IB MOCKS HITLER + MAO Flashcards
How did Economic Factors lead to the rise of Hitler?
- The Great Depression where from 1929-1930 number of unemployed increased from 2.4 million people
- Industrial Production fallen to 58% of the 1928 levels Companies and manufacturers had a sharp downturn
- 50,000 businesses went bankrupt
Historians on the economic factors affecting the emergence of Hitler?
Historian - William Carr – “It is inconceivable that Hitler could ever have come to power had not the Weimar Republic been subjected to the unprecedented strain of a world economic crisis”
Interpretations to the attitude that Hitler rose to power because of Economic Factors?
Weimar Republic was flawed even before the economic slump
Inefficient and impractical
Others argue that the slump killed a dying system
How did Opposition lead to the rise of the Nazi Regime?
The conservative elite’s second move towards authoritarian rule was helping the Nazi Party to gain power. The conservative elite and the Nazi Party had a common enemy – the political left .
As Hitler controlled the masses support for the political right, the conservative elite believed that they could use Hitler and his popular support to ‘democratically’ take power. Once in power, Hitler could destroy the political left. Destroying the political left would help to remove the majority of political opponents to the ring-wing conservative elite.
Once Hitler had removed the left-wing socialist opposition and destroyed the Weimar Republic, the conservative elite thought they would be able to replace Hitler, and appoint a leader of their choice.
As Hitler’s votes dwindled in the November 1932 elections, the conservative elite knew that if they wanted to use Hitler and the Nazis to destroy the political left, they had to act quickly to get Hitler appointed as chancellor.
Von Papen and Oskar von Hindenburg (President Hindenburg’s son) met secretly and backed Hitler to become chancellor. A group of important industrialists, including Hjalmar Schacht and Gustav Krupp, also wrote outlining their support of Hitler to President Hindenburg.
The support of these figures was vital in Hindenburg’s decision to appoint Hitler as chancellor. Once elected, the conservative elite soon realised that they had miscalculated Hitler and his intentions.
Weimar government’s structure
Change every 4 years - lack of continuity
Article 48
- president can pass laws without Reichstag approval in case of emergencies
= SO gov was seen as taking away the power from the people, undermined support
Proportional representation
- produced coalition govs
- allowed small parties to gain representation
- in total had 28 different parties
- meant rarely had a majority vote, decisions never made
= SO gov was seen as unstable/weak, undermined support
How did Hitler use Policing and Security to Maintain authoritarian rule in Germany
SS - 1925
54% of all crimes against the state was denunciated by ordinary citizens
200K people were imprisoned
10 K people in concentration camps in 1933
How did Hitler use the Legal System to maintain his authoritarian state?
- Enabling Act- Allow him to rule for 4 years – essentially making him dictator
- Led to the Nuremburg Laws of 1934
Gave him greater control over his future
- The Decree for the protection of People and State (28th February)
- suspended the essential freedoms of the individual, giving the state unprecedented rights of search, arrest and censorship.
- 1933 Banned All Trade Unions and replaced them with the DAF
How did Hitler use propaganda to maintain power in Nazi Germany?
Cult for Fuhrer established - The Hitler No One Knows sold 420 K
Media and arts controlled in March 1933
Reich Radio Company brought broadcasting under Nazi Control
Volkespfanger - 1939 (70% of all people had this radio)
All films had to pass censors
How did Mao use force to consolidate Power?
CRUCIAL
Great Terror of 1950-1951 - The terror itself was broad, widespread, and carried out with considerable ferocity
Remove opponents and deter others - was successful
46,000 Bandits killed
Maintained - Hundred Flowers Campaign - 1/2 Million People went to ‘education camps’
Force was crucial in his economic policies –> attacks on landlords helped create the communes that increased Mao’s control in the great leap forward
Criticisms to the attitude that Mao’s force was the most important factor in the emergence of an authoritarian state?
One could question how applicable force was directed solely by Mao
Cultural Revolution - Red Guards used to threaten people –> Became a threat to Mao
However, he got them under control with the PLA
More to do with harshness
Popularity - How did Mao use this to maintain power?
The Long March of 1934
marked the time when Mao “achieved effective control of the CCP”.
