Download 10.7 Lecture - Fascism

10.7 Lecture - Fascism
I. The Rise of Fascism
A.In the democracies of Western Europe and North America,
where there was little fear of Communist uprising or electoral
victories, middle and upper income voters took refuge in
conservative politics.
1. Many were bewildered by modernity – with its cities,
factories, and department stores – which they blamed on ethnic
minorities, especially Jews.
2. Increasing numbers rejected representative government and
sought more dramatic solutions.
B. Radical Politicians
1. Millions of people lost faith in democratic governments.
a. In response, they turned to an extreme system of
government called fascism.
b. Fascists promised to revive the economy, punish those
responsible for hard times, and restore order and
national pride.
2. Promised to use any means necessary to bring back full
employment, stop the spread of communism, and achieve
the territorial conquests that World War I had denied them.
3. Borrowed the communist model of politics
a. A single party and a totalitarian state with a powerful
secret police that ruled by terror and intimidation.
C. Fascism
1. New, militant political movement that emphasized loyalty
to the state and obedience to its leader.
a. No clearly defined theory or program
2. Preached an extreme form of nationalism, or loyalty to
one’s country.
3. Fascists believed that nations must struggle – peaceful
states were doomed to be conquered.
a. Loyalty to an authoritarian leader who guided and
brought order to the state.
b. Fascists wore uniforms of a certain color, used special
salutes, and held mass rallies.
4. Fascism was similar to communism.
a. Both systems were ruled by dictators who allowed only
their own political party (one-party rule).
b. Denied individual rights
c. State was supreme
d. Did not seek a classless society
1. They believed that each class had its place and
function.
5. Fascist parties were made up of aristocrats and industrialists,
war veterans, and the lower middle class.
6. Fascists were nationalists and Communists were
internationalists, hoping to unite workers worldwide.
D. Mussolini’s Italy
1. Fascism’s rise in Italy was fueled by bitter disappointment
over the failure to win large territorial gains at the 1919 Paris
Peace Conference.
a. Rising inflation and unemployment contributed to
widespread social unrest.
2. First country to seek radical answers.
3. Left thousands of veterans who found neither pride in
their victory nor jobs in the postwar economy.
a. Unemployed veterans and violent youths banded
together into fighting units to demand action and
intimidate politicians.
4. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)
a. Had been expelled by a Socialist Party for supporting
Italy’s entry into the war.
b. A spellbinding orator, he quickly became the leader of
the Fascist Party, which glorified warfare and the
Italian nation.
1. Used violent methods to repress strikes, intimidate
voters, and seize municipal governments.
2. Groups of Fascists wearing black shirts attacked
Communists and Socialists on the streets.
c. In October 1922, about 30,000 Fascists marched on
Rome.
1. They demanded that King Victor Emmanuel II put
Mussolini in charge of the government.
2. Mussolini was the best hope for his dynasty to
survive.
d. Il Duce’s Leadership
1. The Leader
2. He abolished democracy and outlawed all political
parties except the Fascists.
3. Secret police jailed his opponents
4. Government censors forced radio stations and
publications to broadcast or publish only Fascist
doctrines.
5. Outlawed strikes
6. Controlled the economy by allying Fascists with
the industrialists and large landowners.
e. Mussolini proceeded to install Fascist Party members in
all government jobs, crush all opposition parties, and
jail anyone who criticized him.
1. Took over the press, public education, and youth
activities and gave employers control over their
workers.
2. The Fascists lowered living standards but reduced
unemployment and provided social security and
public services.
3. They proved to be neither ruthless radicals nor
competent administrators.
f. What Mussolini and the Fascist movement really
excelled at was publicity: bombastic speeches,
spectacular parades, and signs everywhere proclaiming
“Il Duce” (the leader) is always right.
1. Apply the techniques of modern mass
communications and advertisement to political life.
5. By the 1930s fascist movements had appeared in most
European countries, as well as in Latin America, China,
and Japan.
6. Mussolini never had the total control achieved by Joseph
Stalin in the Soviet Union or Adolf Hitler in Germany.
E. Hitler’s Germany
1. The Weimar Republic
a. Weimar was an assembly that drafted a Constitution for
Germany establishing a democratic republic. 1919-1933
1. The republic faced political instability and
violence.
2. The people felt the republic-betrayed Germany due
to the acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles.
b. Reparations
1. Allies set the cost at $35 billion that Germany need
to pay Britain and France.
a. Germany ultimately could not pay
c. Inflation
1. To meet expenses the German government
printed more and more money to cover costs.
i) 4 marks = 1 dollar before 1923, then 4 trillion
marks = 1 dollar after inflation.
ii) Inflation wiped out the savings of many middle
class Germans.
