🤐Unit VI

The period between the end of World War I and the start of World War II marked a period of challenge. Europe was mostly devastated from the effects of World War I being fought on the continent. With the worldwide depression and the flux in the stability of political institutions, a vacuum of power was created. Arising to fill in the opportunities would become the world’s most revered and feared dictators. Hitler of Germany would assume control and create a powerful militaristic country that would use groups of people as scapegoats to their national ills. Mussolini of Italy would make the Mediterranean the Italian lake with himself as the central leader. In Russia, the Bolsheviks would assume control and the rise of Lenin and then Stalin would emerge In Asia, a similar cult of personality was emerging. The military assumed more and more control of the Japanese government as the Emperor coalesced. These dictators would take the lives of many of their own people and of others too, cause another world war, and ultimately influence world events well beyond their own lives.

What were the terms of the Versailles Treaty in regards to Germany?

• Territorial

  • Germany surrenders Alsace-Lorraine

  • Germany surrendered Saar Coal Mines to French control with provisions that after 15 years Saar inhabitants would decide if they wanted to rejoin Germany

  • Poland becomes an independent nation

    • German-speaking Polish Corridor is given to Poland for water access

  • Territories in Africa and Pacific given as mandates to Britain, France, and Japan

• Disarmament

  • size of German army limited to 100,000 volunteers; no conscription

  • subs, airplanes, war industries banned

  • forbidden to place any troops in Rhineland, a strip of territory in Western Germany

• War Guilt and Reparations

  • sole blame placed on Germany

  • agreed to pay reparations to all Allies, $31 billion

Czar Nicholas II

• 1894-1917 Reign

• Didn’t want to be Czar, loved his family, but war and food for country took up all his time

• Not charismatic; shy and quiet

• Secluded life with family

  • Tsarina, Alexandra = Czar’s wife

    • hired Rasputin to heal eldest son with hemophilia = Alexis

    • may have had an affair with Rasputin, people felt Tzarina had too much influence on government

• Nicholas II didn’t realize that dissent was growing

  • Czar was detached, not listening to the people

• 1905 Revolution — Bloody Sunday

  • Jan 22, 1905

  • Peaceful march with more than 100,000 petitioners protesting against corrupt and inefficient Russian government after Russo-Japanese War

• Czar made reforms but with his fingers crossed behind his back

• March Revolution = Czar is Overthrown

• In March of 1917 Czar Nicholas II abdicates

Peter the Great

• Tsar of all Russia 1682-1725

• Known for modernizing Russia and transforming it into a major power

• Birthed Russian army

Alexander II

• 1855-1881 Reign

• Came to power and had to face the defeat of Crimean War against Ottoman Empire

• Freed the serfs in 1861 and gave them limited rights

• Put down a Polish revolt for independence in 1863

• Became a harsh, strict ruler

• was assasinated in 1881 with a bomb blast

Bolsheviks

• Russians who believed in Communism

• On Oct 25, 1917 Bolsheviks seized most of Petrograd = a capital in Russia

• nationalized everything — even some communists don’t agree with this act → leads to civil war

• Civil War until 1921 — Whites (Anti-communists) vs. Reds (Bolsheviks)

Romanovs

• House of Romanovs ruled Russia 1613-1917

• Ended with Czar Nicholas II

Anastasia

• “Lost“ daughter of Nicholas II

• Was assassinated along with family

• had three older sisters and younger brother = Alexis

Mensheviks

• Whites in civil war

• anti-communists

Social Revolutionaries

• sudden changes in the structure and nature of society

• transforms society, economy, culture, philosophy, and technology along with but more than just the political systems

New Economic Plan

• Made by Lenin 1921

• “take one step backward to go two steps forward“

• Lenin decided that Russia must adopt a little capitalism temporarily

• peasants can sell food in open markets, entrepreneurs encouraged to produce consumer goods, foreign investors enticed to invest capital in Russia industry

  • government allowed some freedom, free market capitalism

• Central government retained conrol of major industries like mining, steel production, and transportation

Five-Year Plans

• purpose = to set production targets for industries to achieve — to manage the economy

• First Five Year Plan (1929) = set out to triple the production of coal, iron, steel, oil, and machinery and increase sixfold electricity production

• Called for the construction of massive industrial centers that would provide iron, chemical products, and fuel needed to build tractors, tanks, airplanes, and ships

