AP Euro Ch 27 Dictatorships and the Second World War

Definition of totalitarianism, what forms of government it included, and how totalitarian rulers/regimes rose to power

Definition: A radical dictatorship that exercises “total” claims over the beliefs and behavior of its citizens by taking control of the economic, social, and cultural aspects of society

Fascist and Communist states were totalitarian (USSR, Germany, and Italy)

These regimes rose to power by creating a new political party (would become the only political party) whose ideals were collective harmony, then using force/terror to get rid of opponents, attempted to do some sort of imperial expansion, censored media and used propaganda, and made big projects of state controlled social engineering to replace individualism (individualism=evil) to unify the people

differences between communism (USSR) and fascism (Germany and Italy)

Communism: didn’t really care about race, wanted to destroy class differences, strove towards and international community of workers, destroyed upper/middle class and nationalized everyone

fascism: wanted to build national community based on racial homogeneity → love of eugenics. Wanted a strong national community that would improve the lives of workers

fascism definition

A movement characterized by extreme, often expansionist nationalism, antisocialism, a dynamic and violent leader, and glorification of war and the military.i

brain Dump Stalin’s rise to power and his Soviet Union

After the death of Lenin (no heir) he and trotsky fought for support until he won (abusing role and “socialism in one country” ideology) in 1928 he made the 5 year plan to make Russia Communist, he used constant propaganda, sacrifice of the people, repression (purges and executions), and rewards for followers to establish by the 1920s a dynamic modern totalitarian Communist state

Compare and contrast Lenin and Stalin in their policy

Lenin:

NEP (capitalist-ish)

gave the right of self-determination to non-russians, even if that meant independence (USSR = federation 4 soviet republics)

Stalin:

Five Year Plan (in reaction to NEP, put the community in communist)

centralized control over non russians

in Dec 1927 Congress he condemned all deviation form the party line

NEP vs Five Year Plans

NEP- (Lenin) 1921, re-established limited economic freedom in an attempt to rebuild agriculture and industry in the face of economic disintegration. ppl didn't like it’s capitalist-ish-ness

Five Year Plan- From Stalin in 1928, termed the “revolution from above” which was aimed at modernizing the Soviet Union and creating a new communist society with new attitudes, new loyalties, and a new socialist humanity. MADE IN REACTION TO NEP’S ALMOST CAPITALISM/IN FEAR OF GRADUAL RESTORATION OF CAPITALISM AND DUE TO ECONOMY STALLING IN 1927 and 1928

Collectivization of Agriculture

The forcible consolidation of individual peasant farms into large state controlled enterprises in the Soviet Union under Stalin. Forced people to move to new farms and barely did anything. Resistance against it was firmly repressed (Holodomor in Ukraine). By 1938 93% of peasants were on collectivized farms and were therefore politically neutralized

Who were the kulaks and why did Stalin liquidate them

The better-off peasants who were stripped of land and livestock under Stalin and were generally not permitted to join collective farms; many of them starved or were deported to forced-labor camps for “re-education”

Stalin got rid of them because they benefitted most from the NEP which made them the enemy of the poor and progress

Rapid industrialization in Russia causes and effects

by 1937 industry had quadrupled since 1928 (even tho Gosplan often caused bottlenecks/slowdowns and stalinist emphasis on heavy industry caused shortages of basic needs). Led to urban development because gov needed workers to work on steel mills and could move people around however they wanted (More than 25M ppl moved to cities in 1930s)

What was life like in Soviet Society during this time? DESCRIBE EVERYTHING YOU KNOW.

rough.

Millions of people moved to the cities but new buildings weren’t really being built → homelessness/lack of proper housing

low wages and ppl taking money out to invest → standard of living drops (worse for collectivized farmers), ppl only buy ½ of what they could in 1928

culture is dominated by propaganda

women: 1920s got rights as part of revolution, 1930s: Stalin told them to go back to the kitchen, but low wages for men → women need to work but education is permanently given to them (women are very prevalent in medicine)

Few Pros:

pride in building 1st socialist state (no GD or fascism either)

lots of social welfare and no unemployment (gov picks ur job!)

small opportunity for advancement since industrialization → need for skilled/managerial roles

Describe Stalin’s Great Purges and their purpose

The Great Purge from 1936-1938 were used to solidify Stalin’s power. They persecuted supposed traitors, with 6M people getting arrested and 1-2M executed. These “show” trials had fake evidence and were public to instill terror in all citizens and make them more loyal to the state, to establish mass hysteria (like a witch hunt) and to preserve the totalitarian state because such states always had to be fighting an enemy, real or fake.

What was one political impact of the Great Purges

1.5M political/government jobs opened up, so there was a huge social advance of very capable people who took up the roles since they were educated in new technical schools

How did Mussolini seize power?

