NOTES
Leaders: Hitler-Germany, Mussolini-Italy, Churchill-Britain, Stalin-Russia, FDR-US, Tojo-Japan
*The Treaty of Versailles was the root cause of WWII
*The goal of this document was to bring worldwide peace
*Wilson had 14 points, Germany thought that this was the treaty
*A lot of land was taken from Germany and Austria-Hungary--Hitler tried to undo this during the war
*The treaty's terms were:
*Germany loses land to France, Belgium, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Poland
*The League of Nations took control of Germany's overseas colonies
*Some military terms were:
*Germany's army was reduced to 100k men, no tanks allowed
*Germany was not allowed an air force
*Only 6 naval ships were built-no submarines
*The west of the Rhineland and 50 km east of the Rhine was demilitarized-the Allies were to keep an army occupation on the west bank of the Rhine for 15 years
*Some financial terms were:
*The loss of industrial areas was a severe blow to German economy-also had to pay $33 billion to the Allies
*Germany was forbidden to unite with Austria to form a superstate
*Some general terms were:
*Germany had to admit full responsibility for starting the war-"War Guilt Clause"
*Germany had to pay all reparations
*The League of Nations was set up to keep world peace
Germany's reaction to the treaty
*There was anger throughout Germany
*It was called a Diktat-forced on them, they had no choice to sign it
*Many Germans didn't want this treaty to be signed
*German reps knew that they had no choice as Germany was incapable of restarting the war
Allies reaction to the treaty
*At first, it satisfied the big three (US, GB, France)
*Allies believed it was just to keep Germany weak but strong enough to stop the spread of communism
*Thought it kept the French border with Germany safe from another German attack and created the League of Nations that would end warfare throughout the world
*When Wilson brought the treaty back to the Senate for ratification, the Senate refused to sign it because of isolationism
*Most countries were ultimately unhappy with the treaty and the results of the war
*US was unhappy because we felt forced into WWI-we chose to isolate ourselves
*France thought we needed to be tougher on Germany
*Britain wanted to be lenient on Germany because they wanted to be trade partners
*Russia was unhappy because they lost land and were not invited to the treaty signing
*Japan's involvement in WWI reinforced the fact that they were the dominant Asian power
*Weimar Republic was set up after WWI as a democratic gov't with general public voting in mind
*League of Nations-worldwide peacekeeping organization
*Weaknesses-they had no military force, USA didn't join, required unanimous approval on all proposals
Three Great WW II Dictators
- 1. Adolph Hitler-Germany
- 2. Benito Mussolini-Italy
- 3. Iosif Dzhugashvili(Josef Stalin)
Define totalitarianism.-one person having total power over the people, gov't controls everything
Why did totalitarianism come about in the 1920’s and 1930’s?
*Because people were in the Depression and wanted to have the gov't do something about it
1. Post-war depression
-high inflation
-1923 420 trillion marks to one US dollar
-high unemployment
-democratic governments struggled to end depression
- 2. New nations had no experience with democratic governments
- 3. Democracy brought about a lot of political parties
- 4. Unhappy with the results of WW I
-wanted revenge
Characteristics of Totalitarian Regimes
1. Tried to control people of country through fear and intimidation
-secret police force and military
2. Propaganda campaigns promoting the party
-press censorship and control of media
3. Educating the young in the ways of totalitarianism
-militarism, nationalism, imperialism, history of country
4. Government controlled the economy
-USSR completely
-Germany and Italy partially
5. All preached about the unfairness of WW I
6. Leader became iconized
-statues and paintings
Benito Mussolini’sItaly
Fascism
Fascist movement began right after WW I
-people were unhappy with the results and the economy
was terrible
-people were scared that the socialists might come to power so many turned to fascism
-including King Victor Emmanuel
Benito Mussolini( Il Duce)
-hated the wealthy and catholic church
-mother forced him to go to catholic school
-expelled for stabbing a rich student
-unsuccessful elementary teaching career
-joined the socialist movement before during WWI
-fought for Italy in WWI-injured
-got involved in Fascist movement after the war
-became the leader of the Fascist movement
-King Victor Emmanuel asked him to be premier in 1922
-by 1926 was complete dictator of Italy
-killed political opponents
Fascist Ideas
1. Hated communism and democracy
2. Government’s role is to protect the people of the country
3. Nationalism-nothing above, nothing against, nothing outside
4. Militarism
5. Imperialism
6. Corporativism
-industrial leaders and workers must work well together
-detested capitalist’s greedy ways
7. Made Catholicism the national religion
-Mussolini hated religion but realized he needed an alliance with the Catholic Church
-brought many Catholics to support Mussolini
8. Efficiency and order were very important
-Mussolini “made the trains run on time”
Mussolini’s fascism was not as strict as Nazism
-allowed monarchy to continue
-allowed the Catholic Church to continue
-allowed capitalism and large landowners to exist
What did countries do in 1920s to ensure that WWI was the war to end all wars?
