23.1 ~ Dictators and War
World War I ended when Germany surrendered to the
Allies. An uneasy peace followed.
• Germans resented the terms of the Treaty of Versailles,
feeling humiliated in defeat.
• Italy and Japan were angered by the treaty, expecting to
receive more land as Allied victors.
• Worldwide depression brought despair to many already
suffering from war.
Overwhelming
problems led some to
turn to a new form of
government called
totalitarianism.
Totalitarianism is a
theory of government
in which a single party
or leader controls the
economic, social, and
cultural lives of its
people.
Totalitarian governments developed in
several countries during the 1930s.
Country
Leader
Soviet Union
Joseph Stalin
Italy
Benito Mussolini
Germany
Adolf Hitler
-Each of these countries faced crushing problems.
-Unemployment, hunger, and homelessness were rampant.
-Totalitarian leaders promised to bring
jobs, food, and prosperity.
-They promised to make their
countries great again.
-In reality, however, the brutal tactics used by
totalitarian leaders resulted in the deaths of
millions of people.
The Soviet Union
Joseph
Stalin took
control of
the Soviet
Union
following the
death of
Vladimir
Lenin.
• Attempted to turn the
Soviet Union into an
industrial power
• Forced people to work in
factories and on state-run
farms
• Killed or imprisoned
suspected traitors during
the Great Terror
• Ruled through fear and
massive propaganda
Stalin consolidated his
power and introduced his
Five Year Plan to
concentrate on the
development of iron and
steel, machine-tools,
electric power and
transportation with high
quotas to be reached;
those who did not reach
those goals would be
executed or sent to
Siberia
Stalin would target the
farmers who were
given larger tracts of
lands to produce more
and they were called
“kulaks”
Another
regime
totalitarian regime
Another totalitarian
formed
Italy.
in Italy.
formed in
-The government
seemed unable to deal
with the country’s many
problems.
-Benito Mussolini
formed the Fascist
Party.
-Mussolini and his
followers, the Black
Shirts, fought to gain
power.
Italy
Mussolini, called
Il Duce (the
leader), took control
of the government,
using secret police
to
maintain control.
Italy
1. unhappy over what land it
gained from the Treaty of
Versailles, Benito
Mussolini forms the Black
Shirts in 1921 as a
political party and gain
seats in Italy’s Parliament
2. led the Black Shirts with a
March on Rome in 1922
seizing government
offices and the king trying
to avoid bloodshed struck
a deal with Mussolini
making him prime
minister
3. Mussolini forms a
coalition to control
Parliament; uses violence
and intimidation for his
fascists to make gains,
and even has his main
opponent murdered
4. In 1926, after an
unsuccessful
assassination attempt
outlaws all other parties,
free press, and creates a
secret police
5. sides with the fascists
under Francisco
Franco in Spain
against the loyalists in
Spain’s Civil War and
makes the RomeBerlin Axis with Hitler
Germany
a. the Nazi party
b. led by an Austrian, Adolf
Hitler
c. he would try to lead an
insurrection in Munich at
a Bavarian Beer Hall and
fail; arrested and sent to
jailwhile in jail he would
recite his ideas and future
of Germany in a book that
would be later called Mein
Kampf where he would
give explicit details of
how he would lead
Germany into its greatest
days and a thousand year
Reich
d) he would express
lebensraum or living
space for Germans
e) racist views were
prevalent where he
expressed Aryan
supremacy and antiSemitism
f) later when he would
lead Germany, it
would be mandatory
for every German to
read and possess it
h) after Hitler’s release he
vowed he would lead
Germany through
elected means
i) in 1933 Hitler will be
elected Chancellor of
Germany where he will
begin to implement his
dictatorship
j) his first act is a
proclamation for the
Germans to boycott
Jewish businesses
k) that same year he
pulls Germany out of
the League of Nations
Germany
In Germany, the Weimar Republic struggled with
overwhelming economic and social
problems.
Adolf Hitler, the
leader of the
Nazi Party, was
appointed
chancellor.
Hitler seized
power and
created a
totalitarian
state.
Hitler rebuilt the nation’s army. His economic policies put
people back to work. Many cheered his success.
Yet Hitler
ruled with
unlimited
power.
• Controlled the press and
education system
• Used propaganda to boost his
popularity
• Used the secret police to silence
opposition
Violently anti-Semitic, Hitler openly attacked Jews,
blaming them for all of the country’s problems.
Japan
Japan did not become a totalitarian
dictatorship, but it did come under the
influence of strong military leaders.
These leaders attempted to solve their
country’s economic problems through
aggressive military conquests.
Japan
1. with a demand for
more resources,
Japanese military
leaders under Hideki
Tojo usurped power
from Hirohito and
sought to gain more
territory
2. in 1931, Japan invaded
Manchuria
3. League of Nations
condemns attack;
Japan quits the League
4. US under Sec’t of State
Robert Stimson issues
a doctrine where US
refuses to
acknowledge the new
Japanese possession
5. Japan conquers
Manchuria and
renames it
Manchukuo
6. In 1937 Japan wages a
war with China
7. Panay incident where
US gunboat was shot
at by Japan in China;
Japan apologizes
8. Japan will be part of
the tripartite
agreement with
Germany and Italy
forming an axis
9. relations with the US
thaw in late thirties
over China
Japanese Expansion, 1931-1939
-Japan invaded
Manchuria, then
China.
-The attack on
Nanjing was
especially brutal.
Acts of Aggression in
Europe and Asia
Germany
•
•
•
•
rebuilt military
reclaimed Saar region from France
invaded the Rhineland
Anschluss (the union in which Hitler forced Austria to
become part of Germany’s territory
• invaded the Sudetenland
Italy
• invaded Ethiopia
Spain
• Fascists rebel against the government
Japan
• conquered Manchuria and parts of China
A weak League of Nations did little to stop the
aggression of the totalitarian states or of Japan.
• Many feared involvement in another war.
• Some believed the Soviet Union posed a greater threat
than Nazi Germany.
• Others questioned the resolve of their own country and
their allies, and embraced a policy of isolationism.
The appeasement of Hitler
continued with the Munich
Pact.
-Appeasement is the policy of granting
concessions to a potential enemy in the hope
that it will maintain peace
-The Munich Pact was an agreement in which
Britain and France attempted to preserve peace
by allowing Hitler to take more territory
Britain and France
sacrificed the Sudetenland
to Germany in return for
peace.
But peace was not to come.