The Rise of Totalitarianism
World Wars – Ms. Hamer
WWII
March 14, 2011
Post WWI Democracies
• There were the possibilities of democracies,
but these were short lived:
– Russia
– Germany
The Great Depression
• The worldwide Great Depression struck most
countries in 1929 and lasted through the
1930’s
• In some countries these times of economic
strain led to the rise of a variety of dictators.
– In other countries, such as Italy and the Soviet
Union, dictators had already established
themselves before the Great Depression hit.
Totalitarianism
or Fascism?
• Fascism is just one type
• Term “Totalitarianism” coined in 1923 by an Italian
journalist who was attacking the Italian fascists
• Hannah Arendt (part of brain drain that came to US
under beginning of Nazi regime) – study published
in 1951: The Origins of Totalitarianism –
– Even ideologically opposed regimes (like Nazis and
Communists) had certain structural similarities and
shared internal dynamics, which gave them a common
identity of totalitarian regimes
What is Totalitarianism?
• Pre-dated the Great Depression of 1929
• Totalitarianism: a term used to describe modern
dictatorships that differ from earlier tyrannies
– Use of technology and different goals made them
‘new’
– Goals: total control of individuals and society –
especially enthusiastic control
– Used fear/terror and ideological faith and conviction
Similarities in Totalitarian
Regimes
• Cult of a Leader
• Dynamic claims of ideological infallibility that
were animated into constant motion to make
their prophecies come true
– English = “Our ideas are perfect, see how well
they’re doing because we make everything we say
is going to happen actually happen”
• Goals of World Domination
Similarities in Totalitarian
Regimes
•
•
•
•
•
Prolific use of violence to fulfill their prophecies
Secret police as exercisers of terror
Institution of the concentration camp
Hierarchies of believers and elites
Preyed on lonely, lost individuals who were
susceptible to brainwashing
• Monumental art dwarfing the individual and
other forms of propaganda
Effects of WWI on the Rise of
Totalitarianism
• WWI shook the ideology of liberal pre-WWI,
so people looked for something else
• Total war and total mobilization worked into
totalitarianism – the systems were already in
place
Mussolini and Fascist Italy
Post WWI Italy
• Italy was in a volatile political state:
– Bad results from the peace
– Labor unrest
– Rural conflict over land reform
– Weak governments
Mussolini
• Born July 29, 1883
• Socialist in early years –
VERY active in the party
• Before WWI decided that
socialism was not an
effective option and that it
was dying
• Fought in WWI for Italy
– Was hit by a mortar in 1917
Rise of Fascism
• March 1919: Mussolini organized groups of likeminded people (typically former soldiers) who
became known as Fascidi CombattimentoCombat Squads
• Fascism rapidly gained support by advocating for
nationalist unity instead of class warfare
– Didn’t want to get rid of the classes or create equality
though
• Grew so quickly that it became the Nationalist
Fascist Party in 1921
Where does this
name come from?
• Fascio means league or
unit
• Also is the name of a
Roman symbol of state
unity – axe surrounded
by a bundle of sticks
– A bundle of sticks fused
into unity is much
stronger than one stick
– Can be seen in front of
the Lincoln Memorial
Goals of Fascism in Italy
• Praised action and violence
• A powerful leader
– When asked what fascism was, Mussolini responded
“me”
• A strong and warlike state
– Individual was subordinated to this
• Corporatism
– Gathering people into unities
• Imperialism
• Praised war as hygiene, adventure, and the true test
of a state and a people
Black Shirts
• Squads often composed
of former Italian
stormtroopersgained
their goals by killing
those who opposed
them: socialists,
communists, others in
the streets
How did the Fascists Take Over?
• Were saving Italy from the chaos:
– Some created by Black Shirt violence
• Saving Italy from the Communists
• Rapidly growing party
• October 1922 – Fascist
takeover of Italy
• Staged PR event –
because him taking
power had been
coordinated behind the
scenes
– Mussolini coordinated
this with conservative
elites
– King gave Mussolini the
job of Prime Minister
March on Rome
Fascism Moves Forward
• Then Mussolini began to prepare his people
for wars of conquest
• Admired by would be leaders all over Europe
– Hitler
• Is Nazism best understood as a subcategory of fascism?
– Marxists saw them both as the same
• Or did Nazism draw its inspiration from fascism and
then become something different?
