Download The Rise of the Axis Powers and the Road to World

1920 – 1939
(Chapter 31)
 Totalitarian
 Government with complete
control over peoples lives
 Fascism
 Political movement based on
extreme nationalism and
militarism
 Usually led by a single party and
one leader with ultimate power
 Nazism
 Germany’s fascist movement
 Included a belief in racial
superiority
 Focused on extreme nationalism with loyalty and
sacrifice for your state
 Loyalty to a leader who brought order and structure
 Often had unique uniforms, salutes, and would hold
large rallies
 Similarities to Communism
 1 political party with a dictator (no democracy)
 Both denied individual rights and put the state first
 Differences to Communism
 Fascists didn’t want a classless society
 Fascists were usually nationalists, while Communists
were internationalists
 Did not gain large amounts of territories from the
Treaty of Versailles
 Rising inflation and unemployment caused the people
to be upset
 Felt their democracy was not doing enough to fix the
country’s problems, looked for a strong leader
 Newspaper editor,
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politician and founder of
the Italian Fascist Party
(1919)
Promised to improve the
economy and rebuild the
military
“Black Shirts” attacked
Communists and Socialists
Gained support of the
middle class, aristocracy,
and industrialists
Promised to return Italy to
the time of the Roman
Empire
 October 1922
 30,000 Fascists marched on
Rome
 King Victor Emmanuel III
appointed Mussolini Prime
Minister to avoid further
violence
 Il Duce (“the leader”)
 After gaining power,
Mussolini takes near
complete control
 Outlawed all political
parties (except the Fascist)
 Censored the radio and
newspapers
 Took control of the
economy
 Italy failed to take over Ethiopia in the 1890s
 October 1935, Italy invades with a modern army of
tanks, planes, and machine guns
 Ethiopia’s emperor Haile Selassie asked for help from
the League of Nations
 League condemned the attack, but did nothing to stop it
 Great Britain allowed Italy to use the Suez Canal to
move troops into Ethiopia
 Wanted to avoid fighting (appeasement)
 1920s Japan
 Democracy was growing
 1922 – treaty to respect China’s borders
 1928 – signed the Kellog-Braind Pact that was to outlaw
the use of war
 After the Great Depression starts
 People blamed the government for economic problems
 Military took over the government, but kept Emperor
Hirohito in charge as the face of the government
 Planned to expand the empire for new markets, raw
materials, and room for its population
 1931 – Japan takes control of
Manchuria (northeast
province of China)
 League of Nations
condemned the invasion, but
did nothing
 Japan withdrew from the
League in 1933
 July 1937 – Japan invades
China
 Rape of Nanjing
 Jiang Jieshi’s army forced to
retreat
 Mao Zedong’s Communists
fight a guerilla war against
the Japanese
 1919 – National Socialist
German Workers’ Party
formed (Nazi Party)
 Wanted to overturn the
Treaty of Versailles
 Wanted to fight
Communism
 Created a private army
called the Brown Shirts
 Hitler becomes a leader of
the Nazi Party
 Beer Hall Putsch (Nov.
1923)
 Hitler leads attempt to
overthrow the government
 Fails and sent to prison for
5 years (serves 9 months)
 Hitler explains his beliefs and goals
in a book he writes in prison
 Aryan Race
 Claimed Germans were the “Master
Race” and should rule the world
 All “non-Ayrans” were inferior and
should be destroyed
 Treaty of Versailles
 Wanted to gain back all of
Germany’s lost territories
 Lebensraum (“living room”)
 Claimed Germany was overcrowded
 Would take over Eastern Europe
and Russia
 Third Reich
 After his prison term,
Hitler took back control
of the Nazi Party
 When the Great
Depression starts, the
German economy further
collapsed and support of
the Nazi Party grew
 January, 1933 – President
von Hindenburg makes
Hitler Chancellor of
Germany
 After Nazis win a
parliamentary election,
Hitler turns Germany into
a totalitarian state
 Hitler’s SS (Schutzstaffel) and Gestapo force German
peoples into obedience
 SS = Hitler’s private army
 Gestapo = private police force
 Both groups arrested and murdered rivals to the Nazis and
Hitler
 Hitler takes economic control and cuts unemployment
 Hitler forced propaganda to create a loyal nation
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Controlled the press, radio, literature, and art
Burned books that didn’t fit Nazi beliefs
Prevented churches from speaking bad about Nazism
Schoolchildren joined the Hitler Youth or League of German
Girls
 Nazis blamed the Jews for
many of Germany’s problems
(anti-Semitism)
 1933 – Nazi party begins to
strip rights from the Jews
 1935 – Nuremburg Laws
 Took away legal rights to
Jews and other minorities
 November 9, 1938 –
Kristallnacht
 The “Night of Broken Glass”
 Nazis attacked and arrested
Jews in large numbers
 Jewish owned homes and
businesses were destroyed
 March 1935 – Hitler begins make
his army larger
 League of Nations does nothing
 March 7, 1936 – Germany invades
the Rhineland
 France and Great Britain begin
practicing appeasement
 Appeasement = giving into the
demands of an aggressor to avoid
war
 October 1936 – Germany and Italy
create the Rome-Berlin Axis
 November 1936 – Germany, Italy
and Japan create the Axis Powers
(Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis)
 July 1936 – Francisco Franco
leads a Fascist revolution to
overthrow the republican
government
 Hitler and Mussolini send
troops, tanks, and planes to
help Franco’s forces in the 3
year civil war
 Western Democracies
supported the Republican
side, but did not send any
help (except the Soviet
Union)
 Franco’s fascist forces win in
1939
 March 1938 – Germany annexes Austria (Treaty of
Versailles prohibited this)
 September 1938 – Germany demands that the
Sudetenland be given to Germany
 Sudetenland was a German speaking section of
Czechoslovakia
 Czechoslovakia asked France to help
 September 29, 1938 – France, Great Britain, Germany,
and Italy meet to discuss the Sudetenland and
Czechoslovakia
 Hitler promised to not take any more of Czechoslovakia
if he got the Sudetenland
 Great Britain’s Prime Minister again follows the idea of
appeasement and gives in
 “I believe it is peace in our time.”
 March 1939 – Germany annexes Czechoslovakia
Munich Conference
Every body say “appeasement”!
 Mussolini seized Albania
 Hitler looks to take over Poland
 Great Britain and France
threaten war if Germany invades
Poland
 August 23, 1939 – Germany and
the Soviet Union sign a
nonaggression pact
 This would keep the Soviet
Union from joining the war and
prevent a two-front war
 September 1, 1939 – Germany
invades Poland