Fascism in Italy

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Fascism in Italy
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• How did conditions in Italy favor the rise of
  Mussolini?
• How did Mussolini reshape Italy?
• What were the values and goals of fascist
  ideology?

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How Did Conditions in Italy Favor the Rise of
Mussolini?
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• Italian nationalists were outraged by the Paris
  peace treaties.
• Inspired by the revolution in Russia, Italian
  peasants seized land, and workers went on strike
  or seized factories.
• Returning veterans faced unemployment.
• Trade declined and taxes rose.
• The government was split into feuding factions
  and seemed powerless to end the crisis.

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Benito Mussolini

• Benito Mussolini formed Fascist party, supported
  by Black Shirts
•  Made Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 by King
  Victor Emmanuel III on the promise to return
  economic prosperity and build a new Roman
  Empire

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Mussolinis Italy
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SOCIAL POLICIES
POLITICAL STRUCTURE
ECONOMIC POLICY
The individual was unimportant except as a member
of the state. Men were urged to be ruthless
warriors. Women were called on to produce more
children. Fascist youth groups toughened
children and taught them to obey strict military
discipline.
Mussolini brought the economy under state
control. Unlike socialists, Mussolini preserved
capitalism. Workers received poor wages and
were forbidden to strike.
By 1925, Mussolini had assumed the title Il Duce,
The Leader. In theory, Italy remained a
parliamentary monarchy. In fact, it became a
dictatorship upheld by terror. The Fascists
relied on secret police and propaganda.
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What Is Fascism?
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• In the 1920s and 1930s, fascism meant different
  things in different countries. All forms of
  fascism, however, shared some basic features
• extreme nationalism
• glorification of action, violence, discipline,
  and, above all, blind loyalty to the state
• rejection of Enlightenment faith in reason and
  the concepts of equality and liberty
• rejection of democratic ideas
• pursuit of aggressive foreign expansion
• glorification of warfare as a necessary and
  noble struggle for survival

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The Weimar Republic
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In 1919, German leaders set up a democratic
government known as the Weimar Republic. The
republic faced severe problems from the start.

• The government was weak
• Germans blamed the Weimar Republic for the hated
  Versailles treaty.
• When Germany fell behind in reparations payments,
  France occupied the coal-rich Ruhr Valley.
• The government printed more money to help and
  this caused runaway inflation, which spread
  misery and despair.
• One loaf of bread cost tens of thousands
• The United States helped them out with a loan and
  reduced reparation payments, which worked until
  the Great Depression began.

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Runaway inflation

• July 19144.2 marks to the dollar January
  19198.9 July 191914.0 January 192064.8 July
  192039.5 January 192164.9 July 192176.7
  January 19221919.8 July 1922493.2 January
  192317,972 July 1923353,412 August
  19234,620,455 September 192398,860,000
  October 192325,260,208,000 November 15,
  19234,200,000,000,000yes, trillion.

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Stop and ask yourself

• What problems did the Weimar republic face?

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Adolf Hitlers Rise to Power
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Hitler fought in the German army in World War
I. In 1919, he joined a small group of
right-wing extremists. Within a year, he was the
leader of the National Socialist German Workers,
or Nazi, party. In 1923, he made a failed
attempt to seize power in Munich. He was
imprisoned for treason.
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Hitlers rise to power

• In prison, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf (My
  Struggle). It would later become the basic book
  of Nazi goals and ideology.
• Nazi membership grew to almost a million.
• In 1933, Hitler was made chancellor (prime
  minister) of Germany.
• Within a year, Hitler was master of Germany. He
  made Germany a one-party state and purged his own
  party.

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Stop and ask yourself

• How did Hitler come to power?
• Why?

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The Third Reich
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ECONOMIC POLICIES
POLITICAL POLICIES
Hitler launched a large public works
program. Hitler began to rearm Germany, in
violation of the Versailles treaty.
Hitler rejected, the hated Treaty of
Versailles. Hitler organized a system of terror,
repression, and totalitarian rule.
CULTURAL POLICIES
SOCIAL POLICIES
The Nazis indoctrinated young people with their
ideology through programs like the Hitler
Youth Hitler spread his message of racism
especially against Jews The Nazis tried to limit
womens roles and use them to create a pure Aryan
race.
School courses and textbooks were written to
reflect Nazi racial views. The Nazis sought to
purge, or purify, German culture by destroying
art, books, and music . Hitler tried to combine
all protestant churches into one church.
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Hitlers Campaign Against the Jews
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Hitler set out to drive Jews from Germany. In
1935, the Nuremberg Laws placed severe
restrictions on Jews. Many German Jews left
Germany to find refuge in other
countries. including scientists like Albert
Einstein In 1938, Nazi-led mobs attacked Jewish
communities all over Germany in what came to be
called Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken
Glass. Hitler sent tens of thousands of Jews to
concentration camps, detention centers for
civilians considered enemies of the
state. Hitler planned the final solutionthe
extermination of all Jews.
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Stop and ask yourself

• What was the Night of Broken Glass?
• What is a concentration camp?
• What is the Final Solution?