Download Totalitarianism, Fascism, & Nazism

The Rise of
Totalitarianism
and the Path to
WWII
Totalitarianism
• Single party dictatorship
• Full state control of the
economy
• Uses police and spies to
enforce state policy
• Strict censorship of media
• Requires unquestioning
obedience to a single leader
or authority
• Regulates every aspect of its
citizens’ lives
The Soviet Union
Josef Stalin
•
•
•
•
1878 – 1953 (life)
1922 – 1953 (reign)
Communist
Ruthless Soviet leader
who may have killed as
many as 60 million of his
own people as part of his
campaign to install a
totalitarian regime and
industrialize the Russian
economy
Italy
• Extreme nationalism which
glorifies militarism and
the law and order brought
by a strong dictator
• Teaches that the state is
more important than the
rights of the individual
• Anti-communist!
Fascism
Benito Mussolini
• 1883 – 1945 (life)
• 1922 – 1943 (reign)
• Fascist ruler of Italy from
1922-1943, Nicknamed “Il
Duce”
• Used his “Blackshirts” to
suppress political
opposition to his party’s
leadership and created
the “Young Fascists” to
indoctrinate children into
the party’s militaristic
beliefs
Japan
Japanese militarism
• Between WWI & WWII,
Japan’s military gained
increasing influence over
the government,
especially after the
Manchurian Incident
• Japanese politicians who
objected to imperial
militarism started to have
“accidents” leading to
fear to voice opposition
Germany
The Weimar Republic
 After WWI, the new German government was burdened
with trying to pay off the war reparations required by the
Treaty of Versailles
 The US attempted to help by extending Germany loans
through the Dawes Plan, but after the Great Depression
struck in 1929 the German economy collapsed once again
 These economic problems, coupled with German anger
over the other unfair conditions of the Treaty (loss of
territory, forced demilitarization) created an opportunity
for extremists to seize power
Adolf Hitler
• 1889 – 1945 (life)
• 1933 – 1945 (reign)
• Austrian immigrant to
Germany
• Head of the National
Socialist German Workers
(NAZI) Party
• Had spent time in prison
for treason after
attempting to seize power
in 1923, but was elected to
the office of Chancellor of
Germany in democratic
elections in 1933
The Third Reich
• Hitler quickly moved to
eliminate all political
opposition, cementing
the Nazi Party in power
and establishing himself
as “Fuhrer” (leader) of
the new German
empire (or Third Reich)
he intended to build
across Europe
The Nuremberg Laws
• 29 laws signed into law in 1935 by Hitler
• Legally defined Jews as a separate “race”
• Prohibited marriage or sexual relations
between Jews and Germans
• Denied Jews German citizenship rights
• Jews could not serve in government,
certain other professions such as
medicine or teaching
The Night of Broken Glass or
Kristallnacht
• Retaliation for the murder of a
German embassy official by a
Jewish gunman
• “Kristallnacht”: Hitler allowed
mob attacks against Jewish
neighborhoods to go unpunished
• November 9 & 10 1938
• 91 Jews killed, 25000+ arrested
• 200 synagogues destroyed
Hitler Violates the Treaty of Versailles
• Began to rebuild the
German military, both by
increasing its size and by
developing new weaponry
• Moved troops back into the
demilitarized zone along the
Rhine River
• France & Britain, while
disturbed by Hitler’s moves,
took no action
The Axis Powers
• September 1940
• Created with the signing of the
Tripartite Pact, formally joining
Italy, Germany, and Japan in a
military alliance
• Each power expected to control its
own sphere of interest – Germany
would dominate Northern and
Europe and Russia, Italy would
dominate the Mediterranean and
Africa, while Japan would have
sway in East Asia and the Pacific
German Expansionism
• In March of 1938, Hitler
annexed his homeland
of Austria into
Germany, thereby
uniting most Germanic
peoples of Europe
• His next goal was to add
German speaking areas
in Poland and
Czechoslovakia
The Munich Conference
• When Hitler demanded that
Czechoslovakia return territory
(the Sudetenland) that it had
been given as part of the
Treaty of Versailles, the Czechs
called on Britain and France for
protection
• Britain arranged for a
conference with Germany in
fall of 1938 (Czechoslovakia
was not invited to attend) to
reach a peaceful resolution to
the Sudetenland crisis
Peace for Our Time
• Britain and France agreed to
allow Hitler to take the
Sudetenland from
Czechoslovakia
• Hitler, in turn, promised that he
would engage in no further
territorial aggression in Europe
• British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain returned home
declaring to the British public
that “I believe it is peace for our
time” (it wasn’t!)
