TOPIC 4 - The rise of totalitarianism (1) Flashcards
(134 cards)
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TOPIC 4: THE RISE OF TOTALITARIANISM
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4.1. From the post-war period to the roaring twenties
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4.1.1. Post-war political trends
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After the Great War
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nationalism received a great boost
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The Second International was dissolved because the socialist parties did not maintain a common position in the face of the Great War
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producing a split from which communism would emerge with great acceptance among the workers’ movement.
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Socialists
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Communists
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Ultimate goal
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They accept a socialist society where the state has a significant role in the redistribution of wealth and control of the means of production
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but they do not necessarily seek the total abolition of the state or all forms of
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private property.
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They seek the creation of a classless
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stateless
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Vision
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of the State
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They advocate representative democracy and the use of the state as an instrument to implement gradual social and economic reforms.
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They propose the dictatorship of the proletariat as a transitional phase in which the worker-controlled state suppresses the exploiting classes and moves towards its own
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extinction.
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Political strategy
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They prefer the reformist path
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using democratic processes and elections to implement gradual changes and achieve socialism through reforms within the
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capitalist system.
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They advocate revolution as the means to overthrow capitalism and establish a socialist state. Revolution can involve violence and armed struggle.
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Democracy
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They defend liberal democracy and seek to expand it
promoting political
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They have a critical view of liberal democracy
considering it a form of bourgeois dictatorship. They promote proletarian democracy
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workers' councils.
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Party
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They tend to have broader and more democratic party structures
integrating a greater diversity of members and advocating
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broad and pluralistic political participation.
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They follow the Leninist model of the party
where a vanguard party
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proletariat and guides the revolution.
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Economic policy
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They support a mixed economy
with public ownership of strategic sectors
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regulation and redistributive policies.
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They advocate the collectivization of the means of production
central planning
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the elimination of the free market.
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Rights and
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freedoms
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They place a strong emphasis on the protection of civil and political rights
in addition to social and economic rights.
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They have historically been more likely to justify the restriction of certain individual freedoms in the name of collective well-being
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and the consolidation of socialist power.
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Democracy spread to many of Europe's newly independent countries
and suffrage was extended to women. In Germany
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4.1.2. The difficult recovery after the Great War
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The first years in post-war Europe (1919-1924) were marked by a deep economic crisis. The destruction caused by the war and financial disorder led to low production rates
high unemployment and social problems.
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Added to all this was the devastating effect of the pandemic called "Spanish flu". This name is due to the fact that it was the Spanish press that reported the most on this disease since it did not have a censorship regime like the one imposed in the countries that did intervene in the First World War.
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In 1923
Germany was unable to pay the war reparations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. To ensure the collection of its compensation
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The obligation to pay off the debt led the German government to put into circulation huge amounts of paper money without the backing of equivalent deposits of gold or silver
which generated excessive inflation
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4.1.3. The Roaring Twenties
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The establishment of the League of Nations in 1919 in order to promote a peaceful
conciliatory and balanced diplomacy had to overcome numerous difficulties due to the tense international relations. The United States never joined the organization
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In the Treaty of Locarno (1925)
seven European countries recognised the borders resulting from the First World War and undertook to respect them. The agreement applied under the auspices of the League of Nations allowed Germany to join it (1926)
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American prosperity was due to the development of industry
increased exports
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4.2. The Crisis of 1G2G and the Great Depression
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The boom of the economy in the 1920s was largely based on excessive financial growth. The profits of companies and the savings of many middle-class families were invested in speculative operations on the stock market with which they hoped to enrich themselves by buying and reselling shares. In addition
banks granted loans to families and companies without sufficient guarantees of repayment.
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As a result of speculation
the New York Stock Exchange (the main indicator of the world economy) was overvalued. Thus
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Companies lost their value and families saw their savings disappear while they contracted unpayable debts. Unable to collect the loans granted
most banks went bankrupt and the possibility of granting new loans disappeared. As a result
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This had a rapid global repercussion because postwar reconstruction depended on American credit. This generalization of the crisis is known as the Great Depression
being due to its duration and scope
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In 1933
United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a shock plan known as the New Deal to relaunch the economy. He proposed the intervention of the State
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Countries such as Japan chose to reinforce militarism and imperialism
concluding that territorial expansion was the solution to their economic problems
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4.3. Italian fascism
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While some of the conditions agreed with Italy in the Paris Peace Treaties of 1919 were met (such as obtaining certain territories)
not all Italian expectations were met
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In this environment
the figure of Benito Mussolini
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In 1922
the Blackshirts (the name by which the fascist paramilitary militias were known) began the march on Rome. Faced with Mussolini's promises and threats
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Following the seizure of power
Mussolini dismantled democratic institutions to exert increasing ideological
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The "Great Fascist Council" convened in 1S3c for the "proclamation of the Empire"
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The state established a totalitarian regime by seizing control of politics
the economy
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The crisis of 1929 had repercussions on Italy
causing production to fall and unemployment to rise. The response of the fascist state was a policy of public works and the beginning of an imperialist expansion in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia)
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Unredeemed Italy (unrescued)
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Map of the Italian colonial empire
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Poster of the squadronists in Vodnjan (Istria)
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4.4. German Nazism
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The aftermath of the Great War and the economic sanctions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles impoverished Germany. These difficulties led to a climate of discontent from which the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP)
better known as the Nazi Party
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The year 1G23 was critical for Germany. Inflation and the crisis were exploited by the Nazi Party
a political organization founded in 1G20 that sought the support of different social groups affected by the ravages of the post-war period (veterans of the First World War
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Sentenced to five years in prison
he served only nine months (01/04-20/12/1924). During this time
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In the early 1930s
the Great Depression had a huge impact on Germany because of its dependence on American credit. The bankruptcy of banks and industries plunged the country back into misery: unemployment soared and social tension favoured the rise of Nazism
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Once in power
Nazism began to dismantle the democratic system by declaring a state of emergency in the face of an alleged communist threat
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The Gestapo
a political police with full powers
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Anti-Semitism
or persecution of Jewish religion and culture
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Anti-Semitic laws prohibited intermarriage (of Jews with non-Jews)
excluded Jews from public office
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4.5. Stalinism
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Lenin died in 1924. It was envisaged that the leadership of the Soviet state would fall to a collective government formed
among others
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Joseph Stalin (1878-1S53)
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Lenin and Stalin
Gorky
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Lev Trotsky (187S-1S40)
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Trotsky
a staunch advocate of the expansion of the revolution
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To strengthen its foreign policy
the Soviet government tried to control the communist parties around the world through the Third International or Comintern
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Under Stalin
the Soviet state assumed control of the economy: it decreed the end of the NEP and began economic planning and centralization through the elaboration of five-year plans. These had the objective of making the country self-sufficient in the industrial and military fields
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The five-year plans included the collectivization of agriculture with forced expropriations to create cooperative farms (kolkhozes) and dependent on the state (sovkhoz). Many of the landowners or kulaks were expelled from the land or deported en masse
even those who refused were executed.
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Purges were the means to spread terror: thousands of people were surveilled
arrested and tried and interned in gulags (labor camps). This control of citizenship and dissent was guaranteed by the action of the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs)
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The new policy failed in agriculture
causing famines