– Importance of racism to Nazism
Hitler and Nazi Germany
Post WWI Germany
• Suffering from the terms of the Treaty of
Versailles
– Economy would quickly crumble under the strains
of the Treaty
• January 1919 – German Worker’s Party (DAP)
was founded in Munich by nationalists
• Abusive father, weird
childhood – you could do a
research paper here
• Austrian, but since his father
was loyal to Austria, Hitler
considered himself German
instead of German-Austrian
• Wanted to go to art school,
orphaned, moved to
Germany…
Adolf Hitler
• Petitioned to fight in a Bavarian unit once WWI
started
– Blindness caused by a gas attack caused Hitler to “see”
that he was the future of saving Germany
Hitler and the Rise of Nazism
• Adolf Hitler remained in the army after WWI
– He was sent to investigate the new DAP, but then soon
joined by September 1919
• Hitler quickly rose in the ranks of the party based
on his oratorical skills, including his ability to
inspirationally recount the experiences of WWI.
– He referred to himself as a nameless soldier in WWI.
• Hitler reshaped and renamed the party: National
Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP) to
envelop the left and right – they weren’t really
socialist of course
The Brown Shirts
• In imitation of Mussolini –
organized squads of muscle
– Sturmabteilung (SA) –
Stormtroopers (name from
WWI) wore brown shirts
• Supposedly Hitler wanted black
shirts like Mussolini, but the
military surplus store was out of
black and had plenty of brown…
– Were very important to
Hitler’s rise to power, but
would be replaced by the SS
after that
Growing Popularity of Nazism
• Began to attract
famed fighters of
WWI like General
Ludendorff and
fighter ace Hermann
Goring
– Goring would be one of
the first leaders of the
SA
Beer Hall Putsch
• Failed attempt at a coup on
November 8-9, 1923
• Supposed to be a recreation of the March on
Rome
• During his time in jail,
Hitler rethought his tactics
to gain power legally
– Instead he would use
democracy to destroy
democracy
Bürgerbräukeller Beer Hall in Munich 1923
Beer Hall Putsch cont.
• Post Beer Hall Putsch
propaganda promised a
revival of the inner truce
of WWI – Burgfrieden
• This was set in terms of a
racially defined
Volksgemeinschaft
(people’s community)
– This would exclude the
outsiders (Jews)
• Denounced the
Versailles Treaty
• Endorsed the “Stab
in the Back” legend
– German Jews were
blamed for
Germany’s problems
• Impact of WWI on
Nazis
– Hierarchical rank
structure, military
language, rituals,
uniforms,
glorification of war
Nazism
Nazis Come to Power in
Germany
• January 1933 Hitler came to power as
chancellor of Germany
– Nazi Party won election and elected Hitler as their
chancellor
– The Great Depression helped boost Nazis into
power
Political Parties
in the Reichstag
May
1924
Dec.
1924
May
1928
Sep.
1930
July
1932
Nov.
1932
Mar.
1933
Communist Party
(KPD)
62
45
54
77
89
100
81
Social
Democratic Party
(SDP)
100
131
153
143
133
121
120
Catholic Centre
Party (BVP)
81
88
78
87
97
90
93
Nationalist Party
(DNVP)
95
103
73
41
37
52
52
Nazi Party
(NSDAP)
32
14
12
107
230
196
288
Other Parties
102
112
121
122
22
35
23
Hitler’s War Aims
• Hitler wanted a war that would be a replay of the
Great War with a different ending
– New war aims included a German racial Empire in
Eastern Europe
– Cleansing of Germany would prevent a repeat of the
Stab in the Back
• Would eventually lead to purification to create a master race
– Nazi elite was proud of its toughness, unsentimental
efficiency, and coldness
– Outside Germany, Hitler claimed that he wanted peace,
since he was a former soldier and everything… Inside
Germany he mobilized the country for war and Germans
celebrated nationalistic events in WWI
Totalitarianism in the Soviet Union
Stalin Takes Leadership of the Soviet
Union
• Lenin died in 1924
• By 1927 Stalin had established himself as the heir to
the Bolshevik leadership
– Bye bye Trotsky – he ran away to Mexico where he was
killed … by an ice pick!
