Bell Ringer
1. What is fascism?
2. How does it differ from America’s government?
Fascism is…
an authoritarian form of government that places the
good of the nation above all else, including individual
needs and rights.
Fascists envision an aggressive state ruled by a dictator.
WWII
The Beginning: Facism
Mussolini’s Italy
• founded the National Fascists
Party in 1919, quickly gained
power
• Mussolini marched on Rome and
took power from the Italian king in
1922
• wanted control of all aspects of
life—totalitarianism
• appealed to the people through
his use of propaganda and
establishment of new festivals and
holidays to remind modern Italians
of their proud Roman heritage
Mussolini’s Italy
• wanted Italy to
become a strong
military power so he
invaded Ethiopia
• Ethiopians leader
Haile Selassie
appealed to the
League of Nations to
take action against
Italian aggression,
but they did not want
another world war
Stalin’s Soviet Union
wanted to strengthen
Communism by turning
to Soviet Union into a
totalitarian state, intent
on controlling every
aspect of Soviet life
Stalin’s Soviet Union
FIVE-YEAR PLANS
“The fundamental task of the five-year plan was to…
…transfer our country, with its backward…technology, on to the lines of new,
modern technology.
…convert the U.S.S.R. from an agrarian and weak country…into an industrial and
powerful country.
…ensure the economic basis of socialism in the countryside and thus eliminate the
possibility of the restoration of capitalism in the U.S.S.R.
-the state set factory and mine production goals
-during the first two Five-Year Plans, oil production more than doubled and coal and steel
production quadrupled
Stalin’s Soviet Union
Collectivization—wanted to
increase farm output so he
combined thousands of small
farms into larger, mechanized
farms
-peasants that resisted were
either executed or sent to labor
camps called the Gulag.
- the Gulag was in Siberia, a
remote and frigid region of the
Soviet Union
- resistance was very strong in
Ukraine, so when famine struck in
1932, Stalin refused to send
food to aid them
Stalin’s Soviet Union
-By the mid-1930s, Stalin had absolute
power but still feared that people
were plotting against him
- Great Terror: series of purges that
attacked real and imagined opponents
of Stalin’s rule
-Stalin’s regime dominated Soviet life
• children were encouraged to join
youth organizations
•religion was discouraged and
churches were closed
• portraits of Stalin decorated
public places all over Russia
• streets and towns were renamed
in his honor
Hitler’s Germany
-born in Austria in 1889, served in
the German army during WWI
-during the chaos of post-war
Germany, he became involved with
a group of right-wing extremists
and joined the Nationalist Socialist
party, or Nazi Party
- due to his talent for public
speaking and leadership, he
quickly became a key figure in this
party
- October 1923: led a failed
attempt to overthrow government
and received a short prison term
Hitler’s Germany
Mein Kampf or “My struggle”
described Hitler’s major political ideas, including nationalism and the racial
superiority of the German people, whom he called Aryans
“…the black-haired Jewish youth lies in wait for hours on end, satanically glaring
at and spying on the unsuspicious girl whom he plans to seduce, adulterating her
blood and removing her from the bosom of her own people. The Jew uses every
possible means to undermine the racial foundations of a subjugated people.”
“...the personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living
shape of the Jew.”
Hitler’s Germany
-due to problems created by Treaty of Versailles and the
Great Depression, the German people were desperate
- Hitler promised to rebuild the German military and he
spoke of a mighty German
empire, declaring that
Germans were the “master
race”
- these claims and promises
won Nazi Party many new
supporters
- Hitler was named chancellor
in 1933 (most powerful
post in German government)
Hitler’s Germany
-Hitler’s rule took the form of a totalitarian regime
• crushed opposition—arrests and intimidation by Nazi thugs
• bullied German legislature
• used propaganda to glorify himself as the great Fuhrer or “leader”
• created Nazi youth
organizations to shape
the minds of young
Germans
-began to rebuild German
military and improve the
economy
- set wage controls and
began massive government
spending on public works
programs
Hitler’s Germany
-Nazi Anti-Semitism: hostility/prejudice
toward Jews
- blamed Jews for Germany’s problems
- Nuremburg Laws: created a separate
legal status for German Jews, eliminating
their citizenship and many civil and
property rights such as the right to vote
-Kristallnacht: Night of Broken Glass
• anti-Jewish riots were encouraged
across Germany and Austria
• nearly 100 Jews were killed and
thousands of Jewish businesses and
places of worship were destroyed