Years of Crisis: The Interwar
Period
1920s-1930s
Journal #18

What would life be like if you lived in a
country where you did not have the
freedom to choose what you buy, where
you work, what you eat, or what you say.
What would you miss the most?
Competing ideologies of the 20th
century

Ideology:
◦ A system of ideas and beliefs
Ideologies are “isms”
 Some you may know: atheism, capitalism,
humanism, optimism, racism, idealism,
imperialism

Competing ideologies of the 20th
century
◦ Totalitarianism: No freedom
 Fascism
 Communism
◦ Democracy: Freedom
Totalitarianism

Government takes control over every
aspect of public and private life
◦
◦
◦
◦

Charismatic leader
Police terror
Indoctrination (brainwashing youth)
Propaganda
Examples:
◦ Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Communist USSR
Fascism
Began in Italy after WWI
 Italians were not happy with the Treaty of
Versailles
 Leader of the Fascist Party: Benito
Mussolini

◦ “Party” is not a fun gathering!
◦ It is a group of people with similar political
views and ideologies
Mussolini
Mussolini Takes Power
◦ Organizes Blackshirts (WWI veterans) to
fight Communists and keep order in the
streets
◦ October 1922: March on Rome
 King Victor Emmanuel II gave Mussolini power
◦ Il Duce: “The Leader”
What does this tell you about
fascism?

Fascis, ancient Rome:
Fascism

“Fascism may be defined as a form of
political behavior marked by obsessive
preoccupation with community decline,
humiliation or victimhood and by
compensatory cults of unity, energy and
purity, in which a massed-based party of
committed nationalist militants, working in
uneasy but effective collaboration with
traditional elites, abandons democratic
liberties and pursues with redemptive
violence and without ethical or legal
restraints goals of internal cleansing and
external explansion.” (Paxton, op. cit., p.
218)
Characteristics of fascism
Obsessed with humiliation/victimhood
 Obsessed with unity and purity
 Extremely nationalist
 Focuses on “enemies”/racist
 Uses violence without restraint to:

◦ Expand the power/land of the country
(outside)
◦ “Purify” the country (inside)
Review!

For each picture, write down what
characteristic of fascism and/or
totalitarianism it represents.
Mussolini, Italy
Nazi Propaganda: “Long Live
Germany!”
Hitler Youth: “Youth serves the
Leader”
White Rose Resistance, all executed
Journal #18
Take out your Source Sheets for me to
collect.
 List one aspect of either fascism or
totalitarianism, without looking at notes!

Cabaret: “Tomorrow Belongs to
Me”

As you watch, list:
◦ Verbal messages (what are they saying?)
◦ Actions (what are people doing?)
◦ Symbols/images you notice
◦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs5bnVoZ
K4Q
Nazism
National Socialist German Worker’s Party
(NSDAP)
 Leader of the Nazi Party: Adolf Hitler
(der Fuhrer)
 1923: Hitler failed to take over (Beer Hall
Putsch)
 1925: In jail, wrote Mein Kampf

You have until lunch to finish your Nazi
Party packets from yesterday.
 When you are done, write a specific
characteristic of Nazism on the board.

Specific Characteristics of Nazism
Anti-semitism: Prejudice against Jews
 Volk: German people superior
 Lebensraum: Germans need “living space”
 Aryan: Best race (“master race”)
 Other people Nazis considered inferior:

◦ Poles, Roma (gypsies)
◦ Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, mentally
disabled
“Aryan Family”
Anti-semitism: “The eternal Jew”
Why anti-semitism?

Connected with:
◦
◦
◦
◦
Communism
Money lending/banking
Christian anti-Jewish history
“New” ideas
 Sexual freedom
 Einstein
 Modern art
Hitler’s Rise to Power




Great Depression: Nazis become popular
By 1932: Largest party in the Reichstag
(German parliament)
1933: President Hindenburg names Hitler
chancellor (head of parliament)
Reichstag building is set on fire
◦ Hitler blames Communists
◦ Hitler takes “emergency powers”

1934: Death of Hindenburg leads to Hitler
taking total control as the Fuhrer
Anti-semitism Timeline
1933: Sterilization Laws
 1935: Nuremberg Laws

◦ German Jews no longer citizens, cannot marry
“Aryans”
1937: Jewish businesses taken
 1938: Kristallnacht, “Night of Broken
Glass”
 1939: Deportation to concentration
camps begins; euthanasia of “unfit”

Other Dictatorships
Peron in Argentina
 Franco in Spain
 Eastern European dictatorships

Journal #19
1. What would life be like if you lived in a
country where you did not have the
freedom to choose what you buy, where
you work, what you eat, or what you say.
What would you miss the most? Why?
 2. What is this kind of government called?
 3. In your opinion, did Hitler come to
power legally? Explain (and use your
notes/textbook for help if you need it).

Comparing Fascism and
Communism
Stalin

Total control of government
◦ Killed political opponents or sent them to
labor camps in the Great Purge (1937)
◦ Persecuted religious groups

Total control of economy: Command
economy
◦ Five Year Plans: To increase industrial
production
◦ Made peasants work in collective farms; killed
richer peasants (kulaks)
Collective Farms
Gulags

Forced labor camps
Stalin’s Propaganda

Before…

After…
Journal #20
Communism and fascism are both
totalitarian forms of government. What is
one similarity and one difference?
 Think of the following categories to help
you: ideology, leaders, political parties,
economics, state vs. individual rights, role
of the police
 Put one of your answers on the board.

Japan Rises
Read the article.
 Power of the military and the emperor
 Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
 Nationalism and racism

◦ 1931: Invaded Manchuria
◦ 1933: Left the League of Nations
◦ 1937: Took over most of China; Nanking
massacre
Road to WWII
Timeline:
 1935: Mussolini invades Ethiopia
 1936: Germany reoccupies the Rhineland

◦ Violation of the Treaty of Versailles

Axis Powers formed
◦ Germany, Italy, Japan

1936-1939: Franco takes over Spain
Road to WWII

1938: Hitler annexed (added) Austria into
the Third Reich
◦ Anschluss
1938: Takes the Sudetenland
 1939: Takes all of Czechoslovakia
 1939: Stalin and Hitler sign a
Nonaggression Pact
 Germany invades Poland; Britain and
France declare war on Germany

Attempts at Peace

Why did they fail?

Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) outlawed war
Munich Conference (1938) allowed Hitler to
take the Sudetenland
US isolationism:


◦ Did not join the League of Nations, wanted to be
strictly neutral to avoid getting into another war

European appeasement:
◦ Giving in to an aggressor to prevent war
Journal # 21

1. Give your opinion…
◦ Do you think fascism could happen here in
the United States? Explain.
2. How is a history thesis statement like a
hypothesis in science?
 3. If you would like class feedback on your
thesis statement, write it on the board.

Triumph of the Will (1934)
As you watch, write in your journals:
 1. What elements of
fascism/totalitarianism does this clip
show?
 2. Are there any clues in this video that
predict or foreshadow Hitler and
Germany’s steps of aggression throughout
the 1930s?
