World History World War II Wyatt Schmidt

1. What are the conditions that allowed Fascists groups to take control in Italy and Germany? Who were the main people involved? What were the differences between Communism and Fascism?

World War I and the conditions after the war played a role in allowing the Fascists to take control in Germany and Italy. Governments were unstable and economic conditions were poor meaning the ruling governments were unstable and having trouble ruling their unhappy citizens. Fascism appealed to the upper class and promised to keep the existing class group and preserve their land which they had to give up in a Communist state. In Italy Benito Mussolini organized a political party after World War I. He called his party the Fascist Party. This was the first successful fascist takeover. His first followers were Italian nationalists and soldiers returning from World War I where Mussolini had served. Italy had done very poorly in World War I and the country was nearly broke, had high inflation, high unemployment and many unhappy citizens with no jobs, no money and no confidence in the current government. The upper parties with shopkeepers, artisans and wealthy landowners especially wanted to stop communism and the sharing of their wealth and property so became attracted to Mussolini party. Mussolini stated that Italy would return to its military and glory days of the Roman Empire by stressing Italian national pride and programs that were anti-communism. This united the Italians who wanted a change which Mussolini was promising and had begun to organize with his followers. Mussolini had a military group called the Black Shirts who broke up strikes, intimidated voters and drove the current leadership out of office. In October 1925 Mussolini took office as a dictator and rewarded his leadership and followers with powerful positions in the government. The government began to reduce basic liberties like freedom of press and speech while overriding the Parliament and began a police like state in Italy so they could monitor and get rid of any anti-Fascist movements. This made Mussolini and the Fascist government more powerful. Mussolini also used his control of the news to make exaggerated claims on how much better Italy was in his control which only gave him more power to continue his Fascist regime.

Like in Italy the people of Germany were unhappy with the results of World War I which for the Germans were sanctions as these caused economic and social problems under their new republic The Weimar Republic which was a democracy. After the defeat in the First World War, Germany becomes a democracy. Social Democrats and Liberal parties form the new government. The Germans lived in fear of falling back into 19thcentury poverty as inflation was rising due to the costs of World War I and there were over 5 million of 65 million Germans were unemployed. Nationalist parties and the newly founded National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) blamed the democratic constitution, the parties supporting the new republic and the unjust provisions of the peace treaty of Versailles for the chaos. But above all it is "the Jew" who is being blamed: The German worker is being ruined by "Jewish Bolshevism" that wants to turn him into a slave. The combination of this affected the government which was becoming weaker and the right wing and nationalist groups were beginning to uprise and all were against communism. The German people tied their personal hardship, the weak government, the weak leadership and Germanys reduced role on the worldwide stage to the harshness of the Treaty of Versailles which ended World War I. Adolf Hitler took advantage of this and became ahead of the Nazi Party or NSDAP. Hitler promised racial purity ridding Germany of non-nationalists like Jews, promised to repeal the Versailles Treaty, strengthen the military to allow Germany to capture the territory it lost in World War I, and to greatly improve the economy. All of Hitlers promises were received positively by the masses as the current conditions in these areas were poor for German people. The Nazi party under the leadership of Adolf Hitler began to gain more and more votes in every election. It promised to bring honor back to the German people, to restore political order and to provide employment and basic necessities for all Germans. The Nazis pursued their political aims with aggressive propaganda, violence and fear. In 1930 - twelve years after its founding - the parties that supported the republic lost their majority. The right-wing nationalist parties take over the government and begin to change the government from its former democracy. In the elections of 1932, the NSDAP becomes the strongest party. On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler is named Reich chancellor. In February, his democratically elected government passes a law suspending civil rights and political freedoms. In March, the government is empowered to rule without parliament, to pass laws and govern by decree. Germany becomes a Fascist dictatorship ruled by Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Differences between Communism and Fascism: Fascism governmental doctrine that relies on dictatorial rule and a totalitarian regime, in which the state maintains rigid control of the people through force and censorship Communism - a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party. Fascism in countries like Italy promised to its followers that it would be antiCommunism Fascism relied on dictatorship and totalitarianism while communism relied on more government involvement for decision making Fascism appealed to the upper and middle class while communism appealed to the workers and even profit for all Fascism promised the ownership of private property while communism believed all property should be shared Fascists believe in violence to spread their beliefs while Communism does not believe that use of force in necessary to spread their cause Fascism supports much more a nationalist fervor including removing Communist and non-nationalist people (Hitler removing Jews) while Communism will not typically cleanse people in the same way Fascism believes everything is for their state and should be done within the state while Communists think more globally Communism stands for a stateless society where all are equal. Fascism pertains to state and it considers state on top of everything Communism is a socio economic system while Fascism is an ideology

