Key Terms – Totalitarianism

Totalitarian Weimar Republic Adolf Hitler Nazi Party Third Reich Fuhrer Concentration Camps Manchuria Chiang Kai-Shek

Mao Zedong Long March

Background

After World War I, dictatorships sought to restore order to damaged nations.

Dictators felt that the needs of the nation outweighed the needs of the individual people, hence they established totalitarian governments. Totalitarian → form of dictatorship that controls all

aspects of a society (political, economic, social). This form of government was usually enforced by secret

police and military officers. Disagreement with this form of government usually led to

imprisonment or death.

Weimar Republic

Weimar Republic → government established in Germany after the removal of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Citizens believed the Weimar Republic would become a successful form of democratic government in Germany.

Faced immediate issues attempting to resolve the problems of World War I

Were blamed for the Treaty of Versailles Oversaw Germany during the Great Depression

Adolf Hitler

Hitler → former German officer who would become chancellor of Germany and ultimately dictator.

Hitler helped create the Nazi Party

Nazi Party → fascist political group that claimed democracy and socialism failed Germany and needed to be removed

Initially Hitler's attempts at government control failed but would gain momentum with the Great Depression.

The Third Reich

With the arrival of the depression and the massive deflation that accompanied it, the reforms suggested by the Nazi Party gave it the popularity necessary to gain control of German legislature.

Hitler would be named Chancellor of Germany and would immediately turn German government into a dictatorship.

He would create the Third Reich, a fascist Nazi dictatorship meant to follow the lead of the earlier German governments.

Hitler would now take on the title of fuhrer (leader in German).

Hitler would gain control of every aspect of German government

He controlled industrial and agricultural production He controlled radio stations and newspapers He set up the Hitler Youth Group which became a Nazi soldier

factory.

Concentration Camps

Hitler would round up many of the Jews in Germany and have them placed in ghettos (small ethnic neighborhoods).

Slowly, the Jews would be moved from the ghettos funneled into concentration camps → prison camps in Germany and other countries later.

Japanese Expansion

Japan lacked natural resources and had to resort to colonization to acquire the resources they needed.

Japan felt that control of China would bring the natural resources necessary to maintain their newly industrialized society.

Aggression in Manchuria and China Japan would seize Manchuria in 1931 but would later give

Manchuria its “independence” as Manchukuo in 1932. The Japanese would begin to strip Manchuria of its

natural resources. Japan would then begin a full scale attack on China in

1937 and would capture Northern China and Nanking within the year.

The Chinese, led by Chiang-Kai Shek would maintain the Chinese Nationalist government in Western China and later work with Mao Zedong to repel the Japanese.

The Western nations would condemn the Japanese aggression but do nothing to stop it allowing Japan to expand into Vietnam.

China During World War I

China had been dealing with internal strife after World War I as Communists began to appear in China and challenge the rule of Sun Yixian.

A small communist group led by Mao Zedong would engage in what would become civil war while China was attempting to repel Japan.

Mao Zedong would be forced to take the “Long March” with his Communist troops to evade the Nationalist troops.

Long March → walk by Communists from southern China into the Northern regions