Totalitarianism - The Road to the Second World War

1. Totalitarianism:
The Road to the Second World War,
1919-1939

3. … in this 20th century blood and instinct will
regain their rights against the power of money
and intellect. The era of individualism, liberalism
and democracy, of humanitarianism and freedom, is
nearing its end. The masses will accept with
resignation the VICTORY OF THE CAESARS,
the strong men, and will obey them. Life will
descend to a level of general uniformity … and the
world will be better for it.
- Oswald Spengler, The Decline ofTheWest, 1922

10. Totalitarianism: system of centralized dictatorial
government requiring complete subservience to the state
• cult of personality
• extensive political repression
• prohibits opposition political parties
• mass surveillance
• state terror – concentration camps, secret police, executions
• censorship and propaganda through state media
• absolute control of economy

11. Totalitarian Democratic Totalitarian
The Political Spectrum Post-World War I
Liberalism
• Late 1700s in
American and
French
Revolutions
• Civil liberties –
freedom of
expression
• Limited
government by
constitution
• Legal equality of
all social classes
• Benefited middle
class most
• Multi-party
democracy – US,
France, Britain
Conservatism
• Authoritarian
traditional social
order
• Dominance of
upper-class social
elites – nobles,
church officials,
moneyed interests
• Maintain military
rule by kings or
dictators
• Pre-WWI:
Germany, Austria-
Hungary, Russia,
Ottoman Empire
Fascism
• 1920s
• Replace
militaristic king w/
militaristic dictator
• Totalitarian state
by one-party
dictatorship
• Ultra-nationalist
• Anti-communist
• Social Darwinian
expansion
• Italy (1922)
Nazism
• Racial superiority
• Germany (1933)
Socialism
• Mid-1800s in
Industrial
Revolution
• Legal and
economic equality
• Benefited lower
working
class/proletariat
• Government
ownership of
means of
production –
factories, mines,
power,
transportation,
communication
• Legal reform and
labor union
activism
Communism
• Mid-1800s
• Complete
economic equality
to create
classless system
• Anti-bourgeoisie
• Government
ownership of
means of
production –
factories, mines,
power,
transportation,
communication
• Totalitarian state
by one-party
dictatorship
• USSR (1917)

12. Dictatorship and
One-Party Rule

13. Dictatorship and
One-Party Rule

14. Dictatorship and
One-Party Rule

15. Ideology
Soviet Union =
far left-wing communism
Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany =
far right-wing fascism

16. State Control

17. Modern Technology

18. Methods of
Enforcement

20. Vladimir Lenin

22. Russian CivilWar, 1917-1922
~ 9.5 million dead

24. Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator 1929-1953

25. 5-Year Plans:
1929-1934, 1934-1939
Goal: rapid industrialization

26. Gulags

27. Collectivization of agriculture

28. Great Purges, 1937-1938

33. Benito Mussolini,
Italian dictator,
1922-1945

34. Fascist Party Blackshirts

38. Adolf Hitler,
German dictator,
1933-1945

39. 11 a.m., November 11, 1918
The German right-wing later believed the stab-in-the-back
myth that German army did not lose but was betrayed by
Jewish and socialist "November criminals".

40. The Party Program of the NSDAP
Proclaimed 24 February 1920 by Adolf Hitler
• Anschluss: Unification of Austria + Germany
• Anti-Versailles
• Lebensraum: Gain land and colonies
• Anti-Semitism and anti-foreigner
• Nationalization of all industries for war production
• State-controlled press and censorship
• Unlimited strong central government under dictator

41. Ruhr Crisis
1923-1925

42. DATE GERMAN MARKS U.S. DOLLARS
1919 4.2 1
1921 75 1
1922 400 1
Jan. 1923 7,000 1
July 1923 160,000 1
Aug. 1923 1,000,000 1
Nov. 1, 1923 1,300,000,000 1
Nov. 15, 1923 1,300,000,000,000 1
Nov. 16, 1923 4,200,000,000,000 1
Inflation in Germany

51. Beer Hall Putsch, 1923

54. Unemployment in Germany
1928-1933
September 1928 650,000
September 1929 1,320,000
September 1930 3,000,000
September 1931 4,350,000
September 1932 5,102,000
January 1933 6,100,000

55. “Enough! Vote Hitler!” “Our last hope: Hitler”

56. Appointed Chancellor of Germany
January 1933

57. Reichstag Fire
February 1933

58. Dachau
Concentration Camp

63. Nuremberg Laws
1935

64. Rearmament

65. 1931: Japanese
invaded Manchuria,
China.

66. 1935: Germany violated Treaty
of Versailles. Italy invaded
Ethiopia.

67. Remilitarization of the Rhineland
March 1936

68. 1936: Germany signed
alliances with Italy and Japan.
Axis Powers backed Franco in
Spanish Civil War.

69. 1937: Japan committed Rape of Nanjing, China.

70. 1938: Germany
completed
Anschluss with
Austria.

71. 1938: Britain
and France
appeased
annexation of
Czechoslovakia
in Munich
Conference.

73. Kristallnacht
“Night of the Broken Glass”
November 9-10, 1938

74. 8/1939: Nazi-Soviet
Nonaggression Pact signed.

78. 9/1939: German blitzkrieg of Poland.

79. 9/1939: France and Britain declared war.