2. Explain how the Treaty of Versailles was a distinct cause of WWII. What effects did the provisions of the treaty have on Germany for the following twenty years? Many trace the roots of World War II to the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was an agreement to try to stop the fighting between Germany and the other countries at the end of World War. They did this to try to stop the war. It was signed on June 28, 1919. The League of Nations, the countries that were fighting against Germany, went into Germany during World War I. They forced Germany to give up their weapons and give up land. Germany also had to pay the countries they attacked back for all the stuff they did to them. Germany also had to admit that they started World War I. The main terms of the Treaty of Versailles were 1. War Guilt Clause - Germany should accept the blame for starting World War One 2. Reparations - Germany had to pay 6,600 million for the damage caused by the war 3. Disarmament - Germany was only allowed to have a small army and six naval ships. No tanks, no air force and no submarines were allowed. 4. Territorial Clauses - Land was taken away from Germany and given to other countries. The German people were very unhappy about the treaty and thought that it was too harsh. Germany could not afford to pay the money and during the 1920s the people in Germany were very poor. There were not many jobs and the price of food and basic goods was high. People were dissatisfied with the government and voted to power a man who promised to rip up the Treaty of Versailles as thought it was a dishonor against Germany. His name was Adolf Hitler. Hitler also promised the German people to get rid of any non-Germans such as Jews and other races plus to revive the economy and the military which would be used to bring Germany or the Third Reich back to his dominance of years before. In the elections of 1932, the NSDAP or Nazi Party with Adolph Hitler as its leader becomes the strongest party. On January 30, 1933, fourteen years after the Treaty of Versailles, Adolf Hitler is named Reich chancellor. In February, his democratically elected government passes a law suspending civil rights and political freedoms. In March, the government is empowered to rule without parliament, to pass laws and govern by decree. Germany becomes a Fascist dictatorship ruled by Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Once in power Hitler backed up his political promises and immediately began violating the Treaty of Versailles. He began building up an army and began manufacturing battleships and tanks which were all in violation of the treaty. Hitler than took over Austria saying Austrians wanted to be part of Germany and then later Switzerland. He leveraged the anti-war sentiments in Great Britain and France who did not want to start another war with Germany. In May 1937, Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister of Britain. He believed that the Treaty of Versailles had treated Germany badly. He felt that giving in to Hitler's demands would prevent another war. This policy, adopted by Chamberlain's government became known as the policy of Appeasement. In September 1938 Prime Minister Chamberlain met with Hitler three times to try to reach an agreement that would prevent war. The Munich Agreement stated that Hitler could have the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia provided that he promised not to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia. Hitler continued to act against the unfair Treaty of Versailles and in March 1939 invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovakia government asked Britain and France for help in its fight against Germany and both did not want to take military action against Hitler. However, some action was now necessary and believing that Poland would be Hitler's next target, both Britain and France promised that they would take military action against Hitler if he invaded Poland. Chamberlain believed that, faced with the prospect of war against Britain and France, Hitler would stop his aggression. Chamberlain was wrong. German troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. For 20 years after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles it had little to later negative affect on Germany including initially putting the German people into such a poor economic and powerless state that a radical like Hitler became popular, defeated the democratic rulers and later became the leader of Germany. Once in power Hitler then used this as a we (Germans) against the enemy (rest of Europe) who penalized Germany economically and militarily in the treaty to gain popularity and power which allowed him to develop a plan to take over Europe and cleanse Germany of nonnationalists like Jews. This ultimately led to other countries backing off on the terms of the Treaty of Versailles which only gave Hitler more latitude to conquer land Germany had lost in its history. Countries like Great Britain and France who penalized Germany in the Treaty of Versailles did not want another war and felt the treaty was too harsh and ultimately would not fight Hitlers new Germany until Hitler went into Poland.