By 1921, every political party was opposing the liberal government of Italy. (Socialists: no territorial expansion, no social/land reform, unemployment, and inflation from WWI → occupy land in protest → made landowners/conservatives mad, Catholics didn’t like it either) After Benito Mussolini was kicked out of the Socialist Party during WW1 for advocating for Italy’s joining the Allies, he banded together with other bitter war vets and started the fascist party. His Black shirts would cause chaos so he could step forward and “reintroduce order” and demand the government to resign (1922). In the same year, armed fascists stormed Rome and demanded the king make Mussolini Prime Minister. The king, who also hated the liberal government, asked Mussolini to take over and make a new cabinet (legal and constitutional)

Black Shirts

Mussolini’s private militia that destroyed socialist newspapers, union halls, and a socialist party headquarters, eventually pushing socialists out of the city governments of Italy.

Mussolini’s appeal vs actual policy

appeal: nationalism and socialism (made him compete and attack socialism → support from landowners/conservatives), ideology of “help little people against the established interests”, Fascism = resurrection of Roman Glory (short-lived Ethiopian occupation), media basically made ppl worship him once in power, he also got support for compromising with the elites, leaving big business alone, making no land reform, and the Lateran Agreement

actual policy: after winning most of parliament in 1924 (via Mussolini’s law change), a group of Fascists kidnap and murder leading socialist Giacomo Matteotti, making parliament mad at Mussolini, Mussolini used resulting crisis to basically make himself a totalitarian leader and take away everyone’s rights. enforced traditional gender roles

Lateran Agreement

A 1929 agreement that recognized the Vatican as an independent state, with Mussolini agreeing to give the church heavy financial support in return for public support from the pope. First time Italian gov agreed with Catholic church

Were Hitler and Mussolini besties?

heck yes.

Mussolini said Germany and Italy would March together until the end, and even adopted Nazi anti-semitism (unpopular with Italians) which kicked Jews out of public schools and fined from professional careers.

National Socialism (Nazism)

A movement and political party driven by extreme nationalism and racism, led by Adolf Hitler; its adherents ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945 and forced Europe into World War 2

Describe how Hitler and the National Socialist Party got its start

When he moved to Vienna he met Austro-German nationalists who instilled in him the idea of German superiority over all other countries, his distorted Social Darwinism (DE is the best and racial conflict is inevitable), and extreme Anti-Semitism (popular after WW1 bc ppl saw loss as Jewish/Marxist betrayal). He joined and quickly controlled small German Workers’ Party (he renamed National Socialist Worker’s Party) which hated Jews, Marxists, and democrats and wanted to make Germany Socialist, end capitalism, and make a people’s community. In his failed coup in Munich (Beer Hall Putsch) during Ruhr occupation National Socialim was born

How did Hitler get power?

While in prison for his failed coup, he wrote Mein Kampf and overall got a lot of publicity, then he used the relative prosperity of 1924-1929 to build up the party (stopped anti-capitalism to win middle class) but was still 2.6% of vote by 1928. The Great Depression was what caused the ascent of the Nazis, since Chancellor Heinrich Bruning used conservative measures → economic collapse → ppl hate republican gov and love Hitler who promises national rebirth. In 1932 conservatives thought they could use Hitler to resolve the political crisis and get rid of leftists, so he was appointed chancellor by President Hindenberg in 1933

Mein Kampf

“My Struggle”: Race and Space. Book by HItler when he was in prison, stated that Germans were the master race and need to protect their “pure blood” from “racial degenerates”. Germany also “needed” living space (Lebensraum) so they should go colonize east and central europe and replace the “subhumans” there. A Furher would embody the people’s will and lead Germany to victory

Describe the Nazi German state (and its beginning)

1st elections = plagued by violence and Reichstag fire → Hitler blames communists → Hindenberg signs “emergency Acts” taking away most personal liberties

Nazis win 44% of vote → Hitler outlaws communists and arrests leaders, he late sent communists, Social Democrats, and labor union leaders to concentration camps and outlawed strikes (labor unions → German Labor Front)

Enabling Act

kept old bureaucracy but put top sNazis on top, gov = disorganized and tryna win Hitler’s favor → Hitler maintains power

SA (stormtroopers) are violently replaced with SS lead by Heinrich Himmler in 1934

“coordination policy” forced all institutions to confirm to Nazi ideology (indep. org.s = swallowed up, dissenting literature = burned, new art/architecture = degenerate)

“racial purity’ → campaign against groups who would worsen master race → sterilization of around 400,000 people and academies institutionalized pseudoscientific racism

Jewish persecution (more on another flashcard)

Describe Nazi persecution of Jews

1934: lawyers, doctors, professors, civil servants, and musicians = banned from jobs

1935: Nuremberg laws denote what a Jew is, takes away Jewish citizenship, and Jews can’t marry Germans

1938: Kristallnacht: Nazis destroy Jewish houses and kill dozens of Jews

1939: 300,000 of 500,000 Jews emigrated

What caused the popular support of Nazism?

