Topic+A-5+Describe+the+shift+from+democratic+governments+to+dictatorships+in+Italy,+Germany,+Spain,+and+Eastern+Europe

= Mussolini Takes Control =

== The late 1910s and early 1920s were very interesting years for Italy. WW1 was a failure in the eyes of Italy toc and created more problems than it solved. Italy did not obtain what they wanted from the war and in the end it hurt them economically. It also created many soldiers who were starving. To fix this situation, the government subsidized bread but refused to tax the wealthy. This did not help support for the government among the poor. During all this time, Mussolini was trying to gain followers against the socialists and the Catholic Church. He started his fascist party and tried to gain political sway in the government but failed. Angry, Mussolini resorted to acts of terrorism such as sending bombs through the mail to his enemies. When caught, he was jailed for his crimes, but only for a short while. When his followers started to dwindle, he debated on leaving politics. In the end he decided to stay active for one more year, 1920. During this year, the government of Francesco Nitti collapsed and a series of weak governments followed. By this point it was clear that Italy needed a strong centralized government that could deliver results. 1920 was an extremely successful year for Mussolini. He gathered up to 20,000 followers and gained support from many rich bourgeoisie. Mussolini was also winning the underground war against the socialists. In 1921, his followers had increased to 250,000 and he was now dabbling in national politics. During all this, Italy’s government was in a weak state and the Italian people wanted a strong monarchy. Mussolini took advantage of this and appealed to the people by promising a secure monarchy. Mussolini gained control of the government through a march on Rome led by his Fascist party. Before the march began, King Victor Emmanuel III said that he would create a powerful coalition government to avert a full out civil war. Mussolini stated that he would only accept if he was the ruling figure of this government. The king had to accept to keep the peace and so Mussolini and his Fascist Party gained total control over Italy and its peoples. = media type="custom" key="9389016" =

= __Il Duce’s Leadership__ =

Benito Mussolini was the Fascist dictator of Italy from 1922-1943. Mussolini relied heavily on propaganda to gain power in Italy’s government. He was a strong writer who portrayed himself as “Il Duce”, or a man with all the answers who was always right, in Italy’s time of need. Mussolini had complete control over the Media, and spread Fascism in every way possible. His background as a journalist helped immensely in his rise to power, and his cunningly published propaganda left him with very little opposition. In the beginning, Mussolini used the Parliament to become a Fascist dictator and eliminate all other political parties in. With their help he began building his empire of propaganda, and eventually became head of the Fascist party. Upon securing his position as Dictator, he quickly began wiping out the other political parties. Through his propaganda machine, he portrayed Democracy and Liberalism as fading governments inferior to Fascism. In order to control the economy in Italy, Mussolini created partnerships with large corporations between the Government and private businesses. The catch to this was the Fascists (government) would always have superiority over the private businesses, and could easily manipulate them. Each separate industry had a “corporation” that was controlled behind the scenes by the fascists. Examples of these corporations include the “National Fascist Confederation of Commerce” and "National Fascist Confederation of Credit and Insurance”.

= Hitler Rises To Power Through The NSDAP =

Hitler was a passionate self centered leader, who never took no for an answer. By the time it was his turn to become leader, Hitler has dissected and recognized the reasons why Germany failed during WWI. By doing this, Hitler had substantially increased his time as ruler. Hitler also complained that the previous leader had not done enough to recognize the racial problem and Jewish quandary.

The Nazi Party(NSDAP) was first started by Anton Drexler, Gottfried Feder, and Dietrich Eckart. Worried about this party, the German government sent an officer to spy on them. What both sides did not know was that this man would forever change Germany. Hitler spent vast amounts of time with the NSDAP, and started to see that their views were similar to his own. During a meeting one day Hitler heard something that he could not stand, he then gave an passionate speech on what he believed. This speech caught the NSDAP off guard, and forced them to extend Hitler an invitation to join the party. Hitler first denied the offer, but thought it over and eventually decided to accept the offer. This was the start of everything that Hitler would eventually do. However Hitler was only the fifty fourth person to join the NSDAP, so the party had some building to do.

