Unit 9: Totalitarianism and WWII Flashcards
totalitarian state
- repressive; gov control over all aspects of economic, social, political, cultural, and intellectual life; subordination of the individual to the state; insistence that the masses be actively involved in the regime’s goals
- single leader, single party; no liberal; police control to enforce wishes on ppl
Benito Mussolini
- socialist; laid the foundation for fascism (named after his group Fascio di Combattimento, League of Combat)
fascism
- an ideology taht exalts the nation above the individual and calls for a centralized gov with a dictatorial leader, economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
- Mussolini
squadristi
- band of fascists; attacks on Socialist offices and newspapers
- WWI vets and students were attracted to it (violence)
March on Rome
- Mussolini and the Fascists want to seize power→ frighten the gov into giving them power; gov surrendered
- Oct 29, 1922→ King Victor Emmanuel III made Mussolini PM of Italy
Weimar Republic
- German democratic state; formed by Soc Dem, Catholic Center Party, and German Dem; unstable
- uprisings; attacks; didn’t change Germany’s basic gov structure
- economic difficulty (inflation; Depression)
Adolf Hitler
- Austrian; wanted to be an artist→ rejected by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts
lived in Vienna from 1908-1913→ wrote Mein Kampf
-ideology= racism (anti-Semitism); German nationalist→ propaganda and terror; entered politics
Sturmabteilung
- SA (storm troops)
- police for Nazi party
Lebensraum
- living space
- a nation’s power depends of the amount of land it occupies; a nation must expand to be strong
Fuhrerprinzip
- leadership principle; single minded party under one leader
Reichstag Fire
- fire in Reichstag building Feb 27, 1933; supposedly set by communists
- Hitler was able to convince Hindenburg to issue a decree that gave the gov emergency powers (suspend all basic rights of citizens→ Nazis arrest anyone without redress)
Ernst Rohm
leader of the SA; openly criticized Hitler and spoke for the need for a second rev and the replacement of the regular army by the SA
-Hitler didn’t like this→ Rohm was killed along with other SA ppl
Schutzstaffel
- SS
- Protection Squads, control all regular and secret police forces, under Heinrich Himmler; terror and ideology
Hitler Jugend
-Hitler Youth; indoctrination in the youth of Nazi values
Bund Deutscher Madel
-German Girl’s Association; female counterpart to the Hitler Jugend
anti-Semitic policies
Nuremberg Laws
- excluded German Jews from German citizenship and forbade marriages and extramarital relations between Jews and German citizens
Kristallnacht
-“Night of the Shattered Glass”; break windows of Jewish shops; thousands of Jewish businesses were destroyed
Mein Kampf (My Struggle)
autobiographical account of his movement and underlying ideology
Paul von Hindenburg
- WWI military hero; elected president in 1925
- traditional, military man; not really in favor of the republic
propaganda
-program of distorted info put out only by an organization or gov to spread its policy, cause, or doctrine
Fascist Italy
New Economic Policy
- NEP; Lenin; modified version of the old capitalist system
- peasants were allowed to sell their own produce openly
- retail stores were allowed to employ less than 20 employees (private ownership)
- heavy industry, banking, and mines were still in the hands of the gov
- saved the Soviet Union from complete economic disaster
Union of Soviet Socialists Republics
-USSR; formed by Lenin and the Communists in 1922; new state
aka Soviet Union
Politburo
- institution that had become the leading organ of the USSR
- Left= Leon Trotsky
- wanted to continue revolution→ believed that survival of the Russ Rev depended on spread of communism abroad
- Right= rejected rev; wanted socialist state; believed that rapid industrialization would lead to worse standards of living in peasantry→ liked the NEP
Joesph Stalin
- joined the Bolsheviks in 1903, caught Lenin’s attention when he robbed a bank for Bolsheviks
- organized; became general secretary (appointed regional, district, city, and town party secretaries)
