Rise to Power of Totalitarian States in the Interwar Years

Throughout Europe totalitarian regimes come to power in the 1920s and 1930s

-In Italy Mussolini and the Fascists come to power in 1922-In Soviet Russia Stalin defeats Trotsky in a struggle for power by 1927 -In Germany Hitler and the Nazis take over the government in January 1933-In Spain General Francisco Franco defeats the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)

Many of these regimes wanted to take over land from neighboring countries; Hitler’s Germany

was the most successful in this regard

Anschluss with Austria -Germany and Austria were both German-speaking countries

-They had much in common culturally

-Hitler decided he would try to take Austria over without war if possible

Map of Central Europe 1938

Munich Conference (1938) -Hitler (Germany) and Mussolini (Italy)met with Chamberlain (UK) and Daladier (France) to decide what to do about Czechoslovakia and the Sudentenland

-Czechoslovakia was not invited

-Stalin (USSR) also was not invited but he too coveted land in Europe

Chamberlain and Daladier give in to Hitler’s demands

-Appeasement = Giving in to an aggressor’s demands in the hope that will satisfy him and he won’t want more

-Was this such a good idea?

-What were the alternatives?

Was everybody happy?

Appeasement

What did the Munich Agreement suggest about the future?

Hitler didn’t think much of British and French efforts to come to the aid of countries

threatened by Hitler

The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact

-Ideologically Nazism and Communism are very different

-This fact didn’t stop Hitler and Stalin from making a secret pact to cooperate with each other in taking over Europe, starting with Poland in Sept. 1939

Nazi Takeover of Europe by 1942