The Rise of Fascism and Japanese Imperialism - Essay Example

The three primary factors were: Japanese militant imperialism, the failure of the League of Nations, and Nazi Germany’s inability to abide by their own treaties. America tried to avoid being directly involved with the military, by assuring its military neutrality at several conferences and through arms deals. Despite America’s proposed neutrality, it did certainly favor its old allies from the days of the First World War, and oppose the spread of fascism. It thus attempted to aid its allies through arms deals such as the lend-lease act, which would provide American made military machinery of various sorts to the British for free in the short term, supposedly expecting repayment in the long term (Brinkley 243).

America thus tried to avoid getting directly involved with the conflict while still providing its allies with the materials necessary to win it themselves. America’s attempts to avoid conflict were foiled by several factors, the most notable of which was Japanese imperialism. The United States and Japan both had significant pacific colonies, with the United States holding Hawaii and the Philippines while Japan had a series of pacific islands. This brought the two nations into conflict, and all but assured that Japan’s imperial aims would eventually come up against American land claims.

This conflict led to the proximate cause of America entering the Second World War, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Because of the alliance between Japan and Germany, the attack had to be considered an act of both parties, and the United States was thus directly thrust into the Second World War. Though Japanese imperialism was a proximate cause that directly led to the United States entering the conflict, there were several other factors that would have all but guaranteed that the United States would have eventually had to get involved regardless.

One of these was Germany’s lack of honesty and integrity when dealing at peace conferences, especially the Munich conference. At this conference, a European line in the sand was drawn, indicating that Germany’s actions up to that point, such as annexing Austria or Czechoslovakia would be accepted (in part because those, especially Austria, were already in Germany’s sphere of influence and at least partly culturally German). Germany’s technically illegal expansion of its army was also legitimized, in large part because allies had begun to realize how unreasonably harsh their victory conditions after WWI were.

The conference also indicated, however, that Germany would not continue future territorial expansions such as invading France or Poland. Germany agreed to this plan, then relatively quickly afterwards, built up their military and invaded Poland. This indicated that Germany’s peace promises could not be trusted, which means that the United States would never feel assured of its safety. The failure of the League of Nations also guaranteed an eventually entry into the conflict by the United States.

The League of Nations was a group proposed by Woodrow Wilson at the close of the First World War as a mechanism to stop future wars: it would be a place both for diplomatic discussions and have military power to engage in defense actions, forcing an armed truce amongst all