HWH The Rise of Totalitarian Dictators

Benito Mussolini

Totalitarian Regimes in Europe & Asia

Not all totalitarian dictators were Communists

Stalin was a Communist believed that the government should control all property & business

Communism vs. Fascism

No gov’t control of economy

In Italy, Germany, & Spain, people turned to an extremely nationalist gov’t called fascism

Mussolini & Hitler believed in fascism: the idea that nations need strong dictators, total authority by one party, but that people can keep private property

Fascist gov’ts were controlled by dictators who demanded loyalty from citizens

Democratic Republic

Fascism

Fascists did not offer democracy & used one-party to rule the nation

No gov’t control of laws

Total gov’t control of laws

Unlike Communists, fascists believed people could keep their property

Communism

Total gov’t control of economy

In Italy, Benito Mussolini formed the Fascist Party

Adolf Hitler

Mussolini created the Blackshirts (a secret police force) to enforce the goals of his Fascist Party

By 1922, Mussolini was popular enough to lead a “March on Rome” & forced the Italian king to name him prime minister

Mussolini gained popularity by promising to revive the economy, rebuild the military, & expand Italy to create a new Roman Empire

Mussolini named his Fascist Party after the fasces, a Roman symbol of authority & power

While in jail, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf which outlined his plans for Germany

The Nazis were a fascist group in Germany that wanted to overthrow the disloyal Weimar Republic

The Nazis created their own militia called the Brown Shirts

He wrote that Germans were members of a master race called Aryans & all non-Aryans were inferior

Fascism

Adolf Hitler was an early Nazi recruit & quickly rose to power in the party

He declared that Germans needed lebensraum (living space) & should conquer Eastern Europe & Russia

Hitler planned a march on Munich but he was arrested & jailed for 9 months

He called the Versailles Treaty an outraged & vowed to regain land taken from Germany after the war

Hitler was impressed by Mussolini & used many of his ideas to make the Nazi Party strong in Germany

As prime minister, Benito Mussolini was known as “Il Duce” (the chief)

Mussolini ended democracy & all opposition parties

When Hitler was released from jail in 1924, he spent years organizing the Nazis into Germany’s most powerful political party

Hitler put Germans to work by building factories, highways, weapons, & increasing the military

Mussolini built up the military to create new jobs

In 1935, Hitler began a series of anti-Semitic laws called the Nuremburg Laws that deprived German Jews of the rights of citizens, forbade mixed Jewish marriages, & required Jews to wear a yellow star

In 1933, Hitler was named chancellor (prime minister) of Germany

He planned to conquer new territories in Africa for Italy

As chancellor, Hitler used his power to name himself dictator

In 1938, Hitler ordered Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), a series of attacks on Jewish synagogues & businesses

He called his gov’t the Third Reich to promote pride & nationalism

He created the gov’t protection squad called the SS and a secret police called the Gestapo to eliminate rivals & control all aspects of Germany

II. Totalitarian Dictators

Joseph Stalin

Among the first totalitarian dictators was Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union

He used a secret police & the Great Purge to eliminate rivals

Stalin was Communist & seized all property, farms, factories in order to control the economy & create equality

Stalin’s Five Year Plans & collective farms improved the Soviet Union’s industrial & agricultural output

(Review from Yesterday...)

A. Impact of WW1

Write down events/actions that shaped Stalin or Hitler into a totalitarian dictator.

After WWI, many nations were struggling to rebuild

Hideki Tojo

A global depression in the 1930s led to high unemployment & a sense of desperation in Europe

B.

In this climate of postwar uncertainty, nationalism increased & citizens turned to totalitarian dictators to rule the nation

After WWI, Japan was the strongest nation in Asia & was ready to conquer new lands to provide resources for Japanese industry

Totalitarian leaders are dictators who control all aspects of the government & the lives of the citizens

Totalitarian leaders gained support by promising jobs, promoting nationalism, & using propaganda

Dictators held on to their power by using censorship, secret police, denying liberties, & eliminating opposing rivals or political parties

Emperor Hirohito, gave full control of the Japanese military to Hideki Tojo who served as a military dictator

The Treaty of Versailles created bitterness among many nations

In the 1930s, Japan, Italy, & Germany began aggressively expanding into new territories… these actions caused World War II in 1939

Japan invaded Manchuria, northern China; invaded Indochina & the East Indies

Italy invaded Ethiopia & Albania

Germany annexed Austria & Czechoslovakia

The Rise of Totalitarian Dictators