Dictators of the 1930’s
& 1940’s
How did they take power in
Europe and Asia?
Wilson’s Hopes
Treaty of Versailles ended
WWI
“just & secure peace”
Make world “safe for
democracy”
Result – Weak League of
Nations & Germany grew
w/revenge – why?
Soviet Union = angered –
Totalitarianism
A theory of government in which a
single party or leader controls the
economic, social, and cultural lives of its
people.
Joseph Stalin “Man of Steel”
Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili
Soviet Union – Rule by Terror
Led by Lenin – then Stalin (since 1924)
RUTHLESS!!! Promoted himself as leader &
killed rivals (The Purges)
Focused on communist state = no free
enterprise
No more private farms – only state-owned
farms (collectives)
Soviet Union = industrial power
Totalitarian Government
Police state
Criticism = arrest or death
sent to prison-camps (Gulags)
8-15 million killed – at least!
Created a totalitarian gov’t =
gov’t w/complete control over
its citizens
FascismPolitical
philosophy that
exalts nation and
race above the
individual in
which a
centralized
government is
headed by a
dictatorial leader.
Benito Mussolini
Totalitarian leader in Italy (19221943)
Fascism (created by Mussolini)
Grew out of extreme nationalism
Recruited unemployed WWI
veterans = Black Shirts
“Restored order” 1925 – became
dictator
Mussolini
Il Duce = leader
Pompous & arrogant
Picked on weak
(Ethiopians)
Did not want state
owned farms
Anti-Communist
Hitler idolized
Germany & the Fascist Party
Adolf Hitler
Nazism - Germany’s political philosophy
(fascism + racism)
Led by Hitler
Hoped to unite all German-speaking people into
a new German empire – or Reich
Believed Germans (blond hair, blue-eyed)
“Aryans” were the master race
Nazism
Aryans = powers over nonwhites & Jews or “inferior
races”
Believed Germany needed
to expand -lebensraum
Combined extreme
nationalism, racism, &
expansionism
Took to extreme –
eugenics (purification of
race) “life unworthy of life”
Nazism
Appealed to Germans who suffering
during Great Depression
Anti-semitism – prejudice against
Jewish peoples
1932 = Nazi party in power
Hitler = chancellor
Third Reich established (other 2?)
Japan’s Military Government
Japan
Led by heads of military
Japan attacked Manchuria (province in
China) in 1931
Believed Japan needed more land &
resources – expansionist viewpoint
League of Nations protested – Japan
left (who cares!)
Hitler & Mussolini = arrogant
Arrogance
Hitler invaded Rhineland
Rebuilt Germany Army
Acts broke Versailles
Treaty – who cares!
Mussolini captured
Ethiopia – Haile Selassie
“ousted”
“It is us today. It will be
you tomorrow”
United States Response?
General consensus = stay out!
Isolationism
Neutrality Acts – banned loans or
arms sale to nations at war
Included Civil Wars – Spain
Overturned with Neutrality Act of
1939 & Lend-Lease Act
General Francisco Franco “El Caudillo”
Demoted – Chief of Staff of Army
Got rid of all left-wing & initiated
uprising
Censored everything (media &
culture)
Persecuted political opponents
Overthrew democratic elected
gov’t (1939-75)
Franco
American volunteers = fight
fascists – Abraham Lincoln
Brigade (3,000)
Defend democracy?
Anti: Western democracy sent
food & clothing
Stalin aided demo
w/aides/advisors
Pro: Hitler/Muss sent troops &
weapons
FDR
Japan invaded China (again) 1937
Brutality = center of terror
(Nanking)
FDR spoke out against
Responsibility of democracies
“peace-loving” nations should take
stand
Sent aid to China