• vast amount of capital necessary to accomplish five year places

• national effort on the part of Soviet workers, who labored long hours and whose living conditions were inferior to other European countries

Whites

• Anti-communists

• US sent troops to help Whites

• Mensheviks

Reds

• Bolsheviks

• Wanted to nationalize everything

• believed in communism

• led by Lenin

• Cheka = secret polite created to back up Reds

Lenin

• aided by Germans in returning to Russia

• was exiled in Switzerland but came back to Russia when March Revolution overthrew czar

• “Land, Bread, Peace“

• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk = Gets Russia out of WWI but has to give up land (ex: Ukraine)

• Soviet Union under Lenin

  • Goals

    • transform Russia from a backward, feudal society to a modern, industrialized nation

    • create a model Marxist society

    • end illiteracy and class distinctions

  • Obstacles

    • WWI and civil war cause loss of lives and money and destruction of property

    • wages go down and prices go up

    • Western nations blockaded Russia → nothing in, nothing out

  • NEP

• Atempts to create classless society

• dies in 192 before everything becomes good

  • Stalin comes into power

Rasputin

• peasant faithhealer

• claimed to be able to cure Alexis’ hemopholia

• two-sided and womanizer

• became close advisor to royal family

• may have had affair with Alexandria

Trotsky

• one of Russia’s leaders (w/ Stalin) after Lenin died

• political rivals with Stalin

• “Death solves all problems“ → killed off all resisters using Red Army

• exiled by Stalin, then assassinated in Mexico in August 1940

How was Czarist Russia like France before the French Revolution? (think social conditions — privileged and unprivileged classes)

• Working class uprising against royalty

• end class distinctions

• Cheka = secret police similar to France’s comittee of public safety

Gulag

• Group of labor camps — people worked to death

• Sent to gulag for ex: being 10 minutes late to work

• housed political prisoners and criminals of the Soviet Union

• at its height, housed millions of people

“Peace, Bread, and Land“

• Lenin’s promise to the people

• Bread = food for the people

• Peace = Made peace with the Germans, accepted harsh terms

• Land = Allowed peasants to take over the land of upper class

• Lenin tried to keep this promise but goods became very scarce and the economy slowed down

What was Czarist Russia like?

• Political Conditions

  • Czar = autocrat = leader king

  • believed in divine right

  • unlimited wealth and power

    • ex: railroads, industrial plans, huge palaces, owned lots of land

  • no questioning decisions

    • no parliament or court systems

    • used secret police to oppress opposition

  • could appoint and dismiss all government ministers

  • commanded the army and headed the Russian Orthodox Church

  • “The Czar is a father, his subjects are his children, and children should never question their parents“ — Nicholas I

• Social Conditions — feudalism (similar to pre-French Revolution)

  • Privileged classes = 2% — preached obedience to Czar

    • clergy and nobility

  • Unprivileged classes = mostly illiterate

    • peasants = 80%

    • town dwellers = 15% — low wages, poor working conditions (similar to san-coullot)

    • middle class professionals = 3% (similar to bourgeoise)

Kulak

• means wealthy farmers

• Peasants who resisted collectivization

• deported to labor camps, killed, or denied food

Purges

• 1934-1938

• aka Great Terror

• systematic arrest and murder of millions of Soviet citizens to eliminate opposition to Stalin

• falsely accused millions of Soviet citizens of committing crimes against the government

• aka purification of Soviet society

• Most public examples = the three Show Trials in 1936, 1937, 1938

  • high-ranking Communist party officials were charged w/ fabricated traitorous acts

• Trials created an atmosphere of fear and suspicion

• By 1937 everyone knew at least one person who had “disappeared“

• total victims by late 1930’s = 15 million

Totalitarianism

• a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial

• a form of government that controls every aspect of individuals' lives

• examples:

  • Bolsheviks → Lenin → Stalin in USSR

  • Mussolini in Italy

  • Hitler in Germany

  • Military and Emperor Hirohito in Asia (Japan)

Collective Farming

• Stalin believed the best way to make Soviet agriculture more efficient was to collectivize the peasants on large state-owned farms

• set production targets for these farms in five-year plans

• forced peasants to give up small plots of land in exchange for working collectively

• unsuccessful and result = terrible famines in 1932 and 1933 → killed 3-4 million Soviet citizens

Autocrat

• a ruler who has absolute power

• difference from dictatorship = Autocrats tend to rise and rule with stable means

Abdicate

• Definition = renounce one’s throne

• In March 1917 Czar Nicholas II abdicates

What happens to Ethiopia in 1935?

