4º eso

3. During the 1920s and 1930s many regimes
were totalitarian.
 The most well-known totalitarian regimes were Italian
Fascism, German Nazism, and Soviet Stalinism, whose
characteristics were quite similar:

4. o Authoritarian systems.The State shall
be controlled by populist and
charismatic leaders, such as
Mussolini, Hitler or Stalin.
 There is not any political pluralism or civil rights.The only
official political party eliminates opposition through
violence and repression by paramilitary forces or political
police.

5. o Economic and social control.
Everything is controlled by the State,
which will be anti-capitalist and anti-
communist in Germany and Italy.
 Public-work programmes were used in order to reduce
unemployment.
 Propaganda is essential to make the nationals believe in the
political system.
 Repressive measures were implemented to persecute all
those who opposed the regime.

6. o Ideological inequality and fanaticism.
Some members of the society are
believed to be superior due to religious
or racial reasons.
 Symbols, uniforms, slogans, and songs are used to unite all the
supporters of the regime.
o Hyper-nationalism and militarism.The
nation is essential above all and that
explains why it has the right to military
expansion, which can just be got through
weapons and wars.
 These countries needed to expand in order to access raw
materials.

7. Fascism was
established in
Italy between
1922 and 1943.
 The Italian
fascist
leader was
Benito
Mussolini
(1870-1945):

8. 1. He joined the
Italian Socialist
Party in 1902 and
led its newspaper,
Avanti. None the
less, he was
suspended in 1914
when he wanted to
enter WWI.

9.  2. He founded a new political party in
1921, the Fascist National Party as well
as a new newspaper: Il Popolo di Italia,
where he published his political theories.

11. Italy suffered a major political crisis after WWI since they did not get as much as
they expected (IRREDENTISM). Besides there was a social and economic crisis.
The Fascists took advantage of this situation and controlled the rural areas.
Step by step merchants and Catholics began to support Fascism.
On 27 and 28 October 1922 Mussolini marched on Rome with his 30,000
Blackshirts in order to seize the power.
As a result, the king Victor Emmanuel III gave Mussolini the government on 30
October 1922.
The Grand Council of Fascism was created as a new government in Italy.
The King and the Parliament were respected, although Mussolini was appointed as
Duce and Dictator on 2 January 1925.

13.  Fascist economy:
o Mussolini promoted a capitalist
economic model.
o Despite criticising industry, he promoted
the heavy industrial sector.
o He sought self-sufficiency and imports
were limited.
o Public works were developed under this
regime.
o Fascist trade unions were created to
represent the workers and the others were
banned

14.  Fascist society:
o Fascism counted on the Catholic support. Hence
Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty in 1929 with the
Pope Pius XI:
 Italy acknowledged the independence of
the Vatican as a sovereign state.
 Catholicism was the Italian official religion.
 Only religious marriages would be allowed.
o Mussolini became more racist with Jews after his
approaching to Hitler.
o Everything was completely controlled by Mussolini
and the Fascist National Party, who imposed censorship
and propaganda.

16.  International policy:
Mussolini believed in Imperialism.
Hence he meant to create an Italian
empire:
 The rule over Libya was
consolidated.
 Mussolini conquered and
annexed Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1936.
 Albania and Somalia were
occupied in 1939.

18. Mussolini had very strong ties with
Romania, Austria, Hungary, and
Bulgaria.
Due to international conflicts with France
and Great Britain, Mussolini got closer to
Hitler’s Germany:
  The Rome-Berlin Axis was created on 1 November
1936.
  The Pact of Steel was signed between Hitler and
Mussolini on 22 May 1939. Japan also joined this pact
to fight against communism (Anti-Comintern Pact).

19.  National Socialism or Nazism was the German
totalitarian regime between 1933 and 1945.
 The origins of this political ideology can be found in
the creation of the German Socialist Workers’ Party
by Anton Drexler in 1918, which meant to fight
against Marxism.
 Adolf Hitler joined that political party in 1919
and got its presidency in 1921, when he changed
its name into National Socialist German Workers’
Party (NSDAP), which he identified with a new
symbol: the swastika.

21.  His programme was hyper-nationalist (Pan-German), where
Germans should get their Lebensraum (Life-room). It was
also racist (Anti-Semite), where Aryans were superior.
 He promised the suppression of the Treaty of Versailles.
 He also created several paramilitary forces for the Nazi
Party:
 SA (Sturmabteilung), which were the Assault
Division, subsequently led by Ernst Röhm.
 SS (Schutzstaffel), which were the Protection Corps
or personal guard.

23.  Hitler met other leaders such as
Luddendorf, Röhm, Göring, and Rudolf
Hess, who took part in an attempted coup
d’état they staged in Munich in 1923.
 Hitler was arrested and imprisoned in
Landsberg:
 While he was in prison he wrote
his political manifesto: Mein Kampf (My
Struggle).

24.  The Nazi Party had its first representatives in the
German Parliament in 1930 and it won the
elections in 1932 with a massive popular support:
 On 30 January 1933 Hitler is appointed Chancellor
by the President Hindenburg.
 Once Hitler got the government he
eliminated the rest of the political parties.
 The Reichstag (German Parliament) was
burnt by the Nazis in February 1933, although they
blamed Anarchists and Socialists for that fire in
order to persecute them.

26.  Once Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, Hitler was
appointed as new German president, and was self-called
Führer:
o On 30 August 1934 Hitler proclaimed in
Nuremberg the birth of the 3rd Reich, the so-called
Thousand-Year Reich.
o He created the Gestapo (contraction of GEheime
STAatsPOlizei) as a secret political police.
o He developed a programme to reindustrialise and to
rearm Germany.
o The autonomy of the German Länder (autonomous
states) was abolished.

29.  Hitler made a policy in order to eliminate
all those possible enemies from his point
of view:
o Dissolution of the SA on the Night of
the Long Knives (30 June 1934), when all
its leaders were captured and executed.
o Persecution of the Jews once the
Nuremberg Acts were passed (1935).

30.  On 9 November 1938,
the so-called Night of
Broken Glass
(Krystallnacht), Jews
were massacred
across Germany.
 Concentration camps
were created in order
to confine and
exterminate Jews.

32.  Fascist and Nazi expansionist policy
 Nationalism
 Japan became an ally
 USA didn’t want to get involved
 GB and France were busied with their
internal problems

41.  Rome-Berlin Axis
 Anti-Comitern Pact
 Pact of Steel
 France, GB and Poland Treaty
 German-Soviet Pact
 New alliance between France, GB and
Poland

42.  Blitzkrieg strategy
 Invasions:
 Poland (USSR)
 Denmark and Norway (Germany)
 Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France (Germany)
 Battle of Britain
 Battle of the Athlantic

57.  50 million of people died
 Widespread destruction
 Production fell down, that resulted in
higher inflation
 The neutral countries experienced a
economic growth
 Moral impacts caused by the horrors of
the war
 Two new powers apperared: USA and
USSR

58.  Main allied nations: Britain, USA and URSS
 Teheran conferenceTeheran conference: to end the war quickly
 Yalta conferenceYalta conference: to eradicate the Nazi regime,
and divide up Germany, Austria, Berlin and
Vienna
 Postdam ConferencePostdam Conference: Germany’s punishment
 Two areas of influence: East and West
 Paris ConferenceParis Conference: different map of Europe

60.  It replaced the League of Nations (1945)
 46 states and these ideas:
 To maintain international peace
 To promote and defend human rights
 To achieve cooperation
 To promote self-determination