Even though the Long March was a retreat from Southern China to escape the wrath of Chiang Kai-shek’s troops,
it was not only a major propaganda victory for the CCP by spreading communist revolutionary ideas to northern parts of China but it also proved to be a platform for Mao Zedong to show his leadership abilities.
This included crossing through rough terrain such as mountains and rivers, covering a massive 8000 miles of land by foot and avoiding frequent conflict with Chiang’s hostile forces.
Mao had already become a popular member of the Party by winning support from the Kuomintang and the CCP when both the parties were allied in 1926 and becoming the director of the Peasant Commissions.
Adding to his support, at the end of Long March in 1936, the surviving members of the march were full of praise for Mao’s leadership abilities and he was later hailed as a hero by party members and supporters.
This laid a platform for Mao to accumulate more power within the party and created a new era of leadership in the Chinese Communist Party.
Structure - How did Mao use this to maintain power?
Seemed Democratic but ensured that nothing important was passed without his agreement.
Mao dominated entire structure , although Democratic Centralism was supposed to move information up and down the chain
Distanced himself from failures - Great Leap Forward 30 million people died, Mao was able to use the criticisms levied at him by Dehuai to cut him out of the poarty
Criticisms to the idea that structure allowed Mao to maintain Power?
It could be conversely argued that all of this would have been impossible without the many and regular display of force undertaken by Mao
How did Mao Economic factors allow Mao to rise to power?
1946, Chinese industries operated at 20% capacity
Life expectancy went from 42 –> 30 between the years 1930–> 1942
How did the GMD fail to control the economic situation?
Introduction of new currencies and the printing of money
–> Inflation which reached heights of 1000% by the time the CCP came to power.
How did the CCP gain support of the public?
Offered many ordinary Chinese the best chance of tackling peasant and working class poverty
Land Reforms and education reforms –>
It was at Yanan that Mao seized villages of the landowners and gave it to the peasants
‘Eight rules of Conduct’ –> Soldiers had to treat peasants nicely
How much support did the CCP gain between 1937-1945
1927 –> 58K CCP members
1945 –> 1.2 Million
How did Military Factors lead to the emergence of an authoritarian state?
Second-Sino Japanese War
–> Forced Chiang Shai Shek to retreat and in turn allowed the CCP to advance
End of the Second-Sino Japanese War –> CCP controlled an area of about 90 million Chinese people
How did the Political Failures of the GMD lead to the rise of Mao?
The Chinese people began to distrust the government due to corruption and widespread nepotism.
The enormous amount of financial aid given by the US that supported Chiang, ended up being taken by corrupt generals.
Such instability within the political infrastructure resulted in social conditions worsening, augmenting the agitation of the people as well as developing unrest amongst the peasantry.
It was not only the peasants that were dissatisfied, as the GMD’s failure to introduce a democracy resulted in the bourgeoise losing support.
How did Mao exploit economic problems?
It was at Yanan that Mao seized villages of the landowners and gave it to the peasants
Encouraged the Soldiers to be nice to the peasants
To what extent were Mao’s economic policies successful?
1953 -Economic recovery completed
Factory owners allowed to retain ownership until the 5 year Plan
Inflation brought down to 15%
Railways increased by 33%
Grain Production increased by 10%
Did Mao make China a modern economic power?
Progress made form 1953-1957 and 1961-1965
Not a major power because of disastrous policies in 1958-60 and from 1960 onwards
Five Year Plan –> 9% growth
Agriculture –> 3.7% (Mao no happy)
Great Leap Forward –> GNI down by 30%
Harvest down by 26% in 1960
Criticisms of the idea that Economic Policies were a failure?
Liu and Deng doubled industrial output by 1965
1965 - Grain levels recovered
Criticisms to the idea that Economic Policies were a success
?
HOWEVER, population had risen by 80 million
Limited progress was made in agriculture
Increase by 2%
Foreign trade hardly increased 0.5%
Mao on Education
27 million more children went to school between 1949-1953
2 Million more children in secondary education
85% of children attending school by 1965
Manual Labour important for Mao –> ‘correct’ political attitude
Criticisms on Mao Education?
However, even mid-1950’s, illiteracy rates remained very high
80% population illiterate
1% of people went to university
Mao on the arts and culture?
