The Rise of Totalitarianism

• Examples of dictators
  • Mussolini
  • Hitler
  • Franco
  • Stalin
  • Mao
  • Castro
• Post 1900 movement correlation between the denunciation of royal rule combined with a disdain for weak parliamentarian.
• A Benevolent Dictatorship began to look like the most responsive form of government.
• What is Totalitarianism?
  • Dictatorships, Single-Party States, Nationalist, Expansionist and populist.
  • They have democratic institutions, free elections, legislatures, but they are impeded by single party.
  • Typically they are police states, who had police forces that enforce the will of the leader
  • They are either Capitalist (fascist/rightist) or Marxist (commie/leftist)
• Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)
  • Childhood
    • Father was a Nationalist/Irredentist who also was an ardent socialist Blacksmith.
    • Mom was a devout Catholic Schoolteacher.
    • Benito was sent to Catholic Boarding School. He was trained as a teacher, graduated in 1901, but avoided the draft and flees to Switzerland.
  • Development of the Fascist party
    • He was involved with working class movements in the Italian population
    • By 1909 he takes a job as the Secretary of the Labor Party in Trentino, Austria. He becomes an Irredentist Socialist.
    • By 1911 he is back in Italy and is arrested for protesting the Italo-Turkish War in Libya, because he thinks its imperialism. He serves 5 months in prison.
    • Upon release he is made editor of Avanti, the Italian Socialist Daily.
    • By 1914 there was a split in Socialism between the pacifist and patriots Mussolini becomes a patriot and disavows the Socialists. In 1914 forms his own party that is Nationalist + Socialist = Fascisti
  • The War and beyond
    • Mussolini fights as a corporal bravely, and is severely wounded by 40 pieces of shrapnel. By 1917 he is out of the war and begins to organize Fascisti.
    • At the end of the war he swells his ranks with unemployed soldiers (Freikorps) who were organized into paramilitary groups Squadristi (Black shirts). They break up rallies and beat up opponents.
    • Mussolini fans the fear of post war Communism combined with indignation towards the West after their failure to fully award Italy with irredentist spoils in the Treaty of London in 1915.
    • Failure to acquire irredenta fuels the flames of Italian Nationalism. The communists are the scapegoats and Mussolini and the Fascists are their greatest detractors. By 1922 the Fascists have 7% of the vote.
    • In 1922 The Fascist Blackshirts will "March on Rome" to save Italy from a Communists uprising fabricated by Mussolini. The Land and Business owning classes tolerate the violence of the Blackshirts in order to subdue the labor unions, Christian socialists, and peasants demanding land.
    • King Victor Emanuel III will appoint Mussolini as an "emergency" Prime Minister. Mussolini converts his position into one of legislative power and enacts law which is directed at the problems of Democracy and parliamentary government. The Law states that the Italian party which achieves a plurality in an election will receive two thirds of legislative seats.
    • Mussolini and the Fascists receive 60% of the seats in 1924. Mussolini will use this legislative power to consolidate his political power as the Leader, or Il Duce of Italy.
    • This move is furthered by the murder or Italy's leading socialist Giacomo Matte?? by Fascists
    • Although he was not complicit, Mussolini accepts full responsibility for murder (which is insanely similar to Hitler's trial).
    • To the acclaim of Italians, "he made the trains run on time."
    • After 1924 Mussolini begins to assert his dictatorship. He circumvents the legislature, censors the press, abolishes labor unions, outlaws strikes, and bans all other political parties.
  • Economics of Italy
    • Mussolini is anti-communist, anti-capitalist, and anti-democratic. Italy is a single party with state control of the economy.
    • He abandons free trade and laissez-faire economics; he aims towards autarky, and a command economy.
    • Each corporation made economic decisions based upon the input of three groups: 1) the Owners/employers, 2) the workers (fascist organization), and 3) Government representatives who were also Fascist.