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
• August 1939
• Germany and the Soviet Union
signed a non-aggression pact
(agreement not to fight – NOT
an alliance)
• This was shocking to the rest of
the world because of Hitler and
Stalin’s mutual dislike and
distrust of one another
• This removed the Soviet Union
as a potential ally for Britain
and France if a war with
Germany broke out
American Isolationism
• Following WWI,
Americans began to
overwhelmingly
support isolationism, or
avoiding involvement in
international disputes
by limiting non-trade
contact with foreign
states
The Kellogg-Briand Pact
• 1928
• International agreement
that essentially banned
war
• Signed by nearly every
free nation in the world
• Nations agreed to limit
the size of their navies &
other offensive arms
• There was, however, no
way to enforce the pact,
so it wasn’t effective
Europe Refuses to Pay
• In 1934, all European
nations in Europe
(except Finland) who
had war debts to the US
announced that they
were broke (due to the
Great Depression) and
would not repay what
they owed
Neutrality Acts
• 1935 Act: Made it illegal for the
US to sell weapons to any
nation at war
• 1937 Act: “Cash and Carry” –
any non-military supplies sold
to nations at war had to be
paid for in cash and carried
away on their ships
• 1939 Act: After WWII started,
policy was amended to allow
arms sales to Britain, but still
under “cash & carry” terms
Roosevelt’s Internationalism
• FDR wasn’t an isolationist
• Supported the idea that trade
between nations increases
prosperity for all and decreases
the chances of war
• Not supported by the
American public
• FDR had to be careful not to
push the idea too far due to
the popularity of isolationism
US and European Jews
• 1933 – 39: 350,000
Jews left Germany, most
sought to flee Europe
altogether
• Many applied for visas
to emigrate to the US,
but were denied due to
US immigration quota
laws and rising
nativism in US
Isolationism Debate
• Fight for Freedom
Committee: some people
wanted the US to take an
active role in the war
• Committee to Defend
America by Aiding the
Allies: some wanted the US
to increase aid to the Allies
but not get involved in the
fighting
• America First Committee:
some opposed ANY
involvement in the war
Destroyers for Bases Deal
• Spring 1940: FDR
agreed to trade 50
surplus US Navy
destroyers to Britain
(who needed them to
protect shipping) in
exchange for allowing
the US to build naval
bases in Britishcontrolled territories
FDR’s “Four Freedoms” Speech
• January 1941
• Roosevelt argued that
the US & Britain were
natural allies because
they both stood for:
• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of worship
• Freedom from want
• Freedom from fear
Lend-Lease Act
• March 1941
• US declared that it would
lend or lease (since it
couldn’t sell due to the
Neutrality Acts) weapons
to nations considered
“vital to the defense of
the US”
• US went on to send $40
billion in weapons to
Allies over the course of
WWII
Hemispheric Defense Zone
• To help protect British
shipping, FDR declared the
entire Western Atlantic to
be part of the Western
Hemisphere and thereby
under the protection of the
US per the Monroe Doctrine
• FDR then ordered the US
Navy to patrol this part of
the Atlantic, leading to
several deadly encounters
between US destroyers and
German U-boats
The Atlantic Charter
• August 1941
• FDR met with British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill
to lay out a post-war plan
for economic prosperity
• Many question whether or
not this is where FDR
promised Churchill that he
would find a way to get the
American people to support
the US entering the war
US Embargo of Japan
• US cut off Japan’s access
to critical war materials
• Examples: steel and oil
(both of which Japan
bought almost entirely
from America) to put
pressure on Japan to make
peace with China and
Britain
• Japan considered this an
act of war and began to
plan an attack on US
military facilities in Hawaii
and the Philippines