Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
New Order (Nazism) wikipedia , lookup
German–Soviet Axis talks wikipedia , lookup
Foreign relations of the Axis powers wikipedia , lookup
Italian Social Republic wikipedia , lookup
Economics of fascism wikipedia , lookup
Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism wikipedia , lookup
Wang Jingwei regime wikipedia , lookup
Mussolini During World War I, Italy decided to join the Allies after France and Britain promised Italy certain territory from Austria-Hungary. Italians were particularly interested in this territory because a lot of ethnic Italians lived in these territories. After the war, Italy received some of the promised territory, but some of it became a part of the newly created state Yugoslavia. Italian nationalists were outraged and they claimed that the peace settlement did not justify the sacrifices that Italy had made during the war. Benito Mussolini was one of these nationalists and in 1919 he organized WWI veterans and discontented Italians into the Fascist Party. The Fascist Party took its name from the Latin term fasces which meant a bundle of sticks wrapped around an ax. In ancient Rome, the fasces were a symbol for unity and authority. Mussolini gained support by promising to restore order in Italy and to revive the greatness of the Roman Empire. A drawing of the fasces. One way that Mussolini and the Fascists gained power and control in Italy was through terror. Benito Mussolini organized his more militant supporters into “combat squads” that were called the Black Shirts because they wore black shirts. The Black Shirts were especially violent towards Italian socialists. They also used violence to force some elected officials out of office. In 1922, Mussolini and tens of thousands of Fascists marched towards Rome (in what is now known as the March on Rome) to demand that the government make changes. During this time, Italy was a parliamentary monarchy. In order to prevent a possible civil war, on October 30, 1922, King Victor Emmanuel III asked Mussolini to serve as the Italian Prime Minister. Mussolini and the Black Shirts march on Rome By 1925, Mussolini took on the title Il Duce or “The Leader.” He began to rigidly suppress any opposition. The Black Shirts and the police were sent to suppress rival political parties. Mussolini also censored the press and changed the election laws to favor the Fascists. In 1929, Mussolini negotiated an agreement with Pope Pius XI. Mussolini promised to recognize the Vatican City as an independent state in return for the Pope’s support for Mussolini and the Fascists. In order to revive Germany’s economy, Mussolini developed a corporatist state. A corporatist state provides a balance between state and private control of the economy. Mussolini placed elite Italians and industrial leaders in charge of the different branches of industry, agriculture, and commerce. Benito Mussolini Under Mussolini’s Fascist rule, Italians were commanded to place loyalty to the state (Italy) above their own personal interests. He used the propaganda slogan “Believe! Obey! Fight!” to urge Italians to fight for the glory of Italy and the Roman Empire. Mussolini targeted Italian children to build the new army he would need for his plan to expand Italian power. Fascist youth groups were organized to teach Italian children strict military discipline and the glories of ancient Rome. Mussolini addressing a crowd. The words at the bottom say BELIEVE OBEY FIGHT Stalin After Lenin died in 1924, there were two men who competed for his position as leader of the Soviet Union: Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Trotsky and Stalin were both powerful members of the Communist Party and they had both helped organize the Bolshevik Revolution that brought Lenin to power. Stalin removed his competition by turning members of the Communist Party against Trotsky, forcing him into exile, and eventually having him killed in Mexico. Joseph Stalin After coming to power, one of the first things that Stalin did was bring the Soviet Union’s economy under government control. Within this command economy, the Soviet government made all the economic decisions and owned all the businesses and resources. Stalin developed his FiveYear Plans in an attempt to bring the Soviet Union into the modern industrial age. In order to achieve this rapid industrialization, Stalin set high production goals and established harsh working and living conditions for the workers. Stalin also brought farms and agriculture under state control. Many peasants and wealthy farmers resented the collectivization of their land, but those who resisted were sent to labor camps or left to starve after the government took all of their crops. A terrible famine racked the country in 1932, and this period has come to be known as the Terror Famine. “Industrialization the Path to Socialism” Stalin did not allow any dissent within the Soviet Union. There was no outlet for