• Mussolini invaded Ethiopia to make his empire greater

  • barely won

• Ethiopia was verbally supported by League of Nations, but no action was taken against Italy’s invasion

What year did the Russian Revolution take place?

• 1905 Revolution

  • Bloody Sunday — Jan 22, 1905

  • Protested corrupt government and monarchy

• March Revolution — 1917

  • Czar is overthrown

• November Revolution — 1917

  • Bolsheviks put into power

March Revolution

• Czar is overthrown

• Underlying Causes: Conditions in Czarist Russia

  • people want end to absolutism and repression

  • middle class and workers want a voice in government

  • middle class and workers want voice in government

    • people were forced to go to war poorly equipped

  • peasants want noble’s fertile lands

    • people were still hungry

War Communism

• June 1918 to March 1921

• economic and political system that existed in Soviet Russia during the Russian Civil War

• nationalization of private industry

• collectivization

What are the beliefs of Fascists (hint: look at the reading “What is an Ideology“)

• individuals and classes are merely parts of a larger, all-embracing whole — the society or state — which can be strong only when all the parts unite behind a single party and a supreme leader

• “Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state“

• Intensely nationalistic

• Dictatorship — Government should use force to control everything and everyone should be loyal to the dictator

• For Extreme Nationalism — believed in Social Darwinism = survival of the fittest

  • exagerated accomplishments of the state

  • advocated for imperialism → Mussolini wanted a “new Rome“

• For Militarism — strengthening Nation’s military = symbolizes nation’s strength

• Against Democracy ← seen as inefficient

  • believef that equality merely restrains the strong in order to protect the weak

• Against Marxism — Fascism believed each class has a certain function and didn’t like how Marxism was only for the working class

• Not a clearly defined program like communists

What are the beliefs of Communists?

• Everyone contributes time, labor, and talent to a common pool and receives in return enough goods to satisfy his or her needs

• Condemn the exploitation of one individual or class by another

• Property should be distributed as to benefit not the wealthy few, but the public at large

• Critical of capitalism as an economic system and of liberalism as an ideology

• Violent revolutionary transformations spearheaded by an elite “vanguard“ party

• All previously existing societies were divided along class lines: on the one side was the dominant or ruling class; on the other, a subservient class condemned to do the bidding of the ruling class

Official and unofficial information on women’s rights, housing, and education under Stalin in the Soviet Union?

• Women’s Rights

  • Propaganda: Women had equal rights as men and could vote

  • Real: Women’s rights were taken away slowly and women in leadership declined

• Housing

  • Propaganda: Buildings were modern, industrialized, and clean. Resources (ex: electricity, central heating) are abundant

  • Real: Workers lived in slums and mud huts. Some were evicted due to housing shortages

• Education

  • Propaganda: Everyone, including countless peasants, became literate and more than 1.5 million were enrolled in higher education

  • Real: Half of schools had no central heating, teachers earned 70% as workers, schools taught mostly indoctrination and social discipline

Stalin

• 20 million Soviets died at Stalin’s hands

• Sinister, power-hungry

• Stalin = man of steel

• Formed anti-Trosky alliances and eliminated competition

• Created collectivization, 5-year plans, and gulag

• Allowed his son to be killed in German prison camps

• By Stalin’s 50th birthday, he was portrayed as a god and savior of his people

Mussolini

• A dynamic and extremely nationalistic leader of Italy

• “El Duce“

• born July 1883

• Did not want Italy to join WWI but then changed his mind

• in 1919 Italy was on the brink of a civil war → people feared rise of socialism, he increased Fascism

• Won support of Catholic Church

• “brought Italy into the 20th Century“ by adding telephone lines and making the trains run on time

• Didn’t believe in free press → made himself the editor-in-chief of all Italy’s newspapers

• Hitler was a big fan of Mussolini and Fascism but Mussolini privately disliked Hitler

• Ocober 1935 invaded Ethiopia to make his empire greater — barely won

• Started to fear Nazi Germany when visiting it in September 1937

• 1939 Pact of Steel = alliance btwn Germany and Italy, Italy allows Germany to invade Poland