Nazi public works after the Great Depression gave people jobs and nationalist pride, improving businesses and workers. Aryanization raised the standard of living for Germans, Volksgemeinschaft (People’s Community) organizations spread Nazi ideologies and enlisted volunteers (Hitler Youth, League of German Women, etc), women had new community/freedom (expected to work and have a lot of kids)

How World War 2 started (German expansion)

1936: Hitler marched into demillitarized rhineland and allies self w Italy and Japan (GB and FR do nothing)

1937-1938 Hitler force Austria to appoint Nazis in charge of GOv so in Anschluss (annexation) DE marches in unnopposed and Austria became two provinces of Germany

same time as Anschluss Hitler demands Sudetenland (bc German majority) and GB and FR allow, but then DE invades rest of Czechoslovakia 1939 → pisses GB and FR off

1939 German Russian non aggression pact and division of eastern europe

Germany attacks Poland → beginning of war

appeasement

The British policy toward Germany prior to WWII that aimed at granting Hitler whatever he wanted, including West Czechoslovakia in order to avoid war

Enabling Act

An act pushed through the Reichstag that gave Hitler absolute dictatorial power for four years

Who were the Axis powers and the Grand Alliance

Axis: Germany, Italy, and Japan

Grand Alliance: Great Britain, US, and USSR

Germany’s Victories in Europe (beginning of the war)

Crushed Poland quickly, Russia took eastern half and Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia

1940 DE breaks into France via Belgium (going around Maginot line) British forces had to escape on Dunkirk beach and France was taken over (Vichy France in the south)

In operation Barbarossa Germany broke pact with Russia, and soon conquered most of Ukraine, surrounded Leningrad, and Stalingrad was beseiged

Germany was also occupying Denmark, Norway, and Holland

new order

Hitler’s program based on racial imperialism, which gave preferential treatment to the Nordic peoples; the french, an “inferior” Latin people, occupied a middle position, and slavs and Jews were treated harshly as subhuman

Compare and contrast Nazi occupation in eastern and western europe

Western Europe: Norway, Holland, Denmark had puppet governments w/local collaboration. France: occupied but south france was basically independent.

Eastern Europe: The goal of the Germans was to expand into Eastern Europe, so their policy was harsh and ruthless, exterminating Jews and enslaving Poles, Ukrainians, and Russians

In common: Overall resistance was met with torture and execution, all countries had to pay for the cost of the war and occupation, jews were stolen from and murdered by the masses, currency exchange left people with worthless money, and soldiers stole and bought cheap things

Who ruled Vichy France and why was it dissolved?

Petain ruled it but they collaborated with the Nazis. It was dissolved when the Allies invaded North Africa in 1942

Holocaust

The systematic effort of the Nazi state to exterminate all European Jews and other groups deemed racially inferior during WWII. 1939-1941 Ensatzgruppen and concentration camps were established and started killing millions of people

What led to japanese imperialism and what was its theoretical goal?

New militaristic fascist nationalist anti-western ideology → “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” which was meant to free Asians from western imperialists and make “Asia for Asians” but all power was in the hands of the Japanese and they exploited locals for wartime needs

Timeline of Japanese invasions (brief)

1931: Japan invaded and occupies Manchuria (Manchurian Crisis)

1937: Japan invaded China (Second Sino-Japanese War)

1940: Japan joins formal alliance with other fascists Italy and Germany

1941 Japan occupies southern French indochina

Dec 7 1941: Japan, sure that their imperialist expansion would spark a response from the US, Japan decided to attack first and attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing the US into World War 2

Describe the Grand Alliance and their resources

Successful but tension filled (US only joined bc of Pearl Harbor, GB hated communism, USSR was mad that GB and US didn’t open French Front to help Eastern front), although they agreed to focus on Europe first, to not really talk about the peace settlement (which could be divisive), and to only want the complete surrender of Germany and Japan.

US: industry

GB: floating fortress near Germany

USSR: giant army drawing on heroic resolve of central Russian peoples

The Hinge of Fate and the victories that followed

The second battle of El Alamein which stopped German/Italian penetration into North Africa and solidified Allied victory in 1942

Allies take Sicily

Allies take Rome and get rid of Mussolini

Germany seizes North and central Italy to save Mussolini but allies quickly fight back and all Germany has is North italy

Second German invasion of Russia (Battle of Stalingrad) was a huge failure and turned Germans against the war and from the summer of 1943 Russia fought on the offensive

Germany never recovered from the Battle of Britain, soon GB and the US started dropping bombs on german cities and few remained untouched, and once the allies got anti submarine tech, lots of supplies could cross the atlantic

Why did the Germans keep fighting even after 1943 when their loss was obvious?

the regime’s discipline, fear of unconditional surrender, Nazi propaganda of approaching slavic “beasts”

Describe how the end of the war came about

D-Day → US and GB break through German line, by spring the next year (1945) the allies had pushed Germany out of Italy and Mussolini was executed, the Soviets had been approaching since 1943 and caused the deaths of the entire Polish Home Army on a pitstop and continued to take over Berlin. US dropped 2 atomic bombs on Japan which led to its surrender.