Hitler
Mussolini
Japan

Great Depression
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The cost of World War One was devastating
– About $180 billion was spent on the war
– About $150 billion was spent on rebuilding
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Most countries had never had experienced this type of massive spending ever in history

Great Depression
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Many nations needed to look to capitalistic nations for money to rebuild or to pay off debts
Britain which had once been the financial center of the world was now basically broke
The United States now became the financial center-The United States now began to loan money to Europe

Great Depression
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Many countries relied on loans and credit from the United States
This was evident in loans like the Dawes
Plan

Great Depression

Dawes Plan-1923
– The Dawes Plan was used to help Germany get out of it’s inflationary state in 1923
– The United States gives
Germany a 200 million dollar loan
– Germany is also given a realistic time frame to the debts
– The German economy recovers
– German factories begin producing goods at the same rate as before the war
– People invest in German factories and goods
– Germany recovers
– HOWEVER-Germany still needed to pay back the 200 million in loans

Great Depression
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Two countries that heavily relied on the credit and loans of the United States were
France and Germany
France had a large debt due to loaning
Russia large sums of money during the war
– The Bolsheviks refused to pay France the loaned money saying that they were not responsible for the loans

Great Depression

Germany
– In the Treaty of Versailles
Germany had to bore the burden of paying the reparations for the warespecially to France
– Germany looked to U.S. credit to pay it’s debts (Like paying one credit card debt with another credit card)

Great Depression
Germany gets credit from
The U.S. to pay debts
To France
France rebuilds its economy based on German payments of U.S. credit
However everything was based on credit
(we are good for the money idea)
France takes the payments from Germany backed by U.S. credit
From 1924 to 1929 everything worked well
U.S. and European economies grew
In 1929 everything fell apart the loans would never be repaid

Great Depression
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In October 1929 the
U.S. stock market also based on credit crashed
American banks stopped extending credit-especially high risk European nationslike France

Great Depression
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The effect was that the U.S. and Europe ran out of money
The U.S. and Germany were hit the hardest
– In each country 1/3 of the workforce was unemployed
– In each country the dominate political party was rejected
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U.S.-Republicans were out
Germany-Conservative Democratic Republic were out

Great Depression

While the world had seen depressions and recessions in the past what made the Great
Depression unprecedented was its duration
– Most countries only recovered after a decade with the start of World War Two production

Great Depression
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Economic hardship lead to radical political changes in Europe
Countries like Germany and Italy did not have a long tradition of democratic traditions-They had more experience with monarchies
People wanted a government to solve their economic problems-No matter what type of government it was!

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The depression in Europe gave rise to the dictators in Spain, Italy and Germany.
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People lost hope in democracies and wanted a strong leader to correct the problems.
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Strong leaders promised solutions to the problems in their countries.

Mussolini’s Italy

Fascism

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A political movement that promotes
– Extremely Right-wing
– Extreme Nationalism

Often based on racism
– Imperialism
– Dictatorial government
– Denial of individual rights
– One party system
The main idea of Fascism is
Destroy the will of the individual in favor of the people

Fascism
Strong
Military
Use of
Violence and
Terror
Blind Loyalty
To the leader
Fascism
Use of
Censorship
&
Propaganda
State controlled economy
Extreme
Nationalism

Fascism

Fascism differs from Stalin’s totalitarian government in that Stalin was seen as a extreme left-wing
– Stalin sought to destroy the traditional institutions- i.e.church
– Stalin further sought to destroy the class system

Mussolini and the Fascist with their extreme form of nationalism sought to build up the class system in Italy

The Rise of Mussolini

Italy after World War I
– The Treaty of Versailles gave away land that had been promised to Italy by
Britain and France.
– Italy’s economy was slow
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Men could not find work
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Trade was slow
Taxes were high (pay for the war)
Workers went on strike

Mussolini
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In 1919 Mussolini created the National Fascist
Party
Party squads known as Blackshirts were paid to fight with the socialist and communist
The destruction of the socialist and communist parties lead to the support of the factory owners and the land owners
With this support Mussolini and his party members were elected to the Italian Parliament

The Rise of Mussolini

Benito Mussolini
– Mussolini took advantage of the unrest and economic problems in Italy to force King Victor
Emmanuel III to appoint him to a key cabinet post

The Rise of Mussolini

Mussolini used his
Blackshirts to march on Rome and the King gave into Mussolini and appointed him prime Minster