Art - required to promote class struggle and loyalty to the Party
Silenced Artists who did not conform to these trends –> Hu Feng in 1955
CCP dictating themes writers focused on
CCP was dictating forms of literature that could be published
50% increase in intellectuals
Arguments for the idea that successful economic policies allowing Mao to maintain his power?
Five Year Plan (1953-7) –> Increase Industrial Growth
Completed Nationalisation of industry and led to a 3x increase in industrial output
Pop increased from 57 Million to 100 Million
Danwei ensured the CCP unprecedented control over the lives of urban Chinese
Socialisation of agriculture even more important
80% of rural households organised in co-operatives
Mao managed to maintain power despite such a revolutionary step because he introduced collectivization gradually in order to avoid the disaster of Stalin’s collectivization in the 1930s.
Serfdom due to collectivization –> achieved far greater control over the rural population
How did the Great Leap Forward ruin Mao’s maintenance of power?
Aim: undermine peasant traditional loyalty to their family and villages in order to increase a hold over them
Bitter Three Years - 40 Million dead
PLA had to be deployed to maintain power
N.B. Mao already tried to run away –> This pushed him far back from power
Criticisms to the argument that Mao lost power due to the Great Leap Forward
Deng and Shaoqi saved the day under Mao’s approval –> which would suggest that this economic disaster did not turn Mao into the ‘dead ancestor’
However, Liu and Deng were able to introduce the household responsibility system which Mao so detested –> Undermines his power
How did Mao use propaganda to maintain power?
Three Anti and Five Anti Campaigns
Destroyed enemies –> Created a climate of fear
Criticisms to the argument that propaganda was the most important factor used to maintain power?
Cultural Revolution threatened power and this was his biggest propaganda movement
1967 - Country appeared to be on the brink of civil war
Cultural Revolution was an expression ‘people power’
CCP felt obliged to deploy the PLA in 1968 to deport 12 million Red guards to the countryside
Why could Hitler’s economic policies be considered as successful?
-Mopped up unemployment very succesfully
200k by 1938
- Industrial Output reached record levels; by 1939 GNP was 33% higher than in 1929
- Huge Rearmament - 66% of investment went on rearmament (1936-1939)
What were the limits tot he successes of Hitler’s economic policies?
The economy was not geared for total war by 1939
(some argue whether this was Hitler’s aim, Richard Overy argues that it was)
Inflationary pressure began to build from 1937 - why Schacht resigned as Economics Minister
Autarky failed; Germany was still dependent on imports, particularly foot (importing 19% of its requirements in 1939)
Did Hitler create a Totalitarian Society
Gestapo - enforced new Nazi laws.
For example, a December 1934 law made it illegal to criticize the Nazi Party or the Nazi regime.
Telling a joke about Hitler could be categorized as a “malicious attack against the state or the Party.
” It could then result in an arrest by the Gestapo, trial before a special court
September 1939
Banning Germans from Listening to Foreign Radio
Hitler on controlling the Church?
693 Catholic priests arrested
Pastor Niemöller led the opposition to opposition to the attempt by the Nazis to centralise all the Protestant churches into a single Reich Church in 1933
Protests against the order to replace crucifixes by portraits of Hitler in Catholic schools
1941 - Cardinal von Galen preached against the euthanasia programme
Did the PRC allow religious Practice (Mao)?
Yes - 1954 constitution incorporated the principle of religious freedom, which was extended to all religions
What was the shortcoming of allowing all Religious Practices?
Does not show they are understanding of Religion because the CCP’s ideology was atheistic
CCP very suspicious of any rival belief system which could go against the CCP
Christianity under Mao?
Granted freedom of worship
However, provided htey accepted The Three Selfs
Foreign Christian Missionaries obliged to leave the PRC by the end of 1950
How did Mao monitor religion?
1954 - set up the Religious Affairs Bureau
Monitor and supervise al religious activities
Created National associations to control all of their religious practices
Temples, Mosques had to be registered with the RAB in order to be allowed to hold religious ceremonies
How much Religious Freedom existed under Mao?
Fluctuated markedly
1949-1956 AND 1960-5
Religious groups were able to worship without the threat of persecution
However, in periods of radical Maoist Policies (Cultural Revolution) -
CCP promoted all attacks on religions (TIBET)
