Download Rise of International Totalitarianism

RISE OF
INTERNATIONAL
TOTALITARIANISM
SOVIET UNION, GERMANY, ITALY, JAPAN
AN ANSWER TO THE
DEPRESSION?
• By the end of the 1930s, people were hoping for
a way out of the Depression
• Strong leaders who made promises to supply
jobs and restore the country began offering
quick answers
• Fascism appeared in Germany and Italy
• Communism was the government of the Soviet
Union
• Japan became increasingly totalitarian
As long as things in a country work smoothly, does the
kind of government matter?
TOTALITARIANISM
• A totalitarian government restricts individual
rights and makes everyone subordinate to the
government
• They keep power through fear and oppression
• Totalitarian regimes believe that democracies
are weak
• Citizens are often victims of propaganda that
tells them to set aside their personal ambitions
for the good of the country
Why do you think the propaganda is aimed towards telling
the citizens to put their own needs aside for the good of
the country?
COMMUNISM
• Communism in the Soviet Union was totalitarian
• Communism is not intended to be totalitarian
“on paper”, but its leaders are often corrupt and
abuse the system and the people
• structured upon the common ownership of
the means of production and the absence
of social classes, money, and the state
STALIN & USSR
• Held absolute authority; suppressed
resistance
• Brought country to world power status but
imposed upon it one of the most ruthless
regimes in history
• Collectivization: exported seized goods to
finance a massive industrialization = Rapid
industrialization
• The Great Purges: KGB = secret police
killed thousands of army officers and
prominent Bolsheviks who opposed Stalin
• Feared the growing power of Nazi Germany
CANADA &
COMMUNISM
• 1921: Communist Party of Canada is founded
• From the onset these communist party members were
harassed and arrested by the police
• Most Canadians were in support of supressing the
communists
• People claimed recent immigrants and labour unions
promoted communism and ideas to overthrow the
government
Why were Canadians so scared of communism? Why
were immigrants blamed for communist ideas? Are these
kinds of sentiments about immigrants still present today in
Canada?
FASCISM
• A type of totalitarianism
• Fascism tells citizens their nation and race are
superior = nationalism
• “Cult of Personality” – propaganda
• Dictatorship
• Direct-action militarism
BENITO MUSSOLINI
Country: Italy
Type of Government: Fascism
(dictatorship)
Goals and Ideas:
•Centralized all power in himself as
leader (total control of social,
economic, and political life)
•Ambition to restore the glory of
Rome
•Invasion of Ethiopia
•Alliance with Hitler’s Germany
Il Duce
Country: Japan
HIDEKI TOJO
Type of Government: Militarism
Goals and Ideas:
•Though Japan had an emperor,
the military had taken control of
the government
•Emperor Hirohito could not stand
up to the powerful generals, but he
was worshipped by the people,
who often fought in his name
•Industrialization of Japan, lending
to a drive for raw materials – how
do you get raw materials?
IMPERIALISM
•Invasion of Korea, Manchuria, and
the rest of China (the League of
Nations did nothing)
Hideki Tojo, Military Leader of Japan
Hirohito, Emperor of Japan
HITLER AND THE NAZI
PARTY – GERMANY POST
WWI
• Germany had been a monarchy during WWI, and
after the Allies imposed a democratic
government
• Germans had little experience with democracy
and hated that it was forced on them – people
did not vote, and the party leaders were
ineffective
• Resentful about the war guilt clause in the Treaty
of Versailles
• Were being forced to pay reparations, but their
currency value had dropped to almost zero
Do you think the 1920s were “roaring” for Germany? Why
or why not?
HITLER AND THE NAZI
PARTY – GERMANY POST
WWI
• With the economic disparity of the 1920s,
Germany did not feel the “boom” that other
global areas did – poverty was widespread and
people are frustrated
• The Depression begins in 1929 making matters
even worse
• Adolf Hitler seemed like an appealing leader who
could fix these economic and political problems
• He led the National Socialist German Workers’
Party – The Nazis
Was it “prime time” for a leader like Hitler to appear in
Germany?
HITLER AND THE NAZI
PARTY – GERMANY POST
WWI
• Hitler was a powerful speaker, and appealed to
the unemployed and disillusioned
• He said that Aryans – blonde haired, blue eyed –
people were the superior race
• Groups like the Roma and Jews were inferior
and that gay men, communists and the disabled
were “undesirables”
• 1933 – Hitler is appointed Chancellor of
Germany
Why might Hitler and the Nazis have a policy against
certain groups of people?
HITLER AND THE NAZI
PARTY
• Once in power Hitler gets rid of all opposition, suspends
the constitution and makes a secret police called the
Gestapo to scare people out of challenging him
• Rebuilds Germany’s military against the Treaty of
Versailles
• Starts annexing German-speaking countries claiming to
“bring them home to the fatherland”
• The League of Nations and world powers did nothing, as
they worried about starting another war – this was called
appeasement
RESPONSE TO NAZI
GERMANY
• The League of Nations, Canada included, wanted to avoid
conflict, so they appeased Hitler
• There was an increase in anti-Semitism in Canada on top
of an already restricted immigrant policy during the Great
Depression
• Jews looking to escape persecution in Germany had to
meet the same restrictions as immigrants from anywhere
else – no refugee policy
• Between 1933-1945, Canada allows less than 5000 Jewish
immigrants compared to 200 000 in the U.S., 70 000 in
Britain and tens of thousands in Shanghai China
MACKENZIE-KING –
1938 (IN HIS DIARY)
“We must nevertheless seek to keep this
part of the continent free from unrest and
from too great an intermixture of foreign
strains of blood, as much the same thing
lies at the basis of the oriental problem…I
fear that we would have riots if we agreed
to a policy that admitted numbers of Jews.
Also we would add to the difficulties
between the Provinces and the Dominion”
Do you think King has valid arguments, or is the
“Jewish problem” in Canada a racist issue?