The Rise of Mussolini
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By 1922 the Fascist and Mussolini were in power.
– They used violence and terror to win elections.
Once in power Mussolini ended
– Free elections
– Free speech
– Free Press

The Rise of Mussolini
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By 1926 Mussolini had killed off many of his political opponents
Democracy was ended in Italy-Mussolini was now the totalitarian dictator of Italy
Italy now turned to a policy of expansion

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In some countries Fascism was regarded as a possible alternative to democratic and parliamentary government

Why

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Without the Great Depression there is no
Hitler

Yes or no-Why or why not

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Germany after World War I
– The Kaiser stepped down
– A democratic government called the Weimar Republic took over
– Leader of this government was Paul Hindenburg
– The Weimar Rep. was weak
– Inflation caused a major economic problem
– People were poor


Wiemar Republic
– As soldiers returned home from World War
One many were upset over the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Versailles
– Workers and soldiers began to form councils in cities like Berlin to discuss the current state of
Germany
– Out of these councils grew political groups


Germany was also experiencing an economic crisis

$33 billion dollars in war reparations
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The collapse of the once prosperous
German economy

Many looked to a strong conservative democratic republic-The Wiemar Republic


The Wiemar Republic
– Paul von Hindenberg a
German war hero became president of the government
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However Hindenberg was not a good choice for a leader-He was not in favor of the republic

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The new republic faced a serious economic problems
The Wiemar Republic to meet the economic problems began printing money causing severe inflation
There was a time of prosperity in Germany from about
1925-1929 when there was an easing of the debt payments and Germany was able to borrow money from the U.S. to repay debts-This was to be short lived
Finally the Wiemar Republic was seen as the government that had signed the Treaty of Versailles

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The loss of World War One after coming close to winning
The inflation of 1923 which had wiped out the savings of most middle class German families
Finally the Great Depression of 1929 caused more misery and unemployment than in any other country in the world
Some in Germany had enough with democracy

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Germany needed a leader who could fix the economic problems and restore pride in Germany.
Adolf Hitler and the
Nazi party promised to fix Germany.

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In 1921 Hitler becomes head of the German
Workers Party (GWP)
The GWP later becomes the National Socialist
German Workers (Nazi)
In 1933 Hitler was named
Chancellor of Germany.
By 1934 Hitler was dictator of Germany

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In 1919, Anton Drexler, Gottfried Feder and
Dietrich Eckart formed the German Worker's
Party (GPW) in Munich.
The German Workers Party was upset over
Germany being blamed for World War One.
The party also blamed the Wiemar Government and the Jews for Germany accepting defeat.
The party also focused on creating a pure blood
Germany free of all non Germans like the Jews and the Poles.

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In April, 1920, Hitler pushes for a name change of the party.
They call themselves the National Socialist
German Workers Party (NSDAP). NAZI
While Hitler hated socialist ideas, socialism was a popular political philosophy in Germany after the
First World War and appealed to many people.
By 1921 Hitler pushes for and gets control of the party

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In February 1920, the NSDAP published its first program which became known as the Twenty-Five
Points.
In the program the party refused to accept the terms of the Versailles Treaty and called for the reunification of all German people.
To reinforce their ideas on nationalism, equal rights were only to be given to German citizens.
Foreigners and aliens would be denied these rights.

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He created his own personal army of storm troopers, the
Sturmbabteilung or SA.
The group wore brown uniforms, the same color as the victorious British army, hence the nickname “Brownshirts.”

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Adolph Hitler endorsed the fall of the Weimar
Republic, and declared at a public rally on October
30, 1923 that he was prepared to march on Berlin to rid the government of the Communists and the
Jews.
On November 8, 1923, Hitler held a rally at a
Munich beer hall and proclaimed a revolution.
The following day, he led 2,000 armed "brownshirts" in an attempt to take over the Bavarian government.

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On November 8, Hitler led his army to a beer hall in Bavaria where local government leaders were holding a meeting.
The Nazis quickly captured the politicians and
Hitler put himself in charge.
The group then marched on the former Bavarian
War Ministry building when the police opened fire.
During the riot the man beside Hitler was killed as he pulled his leader to the ground.

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The failure of the Beer Hall Putsch brought the obscure
Hitler his first national publicity.
Hitler was arrested and, after a 24-day trial, sentenced to five years in Landsberg fortress a country-club type prisons where white-collar criminals were sent.

Hitler received a steady stream of visitors and presents and was treated more like he was on a picnic outing than serving as an inmate.