2. Millions of Germans blamed Socialists, Jews, and
foreigners for their troubles.
3. Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
a. Little-known political leader whose early life had been
marked by disappointment.
b. World War I
1. He volunteered for the German army and was twice
awarded the Iron Cross, a medal for bravery.
c. After the war he used his gifts as an orator to lead a
political splinter group called the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party – Nazis for short.
1. The party adopted the swastika, or hooked cross as
its symbol.
2. Nazis also set up a private militia called the storm
troopers or Brown Shirts.
d. Plotted to seize power in Munich in 1923.
1. Attempt failed, and Hitler was arrested.
2. While serving a brief jail sentence he wrote Mein
Kampf (My Struggle), in which he outlined his
goals and beliefs.
i) When it was published in 1925 Mein Kampf
attracted little notice.
ii) Its ideas seemed so insane that almost no one
took it, or its author, seriously.
- He believed that Germany should incorporate
all German-speaking areas, even those in
neighboring countries.
- He distinguished among a “master race” of
Aryans (he meant Germans, Scandinavians,
and Britons), a degenerate “Alpine” race of
French and Italians, and an inferior race of
Russian and eastern European Slavs, fit only to
be slaves of the master race.
- He reserved his most intense hatred for Jews,
on whom he blamed every disaster that had
befallen Germany, especially the defeat of
1918.
iii) He glorified violence and looked forward to a
future war in which the “master race” would
defeat and subjugate all others.
e. His first goal was to repeal the humiliation and military
restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles.
1. He planned to annex all German-speaking territories
to a great Germany, and then conquer more land at
the expense of Poland and the USSR.
2. He planned to exterminate all Jews from Europe.
3. When the Depression hit, the Nazis gained
supporters among the unemployed, who believed
their promises of jobs for all, and among
property owners frightened by the growing
popularity of Communists.
4. Hitler Becomes Chancellor
a. President Paul von Hindenburg to name Hitler
chancellor.
1. Once in office, Hitler called for new elections,
hoping to win a parliamentary majority.
2. Six days before the election, a fire destroyed the
Reichstag building, where the parliament met.
i) The Nazis blamed the Communists.
ii) Stirring up fear of the Communists, the Nazis
and their allies won by a slim majority.
b. Hitler used his new power to turn Germany into a
totalitarian state.
1. Put Nazis in charge of all government agencies,
educational institutions, and professional
organizations.
i) Banned all other political parties and threw
their leaders into concentration camps.
ii) The Nazis deprived Jews of their citizenship
and civil rights, prohibited them from marrying
“Aryans,” ousted them from the professions,
and confiscated their property.
2. In August 1934 Hitler proclaimed himself Fuher
(leader) and called Germany the “Third Reich”
(empire) – the third after the Holy Roman Empire of
medieval times and the German Empire of 1871 to
1918.
i) The Third Reich
- Hitler boasted his power would last 1,000
years.
- Set on restoring Germanys military power.
- Ignored the Versailles Treaty
- Artists and intellectuals fled the country
because Hitler suppressed any enlightenment
thought.
* ex – Gropius, Freud, Einstein
c. SS = Schutzstaffel, or protection squad was created
1. Only loyal to Hitler
2. Arrested and murdered hundreds of Hitler’s
enemies.
3. Brutal action and the terror applied by the
Gestapo, the Nazi secret police shocked most
Germans into total obedience.
d. New laws banned strikes, dissolved independent labor
unions, and gave the government authority over
business and labor.
1. Put millions of Germans to work
2. Constructed factories, built highways,
manufactured weapons, and served in the military.
3. Number of unemployed dropped from about 6
million to 1.5 million in 1936.
5. The Fuhrer is Supreme
a. He wanted control over every aspect of German life.
b. Hitler turned to the press, radio, literature, painting, and
film into propaganda tools.
c. Books that did not conform to Nazi beliefs were burned
in huge bonfires.
d. Churches were forbidden to criticize the Nazis or the
government.
e. School children had to join the Hitler Youth (for boys) or
the League of German Girls.
6. Hitler makes war on the Jews
a. Hatred of Jews, or anti-Semitism, was a key part of Nazi
ideology.
b. Jews were less than 1 percent of the population
1. Nazis used them as scapegoats for all Germany’s
troubles since the war.
2. Beginning in 1933, the Nazis passed laws
depriving Jews of most of their rights.
c. Violence against Jews mounted.
1. Night of November 8, 1938, Nazi mobs attacked
Jews in their homes and on the streets and destroyed
thousands of Jewish-owned buildings.
2. Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), signaled the
real start of the process of eliminating the Jews from
German life.
Hitler
Mussolini