Rise of Totalitarianism

Unit 8 - The Interwar Years

I. The Rise of Totalitarianism

A. Totalitarianism Defined

1. A gov’t that takes total, centralized state control over every aspect of public and private life.

B. Characteristics of Totalitarianism

1. Using police terror and violence to force obedience and crush opposition.

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2. Using indoctrination to glorify the leader and get unconditional loyalty.

B. Characteristics of Totalitarianism

3. Using propaganda to spread biased info and suppressing free speech and free press with censorship.

4. Using religious or ethnic persecution to put blame on “enemies of the state”

Translates to “This is Peace”

C. Stalinist Russia

1. Stalin’s Totalitarian State:

• Secret police (KGB)
• Propaganda and Censorship
• Indoctrination of youth
• Eliminated threats in the Great Purge

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II. The Rise of Fascism in Italy

A. Fascism Defined

1. Political movement that promotes extreme nationalism, denial of individual rights, and a dictatorial one-party rule.

B. Mussolini Takes Control

1. Disappointments over the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and rising inflation and unemployment helped fascism rise in Italy.

B. Mussolini Takes Control

2. Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist Party in 1919 and soon gained popularity His “black shirts” acted as his militia.

3. King Victor Emmanuel III eventually stepped down, and Mussolini gained power legally.

C. Il Duce’s Leadership

1. Mussolini was Il Duce (the leader). He promoted Fascism also used secret police and censorship, and outlawed strikes.

The Rise of Mussolini

• Read pages 742-743 in the textbook as a class
• With the person sitting next to you, answer the “Historical Thinking” questions about the bottom of page 743.
1. What were three reasons Benito Mussolini and his fascist regime rose to power in Italy?
2. How did Mussolini’s rise to power reflect political trends of the times?
3. Why do you think some people opposed Mussolini’s tactics while others embraced them?

III. Hitler’s Rise to Power in Germany

A. Hitler and the Rise of Nazis

1. Adolf Hitler was der Führer, or leader, of the Nazi party. The Nazi symbol was the swastika, and the Brown Shirts served as the militia.

A. Hitler and the Rise of Nazis

2. Hitler failed to seize Munich in 1923 and was sent to prison. He then wrote Mein Kampf.

3. Hitler said that Aryans were the “master race,” the Versailles Treaty was an outrage, and Germany needed lebensraum (living space).

A. Hitler and the Rise of Nazis

4. When the Great Depression hit Germany, Germans turned to Hitler, hoping for security and leadership.

“Never in my life have I been so well disposed and inwardly contented as in these days. For hard reality has opened the eyes of millions of Germans to the unprecedented swindles, lies and betrayals of the Marxist deceivers of the people.”

-Adolf Hitler on the Great Depression

B. Hitler Becomes �Chancellor

1. President Hindenburg named Hitler chancellor. After an election solidified his power, Hitler turned Germany into a totalitarian state.

2. Hitler aimed to take control of every aspect of German life and often used propaganda to his advantage.

B. Hitler Becomes �Chancellor

3. Anti-Semitism (hatred of Jews) was a key part of Nazi ideology.

4. Laws were put into place to deprive Jews of their rights. During Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass), Jewish people and businesses were attacked.

IV. Aggressors Invade Nations

A. Japan Seeks an Empire

1. Militarists took control of Japan and kept Emperor Hirohito as head of state. Their nationalistic goal was a Pacific empire.

A. Japan Seeks an Empire

2. Japan’s invasion of Manchuria challenged the League of Nations.

3. Japan invaded China and controlled a large part by 1937. The Nanjing Massacre (Rape of Nanjing) occurred when Japanese soldiers killed thousands of Chinese civilians, including women and children.

B. European Aggressors on the March

1. Mussolini ordered an invasion of Ethiopia. Ethiopian Emperor Selassie asked the League for help, but GB and France didn’t stop Italy, hoping to keep peace in Europe.

Suez Canal (controlled by Great Britain)

B. European Aggressors on the March

2. Hitler defied the Versailles Treaty. GB urged appeasement, giving in to keep the peace, by letting Germany take the Rhineland.

3. Germany, Italy, and Japan formed an alliance became known as the Axis Powers.

Neville Chamber (PM of Great Britain shaking hands with Adolf Hitler)

B. European Aggressors on the March

4. A civil war erupted in Spain, resulting in the Francisco Franco becoming a Fascist dictator.

C. Democratic Nations Try to Preserve Peace

1. The US supported isolationism and passed Neutrality Acts.

C. Democratic Nations Try to Preserve Peace

2. The Third Reich (German Empire) expanded when Germany annexed Austria in a union known as Anschluss.

View of a public building in Vienna, Austria with decorations and a large banner with a quote from Hitler, “Those of the same blood belong in the same Reich!”

Nazi propaganda promoting Anschluss

C. Democratic Nations Try to Preserve Peace

3. Germany, France, GB, and Italy met at the Munich Conference in 1938. GB PM Chamberlain let Hitler take the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia if he Hitler promised that’s all he would take.

C. Democratic Nations Try to Preserve Peace

4. The Nazis and Soviets signed a nonaggression pact, promising not to attack each other.

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Terms of the Pact:

• Agreed not to attack each other, either independently or in conjunction with other powers
• Not to support any third power that might attack the other party of the pact
• Not to join any group of powers directly or indirectly threatening one of the two parties
• To solve all differences between the two by negotiation or arbitration

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This gave Hitler the opportunity to invade Poland virtually unopposed by a major power. And allow them to focus their forces on Britain and France in the west without having to worry about Soviet forces in the east.

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And it gave Stalin the opportunity to build up the Soviet military after Stalin’s purge of the Red Army in 1937.