    • All three of these groups together make decisions about wages, prices, working conditions, etc.
    • Moreover, each of the 22 corporations assigned representatives to a National Chamber of Fasces and Corporations, which makes the National economic policy.
    • This policy was relatively effective until the Great Depression.
    • Mussolini attempts to mask economic weakness with success in foreign policy
  • Italian Foreign Policy
    • Corfu Crisis (1923) leads to expansionism in Adriatic and Mussolini's willingness to manipulate the League and or the Conference of Ambassadors.
    • Mussolini aims at Albania as a potential satellite/ Agitation against Albania
    • The general concept of the "New Roman Empire." Mussolini wants the Adriatic and Mediterranean, which are a part of "Mare Nostrum." (our sea)
    • In 1929 Mussolini signed a Papal concordat with the Pope from when the whole of Italy got excommunicated. Italy now becomes the protectorate of the Vatican. This is also called the Lateran Treaty.
    • Mussolini also has an aggressive attitude towards the North Horn of Africa. They already control Somalia, Libya, and want "Revenge for Adowa."
    • "Revenge for Adowa" was in 1898 when the Italians were slaughtered by Ethiopians. The Ethiopians were hated because they were Christian.
    • Mussolini also poses as an Arbitrator in European disputes. Locarno guarantors in 1925, active participants for disarmament at the London Naval Conference (1930).
    • Stood up to the Germans in 1934 at Dollfuss Putsch in Austria.
    • Austria has turned to Italy in 1920s he establish a fascist state. Mussolini is their protector. Mussolini sends an army to Austrian border to warn them about the Germans. Italy opposes Germans until the Ethiopian Crisis in 1936
• Jozef Stalin (1880-1954)
  • Childhood and Background
    • His real name is Jozef Dzhvgashivili (1880-1954)
    • Stalin actually wasn't an ethnic Russian since he was born in Georgia. (Not Slavic and not Russian)
    • Stalin is bright and is sent to seminary to become an Orthodox Priest, but got kicked out and joined the Bolsheviks.
  • Joining the Bolsheviks
    • He is 5'4"and has a withered left arm. He becomes a fundraiser for the Bolsheviks by robbing banks. He is imprisoned three times and sent to Siberia.
    • Siberia becomes a school for revolutionary activity. By 1917 Stalin had risen to a high rank within Bolshevism.
    • He is a great organizer, but is not considered intellectual. His position is as Chairman General Secretary of the Communist Party.
    • He uses this position to build allies within the party, mainly through granting his allies positions.
    • With the death of Lenin in 1924, Stalin rivals with Trotsky for leadership of the movement.
      • Stalin's Policy
        • Stalin agrees with Lenin's original NEP (New Economic Policy).
        • The NEP allows small factories and farms (Kulaks) to sell on the free market.
        • Stalin wants to focus on developing "socialism in one country" while Trotsky promotes continuous revolution via the Comintern.
    • Trotsky's policy
      • Wants to completely eliminate private property, collectivize agriculture and massively expand industry for Total War purposes.
      • spread Communism now, because it will look different in every country regardless.
      • Becomes exiled fro the USSR and Stalin emerges as the political leader.
  • Stalin as a leader
    • Stalin in 1928 begins to control economic power through the 5 Year Plans.
    • The new plans make the economy a state-planned, command economy that mirrors total war economics.
    • There is a master planning organization, GOSPLAn, that sets quotes, prices, wages.
    • Stalin aims to force an industrial revolution in the USSR.
    • Agricultural Revolution happens during collectivization: food increases with less people making food causes people to gravitate toward Urban factories.
    • Stalin ends private ownership and forces peasants to live on communal collective farms. Joint labor with modernization. Hybrids, fertilizers and mechanization (tractors).
    • Increased production reduces labor on farms and there is a mass deportation of peasants to work in construction: they build dams, canals, railways, and factories.
    • Stalin finances the 5 year plans through selling wheat on the world, which hastens the Great Depression.

