Transcript Hitler`s Germany

CHAPTER 31
The Collapse of the Old Order
1929-1949
THE SOVIET UNION & THE
STALIN REVOLUTION
• Joseph Stalin rose to power in the Communist
(Bolshevik) Party in Russia by eliminating all other
challengers after Lenin’s death in 1924 (like Trotsky)
• Main Goal: industrialization to “catch up” with the
western, strong nations (Germany, England, U.S.)
• Five Year Plans were designed to industrialize rapidly
collectivization
• Stalin forced people to live and work on collective farms in the
USSR
• Wheat sold internationally would bring money to the Soviets;
factories built with the money
– Agriculture to Industry
– Small family farms were taken over and consolidated
(collectivized) into mega farms so that more profit could be
made for the government
– 5 million peasants (Kulaks) died as a result of starvation
(what Stalin called “liquidation”) because they dared to
oppose Stalin’s plan
TERROR IN RUSSIA
• Stalin was a paranoid delusional who constantly
felt he was going to be killed, so he frequently
ordered “purges” of the Party to ensure loyalty to
himself and the Party line
• The secret police (NKVD) were used to enforce
Stalin’s purges
• Millions (20) were executed directly or died in
labor camps in Siberia as a result of the Purges
• Stalin’s plans, although brutal, did bring the
Soviet Union into the industrial age quickly
GLOBAL DEPRESSION
• 1929 – the stock market crash in USA leads
the world into depression
• Nations began to place tariffs on imports
which further hurt trade and the economy
• Governments had to bail out their citizens (ex.
FDR’s New Deal) in many nations
• Core states suffered more than periphery
states comparatively (much to lose…)
THE RISE OF FASCISM
• Benito Mussolini (Italy) rose to power, promising to make Italy
strong and rich
• Adolf Hitler (Germany )becomes Chancellor by promising to
return Germany to pre-WW I greatness
• Fascism = Strong Nationalism (the State is the most important
thing in society and civil rights and freedoms are not valued)
• Highly militaristic (war glorified… “You were born to die for
Germany.”)
• Opposition crushed, no dissent allowed
GERMANY UNDER HITLER
• Hitler’s Nazi Party (National Socialist Worker’s Party) rose to
power in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s by crushing all
opposition and promising a return to greatness
• Hitler preached racial purity as the most important aspect of
the building of the Third Reich
– This meant the extermination of “inferior” people such as
Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, etc.
– Hitler made his views known in Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
Hitler’s Germany
• The global depression,
plus the bitterness over
the Treaty of Versailles,
made Germans want to
believe that Hitler was
right for the job
• Hitler takes over
officially as Chancellor
in 1933 and declares
himself Fuhrer in 1934
• The economy and
conditions improved
greatly under Hitler…
THE ROAD TO WAR, 1933-1939
• Hitler wanted to reclaim land in Europe
he considered “German” so he began
to build up the military, violating the
Treaty of Versailles
• Hitler took the Rhineland and then
invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia in
1938
• Leaders of Britain, France, and Italy
agreed at the Munich Conference of
1938 that this was okay…thinking that
was all Hitler would take
• The strategy of appeasement will
backfire on the world
• After World War I, most nations were
terrified to engage in another brutal
war, and Hitler recognized this and
exploited it for his own gain
• Hitler negotiates with the Soviets to
divide up Poland for themselves after
Germany invades them
EAST ASIA, 1931-1945
• Japan becomes very
aggressive and takes over
Manchuria and northern
China…brutality ensued
• Japan’s military essentially
took over the government in
Japan during the 1930’s and
began to prepare the nation
for conquest of the Pacific
region
• Japanese atrocities became
known as the “Rape of
Nanking”
CHINA
• Chiang Kai-Shek and his Nationalist Party were challenged by
Mao Zedong and the Communists; they fight throughout the
1930’s and 1940’s; the Long March is pictured below
• Mao was a dedicated student of Marxism and Lenin’s work
and he sought the redistribution of land in China for the
peasants
– Russia had a revolution centered on helping the industrial
workers, while China’s Communist efforts were focused on
helping the peasants (comparison/contrast!)
THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR, 1937-1945
• Japan’s invasion of China was
brutal with atrocities
committed
• Policy of “kill all, burn all, loot
all” in 1940
• Communists under Mao began
to win over the population of
China, promising to be the
ones who could actually end
the Japanese occupation of
China
It Begins…
• Hitler invades Poland in 1939 and Germany next conquers
France and takes on Russia and Britain (much harder to
accomplish)
• Fighting takes place in Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific
Ocean (islands)
• After the U.S. cuts off oil and other resources, Japan attacks
the U.S. in 1941 at the naval base in Hawaii (a U.S. territory)
thinking the Americans would not be willing to fight an enemy
so far from home
• The U.S. joins the Allied cause (Britain, France, Soviet Union,
facing off against the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan
WORLD WAR II
• Very different from “the
Great War” in that
technology had improved
greatly and war would be
much deadlier as a result
• Planes, tanks, machine
guns, incendiary bombs,
aircraft carriers, destroyers,
submarines, and eventually
atomic bombs
• Civilians and non-military
cities are seen as legitimate
targets in war now
Victory in Europe
• Italy is defeated quickly in 1943 and the Allies are
then able to surround Germany from all sides
• The D-Day Invasion of Normandy, France was crucial
in getting Allied troops into northern Europe to fight
the Nazis there
• By 1945, Germany is defeated and Hitler commits
suicide in his bunker
The Struggle to End the War with Japan
• Japan was not so easy to get to surrender
• Japanese citizens refused to accept defeat
due to their belief in their emperor as a
descendant of the sun god (as a divine
figure there was no way defeat was
possible…and they preferred death to
dishonor)
• The U.S. was faced with an agonizing
decision…to use nuclear weapons to end
the war or risk hundreds of thousands of
troops in a land invasion of Japan
• The U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on
the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
August of 1945, finally getting Japan to
surrender and officially ending World War
II
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The world enters the atomic age…
Back in China…
• With the Japanese defeated, the Chinese Civil War heated up between the
Nationalists and the Communists ()
• The Nationalists lost support by mistreating the peasants in the
countryside, while Mao and the Communists gained support by doing the
exact opposite and promising land reform
• Mao’s forces win in 1949 and force the Nationalists to flee to Taiwan
• China became a Communist nation in 1949 (the People’s Republic of
China) with Mao Zedong as their leader
THE HOLOCAUST
• Nazi killings of civilians was part of a calculated policy
of racially purifying Germany for world domination
• At first, Jews were harassed and placed in ghettoes,
had land and businesses seized, and were subject to
brutality at the hands of the police and Hitler’s
Brown Shirts (thugs used to intimidate opponents)
• Then, beginning in 1942 Hitler began his “final
solution” which meant the extermination of the
Jewish population of Europe
• At least 6 million Jewish lives were lost during the
Holocaust in death camps like Auschwitz and Dachau
HOLOCAUST
TECHNOLOGY CHANGES WARFARE
• Warfare became more deadly because of
technology (atomic bombs, napalm, incendiary
devices, planes, machine guns)
• But technology also saved many lives (radar,
antibiotics to stave off infection)
• World War II was more mobile than World
War I, with fighting taking place in Europe,
North Africa, and the Pacific (also helping to
increase the death toll (65 million)