The failure of the “Beer Hall Putsch” taught
Hitler valuable lessons of power.
– not to get into any more battles with an enemy that was larger and better armed.
– his best chance to gain power would be through the use of votes rather than bullets.

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Hitler served only nine months of his five-year term.
While in prison, he wrote the first volume of Mein
Kampf.
It was partly an autobiographical book although filled with
– glorified inaccuracies
– self-serving half-truths
– which detailed his views on the future of the German people.


In Mein Kampf, Hitler laid out his views on the centrality of Aryan purity to historical progress
– The mortal danger posed by world Jewry and international communism,
– The necessity of rebuilding German power, and the importance of expanding Germany’s borders to provide the living space, Lebensraum, the German people require.
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Hitler did not conceal his intentions; they were in black and white for anyone to read.
However very few in or outside Germany actually read the book .

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Hitler was released from prison on December 20, 1924, after serving just over a year of his sentence. The Germany of 1924 was dramatically different from the Germany of
1923.
The economic policies of the German government had proved successful.
Inflation had been brought under control and the economy began to improve.
The German people gradually gained a new faith in their democratic system and began to find the extremist solutions proposed by people such as Hitler unattractive.

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Using the Great Depression and the economic problems of Germany as a platform Hitler was able to increase control the Nazi’s had in parliament
In September 1930, the Nazi Party increased its number of representatives in parliament from 14 to 107. Hitler was now the leader of the second largest party in Germany.

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Although Hitler had the support of certain sections of the German population he never gained an elected majority.
The best the Nazis could do in a election was 37.3 per cent of the vote they gained in July 1932.
When Hitler became chancellor in January 1933, the Nazis only had a third of the seats in the
Reichstag.
Hitler declared that there would be new elections held in a month


Before the elections were held the Reichstag building was burned down.
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The Nazis claimed that the communist set fire to the Reichstag to destroy the German government.
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Marinus van der Lubbe from Holland who was a communist was found on the property.

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Lubbe was found at the
Reichstag after the fire.
Lubbe was tortured and confessed to the fire.
Lubbe was executed Jan.
10 th 1934.
It is believed today that the Nazis actually started the fire and used Lubbe as a scapegoat .

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After the fire it was agreed that Hitler should take dictatorial power to ensure the safety of the government.
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Many communist leaders were arrested and either executed or placed in concentration camps.
The elections were held on March 5 th 1933 however the Nazis only gained 43% of the vote.

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Hitler persuaded
President Hindenburg to sign an emergency decree authorizing
Hitler to suspend all civil rights and arrest and execute any suspicious person.

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After the elections Hitler and the Nazis needed to find a way to take power.
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Hitler used his dictatorial powers to start eliminating members of the communist and socialist parties.
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The many communist and socialist members of the Reichstag were either eliminated or removed from their positions.

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When the vote came up in the Reichstag granting Hitler full dictatorial power few were left to vote against the bill.
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Hitler was now dictator and free to eliminate any who opposed him.

th

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Why would the Nazis want to burn books?
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What is the danger in burning/banning books?


Hitler
– Creates a new
Germany called the
Third Reich.


Hitler
– Turns Germany into a totalitarian state.
– Creates a one party system
(Nazi Party)
– Ends civil rights
– Murders many of his political enemies.
– Uses force and terror to enforce his rule.
– Uses propaganda, art and education to promote him and the Nazi party.


Hitler
– Puts businesses under government control.
– Starts public works programs which employs many people.
– Rebuilds the military.
– Raises the standard of living.

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Hitler instituted programs against Jews to restrict their lives in an attempt to drive them from Germany.
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Many did not care about Hitler’s policies many were just happy being employed and having a renewed sense of military and nationalistic pride.


Positives:
– Both Hitler and
Mussolini improved the economic conditions of their nations.
– Both restored order to their countries.
– Both brought back nationalistic pride.
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Negatives:
– Many lost individual rights.
– Many were driven out of the countries or murdered.

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The Japanese began a program of militarism in the 1930’s
– Japan wanted to restore its greatness
– Get rid of western influence
– Gain foreign lands

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In 1931 Japan attacks
Manchuria.
Japan withdraws from the League of Nations.
An increase in loyalty to the emperor.
Japan attempts to imperialize China.

The Causes

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In the 1930’s Germany, Italy and Japan wanted to build new empires.
All three became aggressive in taking over land.
The League of Nations was weak and could not stop this aggressive imperialism.
Western nations were trying to recover from a depression and at first paid little attention to Italy,
Germany or Japan.
Western nations did not want war.


