AP US History
The Gathering Storm: The Era of Totalitarians
A Backgrounder on the Road to WWII
A lineup of totalitarian dictators: Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler.
All nations in the world were devastated by the Great Depression. While Americans preserved democracy and elected a President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who experimented with new ideas and programs and used the power of the federal government for relief, recovery, and reform, other nations were not so lucky.
Many of them turned over their liberties to totalitarian governments and dictatorships. It is this type of government that led the world to the greatest crisis in human history: World War II. There are three major types of totalitarian government from this era: Fascism, Nazism, and Communism.
A. First, some definitions and descriptions:
Totalitarianism: A form of government in which all of the resources of the nation are totally controlled by the state in an effort to control all aspects of public and private life through the use of terror, propaganda, and technology. Totalitarian movements of different types developed in the 1920s and 1930s as people around the world suffering from the effects of war and depression looked for drastic solutions to their problems. Totalitarian governments demand conformity. These societies are controlled by one political party, do not have free elections, and are usually dominated by a single charismatic leader. The education system and the press are controlled by the sole political party and are used to spread official government propaganda. A secret police force ensures obedience. The citizens of the country, and especially the children, are indoctrinated into the belief system of the dominant group through education, sports, and cultural groups. Totalitarian states demand not only obedience, but agreement with their ideals: thoughts as well as actions. Totalitarian governments still exist today.
Specific forms of totalitarianism
Communism: The system of social organization in which property is held in common and social classes are eliminated. With an uppercase C, the term refers to the movement that has sought to overthrow capitalism through revolution. The modern Communist political movement began when the Russian Social Democratic Labor party split (1903) into two factions. The Bolsheviks, led by V.I. Lenin, called for armed revolution. After their triumph in the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks formed the Communist party (1918) and established a party dictatorship. In the 1930s, Joseph Stalin dominated the Soviet Union, executing approximately 1 million of his own people for suspected disloyalty in what became known as the “Great Purge.” Communism was most often seen as the primary enemy of fascist states. After the beginning of WWII, Stalin formed an alliance with Great Britain and the United States against Hitler.
Fascism: A type of totalitarian government that glorifies the nation at the expense of the individual. Its name was derived from the fasces, an ancient Roman symbol of authority consisting of a bundle of rods and an ax. Fascist nations have aggressive military policies and believe in an authoritarian leader who embodies the ideals of the nation. Fascists promise to insure “law and order” for powerful elites and protect capitalists and landowners. In fact, a fascist state is characterized by an alliance between the government, the military, and corporations. Fascist countries employ special police forces to instill fear. The term was first used by the party started by Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 until the Italian defeat in World War II, and has also been applied to other right-wing movements, such as National Socialism in Germany and the Franco regime in Spain.
A specific type of Fascism was:
National Socialism (Nazism): The doctrine and policies of the National Socialist German Workers' party, which ruled Germany under Adolf Hitler from 1933 until Germany's defeat in 1945. The Nazis appealed to the masses through nationalism-especially by playing on the humiliation suffered by Germany after its defeat in World War I and by a vicious antisemitism. It attracted the bankers and industrialists by its anti-Communism and by its promise to rebuild the German economy. Among the principles of the party were the superiority of the Aryan master race led by an infallible Führer (leader); the establishment of a pan-Germanic Third Reich, which would last a thousand years; and the destruction of Germany's greatest enemies, the Jews and Communists. After Hitler took power, the Nazis became the sole legal party. Their policy was enforced by the Gestapo (secret police), the SS (storm troops), and the SA (the Führer's elite bodyguard). During World War II, the Germans imposed their system on Europe by force. Millions of Jews, Poles, Russians, and others were interned in concentration camps and later executed. Millions more were used for forced labor. Nazism represented a brutality unprecedented in history.
B. A closer look at the life of Adolf Hitler:
One could argue that no other individual had a more significant (and destructive) impact on the 20th Century than Adolf Hitler. Although he has been dead for 66 years, the evils that he perpetrated on the world in the 1930s and 1940s still reverberate today. Hitler reshaped the world in countless ways, altering the path of history, and leading to the deaths of untold millions. But, where did history’s greatest monster come from? Use the first three pages of this site to answer the following questions. Answers should be hand-written and in note form. http://www.biography.com/people/adolf-hitler-9340144#synopsis
1. Where was Hitler born (hint: it wasn’t Germany)?
2. What was young Hitler’s ambition in life? What did he twice fail to do?
3. What did Hitler do to make money when he was homeless in Vienna?
4. What nation did Hitler fight for during WWI, and how good of a soldier was he?
5. What organization did Hitler join at the end of the war, while still working for the army?
Why did this new organization grow so rapidly?
6. What was the Beer Hall Putch of 1923? What important lesson did Hitler learn from it?
7. What were the central ideas of Mein Kampf, the book Hitler wrote while in prison?
8. Throughout the rest of the 20s, conditions began to slightly improve in Germany. What event gave Hitler new opportunities, popularity, and financial support?