Conditions that enabled dictators to rise to power

Question 1

Factors?

Answer 1

• Mass Society
• Education
• Technology
• Brutalisation of war
• Propaganda
• Resentment of Peace treaties
• Racism
• Political instability
• The Great Depression
• New constitutions
• WWI assistance

Question 2

Factors? - Mass Society

Answer 2

• Due to spread of basic education → explosion of mass media (newspapers)
• Political parties formed on the idea of ‘mass’
• Mass society did not create dictatorship however it provided anenvironment and a
  means for large-scale political activity and the dissemination of radical ideal
• mass trade unions, consumerism, commercial life.

Question 3

Factors? - Education

Answer 3

• Propagation of ideologies
• Explosion in mass media

Question 4

Factors? - Technology

Answer 4

• Rapid growth
• created an environment that made the rise of dictators possible means for large scale political activity and dissemination of radical ideas.

Question 5

Factors? - Resentment of Peace treaties

Answer 5

• populations angered by 1919 - easy targets for radical nationalist figures
• Presence of minorities and growing prevalence of racist thinking provided scapegoats
• military figures became able to prey on internal and international conflict to promote.

Question 6

Factors? - Racism

Answer 6

• Growth in nationalism and spread of racist thinking linked to pseudo-scientific
  theories
• Charles Darwin’sOn the Origin of Species (1859)encouraged thinking of racial
  hierarchy and superiority. ‘Survival of the fittest’ convinced people that some races
  were superior to others.
• Except for Russia, all interwar dictatorships were nationalist and embraced racist
  ideology

Question 7

Factors - Post war instabilty

Answer 7

• Demise of Romanov dynasty created conditions for successful Bolshevik Revolution in
  1917 and hence the rise of Stalin
• War resulted in enormous human losses that affected society particularly in non-
  victorious countries
• Brutalisation of war meant more govt control and widespread violence
• Appeal of more radical political movements - communism, Fascism, socialism, Anarchism.
• Produced an opposition reaction to “war to end all wars” → rather celebrating
  violence and glorifying war
  ▪ Hitler and Mussolini
  ▪ N.K. Meaney “fever of nationalism was fed by the romance of war experience.”

Question 8

Factors? - Great Depression

Answer 8

• Post war economic decline, the world agricultural depression from 1926 and Great
  Depression post 1929 → mass distress which meant strong man rule was powerful
  and appealing
• The depression helped Hitler gain power
• Demand increase - lead to shortage of products (inflation)
• National debts

Question 9

Factors? - New constitutions

Answer 9

• Systems of representation were fair (as they were even in numbers) but this meant
  that neither party could ever win the majority. This = coalitions as normal form of
  government (unstable and disputes over ideas and positions)
• Many sought systems or a person who could bypass the political activity dominant in
  1920s
• Appearance of demagogues (political leader appealing for support from ordinary
  people) in many countries = simple solutions to complex problems

Question 10

Factors? - WWI assisatnce

Answer 10

• nations pursued policy of total war - population’s used to govt control and interference in daily life (e.g. DORA legalisation and Germans War precautions act)
• Men brutalised by conflict - veterans joined para military groups, politics became more violent
• mass wartime propoganda