• July 1943 Allies dropped bombs on Rome

• 60th Birthday: Mussolini was a political prisoner in Italy

Lateran Pacts

• Signed February 1929 between Mussolini and the Pope

• Italy recognized Vatican City as a sovereign and independent state

• Pope recognized Italy and Rome as capital

March on Rome

• October 1922

• Fascist movement to seize power in a coup

• forced King Victor Emmanuel III to make Mussolini prime minister

Black Shirts

• followers of Mussolini

• fascists

Fasces

• carried in ancient Roman parages

• 12 rods bound together represent the strength of the 12 tribes and axe represents the restrained power and might of Rome

• Mussolini wished to create a “New Rome“

Haile Selassie

• Emperor of Ethiopia

• resisted Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia but was unsuccessful

Italian Lake

• a group of large lakes lying on the south side of the Alps

What were Mussolini’s beliefs?

• war sets the seal of nobility on those people who have the courage to face it

• rejects socialism and democracy

• Fascism is build on its conception of the state, which is absolute

  • individuals and groups are relative to the state and only admissable as they come within the state

Hitler

• Born in 1889 in Austrian border town Braunau

• unhappy childhood + high school drop out

• becomes a drifter and rejected by Academy of Fine Arts and the School of Architecture

• Developed hatred and blame for Jews for WWI

• Found a home in military, fighting WWI

• 1923 Hitler and Nazi party grows in power and influence

  • Munich Beer Hall uprising attempted to overthrow Wimer Republic

    • failed and Hitler was inprisoned

• Writes Mien Kampf in jail about Nazi ideas

• Jan 1933 Hindenburg names Hitler Chancellor

• rose to power through emergency rule after Reichstag destroyed in fire

What was the economic situation like in Germany between 1918 and 1923?

• extreme hyperinflation

• most workers paid daily and given time to shop before the value of their wages fell further

• housewives used small bills to fuel their ovens because they were worth less than wood kindling

Weimer Government

• 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933

• after WWI, before Hitler

• economic crisis and political instability led to its collapse

What were Hitler’s first steps toward war?

• leave the League of Nations

• increase the production of weapons and recruitment of soldiers

• occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938

• invaded Poland in 1939

Why did the Germans support Hitler in 1932?

Germany was in Great Depression and Germans believed that Hitler could bring Germany out of it

Who did the Nazis blame for Germany’s WWI defeat?

• Politicians

• Jews

Describe the common pattern that developed in many European countries after World War I

• weak government and economy

• people drifted towards supporting dictators

  • dictators often claimed to have easy solutions to difficult problems

Beer Hall Putsch

• November 8 and 9 1923

• Nazis held a rally in Munich Beer Hall and declared revolution

• Led 2000 men to over throw Weimer Republic

• Failed and Hitler was imprisoned

• Hitler turns setback into victory by using trials to spread ideas

• Writes Mien Kamf (My Struggle) while in jail about Nazi ideas

• After release, Hitler tries to build NSDAP back up and gets more followers

Tripartite Pact

• alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan

• signed in Berlin September 1940

• promote military cooperation between Axis powers

What was Japan’s government like in the early 1920’s?

• Taisho Period 1912-1926

  • Taisho = self-righteousness

• Emperor Yoshihito = friendly to foreign affairs because he wanted Japan to modernize

  • was ill for most of his rule → seemed weak

• Diet created = the “congress“ or legislative branch of Japan

• Voting rights increased

Showa Period

• 1926-1945

• leads Japan into WWII

• Emperor Hirohito

• Showa = period of enlightened peace (ironic)

• Diet previously allowed for multiple parties to emerge and seem reasonable → extreme groups became part of diet

• Nationalism grows after victory of Russo Japanese and Sino Japanese War

• Peace and Preservation Law of 1925 limited freedom of individual Japanese

• Industrialization leads to weakened Feudal Lords and increased loyalty to Emperor

• Economic Collapse = depression and unemplyment in Japan

  • silk prices dropped by ½

• Ultranationalists assassinated Prime Minister Osachi after London Naval Conference 1930 denied increase of Japanese military ships

  • more ultra conservatives march to Tkyo and assassinate officials → military rule and fall of civilian government

• 1932 Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi assassinated

• Military coup in February 1936

• Japan controlled Eastern Asia, saw itself as the only nation fit to stand up to the West

Peace and Preservation Act of 1925

• must be loyal to emperor and nation

• limited freedom of individual Japanese citizens and outlawed groups who disagreed with government

• allowed for suppression of more liberal groups such as communists, capitalists

• Kokutai = any suggestion or question posed to the gobernment or the politcal state was seen as an outright attack on Japan and emperor itself

• special force created that would investigate any groups like socialists, communists, and capitalists, who might threaten this supreme ruling of the centralized government

Diet

• the “congress“ or legislative branch of Japan

• allowed for multiple parties to emerge and seem reasonable → extreme groups became part of diet

Why does militarism and imperialism in Japan rise in the latter part of the 1920’s?