people to express their discontent. Stalin’s secret police opened private mail, planted listening devices, and censored the press. Those who were caught criticizing Stalin or the Communists were sent to the brutal labor camps called the Gulag. Stalin also feared competition from within his own party (the Communists) and he launched the Great Purge in 1934 to remove any rivals. The primary target of Stalin and his secret police were Old Bolsheviks. These Communist leaders were sent to the Gulag. The purges increased Stalin’s power because the Soviet citizens saw the consequences of disloyalty. At the same time, however Stalin purged intellectuals, military officers, and leaders in economics, industry, and engineering. Stalin also tried to control the thoughts and feelings of Soviet citizens. He used propaganda to bombard citizens with the glories of communism. The government controlled the arts and forced artists and writers to show communism and life in the Soviet Union in a positive way. The government also established atheism (or the belief that there is no god) as the official state “religion.” Stalin believed that Soviet citizens would worship communism rather than a god. Gulag watchtower Stalin and the Communists developed two competing foreign policies for the Soviet Union. On the one hand, the Soviet Union wanted to gain support from other countries and form alliances in order to protect themselves. On the other hand, the Communists wanted to control a world-wide communist revolution. During this time period, many of the great powers felt threatened by communism (and the potential for a communist revolution), so they were reluctant to cooperate with the Soviet Union. Political cartoon showing the fear of the spread of communism, also known as the “Red Scare” Hitler After World War I, Germany was governed by a new and struggling democratic government—the Weimar Republic. Many Germans blamed the Weimar Republic for accepting the harsh conditions in the Treaty of Versailles. As the economy in Germany continued to flounder under the reparations payments and the depression, Germans began to call for another strong leader like Bismarck. Hitler seemed to meet those demands with his strong sense of nationalism. Hitler also promised that he would end reparations payments, he would create jobs, he would unite all Germans into one nation, he would expand Germany’s borders, and he would begin a rearmament program (a direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles). Hitler and members of the SS. After the Great Depression, both the Nazi Party and the Communist Party gained seats in the German legislature. Out of fear of the growing communist power, the German president asked Hitler to become the chancellor (Prime Minister) of the German legislature in 1933. The conservative politicians believed that it would be easier to control Hitler than the communists. By 1934, however, Hitler had consolidated his power and established himself as a dictator. He tried to replace religion with his own racial creed about the glory of the Aryan race (light-skinned Europeans). All Protestant sects were combined into a single state church and Catholic schools were closed. The SS, or Hitler’s personal bodyguards, helped enforce Hitler’s decisions, and the Gestapo, or the secret police, rooted out political opposition. The “Hitler Youth” was created to teach the German youth the Nazi ideology and to train them for war. “Youth serves the Fuhrer” Once he came to power, Hitler fulfilled many of the promises that he had made to gain support. He began making plans for the new Third Reich or empire, in which Germans would dominate Europe. He fought unemployment by establishing a large public works program that gave tens of thousands of Germans jobs. He helped create affordable products such as the peoples’ radio and the Volkswagen (peoples’ wagon). He also began to violate the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles by starting a rearmament program and planning a way to unite Germany with its former ally Austria. “One (Volk) People, One (Reich) Empire, One (Fuhrer) Leader!” During this time period, many Germans blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat in World War I and the country’s economic problems. Hitler had very strong anti-Semitic beliefs and he set out on a mission to remove the Jews from Germany. The Nazis passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. Under the Nuremberg Laws, German Jews were deprived of their German citizenship, they were prohibited from marrying non-Jews, holding government jobs, practicing law or medicine, or publishing books. On the night of November 9-10 in 1938, the Nazis launched an attack on Jewish communities all over Germany. This night came to be known as Kristallnacht or the “Night of Broken Glass.” In the next few years, Hitler would develop a plan for the “Final Solution” to what he considered to be the Jewish “problem.” After the Nuremburg