1. League of Nations
2. Kellog-Briand Pact
3. Washington Naval Conference, which brought about these:
4 Power Pact-reduce navy-G.B, US, France, Japan
5 Power Pact-respect possessions in the Pacific-G.B, US, France, Japan, China
9 Power Pact-Open Door Policy-G.B, US, France, Japan, China, and 5 others
Adolf Hitler
- born in 1889 in Austria
- dropped out of school at 16
- wanted to be and artist and architect
- failed to get into art school
- moved to Germany in 1913
- joined German Army when WWI broke out
- was wounded twice (once by gas)
- won numerous medals
- accepted the “stab in the back” theory
- hated Weimer Republic
- joined the Nationalist Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazi) after WWI
- voted Fuhrer (Leader) of the Nazi Party in 1921
- Nazi party attracted the following groups of people:
1. Manual laborers-promised better times
2. Former soldiers-could join to fight for a "good" cause
3. Adventurers and misfits-gave people a sense of power and belonging
- The Nazi Party:
1. was violently nationalistic
2. was anti-Semitic (anti-Jew)
3. Hated the democratic Weimer Republic
4. talked of the Volk (German common people) superiority
Beer Hall Putsch (1923)
- Hitler and the Nazis tried to take over the German Gov’t
- Failed miserably
- Hitler was arrested for treason
- Got five years but only served 9 months-during court he was his own lawyer, preached about the Weimar Republic being full of problems-his term was cut
- While in prison he wrote his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
- Outlined Hitler’s ideas:
1. Aryans were the superior race
- Germans, Dutch, Belgians, Scandinavians and English
- No interbreeding
2. Anti-Semitic beliefs
- Hated Jews, inferior race
- Hitler associated them with the Weimer Republic and
Communism
3. Hated democracy-because he thought free public thought was weak
- Believed one person had to have the power to keep order and
Discipline
4. Undo the Treaty of Versailles
5. Re-unite German speaking peoples
- Austria, Sudetenland, Danzig, Poland
6. Lebensraum
- “Living space” in Russia for the German People
- Hitler also learned that he would have to come to power legally
- January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany
- Within 18 months Hitler had total power and created “The Third Reich”
*Hitler's first goal was to rebuild the military
Holocaust
*Approximately six million European Jews were killed- approx. 2/3 of the population
*Including other group-about 11 to 17 million
*Gypsies- Approx. 500k to 1.5 million killed
*Mentally/physically disabled- 75k-250k
*Slavic people- 7.4 million
*Poles- 2.5 million
*Homosexuals- 5-15k
*Communists/socialists- indefinite number
*Dark-skinned- indefinite number (death and forced sterilization)
*Mixed races
*Jehovah's Witnesses- 2,500 to 5,000
*Freemasons- 80-200k
Aryan Race
*blonde haired, blue eyed people-"the master race"
Lebensborn-Fount of Life
*Program designed to expand the Aryan race by providing excellent health care and living conditions to women that were deemed "fit"
Hitler's Jewish Question
*Nazis "temporarily" suspended civil liberties for all citizens in 1933-never got restored
*The Nazis set up the first concentration camp at Dachau in 1933-first inmates were 200 communists
*Jews were prohibited from working as civil servants, doctors in the National Health Service, and teachers in public high schools--all but a few Jewish students were banned from going to school
Nuremburg Laws- 1935
*Took away German citizenship from Jews-made them 2nd class by removing their basic civil rights
*Estabilshed membership in the Jewish race as anyone who considered themselves Jewish or had 3 or 4 Jewish grandparents- eventually anyone with at least 1 Jewish granparent was at risk
*Jews could only marry Jews
*No sexual relations between non-Jewish Germans and Jews
1936
*Nazis boycotted Jewish-owned businesses
Kristallnacht-1938 "Night of the Broken Glass"
*On November 9 and 10-Nazi youth went throught Jewish neighborhoods breaking windows of Jewish businesses and homes-burning synagogues and looting
*All Jewish children were expelled from public schools in Germany and Austria
*Nazis take control of Jewish-owned businesses
1939
*Hitler ordered systematic murder of the mentally and physically disabled in Germany and Austria
*Jews were required to wear armbands or yellow stars
1940
*Nazis began deporting German Jews to Poland
*Jews are forced into ghettos
*Nazis began the first mass murder of Jews in Poland
1941
*Jews throughout Eastern Europe were forced into ghettos
*In two days, German units shot 33,771 Ukrainian Jews at BabiYar- the largest single massacre of the Holocaust
*The death camp at Chelmno in Poland began murdering Jews
1942
*Nazi officials announced the "Final Solution"-the plan to kill all Jews
*Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek-famous death camps
*Ghettos of Eastern Europe were emptied and sent to death camps
*The Allies found out about the exterminations
1943
*Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto resisted the Nazis-held out for almost a month before being put down
1944
*Hitler took over Hungary and began deporting 12,000 Hungarian Jews each day to Auschwitz
1945
*Hitler is defeated and WWII ends in Europe
*The Holocaust ended and the death camps were emptied
*Many survivors were placed in displaced persons camps until they found a country willing to accept them
1947
*The UN established a Jewish homeland in British-controlled Palestine, which became the State of Israel in 1948
Russia/Soviet Union/USSR
Russia dropped out of WW I due to the Bolshevik Revolution
Economically, it was in terrible shape
Vladimir Ulyanov(Lenin)
Lenin emerged as the leader of the communists.
Lenin was a big Marxist supporter
-Marx never outlined how exactly to reach a classless society so Lenin and the government took control of the economy and farms with a promise to eventually give it back to the peasants.
Lenin organized the country into a federation of republics
- The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Lenin died in 1924
Power struggled ensued between Leon Trotsky and Josef Stalin.
Stalin would win.
Josef Stalin
Wanted to focus on building up the Soviet Union’s economy
Eliminated political opponents in great purges(800,000)
Wanted nationalization and collectivization of the economy
-gov’t took control of industry (nationalization)
-abolished private ownership (upset Kulaks)
-forced peasants to merge their land into large collective
farms (collectivization)
The Kulaks resisted and Stalin used the secret police to kill them
Stalin admitted that at least 10 million people died due to collectivization and famine
Five Year Plans
-Stalin’s idea of economic growth for industry and
agriculture
-Goals were to be met in a five year time frame
-Wasn’t until the third 5 Year Plan did the economy start
to improve
Invasion of Manchuria
*The Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931 to get resources despite signing the Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1927
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