Paper 1 Activity

• 1
  • a) Tell about the purpose of the Locarno Pact
    • to acknowledge and reaffirm the territorial boundaries among Belgium, Germany, and France set at Versailles.
    • to stop any occupation or fighting or prevent war among Belgium, Germany, and France
    • to lay out consequences and warn what will happen if Belgium, Germany, and France continue fighting. Create a third party arbiter to work out any issues that will arise.
  • b) what is the message portrayed by source c?
    • The Locarno Pact was the biggest obstacle to world peace, and France, Belgium, Germany, and Great Britain are gazing on peace.
    • Czechoslovakia and Poland which represent Eastern Locarno are still climbing on their way to Peace.
• 2
  • Source D uses some vague language to support their claims for example, "... and no thought of it in German hearts,"while Source E supports their claims using specific technological language: "He called Lacarno an 'armistice' and outlined the task for German foreign policy..."
  • Source D says that France should naturally fear what Germany might do when she recovers her strength, while Source D says that there was never a possibility of Germany going to war with France.
  • Both sources agree that the Western Locarno was supported, and the Eastern Locarno was left largely unsupported.
• 3
  • Source A
    • Origin: Primary Document from 1925, the text from the Locarno Treaty
    • Purpose: Illustrate terms and aims of first 3 Articles of Locarno
    • Limitation: Neutral Language of Multi party treaty
    • Value: Without bias it might be hard to discern motives of individual states; there is no analysis.
  • Source B
    • Origin: Secondary document from a German historian writing in London. Written about 10 years after Locarno
    • Purpose: to create an academic book that explains the motivations of Germany
    • Limitation: A German historian who may be sympathetic to the British. His last name causes me to speculate that the author is Jewish.
    • Value: Provides an interesting perspective after Locarno, but the Holocaust starts. Also, since its for a historical book its most likely as neutral as possible.
• 4 "Locarno resulted form a desire for peace on the part of the nations involved." Using the sources and your own pitiful knowledge, to what extent do you agree with this statement?
  • Though most countries in Europe 1925's motivation was to create and keep the peace at all costs, there were definitely other motives involved at Locarno:
    • The British as always were very concerned with the balance of power in Europe, and preferred to maintain an isolationist perspective.
    • France is extremely insecure at this time, and are trying to gain as much support from European countries in the case that German would start another war.
    • Since Belgium has territory at stake, they want to secure their borders and ensure that the conditions from Versailles remain.
    • Germany feels that Versailles has been incredibly harsh, and wants to redraw boundaries, and ultimately be respected enough to join the League of Nations.
    • Poland, like France, seeks security for the borders set between her and Germany during Versailles.
  • The language in the question suggests that the Locarno pact either 1. would stop immediate fighting, or 2. prevent a war in the near future. Since the war has obviously already ended, we can assume that a desire for peace means a desire to prevent further armed conflicts.
    • The French perspective of a war in the future is that German retaliation is inevitable. The French perspective is probably tainted by an irrational fear of revenge, which she had sought from Germany for so long. The French now fear the German version of revanchism, unleashed against them. The Polish have a more removed perspective on the issue since they aren't a part of the German/French rivalry. Their position is that war between France and Germany is impossible, since both nations are so devastated from total war production, which is true. Source B mentions that the Germans going to war with France would be "mad."
    • Given that there is no immediate fighting, and that the probability of another war due to the devastation of "The War," I conclude that all countries involved in Locarno were interested in advancing their own personal interests primarily, although in some cases personal interests may be keeping the peace.

The Great Depression

• Causes
  • Agricultural Prices in the US drop, which leads to bad farm loans.
  • The loans weaken the US banks, who reinvest more deeply in stocks
  • The bank's buying so many stocks creates an artificial demand (increases price above real value)
  • When people realize that the stocks are overpriced, they sell their stocks which induces the wall street crash.
• Flowchart
  • The Wall Street Crash in October 1929
  • Bank Failures occur, so the banks start to recall European loans
  • Industries become static or start to shrink in Germany because they have to pay back loans
  • These industries starts laying off employees
  • Personal spending decreases
  • Which causes industries to lay off more people, and the cycle repeats
  • Governments start to protect domestic products with Tariffs.
  • The US has the highest tariff in history in 1930, called the Hawley-Smoot Tariff.
  • The tariffs cause a collapse of international trade, which causes a loss of industrial profit
  • The loss of profit also causes a decrease in Industrial growth
• Hoover's Laissez-faire Response
  • "Business Cycle"
  • The market will write itself
• Economic policies
  • Keynesian: John Maynard Keynes
    • used in 1930 FDR and AH are successful in using this method
    • liberal
    • a decrease in spending transforms recessions into depressions
    • you cannot force the private sector to take preventative measures
    • the privates stop hiring and decrease production because people stop spending
    • The government's role should be to promote spending through creating employment with government jobs
    • you can lower taxes/ instead do rebates, or offer incentives to spend
    • the government steps in to stop the ciris
  • Monetarist Policy: Milton Friedman
    • conservative
    • the monetarist policy states that the problem in a recession is about money
    • Individual authority which regulates monetary policy, called the Federal Reserve.
    • The Problem is caused by monetary contraction
    • you can print more money, which leads to inflation, or control/manipulate the interest rates to influence spending
    • increase monetary liquidity (blood analogy)