rise of dictatorial regimes
- by 1939, only britain and france were still democratic- italy, soviet union, germany, and many others were dictatorial, but in different ways
- totalitarian state
* government controls everything about the lives of the citizens (economic, social, intellectual, cultural)
* didn’t just want obedience, wanted complete control
* used lots of propaganda
* led by single leader and single party - fascism in italy
* 1920s- mussolini started as a socialist, then created a new political group that gives fascism its name
* fascism: glorifies the state above the individual, government controls the people and stifles opposition
* many italians were still angry that they didn’t have new land from the treaty of versailles, mussolini used that nationalism to get people to join him
* threatened to march on rome if not given power: king made mussolini prime minister
* used his position to make italy fascist (could pass whatever laws he wanted, police could arrest anyone for anything, outlawed all other political parties, lots of propaganda/media control)
* by 1927 he ruled over all of italy as “the leader”
* women had no rights
* didn’t totally work- the vatican was still independent, still respected catholic authority - russia becomes the ussr
* during civil war, russia had war communism. after the war, peasants hoarded food, everyone starved, it was not a fun time
* lenin created the new economic policy (nep): peasants could sell their food, small retail stores and industries were allowed, but most big industries were still controlled by the state
* 1922: formally created the ussr (union of soviet socialist republics, aka the soviet union)
* after lenin’s death, there was a power struggle between the members of the politburo
* group led by trotsky wanted to industrialize russia and spread communism
* other group wanted to build a socialist state and continue the nep
* stalin vs trotsky: stalin won, made the ussr into a dictatorship, and sent trotsky to mexico where he was murdered
* 1928- stalin’s first five year plan, to industrialize russia
* led to terrible conditions for workers
* farms were collectivized (government took over family farms, peasants could only have tiny garden plots)
* lots of famine
* sent a ton of people to siberia - authoritarian states
* big police presence, but created to preserve existing social order instead of change it
* at the beginning, austria, poland, czechoslovakia, yugoslavia, romania, bulgaria, and hungary were all parliamentary, but due to little tradition of democracy and a mostly rural population, only czechoslovakia survived as democratic - spain
* 1936- forces led by franco revolted against the democratic government and started the spanish civil war
* fascist italy, germany, and the ussr helped franco
* civil war ended when franco took madrid, established a dictatorship that ended in 1975 when he died
* authoritarian, not totalitarian