Several attempts were made after World
War One to stop aggression and warfare in the world
– League of Nations (1921)
– Washington Naval Conference (1921)
– Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)

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The League of Nations was an international organization founded after the Paris Peace
Conference of 1919.
The League's goals included;
– Disarmament
– preventing war through collective security
– settling disputes between countries through negotiation
– improving global welfare

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The League lacked an armed force of its own and so depended on the great powers to enforce its resolutions and these countries they were often very reluctant to do.
The League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Germany,
Japan, and Italy in the 1930s

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The Washington Naval Conference was a diplomatic conference, called by the administration of President Harding and held in Washington D.C. from 1921-1922
Conducted outside the boundaries of the League of Nations, it was attended by nine nations having interests in the Pacific Ocean.
It was the first disarmament conference in history


The primary objective of the conference was to inhibit Japanese naval expansion in the west Pacific.

Their secondary objectives were intended to ultimately limit Japanese and British aggression

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An agreement, signed Aug. 27, 1928, condemning
“recourse to war for the solution of international controversies.”
It is more properly known as the Pact of Paris.
Aristide Briand , foreign minister of France proposed to the U.S. government a treaty outlawing war between the two countries.

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The Pact of Paris was signed by 15 nations—
Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia,
France, Germany, Great Britain, India, the Irish
Free State, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland,
South Africa, and the United States.
The parties agreed that settlement of all conflicts, no matter of what origin or nature, should be sought only by peaceful means and that war was to be renounced as an instrument of national policy.

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Although 62 nations ultimately ratified the pact it failed to provide measures of enforcement.
The pact proved to be meaningless, especially with the practice of waging undeclared wars in the
1930s (the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in
1931, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, and the German occupation of Austria in 1938).

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In 1935 Italy invaded Ethiopia looking for new land.
The Ethiopians had outdated weapons and could not stop the
Italian Army.
The Emperor of Ethiopia Haile
Selassie appealed to the League of Nations for help.
The League could do little but try to ban the sale of weapons to Italy. Not all countries agreed to the ban.


In 1931 Japan invades
Manchuria. When the
League of Nations condemns the act
Japan withdraws from the League.

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In 1937 Japan invades mainland
China.
The Chinese army outnumbers the Japanese however the
Japanese have better weapons.
Japan overruns China and sets up a puppet government in
Nanjing.
The Japanese are so brutal to the Chinese at Nanjing that the
Japanese control over Nanjing is called the “rape of Nanjing”


Hitler glorifies war as a way of restoring national pride to
Germany. (Militarism).


Hitler begins a policy of
German land expansion later known as lebensraum or “living space” .

Hitler rebuilds the
German Army a direct violation of the Treaty of
Versailles.


In 1936 Hitler moves troops into the Rhineland on the boarder of France.
A direct violation of the
Treaty of Versailles.


In March 1938 Hitler moves troops into Austria creating an Anschluss or union between Austria and Germany.


A direct violation of the
Treaty of Versailles.
Britain and France ignore the pledge to help Austria.

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In September 1938 Hitler demanded the western part of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland become part of Germany.
Hitler claimed that 3 million German speaking people lived there and should be German territory.


The Czech Government refused to give the
Sudetenland to Hitler.

The Czech’s had an alliance with France and asked France for help.

Britain and France began to prepare for war.

To avoid war
Mussolini sets up a meeting between
France, Britain,
Italy and
Germany
The meeting called the
Munich
Conference is held
Sept. 29, 1938
Chamberlain gives into
Hitler’s demands
The Czechs are not invited
British
Prime Minister
Chamberlain tries to preserve peace
On Sept. 30, 1938
Hitler takes over the
Sudetenland
Hitler agrees to respect
Czechoslovakia's new boarders.
War is avoid.
March 1939
German troops take over the rest of
Czechoslovakia.



France and Britain asked the Soviet
Union to help stop
German aggression.
The democracies of
France and Britain and the Communist of the
Soviet Union did not trust each other.


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Hitler also began talks with the Soviet Union.
On August 23, 1939
Germany and the Soviet
Union agreed not to attack each other.
Now only France and
Britain could stop Hitler.
Hitler was also clear to invade Poland.

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In April 1939 Hitler demanded the upper western part of Poland be returned to Germany.
France and Britain refused.
On Sept. 1, 1939 Hitler invaded Poland and started World War Two.


Germany, Italy and
Japan formed the Axis
Powers.