Unit 10 AP Euro: Dictatorships + WWII (Reading Guides)

Radical Totalitarianism vs. Conservative Authoritarianism

Radical regimes (Fascist/Communist) intervened more aggressively in all aspects of social, intellectual, and cultural life to gain complete power

What did Fascist and Communist dictatorships have in common?

Both rejected parliamentary government, liberal values, and individual rights in favor of a one-party system/national unity.

Significance of Spanish Civil War

Encouraged Fascists across Europe - Republican victory might have warned Nazi Germany against future aggression

Primary goal of Soviet Communism

To create an international brotherhood of workers + classless, stateless society based on Marx and Lenin

How did the Soviet state handle private property?

They nationalized it, using brute force/centralized planning (Five-Year Plans) to abolish it

What was the result of attempts to eliminate the upper/middle classes?

Killing of millions in the USSR + destruction of the traditional social hierarchy

What was the primary social goal of Fascism?

National rebirth/creation of a disciplined people’s community based on extreme nationalism (and racial purity in Germany)

How did Fascists view social classes?

They accepted social inequalities and sought to preserve traditional hierarchies as long as they served the state

What was the Fascist approach to the economy?

They intervened in the economy/strictly regulated private property to serve national interests but did not abolish it

Communism

Internationalism/class struggles

Fascism

Extreme nationalism/national unity.

What was the New Economic Policy (NEP)?

A 1921 policy by Lenin that re-established limited economic freedom to rebuild agriculture/industry.

What was Stalin’s primary political advantage over Trotsky?

As General Secretary, he used his office to win allies with jobs/promises - he also argued for “Socialism in One Country.”

How did Stalin’s view of the Soviet Republics differ from Lenin’s?

Lenin supported theoretical self-determination, Stalin demanded centralized Russian control.

What were the goals of the First Five-Year Plan?

To increase total industrial output by 250% + catch up with Western backwardness.

What was Collectivization?

Forced consolidation of individual peasant farms into large, state-controlled enterprises (started in 1929).

The Kulaks

Better-off peasants who benefited from the NEP; they were eventually stripped of land/sent to forced-labor camps.

What was the purpose of the Gosplan?

A state agency created to set production goals/control the delivery of raw materials.

How did the standard of living change for workers by 1937?

Despite rising wages, workers could only buy about 60% of what they could in 1928 due to shortages.

How did the Soviet state view women’s rights?

It proclaimed complete equality; women worked in factories and heavy construction but faced massive physical/emotional strains.

What was the “religion” of the Soviet Union?

Marxism-Leninism, with Joseph Stalin acting as the “high priest.”

What event triggered the Great Purge?

The 1934 murder of Sergei Kirov (which Stalin likely ordered and then used as an excuse to eliminate traitors).

Who were the primary victims of the Great Terror (1936-1938)?

Old Bolsheviks, army officers, union officials, those from “wrong” social classes/“hostile” ethnic groups.

What was a “practical reward” of the Purges for Stalin?

It created a new generation of committed, loyal Communists who replaces those purged/served until the 1980s.

How did Stalinism transform the Soviet Union?

It changed an agrarian society into a centralized industrial superpower through rapid industrialization, brutal collectivization, and a totalitarian state maintained by mass repression.

Two main domestic problems in Italy after WWI

Wealth gap between rich and poor = led to radical socialist movement

Opposition to liberal institutions from the papacy, conservatives, and landowners

What economic/political factors fueled post-war unrest?

Unemployment/inflation, limited territorial gains from the war, and radical workers seizing land/factories

Black Shirts

Mussolini’s private militia that used violence to destroy Socialist party headquarters, newspapers, and union halls to push Socialists out of local government.

March on Rome (Oct. 1922)

Band of armed Fascists marched on the capital to threaten the King, successfully forcing him to appoint Mussolini as Prime Minister

2/3 Law

Electoral law that gave 2/3 of the seats in Parliament to the party that won the most votes, allowing the Fascists to seize total control.

Giacomo Matteotti

Leading Socialist politician murdered by Fascist extremists. Mussolini used the resulting political crisis to tighten his grip on power

Mussolini’s primary methods of repression

Ruling by decree, abolishing freedom of the press, fixing elections, and disbanding independent labor unions.

Lateran Agreement (1929)

Mussolini recognized the Vatican as an independent state/provided financial support in exchange for the Pope’s public allegiance

How did the regime view gender roles?

Opposed to liberal reforms/promoted traditional gender roles to increase popular consent.

How did the regime engineer popular consent?

Staging massive rallies/sporting events, manipulating pride in Ancient Rome, and organizing Fascists youth/women’s groups.

What happened in Ethiopia (1935)?

