Transcript The Rise of Dictators

Setting the Stage for World War II
Totalitarian Governments
One party dominates government
 Powerful Dictator usually in charge
 State more important people
 Violence- secret police forces used to
make people obey

 Government controls personal lives
 Kicks out anyone that goes against them

Government Controlled Economies
Russia
 Joseph
Stalin- won the battle for power
after Lenin died
 Five Year Plan- production goals for
factories set by the state (successful)
 Extreme force- arrested or killed
anyone that defied him Great Purge
Stalin continued…
 Communism-
State rules to
strengthen USSR
 Collectivism - combined all farms
to increase food production
 Then famine- Peasants unhappy
(Peace, Land, Bread! From
revolution remember?)
Joseph Stalin
Italy

Benito Mussolini- “Il Duce” (the leader)
 Wanted to build a great Italian Empire
 Took power during the March on Rome
Fascist- comes from fasces which was an
ancient Roman symbol for unity and
strength of the state
 Ethiopia invasion 1935- easy target for Italy

 Victory made Mussolini look good
 League of Nations slapped them on the wrist
Mussolini
Fasces on Italian Flag
Japan

Industrial/military development post WWI
 Moved away from agricultural economy
 Promoted Fighting spirit in troops
Manchuria- took over for its resources
 Devotion to Emperor and military

 Military took over the government

Sino-Japanese war: develops the Empire in
China
Germany
 Weimar
Republic inherits a nation in bad
shape
 Postwar inflation- money became
worthless
 Adolf Hitler- World War I veteran, great
speaker
 Mein Kampf “My Struggle”- outlined his ideas
while in prison
Germany continued…

Takes power bit by bit- Chancellor by
1933
 Used the struggles of Germany to his
advantage: he said that German would be a
great Nation again
 Fire to the Reichstag (like US Capitol
Building)
○ Nazis used this fire as an excuse to use
“emergency powers” and take total control
Reichstag Fire 1933- Berlin
The National Socialist Party (Nazi)
Superior race- the pure German Aryan people
 Anti-Semitic- Against Jewish people

 Blamed the Jews for many of Germany’s problems
and its defeat in WWI
 Kristallnact- “Night of Broken Glass”
○ Germans looted Jewish businesses
Lebensraum- Living space for the German
people- Nazis thought Germany was too small
 Youth Nazi camps

Hitler Youth
Nazi Germany
Hitler as the “Fuhrer”
 Conditions improved- good for Hitler
 Breaking Treaty of Versailles

 Taking Rhineland, Czechoslovakia,
Absorbed Austria
 Rearmament- military expansion
 Trying to take over all of Europe

Making Pacts/Agreements
 Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
On the Brink of another War…

Appeasement by Britain (UK) and France
 Gave in to Hitler’s demands in order to avoid
war
○ World War I still fresh in everyone’s mind

Axis Powers Form- Germany, Italy, Japan
 Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan and Germany
○ Aimed to stop the spread of Communism
 Pact of Steel with Italy and Germany
 Tripartite Pact made them allies
 More nations joined as well