Totalitarianism in Europe

Reasons for the Rise of Dictators

• Heightened sense of nationalism• Economic depression• New conflicts created by the Treaty of

Versailles• Dictatorships began popping up all across

Europe

Stalin and the Soviet Union

• Took over after Lenin’s death in 1924• Sought to industrialize rural Russia with a

series of “5 Year Plans”• The USSR became to world’s second largest

industrial power at a substantial cost…• The Great Purge: Stalin killed anybody who

threatened or questioned his power• “Purged” an estimated 8-13 million people

Fascism in Italy

• Unemployment and inflation led to communist-led strikes• To combat this, the middle and upper classes sought

stronger leadership under Benito Mussolini• Established the Fascist Party after marching on Rome with

thousands of his followers• Fascism= a totalitarian gov’t that stresses nationalism and

places the interests of the state or those of the individual• Greatly increased efficiency by crushing the opposition• Anti-Communist

The Nazis

• In 1919 an unemployed soldier named Adolph Hitler joined the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (aka the Nazis)

• He quickly became the party’s leader by promising to fix all of Germany’s problems

• Wanted to create a German empire• Sought to enforce racial “purification”• Promoted national expansion (lebensraum)• Anti-communist

The Nazis Continued

• The Great Depression allowed the Nazis to come to power

• Hitler promised to create jobs• By 1932, the Nazis were the most powerful

political party in Germany• Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in

1933

American Reaction

• How did we respond to these threats to Wilson’s dream of a “world safe for democracy”?

• While the rise of dictatorships in Europe scared Americans, they still wanted to cling to isolationism