part in attempt to prevent the Japanese attacking oil-rich British territory in East Asia (what now includes Malaysia and Singapore) and also territories possessed by Britain s ally Holland. Hitler s declaration of war was also the result of American help towards Britain and other alliesassistance included $ 14,281 in material aid in the form of Lend Lease prior to Pearl Harbour - $ 1,082 million going to Britain - and direct military action. President Roosevelt had given orders that any German ship found in the eastern Atlantic should be shot at on sight. This meant the United States had more or less entered the War of the Atlantic , the crucial battle between Britain and Germany for Britain s key sea routes. Anticipating entering the conflict, the US army grew massively from 267,767 personnel in 1940 to 1,460,998 by mid-1941 - an increase of 446% .83% of Americans wanted Britain and France to win the war against Germany. In the same poll, taken at the beginning of the War in 1939, only 1% would admit to hoping for a German victory. It is of note that the proportion of Americans who did not express support for Britain - 17% - is very close to the percentage of the US population who were substantially of German origin, suggesting that even the dissenting minority was inspired as much by Teutonophilia as by Anglophobia. Initial opposition to American involvement stemmed from the experience of the First World War. [9] there had been a strong public consensus that aid to the Allies was unwise (with only 20% supporting this) and this was reflected in government policy. This reflected a massive interwar consensus against American involvement in all wars - and a belief that, as in the First World War, American aid risked dragging the United States into a huge war with disastrous results. The degree of general anti-war sentiment can be seen by the fact that in January 1939 only 43% of Americans wished to defend neighbouring Mexico and 27% Brazil from attack. Support for aid to Britain rose massively as the UK suffered devastating setbacks early in the war and after Norway, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Belgium and France fell to the Nazis. In June 1940, American opinion was split two-to-one in favour of staying out of the war even if it meant Britain losing. But by November 1940 a majority was in favour of aiding Britain even at the risk of war. By the summer of 1941, half of Americans rejected any negotiation with Germany (with 38% in support). This response suggests that much of the initial lack of support for risking war was based on the view that the Allies could win without American help. The American public consistently believed by margins of 20% or more that there would be a British victory, even during some of Britain

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