- favored “socialism in one country”, not world revolution
- used his position as general secretary to gain control of the Communist Party
- expelled Trotsky
- eliminated old Bolsheviks from Politburo, established dictatorship so powerful, old tsars be jealous
Five-Year Plan
- transformation of the Soviet Union from agricultural inot and industrial state
- collectivization
collectivization
-consolidate individual land and labour into collective farms
kulaks
-wealthy farmers
authoritarian state
- like totalitarianism (police powers); didn’t want a mass movement for a new order; wanted to defend the existing order
- limit participation of the masses ; passive obedience rather than active involvement in the goals of the regime
General Francisco Franco
-led Spanish military forces against the gov and inaugurated a brutal and bloody civil war that lasted 3 yrs
Spanish Civil War
- 3 yrs; spilt between Left and Right
- Left= Republicans who supported the popular front
- concentrated on urban areas and favored modernization, workers’ rights, expansion of manufacturing, civilian army, and secularization
- Right= Nationalists who supported franco’s military coup, the monarchy, the military, the agrarian economy, and the Catholic Church
- Franco’s forces were worn down by Popular Front→ captured in March 28, 1939
Picasso’s Guernica
-shows the mass destruction and horror caused by the mass bombings at Guernica
Jazz……
-?
“flapper”
-unconventional and lively young woman of the 1920s
Joseph Goebbels
- propaganda minister in Nazi Germany; created a film section of his Propaganda Ministry; encouraged the production of documentaries and popular feature that carried the Nazi message
- Triumph of the Will
Dopolavoro
- Mussolini’s Italy; “Afterwork” national recreation agency; responsible for establishing clubhouses with libraries, radios, and athletic facilities everywhere
- enabled gov to provide and supervise recreational activity
Kraft durch Freude
- Nazi Germany; like the Dopolavoro
- coordinated free time of the working class by offering a variety of leisure time activities (concerts, operas, films, guided tours, sporting events)
- tours, cruises to Scandinavia, and Mediterranean
German rearmament
-break provisions in Treaty of Versaille; March 9 1935= new air force; military draft to expand military to 550,000 troops
appeasement
-belief that id European states satisfied the reasonable demands of dissatisfied powers, the latter would be content, and stability and peace would be achieved in Europe
Occupation of the Rhineland
- March 7, 1936; Hitler sent troops to Rhineland
- french could have attacked but they didn’t bc they needed GB support; GB ignored Germany’s occupation of the Rhineland
- this made Hitler kind made and more motivated (he thought that they thought he was weak)
- Germans liked Hitler bc he was “restoring honor”
Rome-Berlin Axis
-Mussolini and Hitler ally; October 1936; recognized their common political and economic interests
Blitzkrieg
- “lightning war”, mechanized columns, massive air power to cut quickly across battle lines
- encircle and destroy the enemy
- Luftwaffe
- panzer division
Luftwaffe
-Hitlers large air force; one of the result from the rearming of Germany
panzer division
- strike forces made of tanks, mechanized industry, and mobile artillery
- 300 tanks with forces and supplies
Neville Chamberlain
- prime minister of Britain in 1937 on
- advocate of appeasement
- believed that the survival of the British Empire depended on an accommodation with Germany
- supported Hitler as long as it didn’t lead to war
Sudetenland
-mountainous NW border area of Czechoslovakia that was home to 3 mill Germans
Munich Conference
- Sept 9 1938; GB, France, Germany, and Italy made an agreement that met Hitler’s demands
- troops were allowed to occupy Sudetenland
German-Soviet Nonaggression Treaty
- Aug 23, 1939; created German and Soviet spheres of influence in E Europe
- Germany gets W Poland
- Soviets get Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia and E poland
- gave Hitler the freedom to attack Poland
Manchuria
??
Chiang Kai-shek
-Chinese nationalist leader; sought to appease Tokyo by granting Japan the authority to administer areas in N China
