Part I. The Rise of Totalitarianism

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Part I. The Rise of Totalitarianism
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Themes of Totalitarianism

• Dictatorship/Cult of Personality
• Rejection of Individual Liberties
• Expansionism
• Provided a sense of security to their people
• The poverty of the Great Depression
• The Age of Anxiety
• Promised to Restore Honor
• Done partly through the use of scapegoats
• Reliance on Nationalism

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WWI Paved the Way for Totalitarianism

• People are used to taking orders from a
  government
• Rationing
• Military control, etc.

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1a) the Soviet Union

• Fall of the Tsar and the Rise of Communism
• Collapsed out of WWI
• Civil War ? Lenin and Communism
• Worlds first Communist nation
• Communism is a rejection of government hands-off
  economics, aka Capitalism
• Instead- violent revolution to overthrow the
  haves
• End of private property ? no more class structure
  or oppression
• Must happen everywhere to work (according to
  Marx)

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Stalin Takes Power and Sets Up a Totalitarian
State

• Lenin dies
• Stalin, not Lenins chosen successor, takes power
  by force
• His Policies
• Collective Farming
• Farmers must merge their farms into collectives
  to provide food for the state
• Five Year Plans
• Soviet Industry Was Put on Steroids

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Was Stalin successful?

• THE GROWTH OF HEAVY INDUSTRY IN THE USSR
• INDUSTRY UNIT
  1932 1938
• Coal millions of tons
  64 132
• Oil millions of tons
  22 32
• Pig Iron millions of tons
  6 14
• Steel millions of tons
  6 18
• Automobiles thousands
  23 211
• Tractors thousand
  50 176
• Machinery billions of rubles
  18 33
• Chemicals billions of rubles
  2 6

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But at what cost? Totalitarian Methods

• Starvation in the Ukraine
• Elimination of wealthy farmers
• Gulags
• Purges
• Propaganda and Censorship

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1b) Fascism in Italy

• Italys Anger at the end of WWI
• Had fought for allies, but didnt feel that
  theyd been rewarded properly
• Felt overlooked in Europe
• Few colonies
• Poor and unindustrialized
• Mussolini was a journalist who discovered the
  power of propaganda
• If he put good stories about himself in the
  media, however untrue, they bolstered his image
• He promised a bold, bright future
• A renewed Roman Empire
• Was Willing to Use Violence
• Assassination of his chief political rival
• Secret police

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(cont.)

• Mussolini Promised to Protect Italy from
  Communism (which at the time was attractive to
  many poor or radical Western Europeans)
• Why did Communism provoke such fear in the ruling
  classes?
• Think of the stories filtering out of Russia at
  this time
• Ukraine Starvation, forced collectivization

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1c) Germany German Anger
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The Weimar Republic in Germany was Weak

• Black mark as govt that signed the Treaty of
  Versailles
• Started its life with crushing reparation debts
• Had no significant military, which allowed small
  extremist groups to play a role in German politics

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Occupation of the Ruhr Valley (1923-1924)
I just cant pay
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The German Mark
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The German Mark
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Results Occupation of the Ruhr Valley
(1923-1924)

• Hyperinflation
• International sympathy for Germany
• May have convinced the French that military
  options against Germany were of little value

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• Dawes PlanU.S. loans to Germany to get them back
  on their feet
• Why was the Dawes Plan Ridiculous?
• Dawes Plan did quiet German Radicalism for a
  while

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The Great Depression, However, Smashed Apart the
German Recovery (and made the Western Democracies
Less Likely to support military action)
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Great Depression (1929)

• A worldwide phenomenon
• Destroys brief Dawes Plan stability

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Hitler

• Radicalism Surged in Germany During the Ruhr
  Valley Invasion
• Hitlers Beer Hall Putsch
• Trial Makes Him a Household Name
• Slap on the wrist
• Mein Kampf

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Hitler Promises to Solve Germanys Problems

• Put Germans to Work!
• Fight Communism!
• Perhaps most importantly Regain German Honor by
  Renouncing Treaty of Versailles!

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Hitlers Methods- True to His Idol Mussolini

• Propaganda
• Use of mass technology
• Radio and even television
• Contact Sci-Fi story
• Secret Police
• Gestapo
• Violence
• Assassination of rivals and even powerful (and
  thus rival) supporters
• Charisma ?

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Hitler was Elected

• Hitler had cleverly affected a more moderate
  platform after his prison stint
• After his election, he quickly Cemented His Hold
  On Power
• Oath of Loyalty to the Military
• Reichstag Fire
• Eliminates All Parties Except the Nazis
• Rejects Treaty of Versailles
• Begins to remilitarize
• Nuremburg Laws
• Womens role
• Baby machines. Why?

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Germany was not invaded fully invaded at the end
of WWI

• stab in the back theory
• scapegoats

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1d) Japans Turn Away From the West

• Leader in Asian Westernization/Industrialization
• Defeat of Russia in 1905
• Joined allies in WWI
• Angered at racism during Treaty of Versailles
• Literal, in your face, racism
• Clemenceau- (paraphrase) - I cant believe we
  have to stay cooped up in here with these ugly
  bastards (Japanese diplomats) while there are
  blond women in the world.
• No racial equality clause in the Treaty of
  Versailles
• U.S. Pushed the British to renounce their
  alliance with Japan
• U.S. sees Asian Pacific as its economic backyard
• Japan began to feel that its aspirations of being
  a world class power would be forever frustrated
  by the white powers
• Island has limited resources- need for an empire!
  
• The rise of militarism
• World at War Film

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1e) Reactions to Totalitarianism

• Americas Reaction
• Isolationism

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Frances Reaction

• The U.S., Britain, and the League are doing squat
  to protect us and who is Hitler going to come
  for first?
• France!
• Maginot Line
• Kinda like the best trench system ever built
• Makes a lot of sense after WWI

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Fort Eben
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Britains Reaction

• The British Reaction- appeasement- will start off
  our next unit and lead to the war itself