Laws were passed, the Nazis released diagrams such as this one to show who was allowed to marry. The empty circles indicate full-blooded Germans and the black circles indicate full-blooded Jews. Chiang Kai-Shek From 1912 to 1921, China experienced a period of great turmoil. The country lacked a strong leader and local warlords began seizing power within the different provinces. During World War I, the Japanese tried to make China a Japanese protectorate, and after the war, the Allies gave Japan control over some Chinese territory that had been under German control. Japan’s increasing imperialistic interests enraged Chinese Nationalists. In 1921, Sun Yixan and his Nationalist Party called the Guomindang established a government in South China. Jiang Jieshi (or Chiang KaiShek) took control of the government and the Guomindang after Sun Yixan’s death in 1925. After coming to power, Chiang Kai-Shek set out on a mission to defeat the warlords and to reunite China. Chiang Kai-Shek, also called Jiang Jieshi In 1926, Chiang Kai-Shek launched his campaign against the warlords. During this campaign, which is known as the Northern Expedition, Chiang cooperated with the Chinese Communists to lead his troops into northern China to capture Beijing. Along the way, Chiang’s Nationalists and the Chinese Communists gained the support of some local warlords and defeated others. After successfully capturing Beijing, however, Chiang turned his back on the Chinese Communists and formed a new government led by the Guomindang. In 1927, Chiang ordered Guomindang troops to kill members of the Communist Party and their supporters. This massacre set off a civil war in China that would last for 22 years. Map of the Northern Expedition During the civil war between the Guomindang and the Chinese Communists, Mao Zedong emerged as the leader of the Communist Party. He gained support for the communist throughout the country by treating the peasants with kindness and respect. Chiang Kai-Shek was determined to remove the communist competition so he launched a series of “extermination” campaigns against them. From 1934-1935, the Guomindang troops forced the Communist army to retreat across China in what is known as the Long March. Mao Zedong The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the beginning of the Second SinoJapanese War in 1937 forced cooperation between the Guomindang and the Chinese Communists. They needed to present a united front against the invading Japanese. Chiang Kai-Shek and the Guomindang government were forced to retreat back into the interior of China, but Chiang Kai-Shek was able to maintain control of the Chinese government through the end of World War II when Mao and the communists would come to power. Hirohito In 1926, Hirohito became the new Japanese emperor. At the ceremonies, Hirohito pledged “to preserve world peace and benefit the welfare of the human race.” During the 1920s, Japan, like the United States, experienced a period of wealth and prosperity, but tensions began to arise between the military and the government. In an effort to strengthen its economic relations with the Western powers, the Japanese government agreed to limit the size of its navy, to reduce military spending, and to limit Japanese expansion. In 1923, one of the most destructive earthquakes in world history struck Tokyo, and in the 1930s, the global depression began. Damage after the earthquake in Tokyo After the depression hit Japan, Japanese military officials and ultranationalists began to blame the Japanese government for cooperating with the Western powers and limiting Japanese expansion. They began to call for renewed expansion and the creation of a Japanese Empire. In 1931, a group of Japanese army officers invaded Manchuria. When the League of Nations condemned the Japanese invasion, the Japanese simply withdrew from the League and their disarmament treaties. Political cartoon showing how the anti-war treaties of the era were ineffective in preventing the Japanese invasion of Manchuria The Japanese ultranationalists gained support for their foreign conquests and their opposition to the Western powers. Members of extreme nationalist societies took violent action against any opposition and ordered the assassination of a number of politicians and business leaders who opposed Japanese expansion. In 1936, some nationalists plotted to overthrow the Japanese government. Emperor Hirohito In order to retain control of the Japanese government, Hirohito had to give in to many militaristic demands. In order to please the ultranationalists, Hirohito began to crack down on Japanese socialists. Ancient warrior values (samurai) were revived, and the ultranationalists began to build a cult around the emperor. Many Japanese believed that Hirohito was a descendent of the sun goddess. Schools were used to spread the nationalist ideology and to teach students absolute obedience to the emperor and the state. Amaterasu: The Japanese Sun Goddess