Download Dictators in Power

Dictators in Power
Italy
• Benito Mussolini
• The Treaty of Versailles didn’t
help Italy
• Public fear of communist
takeover
• High unemployment and civil
unrest
Mussolini
• Founded the Fascist
party
• A military government
that controls ALL
aspects of society
• To oppose the
communists
Mussolini
• He limited freedom of speech, arrested or killed
political opponents, and restricted voting rights
• Spent big money to build up the Italian military
• 1935- Italy attacked Ethiopia to reestablish an
empire
Germany
• Adolph Hitler
• Post WWI unemployment and
inflation led to depression and
discontent
Hitler
• 1932- National Socialist
Party (Nazi Party) won
control of German
government
• 1933- Hitler became
chancellor
Hitler
• He promised to
retake traditional
German land (which
was taken in the
Treaty of Versailles)
• Spent BIG money to
build up the military
Hitler
• Imprisoned, tortured, killed, or
removed any opponents
• Wrote “Mein Kampf ” (My Struggle)
which blamed Jews, intellectuals,
and communists for Germany’s
decline
Russia/USSR
• Joseph Stalin
• 1924- After the death
of Lenin, Stalin
emerged the new
Soviet leader
Stalin
• Stalin worked to make the Soviet Union a totalitarian
state (quite the opposite of Communist ideals)
• Stalin purged all political opponents from the Soviet
government (Anyone who resisted Stalin was executed
or worked to death in a Siberian gulag
Japan
• General Hideki Tojo
• 1868 to 1920 - Japan started to
industrialize and compete with the
Western World (including military
defeats of Russia and Korea)
• 1920s - The military wanted to create
an empire with minimal reliance on
foreign imports and little Western
influence
Tojo
• Tojo (a young military leader) called this vision the
"Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere."
• The Japanese military provoked the traditional samurai
fighting spirit by removing the words surrender, retreat,
and defense from the military instruction manual
• 1931- Japan invades Manchuria
• 1937- Japan invades China