Dictators Threaten
World Peace
Failures of the World War I Peace
Settlement
• Treaty of Versailles
did not create a “just
and secure peace”
• Germans didn’t think
it was fair-blamed
them for 100% of war
• Stripped them of
territory they
considered German
Failures of the World War I Peace
Settlement
• Soviets lose some
territories to create
Poland, Finland,
Estonia, Lithuania,
and Latvia
Failures of the World War I Peace
Settlement
• Did not make world
safe for democracy
• Democracies in
Germany, Austria,
Czechoslovakia,
Bulgaria, Romania,
and Greece were
weak
• No democratic
tradition
• Treaty of Versailles
did nothing to help
war torn nations
rebuild
• New democracies
expected to pay war
debts and deal with
hunger,
unemployment and
homelessness
Failures of the World War I Peace
Settlement
• Some democracies collapsed and dictators
seized power
Joseph Stalin Transforms the
Soviet Union
• Takes power in Soviet
Union in 1924
• Iron willed-nothing
would stand in his
way
• Sought to create a
model communist
state in the Soviet
Union
Joseph Stalin Transforms the
Soviet Union
• Began industrial and
agricultural
restructuring
• Trampled the rights of
his people
• Brought great
suffering to Russia
Joseph Stalin Transforms the
Soviet Union
• Began reforming
Russia in 1927
• Stamped out private
enterprise
• Collectivized farmingmeaning state control
• Forced peasants to
give up landcombined into large
state owned farms
Joseph Stalin Transforms the
Soviet Union
• 2nd goal-make Russia
an industrial power
• 1928-1st “5 year plan”
• Build massive state
owned factories, steel
mills, power plants
• 1939-Soviet Union
world’s 3rd largest
industrial power
• Human cost to plan
amazing
• Soviet Union turned
into a massive police
state
• Anyone who criticized
was arrested/sent to a
forced labor
camp/killed
Now You See Him…
Joseph Stalin Transforms the
Soviet Union
• 1930’s-Stalin purged
his own party
• Labeled “enemies of
the state” and
executed
• Stalin responsible for
the deaths of
approximately 8 to 13
million people
• Created a totalitarian
state
– Government maintains
complete control over
its people
– People have no rights
– Government
suppresses all
opposition
Rise of Fascism in Italy
• Benito Mussolini
establishing a
totalitarian regime in
Italy
• Wanted to make Italy
a great power in the
world
• Began Fascismstrong, centralized
govmt. headed by a
powerful dictator
Rise of Fascism in Italy
• Unlike Stalin
– Did not try to control
farms and factories
Many in Italy feared
Communism
So they supported
Fascism instead
Rise of Fascism in Italy
• 1921-Mussolini
created Fascist party
• 1922- Mussolini
stages march on
Rome with many of
his Blackshirt
followers
• Italian king allowed
him to form a new
government
Rise of Fascism in Italy
• Called himself Il Duce
or The Chief
• Extended Fascist
control over every
aspect of Italian life
• Crushed all
opposition
• Made Italy a
totalitarian state
The Nazis Take Over Germany
• Adolf Hitler-rise to
power similar to
Mussolini
• Following WWIworked for military in
southern Germany
• Joined National
Socialist German
Workers’ Party
– Better known as the
Nazi Party
The Nazis Take Over Germany
• Hitler soon became
the party’s leader…or
fuhrer
• Laid out beliefs of
Nazism in Mein
Kampf
• Nazism- a kind of
fascism based on
extreme nationalism
The Nazis Take Over Germany
• Born in Austriadreamed of uniting all
German speaking
people
• Germans (blue eyes,
blonde hair) were
master race
– Aryans
The Nazis Take Over Germany
• Inferior races-Jews,
Slavs, and nonwhites,
were fit only to serve
the Aryans
The Nazis Take Over Germany
• Nazis sought national
expansion
• Hitler believed
Germany needed
more lebensraum, or
living space
The Nazis Take Over Germany
• Great Depression
• 1932 German
helped Nazis come to
elections-Nazis win
power
more votes than any
other party
• 1932-6 million
Germans unemployed • 1933 Hitler appointed
chancellor
• Many saw Hitler as
their last hope
The Nazis Take Over Germany
• Quickly dismantled
Germany’s
democratic Weimar
Republic
• Established Third
Reich
– Supposed to last
1,000 years
Militarists Gain Control in Japan
• Military leaders
attempting to gain
control of Japan
• Shared Hitler’s need
for living space
• Launch surprise
invasion of
Manchuria, China in
1931
Militarists Gain Control in Japan
• Japanese controlled
Manchuria within
months
– Resource rich area
– Size of Alaska
Militarists Gain Control in Japan
• League of Nations
investigated the
situation
• Report condemned
Japan
• Japan simply quit
League
• Success in Manchuria
put militarists firmly in
control of Japan
Aggression in Europe
• European Dictators
noticed League of
Nation’s failure to act
• 1933-Hitler pulls
Germany out of
League
• 1935-begins military
build-up
– Violation of Treaty of
Versailles
Aggression in Europe
• 1936-Hitler remilitarizes Rhineland
• Signs Rome-Berlin
Pact- creates formal
alliance between
Germany and Italy
• The League does
nothing to stop Hitler
Aggression in Europe
• Mussolini begins
building new Roman
Empire
• 1935-Italy conquers
Ethiopia
• League responded
with economic
boycott-a slap in the
wrist
Aggression in Europe
• Haile Selassie-ousted
Ethiopian Emperor
– Appealed to League
for help
– Nothing was done
– He tells League “It is
us today, it will be you
tomorrow.”
U.S. Clings to Isolationism
• America determined
to avoid war
• 1937 poll-70% of
Americans believed
U.S. should never
had entered WWI
• Many anti-war rallies
U.S. Clings to Isolationism
• 1935- Congress
passes Neutrality
Act- to keep U.S. out
of wars
• Outlawed arms sales
or loans to nations at
war
• Banned arms and
loans undergoing civil
wars
Neutrality Breaks Down
• Spanish Civil War
• Fascists led by
Francisco Franco vs.
elected govmt.
• Hitler ad Mussolini
come to Franco’s aid
• 3,000 American
volunteers go to
Spain to fight fascism
Neutrality Breaks Down
• Hitler and Mussolini
saw Spanish Civil
War as practice for
their military
• Western democracies
sent only food and
money to non-fascist
forces
• Franco eventually
wins
Neutrality Breaks Down
• Japan launches new
attacks against China
in 1937
• Japan had never
declared war on
China
• FDR refused to
enforce neutrality
legislation
• U.S. sent aid to China
• FDR against
isolationism