Stalin’s Changes to the Soviet
Union
• Stalin began to
prepare the country
for the war he knew
was coming
– Since WWI was a
capitalistic war, there
would have to be
another one since
capitalism had not
been destroyed yet
Stalin’s Changes to the Soviet
Union
• Society was “Stalinized” during the late 1920’s
and into the 1930’s:
• Purges of the Great Terror
– Stalin got rid of all of those he though were
against him or Communism
• Violent Collectivization of the countryside
• Forced industrialization
• All cost millions of lives
• Stalin and his supporters
were realists who were
intentionally tough in
pursuit of their goals
– Historians claim that this
ethos had shaped
younger Bolsheviks
during the brutal years of
the Russian Civil war
– Seen in the militarized
language of Stalin’s
propaganda – “enemies,
campaigns, the fronts of
the battle for
industrialization…”
Stalin’s
Attitudes
Stalin’s mugshot before the Civil War
Stalin’s Plans for the Coming
War
• New goal was to stand aside from the coming war –
let the capitalists fight it out
– Repetition of Lenin’s plan in the last stages of WWI –
Brest-Litovsk
– Would allow the Soviet Union to come out on top
– Led to an alliance with Hitler in the Nazi-Soviet NonAggression Pact of August 1939
• Partnership with ideological enemies
• Fit into Stalin’s idea of staying out of the war
• Total miscalculation since Hitler attacked in 1941
Militarism in Japan
The Meiji Restoration
• In the 1800’s, Japan chose to modernize itself
instead of face China’s fate of being carved up
by Western powers:
– Made Japan imperialistic as well
– Caused a rapid development and modernization
of Japan’s army and navy
– Caused Japan to want to be valued on the world
political scene
The Washington Naval Treaty of
1922
• A battleship tonnage limit was achieved with this ratio:
US
Britain
Japan
France
Italy
5
5
3
1.67
1.67
• Japan got a guarantee that the US and Britain would
stop fortifying their Far East territories (including the
Philippines).
• Loophole - no restrictions on small warships
• Angered Japan that they were not accepted as equals
to America and England
Japan as an Imperialist Power
• Ideas circulated at the turn of the century that
Japan needed to expand itself through
imperialism
– This would take care of domestic issues and
Japan’s lack of natural resources
– By the Inter-war Years, Japan could not generate
enough food to feed its population and it could
never generate enough raw materials
• This prompted the idea of a strong military to
help Japan take over other areas
The Manchurian Incident 1931
• China was the obvious
next step
– Currently weak country
that had already let
itself get taken over for
the last 100 years or so
• Japanese army in
Manchuria took it over
- without instructions
from the Japanese
government
Japan Invades Manchuria
Japan Invades Manchuria, 1931
The China Incident 1937-1938
(Second Sino-Japanese War)
• By 1938, Japan had
taken over most of
fertile China
– Yellow and Yangtze
River Valleys
– Peking and Nanking
• Rape of Nanking
December 1937January 1938
Militarism
• Japan was ruled by an imperial government (led by
an emperor), but during this time, militarists took
over control of the country.
• Militarism is a type of government that uses the
strength of the military to further the goals of the
country – the goals of the country are nationalistic.
• Militarists also believe that discipline (like that
found in the military) is necessary for the proper
functioning of society.
Hideki Tojo
• General in the China Incident
• Became Vice-Minister of
War in 1938
– Encouraged rearmament
– Nationalist, but not as radical
as some
• Became Minister of War in
1940
• Became Prime Minister in
1941 – ruled Japan through
the war
Fascism (Falange Party) in
Spain
Fascism in Spain
• In 1936, a group of Spanish army officers led by
Generalisimo Francisco Franco rebelled against
the Spanish republic.
• This began the Spanish Civil War, which ended
after half a million deaths in 1939; Franco was
victorious.
• The Spanish Civil War aroused sympathies all
over the world. For those who wanted to stop
the spread of fascism, this seemed like the
perfect opportunity.
Spanish Civil War 1936-1939
The American “Lincoln
Brigade”
Francisco Franco
Fascism in Spain
• Even though many
individuals from other
countries went to help
those fighting Franco,
fascism still won in
Spain.
• Hitler and Mussolini
both sent aid to help
Franco. This connection
helped bond the
German and Italian
dictators for life.
Rome-Berlin Axis, 1939
“The Pact of Steel”
The Spanish Civil War:
A Dress Rehearsal for WWII?
Italian troops in Madrid