Once Hitler accepted the invitation he spent the next few months bring strong military friends and leaders into the NSDAP party. The most important person the Hitler was able to bring in was Ernst Roehm. The arrival of Roehm was important, because he had access to critical Military funds. After a few things were tied together, the NSDAP was able to advertise their meetings. With the help of Hitler’s Orating abilities, the “workers party” gained incredible popularity. Soon many understood Hitler’s message and joined because of him. Hitler soon changed the name of the party to the National Socialist German Workers Party. Hitler had always frowned upon socialist ideas, but learned to work around it. He believed that all with German Blood deserved equality. This excluded all jews and aliens, because they were viewed as scum and the lowest possible form of life.

In the February of 1920, Hitler put forward new plans to call the NSDAP, the NAZI Party, and used his skills as an orator to threaten Anton Drexler for the leadership position of the NAZI Party. At first Drexler resisted, but he later accepted the idea and allowed Hitler to assume the role as new leader. Also in this month, the party held its first mass program, which was attended by over two thousand people. This party had grown vastly over the period in which Hitler had been part of it. Over the next few years, Hitler would become the “it” factor in Germany.

Each day the young Adolf Hitler spent in prison, allowed him to put forward plans for what the ideal German government should be ran like. Hitler was a young inspired man who loved what he did and followed his own path. It was all of these characteristics that helped Hitler succeed and become such a brilliant man and orator. People believed in Hitler and followed what he stood for, because of his excellent skills to bring citizens in to the conversation.

Hitler Takes Power In Germany
The road that put Hitler in this position was not straight, it was not flat, and it was indispensably bumpy. However Hitler overcame all the factors to assume the position as leader of Germany in such a tough time for all. However what all did not know is that Hitler held some of the most copious plans that would be put into action. However Hitler did everything necessary to gain the popularity of all citizens of Germany simply by telling them what they needed to hear. In 1924, Adolf Hitler became leader in Nazi Germany, he would soon become the most violent leader ever, with plans that no human being could envision. His first goals were to cleanse the population of Germany, and clear it of any Jews or aliens. According to Hitler, Jews were responsible for everything wrong with the world including WWI. Hitler believed that the jews were also slowly conquering Germany, despite their population of 1%. In Mein Kampf Hitler made it clear that the Jews needed to be put under a watch by police. Once Hitler Gained power, he made it very clear Jews needed to be irradicated. Hitler’s solution for all these problems was to start concentration camps over various locations in Europe. These would cleanse all nations of Jews and aliens, and result in a “cleaner society.” The Holocaust was a byproduct of Hitler’s goals to eliminate all aliens and Jews. Hitlers next idea was that the security of a territory is determined by the number of people that occupy it. Adolf Hitler strongly believed that state boundaries were made and changed by people. Once Hitler one his next move was to put people in predetermined Russian territories. The Lebensraum was Hitler’s idea that Germany needed extra living space to survive. The German citizens pre-lebensraum was too small and needed vast expansion due to the increasing population. The last of Hitler’s goals after he took control as the German Chancellor, was to control every aspect of German life. The Nazi party put out propaganda to the public to convey images of Hitler as an god, and to portray the Nazi’s as generally good people. But nothing was farther from the real truth of how the Nazi Party was ran. The Nazi party had put many in poverty due to their policies. Poverty was what put Hitler in power, because he had promised to defeat poverty, however the Nazi’s caused more cases of poverty than ever before. The working middle class is what suffered the most from the ‘death tax.” After Adolf Hitler seized power in 1924, he would never look back, and with fellow Nazi’s they would turn Europe upside down and flip it inside out. Their actions would forever change the lives of millions innocent Jewish citizens. Hitler is often compared among the most bizarre people in the world, and he never visited the camps in which so much evil was committed.

= Hitler’s New Power =

__ Which position is Hitler given within Germany? __
In January of 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. He was appointed by the President at the time, which was Paul von Hindenburg. He was given this position because politicians thought that they would be able to control him once he was given the position. He was an appealing person to political leaders because he was a riveting speaker. He was able to command the attention of local people and gain their support. With Hitler as chancellor the Nazi part lashed out. They did the best they could to eliminate all other political parties. Weeks after his coming to power concentration camps where set up to house political prisoners and to keep people under control through fear. Within 1933 the Nazi party was the only legal political party in Germany with Hitler still technically only chancellor.

