2. Mussolini
• Forms Fascist party in
1919
• “Il Duce” – the leader
• Blackshirts terrorize and
control opposition
• 1922 appointed Prime
Minister when he
threatens to march on
Rome
• “The Country is Nothing
Without Conquest”
– Roman Empire
Wannabe
– Wants Mediterranean
to be Mare Nostrum
again
– Wants lands on the
Adriatic back from
Yugoslavia
(irredenta)
• 1935 – gets Ethiopia
(revenge at last)
3. Il Duce’s Italy
• Suppressed rival parties, muzzled the
press, rigged elections and replaced
elected officials with Fascist support
• Critics thrown into prison, exiled or
murdered
• Secret police and propaganda bolster the
regime
• Preserved capitalism, but workers
forbidden to strike, wages very low
• “Believe! Obey! Fight!”
• Youth groups toughen kids and teach them
strict military discipline
– Taught about glories of ancient Rome
– March in parades, sing hymns and chants,
“Mussolini is always right”
• Women asked to “win the battle of
motherhood”
– 14 kids and you get a medal!
4. Fascism
• An authoritarian (non-communism) government that
emphasizes extreme nationalism and glorifies violence,
discipline and blind loyalty to the state
• Bundle of sticks around an axe - “fasces”
• Antidemocratic – democracy leads to corruption and
weakness, allows individual or class interests to rise
above national goals
• Aggressive foreign expansion
– “survival of the fittest”, dominance and war are necessary for
survival
• Sworn enemies of communists
– Fascism – support comes from business leaders, wealthy
landowners, and lower middle class
– Communism – support comes from urban and agricultural
workers
5. Appeal of fascism?
• Promises a strong, stable government and
end to political feuding that had paralyzed
democracy
• National pride
6. Totalitarian Rule
• Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin:
– Single party dictatorship
– State control of economy
– Use of police spies and terror to
enforce the will of the state
– Strict censorship and government
monopoly of the media
– Use of schools and media to
indoctrinate and mobilize citizens
– Unquestioning obedience to a
single leader
7. 1920’s Inflation in Germany
• Weimar Republic
• Print money to
solve economic
problems
• Desire for stronger
leaders
8. Hitler
• Adolf
• 1919 National Socialist German
Workers Party (aka Nazi Party)
– Nazism – fascism shaped with
fanatical German nationalism
and racial superiority
• Mein Kampf and Aryan race
• 1932 – Nazi’s gain majority in
Reichstag
• 1933 -- Hindenburg appoints Hitler
chancellor
– Suspends freedom of speech
and press
– Brownshirts/stormtroopers
silence opposition
• 1934 – Hindenburg dead, Hitler
“Der Fuhrer”
9. Der Fuhrer
• Begins rearming
• Hires unemployed workers for public works projects
– Massive public buildings
– Autobahn
• 1936 – Depression ends in Germany
• Germany needs more living space
– Militarize Rhineland in 1936
• Axis powers agreed between Berlin and Rome
• 1938 Anschluss realigned (most Austrians welcome
them) – Sound of Music!
• Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain, and Appeasements
“peace in our time!”
10. Facts about the Nazi Party in
Germany
• According to Joseph Goebbels in an
official explanation of Nazism, the
synthesis of the words nationalism and
socialism was to "counter the
Internationalism of Marxism with the
nationalism of a German Socialism". –
wikipedia
• Heil Hitler + salute = borrowed from Italian
fascists
11. The Nazi Party
• Wermacht – German military (defend + power/force) –
20 million from 1935-1945; 2.2 million in 1945
– Army – Heer
– Navy – Kriegsmarine
– Airforce - Luftwaffe
• SA – Sturmabteilung – Storm Division – Brownshirts – 3
million men; superceded by SS after 1934’s Long
Knives Night
• SS – Stchutzstaffel - Protection Squad, formed in 1925,
led by Heinrich Himmler
– Numbered at about 1 million men; most loyal;
headed up divisions of the military
– Waffen-SS – group dedicated to racial superiority;
Order of the Death’s Head
– SS ran the security service (SD), secret state police
(Gestapo), criminal investigative police (Kripo), and
regular uniformed police (orpo)
12. On to war!
• March 1939 – Br and Fr agree to help Poland if
invaded
• Aug 1939 – Hitler and Stalin agree to a ten year
Non-Aggression Pact (secret document attached
about how to divide up E. Europe)
• Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invades Poland
– Blitzkrieg, Poland down in a month, Holocaust begins
in Poland
– Stalin seizes E. half of Poland
• Sept. 3, 1939, Br and Fr declare war on
Germany
13. Spanish Civil War
• Nationalism group rises to
power led by Franco
• Nationalists v. Republicans
• Nationalists – supported by
Germany and Italy
• Republicans supported by
Soviets and International
Brigade
• Nationalists take Madrid,
Franco rules from 1939-1975