RISE OF DICTATORS

Warm Up (Interwar Years)1. 63 nations pledge to renounce war as national

policy2. What league turns out to be a great failure?3. Policy of appeasement:4. Why does value of German money go down?5. a period of low economic activity and rising

unemployment6. Black Tuesday:7. Totalitarian state:

Benito Mussolini• Became the dictator of Italy– Becomes known as Il Duce or “the leader”

• In 1919 he founded the National Fascist Party– Fascism = an authoritarian form of gov’t that places

the good of the nation above all else, including individual rights

– Push extreme nationalism and love for the state– Envisioned an aggressive state ruled by a strong all-

powerful leader, tended to glorify violence• In 1922 Fascists became a major force in the Italian

parliament

– Mussolini organized his followers, called the Brown Shirts, and led the March on Rome

– The King of Italy made Mussolini prime minister• Mussolini than started to consolidate power by

terrorizing opposition and shooting their leaders• He soon gained control of the press and outlawed

all other political parties• Mussolini did make an agreement with the Catholic

Church, called the Lateran Pact– Established Vatican City as an independent state and

in return the pope officially recognized Italy• Mussolini wanted to build a glorious Italian empire just

like in Roman times

Joseph Stalin• Became the dictator of the Soviet Union– Used other leading members of the Communist

party to outmaneuver the frontrunner after Lenin died

– Once he achieved this goal, he then either exiled or killed the people he used

– Turns himself into a living god of Communism

• Introduced Five-Year Plans– Each factory and mine had production goals set by

the state– Led to increases in industrial output, but not for

consumer goods

• Collectivization = combine private farms into larger, mechanized state-run farms– Peasants, who received land under Lenin, lost their

lands and then are forced to work on these collective farms

– Peasants who protested were either executed by Stalin’s police forces or sent to the system of labor camps in Siberia called the Gulag

– People in the Ukraine resisted and Stalin allowed millions to starve to death in retaliation

• Stalin killed millions of people he thought were or could plot against him– In the late 1930s he wiped out most of the military

officer corps

– In 1936 he launched a series of show trials, in which people were tortured until they confessed to what Stalin wanted them to say• He used this to wipe out the Old Bolsheviks,

people who had been in the party prior to 1917• Ten million people were arrested, several million

were immediately executed, others sent to the Gulag

– Also tried to wipe out the middle class• Stalin ruled with an iron fist and ruthlessly removed all

opposition, real or imaginary

Stalin’s reign

• Stalin is responsible for the murder of about 43,000,000 people

• Stalin imposed a famine on Ukraine that murdered by starvation about 5,000,000 Ukrainians.

Adolf Hitler• Became the dictator of Germany– Born in Austria, failed artist, fought for Germany in

WWI

• After the war he joined the National Socialist Party, or Nazi for short– Tries to seize power in the Beer Hall Putsch– Fails and Hitler goes to jail, where he writes Mein

Kampf or “my struggle”– It outlines his major political ideas and goals

• Decided to reinvent the Nazis as a political party and use the existing political structure

Hitler in WWI• Hitler volunteered at age 25 by enlisting in a

Bavarian Regiment • Throughout most of the war, Hitler had great luck

avoiding life threatening injury. More than once he moved away from a spot where moments later a shell exploded killing or wounding everyone.

• Hitler, unlike his fellow soldiers, never complained about bad food and the horrible conditions or talked about women, preferring to discuss art or history. He received a few letters but no packages from home and never asked for leave. His fellow soldiers regarded Hitler as too eager to please his superiors, but generally a likable loner notable for his luck in avoiding injury as well as his bravery.

• Hitler's luck ran out when he was wounded in the leg by a shell fragment during the Battle of the Somme. He was hospitalized in Germany. It was his first time away from the front after two years of war. Following his recovery, he went sight seeing in Berlin, then was assigned to light duty in Munich. He was appalled at the apathy and anti-war sentiment among German civilians. He blamed the Jews for much of this and saw them as conspiring to spread unrest and undermine the German war effort.

• In August 1918, he received the Iron Cross first class, a rarity for foot soldiers. Interestingly, the lieutenant who recommended him for the medal was a Jew, a fact Hitler would later obscure. Despite his good record and a total of five medals, he remained a corporal. Due to his unmilitary appearance and odd personality, his superiors felt he lacked leadership qualities and thought he would not command enough respect as a sergeant.

– Creates the S.A., the Nazi army, which went around intimidating opponents and causing violence

– Hitler promised to fix the economic problems and to overturn the Treaty of Versailles and bring glory back to Germany since Germans were the master race

– By 1933 the Nazi party gained the majority of seats in the German parliament and Hitler was named Chancellor

• Once in power, Hitler passed a series of acts that gave him almost total authority– Banned all political parties except the Nazis and

trade unions as well– Hitler now had to appease the only threat left, the

German army

• The army didn’t like the power of the S.A.• 1934 the “Night of the Long Knives” = Hitler has

the leaders of the S.A. murdered• Following this attack, the German army pledges

their complete loyalty to Hitler• Hitler becomes a totalitarian ruler, taking the title of

Fuhrer– He was glorified as a great ruler and used

propaganda to control the German people– Created Nazi youth organizations brainwash young

Germans– Began to rebuild the German army and economy– Also put his anti-Semitic beliefs into action, which led

to the Holocaust and millions dying

Hideki Tojo• Became the dictator of Japan• Many Japanese lost faith in their gov’t during the Great

Depression and turned to the military for leadership– The military began to promote the fighting spirit of

Japanese troops – Put military personnel in public schools, children

began to learn aspects of warfare• 1930s Japanese soldiers and military leaders carried out

a series of assassinations of gov’t officials– The gov’t grew more dominated by the military

Francisco Franco• Became the dictator of Spain• In the 1930s the Spanish Civil War broke out– One side was the Nationalists, a fascist-like group,

led by General Franco– They fought against the Republicans, who were

trying to save the democracy– Italy and Germany helped out Franco by testing their

new weapons on towns that did not support him– France and Great Britain refused to help the

democracy, so it ended up getting help from the Soviet Union

• Franco wins and sets up a dictatorship in Spain

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASW3UCc17AI

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZcs1SHVbz0&feature=related