__ **Hitler turns Germany into a totalitarian state.** __
Once Hitler became chancellor he quickly set to work to take Germany from a democracy to a totalitarian state ruled by him. In 1933 Hitler was able with help from the Nationalist Party to push through constitutional changes that made it so that Nazis had legal dictatorship power, which meant that Hitler had legal dictatorship power. Hitler quickly set up concentration camps. Theses camps provided reason for everyone in Germany to be deathly afraid of Hitler. This helped make it so that everyone in Germany listened and did exactly what Hitler told them to out of fear of being sent to a concentration camp. In 1936 the SS and Gestapo which where Hitler’s secret police where put under the command of Heinrich Himmler. With this any person that dare apposed the government would face death or a concentration camp. This gave Hitler complete totalitarian control over everyone through fear.

__**What tactics does Hitler use to eliminate his enemies?** __
Hitler did not tolerate competition to his power or anyone that could possible be a threat to him. He had a few different ways of dealing with his enemies or potential enemies. First is concentration camps. As soon as Hitler came to power he immediately had concentration camps set up. These first concentration camps was where he could put anyone that was not in support of his power and his political enemies. In 1934 Hitler decided that he wanted to purge the leadership of the Nazi party maybe because he didn’t like there views or maybe because he wanted to make it so he was the single unquestioned leader. He also wanted to eliminate some of his political enemies. So on the “Night of the Long Knives” he had hundreds of people shot. In a later speech he took the responsibility for the deaths. Another tactic Hitler used to eliminate his enemies was his secret police. The secret police would go out and get anyone that was suspected of being a threat towards the regime and they would do whatever they where told with the people the where told to get. Hitler did the absolute best he could to eliminate his enemies. media type="custom" key="9371530" Video on the SS

= __The Fuhrer is Supreme__ =

Hitler used common and frequently used tools like the press, radio, literature, paintings and film as propaganda. These items spread his biased ideas and beliefs, and any who spoke out were swiftly “dealt with”. In spreading his ideals, Hitler had several infamous methods of “purifying” or “cleaning” Germany. The most significant of these was the Holocaust, which was a massive elimination and persecution of Jews. Another move to purify Germany was the large burning of books that were considered Anti-German or had Jewish authors. Over 25,000 books were burned on May 10, 1933, in large bonfires across Germany. Fear was a large tool used to control Germany. Hitler employed the Gestapo, a form of secret police, to strike fear into his people. The Gestapo quickly became notorious for their violence and torture methods. Any who spoke against Hitler or the Nazi party was swiftly tortured, or even worse, sent off to a concentration camp for the rest of their days. Everyone in Germany constantly live in fear, for anyone could be a secret spy under the Gestapo. Hitler created an organization to control his people from a very young age: the Hitler Youth program(Hitler Jugend in German). This program was supported by the Nazi party to begin controlling Germany’s children and ensure their loyalty for future political decisions. Joining Hitler Youth was mandatory by age 10, and was considered an honor by children. Once entered into the organization, the fresh minds Germany’s youth were brainwashed and indoctrinated with Nazi idealism and anti-Semitism views.