Mussolini invaded Ethiopia to build a New Roman Empire, eventually winning in 1936 despite early setbacks.

Mussolini’s relationship with Hitler

Formed a close alliance, and by 1938 - Mussolini, influenced by Hitler, passed a series of anti-Jewish racial laws.

Mussolini’s established government

Totalitarian fascist dictatorship (1922-1943) - aimed for absolute control over all aspects of Italian life.

Two most influential developments that birthed National Socialism

Nationalism + racism

What beliefs did Hitler develop while living in Vienna?

Social Darwinism, the superiority of Germanic races, and the inevitability of racial conflict.

Beer Hall Putsch (1923)

Failed armed uprising/coup by Hitler in Munich - despite its failure, it marked the birth of National Socialism.

Two main arguments in Hitler’s Mein Kampf

• Lebensraum: Need for living space for the master race

• Fuhrer: Idea of a leader with unlimited power embodying the people’s will

Why did the Reichstag Fire matter politically?

Allowed Nazis to exploit the fact that the two left-wing parties (Communists and Social Democrats) refused to cooperate against them

Enabling Act

Gave Hitler dictatorial power for 4 years, effectively disarming legal opposition.

Gleichschaltung

Forced conformity of all existing institutions on National Socialist ideology

Night of the Long Knives (June 30, 1934)

Hitler’s SS arrested and executed 100+ SA leaders/other political enemies.

Nuremberg Laws

Laws that classified anyone with 3+ Jewish grandparents as Jewish and outlawed marriage/relations between Jews and Germans.

Kristallnacht

State-sponsored pogrom where Nazi gangs destroyed 7k+ Jewish businesses, burned 200+ synagogues, and killed dozens of Jews.

How did the Nazi state address the Great Depression?

Launched large public works programs/focused on rearmament, which caused business profits to rise sharply.

What was the Nazi stance on women?

Championed a return to traditional family values/promised to liberate women from women’s liberation

Appeasement

British/French policy of granting Hitler’s demands to avoid war, motivated by pacifism/memories of WWI

What happened at the Munich Conference regarding the Sudetenland?

Neville Chamberlain/the French agreed that Germany should take over the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.

What was the Non-Aggression Pact (1939)?

An agreement between NAzi Germany/Soviet Union to remain neutral and secretly divide Poland and Eastern Europe.

What event officially started WWII?

Invasion of Poland - Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later.

Blitzkrieg

“Lightning war” - used by hitler’s armies to crush Poland in just four weeks

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (Poland)

Agreement where the Soviet Union and Germany divided Poland - the Soviets occupied the eastern half and repressed Polish leaders

Battle of Britain

Major turning point where British resistance stymied German expansion after the fall of France

Dunkirk

Site where British and French forces were trapped by German columns - the British successfully withdrew troops, though they lost their equipment

Nazi “New Order” principle

Based on national Socialism + racial imperialism - where copied peoples were treated according to a racial hierarchy

Nordic Peoples

The Dutch, Danes, and Norwegians who received preferential treatment because the Nazis believed they were related to the Aryan master race

German Rule: East vs. West

Rule in central-eastern Europe was far more ruthless/deadly (war of annihilation) compared to the west

Euthanasia Program

Mercy killing campaign that murdered 70,000 people with disabilities - stopped in 1940 after public protest by church leaders

Jewish Ghettos in Poland

Crowded, unsanitary areas where over 500,000 Polish Jews died from lack of food/work before the Final Solution

Einsatzgruppen

Special task Forces (military death squads) that followed the German army to systematically shoot Jews/target populations

Japanese Imperial Ideology

Highly nationalistic/militaristic - based on a race theory that Asian races were superior to Westerners

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

Japanese propaganda claiming their expansion would free Asians from Western imperialists, though it was actually a form of Japanese imperialism

Pearl Harbor (Dec 7, 1941)

Japanese attack that crippled the U.S. battleship fleet (though aircraft carriers escaped) + brought the U.S. into the war

The Grand Alliance

Military pact between Great Britain, U.S. and Soviet Union

“Europe First” Policy

Allied strategy to defeat Hitler first before mounting an all-out attack on Japan

U.S. Industrial Base

By 1943, the U.S. out-produced Germany, Italy, and Japan, and the rest of the world, combined

Battle of El Alamein (1942)

British forces defeated the Axis in North Africa, halting their penetration of the region

Battle of Stalingrad

Catastrophic defeat for Germany where the Soviets destroyed the Sixth Army - turned German public opinion against the war

D-Day (June 6, 1944)

Largest naval invasion in history - U.S./British forces landed at Normandy, France, under General Eisenhower

V-E Day (May 8, 1945)

The day remaining German commanders officially captured/surrendered following Hitler’s suicide