• Nationalism and urge to modernize grows

• Industrialization leads to weakened feudal lords and increased loyalty to Emperor

• Economic collapse leads to desire to strengthen Japan

• Military rule and fall of civilian government comes from denial of London Naval Conference 1930 (increase military ships)

  • League of Blood Incident

Manchuria

• 1931

• violated 9-power treaty = respect the sovereignty, the independence, and the territorial and administrative integrity of the state of China

• Japan needed resources such as coal, iron, soil

• condemned by League of Nations but Treaty of Geneva (prohibiting unfail trial and punishment) did not stop Japan

• Stimson Doctrine = US isn’t going to sent troops into China

  • any land taken from China by Japan ← US doesn’t recognize

• sets up puppet government, Manchukuo in 1932

  • government led by Chinese but does what Japan wants

Manchukuo

• puppet state of Japan in previously-known Manchuria

Flying Tigers

• First American Volunteer Group of the Republic of China Air Force

• US didn’t want to officially declare war on Japan

• Flying Tigers flew planes with China flag

Rape of Nanking

• 300,000-400,000 people killed

• Japanese thought they could conquer all of China in 3 months

• highest commander gave the Three all policies = kill all, burn all, and plunder all

• Rape of Nanking lasted 6-8 weeks

• Japanese officers did not control their soldiers, they were encouraged to do it and remove evidence

• 20,000 women raped in Nanking

• Hitler forbid films of Japanese crimes to be showed

• War criminals honored and worshipped in Japan

Cause of the Russian Revolution?

• people wanted to end absolutism and repression of Czar

• food shortage and soaring prices

• soldiers had inadequate food, clothing, and battle equipment → high casualties

East Asia Co-Prosperity Pact

• Japan wanted Asia to be ruled under Japan and be strong enough to go against the West

• Japan controlled Eastern Asia

Name 2 world powers that emerged from WWI in better financial shape than when the war started?

Japan and US

Dawes Plan

• new, realistic, target for Germany's reparations payments

• Germany's annual reparation payments would be reduced, increasing over time as its economy improved

Kellogg-Briand Pact

• 1928

• outlawed war (unsuccessful), disputes must be sorted peacefully

Washington Conference

• 1921-1922

• a naval conference

• 21 Demands = Japan demanded more land, bigger army

• 9 power treaty = demanded trading rights in China

Which event started the worldwide depression of the 1930’s

stock market crash

Why did the Japanese soldiers commit so many atrocities in Nanking?

• believed the Chinese soldiers deserved to die for being so willing to surrender

Stimson Doctrine

• US isn’t going to sent troops into China

• any land taken from China by Japan ← US doesn’t recognize

Spanish Civil War

• 1931 King Alfonso XIII was dethroned in favor of a democratic government

• Democratic government attempted overdue reforms but people were unsatisfied

• new elections 1933

National German Socialist Workers Party

• Nazi Party

Russo-Japanese War

fought between the Japan and the Russian during 1904 and 1905 over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean

How did Japan react to the League of Nations condmnation of their actions in Manchuria?

withdraw from the organization in 1933

What were the nicknames of Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini?

• Stalin = man of steel

• Hitler = der Führer

• Mussolini = El Duce

9 Power Treaty

demanded trading rights in China

Francisco Franco

fascist leader

King Alfonso

last king of Spain before civil war

Republicans (in Spain)

Liberal party

Nationalists (Spain)

Fascists led by Franco

“Death Solves all problems“

Stalin

“Believe, Fight, Obey“

Mussolini

“Fascism was not worked out beforehand with detailed elaboration, it was born of need for action“

Mussolini

“When you lie, tell big lies“

Hitler

He got the trains running on time

Mussolini