= Civil War Erupts In Spain =

It all started when Spain’s need for products like coal led to a bad economy. Rising prices of goods made the Parliamentary Assembly turn to constitutional reforms and call for a national strike. The bad economy then started a civil war, and General Primo de Ribera led a military coup in 1923 which did not end until the 1930s. Elections were held and the political left won. This made King Alphonsoe leave Spain which caused the Second Republic to be established on April 14th, 1931. While Francisco Franco was in power, he helped to re-build the economy of Spain. After this, Franco and a group of others formed a coup during the war to revolt against the government and gain power over it. These attacks on the government eventually turned into a civil war between the Republicans and the Nationalists. In the end, Franco led the Nationalists to victory with the support of Hitler and Mussolini. Hitler and Mussolini were the two leaders that came into power during the Spanish Civil War. They combined powers with Franco to eliminate the enemy. The Spanish Civil War starts in 1936 and ends in 1939. The forces on the right were lead by Generals Franco and Sanjurjo. They were Nationalists. The forces on the left were lead by Azana and were known as the Republicans. The Nationalists had help from Nazi Germany and 50,000 helpers from Mussolini. The republicans had a lot of help from Russia. When everyone was ready for war, the Nationalists destroyed the Republicans. The Republicans had half of their troops killed and were forced to give up making the Nationalists the winner. Francisco Franco, after the civil war, nominates himself dictator and controls Spain. Although he was a great war expert, he wasn't that great at controlling Spain's economy. He also was an associate with Hitler and a cruel leader. = Works Cited = = = Beck, Roger, et al. //Modern World History//. New York: McDougal Littell, 2005. Print. “Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini.” //Jewish Virtual Library//. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2011. Web. 10 May 2011. . “The Book Burning.” //United States Holocaust Memorial Museum//. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2011. <@http://www.ushmm.org/ museum/ exhibit/ online/ bookburning/ burning.php>. DiLorenzo, Thomas J. “Economic Fascism.” //Banned Books//. Truth Seeker, n.d. Web. 10 May 2011. <@http://www.banned-books.com/ truth-seeker/ 1994archive/ 121_3/ ts213l.html>. “The Gestapo Is Born.” //The History Place//. N.p., 2001. Web. 10 May 2011. <@http://www.historyplace.com/ worldwar2/ triumph/ tr-gestapo.htm>. Hitler, Adolf. //Mein Kampf//. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. “Hitler Youth.” //Historical Boys’ Uniforms//. N.p., 5 Dec. 2009. Web. 10 May 2011. <@http://histclo.com/ youth/ youth/ org/ nat/ hitler/ hitler.htm>. “How Did Hitler Control His Youth?” //Hitler Control//. Fundamentalist Baptist Church, 2010. Web. 10 May 2011. <@http://www.hitlercontrol.com/ >. "Adolf Hitler." American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 9 May. 2011. "Adolf Hitler." World of Criminal Justice. Gale, 2002. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 9 May. 2011. "Adolf Hitler." Biography in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 9 May. 2011. "Adolf Hitler Gives a Speech in Germany, 1937." Biography in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 9 May. 2011. "Primary Source: Waste Helps the Enemy (3 OF 3) This poster by Vanderlaan portrayed U.S...." American Decades Primary Sources. Ed. Cynthia Rose. Vol. 5: 1940-1949. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 9 May. 2011. "Primary Source: When You Ride Alone You Ride With Hitler! (2 OF 3) This 1943 poster by Weimer..." American Decades Primary Sources. Ed. Cynthia Rose. Vol. 5: 1940-1949. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 9 May. 2011. “ODESSA.” 2011. The History Channel website. May 9 2011, 2:10 http”//www.history.com/videos/Odessa-unit[accessed May 9, 2011}// //“Axis Military Leaders.” 2011. The History Channel website. May 10 2011, 2:01// //[].// //Smitha, Frank E. "Mussolini and Fascism in Italy." Macrohistory an world report.// //Frank E Smitha, 1// //Jan. 1998. Web. 8 May 2011. .// //"Benito Mussolini." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 8 May. 2011 . “Benito Mussolini.” 2011. //The History Channel website//. May 11 2011, 6:00 []. //Church and State//. N.d. United States Holocaust Museum, Washington D.C. JPEG file. Church and State shows that Adolf Hitler put large amounts of emphasis on how the Church and state were run. Hitler standing in front of the church portrays that perfectly. Hitler, Adolf. //Mein Kampf//. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1943. Print. Mein Kampf By Adolf Hitler summarized his ideas during his years in prison. Hitler showcasede his viewpoints on what needed to be done in terms of racial cleansing to insure the future of Germany. //Hitler’s mask//. 1937. United States Holocaust Museum,. JPEG file. This picture shows the use of Nazi Propaganda by placing flags in front of chuches. Langer, Wagner C. //The Mind of Adolf Hitler//. New York: Basic Books Inc., 1972. Print. The Mind of Adolf Hitler was a book showcasing his ideas during WWII, which demonstrate his storng dislike of aliens, use of weaponry, and military plans. Palmer. //Hitler//. 1998. //www.Nobeliefs.com//. Web. 5 May 2011. <@http://nobeliefs.com/‌nazis.htm>. Hitler, was a photograph that was taken during an early time during Hitlers reign. Simkin, John. “Nazi Germany.” //Spartacus educational//. Ask Jeeves, 1 May 2011. Web. 3 May 2011. <@http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/‌GERnazigermany.htm>. Spartacus educational is an fantastic website that covers every bit of history, but most importantly it has every bit on info on how Adolf Hitler got his start through the NSDAP political party.