Download World History Connections to Today

Totalitarian Dictators
• The Rise to Power
After World War I – in Europe
• Returning veterans needed jobs.
• War-ravaged lands needed to be rebuilt.
• Many nations owed huge debts because
they had borrowed heavily to pay for the war.
• Economic problems fed social unrest and
made radical ideas more popular.
• The peace settlements dissatisfied many
Europeans, especially in Germany and
Eastern Europe.
• Europe lacked strong leaders just when they
were most needed.
The Great Depression
• World wide slow down in the economy
• Inflation (rising prices) was out of control in
Europe
– How high were fuel prices?
The Situation in Italy
Italians were NOT Happy
• Treaty of Versailles made them angry
• Lower classes were mad saw what was
happening in Russia
– Peasants seized land
– Workers seized factories
• Soldiers returning from war did not have jobs
• The government was weak and divided
• Chaos ensued
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Along came…..Benito Mussolini
Fascist Totalitarian Dictator
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His political party
Led Mussolini to power? (1922)
Goal for Italy
Invasion
League of Nations?
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Back
1. Fascist Party
2. Hatred for Treaty of Versailles, Depression
in Italy
3. Restore glory of Roman Empire
• Would include North Africa and the
Balkans
4. Ethiopia to increase empire
5. Did nothing to stop him
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Q: Why would Italians be
willing to turn to a leader that
was extremely militaristic and
extremely nationalistic?
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What Is Fascism?
A form of government that became popular in the 1920’s and
1930’s Basic Features:
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extreme nationalism
glorification of action, violence, discipline, and, above all, blind
loyalty to the state
rejection of Enlightenment faith in reason and the concepts of
equality and liberty
rejection of democratic ideas
pursuit of aggressive foreign expansion
glorification of warfare as a necessary and noble struggle for
survival
The Situation in Germany
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Adolf Hitler’s Rise to Power
Hitler fought in the German army in World War I.
In 1919, he joined a small group of right-wing extremists.
Within a year, he was the leader of the National Socialist German
Workers, or Nazi, party.
In 1923, he made a failed attempt to seize power in Munich. He
was imprisoned for treason.
In prison, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”). It would later
become the basic book of Nazi goals and ideology.
Nazi membership grew to almost a million.
In 1933, Hitler was made chancellor of Germany.
Within a year, Hitler was master of Germany. He made Germany a
one-party state and purged his own party.
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Adolph Hitler
Fascist Totalitarian Dictator
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His political party
What led Hitler to power (1933)
His book
Nearby countries he took over
How he started WWII
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Back
1. Nazis – Nationalist Socialist Party
2. Great Depression, hatred for Treaty of
Versailles, anti-Semitism
3. Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
4. Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland
5. Invasion of Poland (1939)
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Q: Why would Germans be
willing to turn to a leader that
was extremely militaristic and
extremely nationalistic?
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Josheph Stalin
Totalitarian Dictator
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His goal
Five Year Plans
Collectivization
Secret Police
Great Purge
Who he makes deal with
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Back
1. Make USSR a world power
2. Plans for industrializing USSR
3. Peasants “collected” on govt run farms (no
private property)
4. KGB – spies on citizens
5. Stalin executes anyone who might oppose
him (genocide)
6. Hitler – they agree not to attack each other