Totalitarian Regimes: Fascism, Nazism, and the Great Depression

Solutions to the Great Depression

Maynard Keynes, an economist, proposed state intervention in the economy to stimulate investment, employment, and consumption.

Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed an economic program called the New Deal:

• Banks were forced to offer low-interest rates.
• Subsidies for agriculture were implemented to reduce production and eliminate surpluses.
• Working hours were reduced.
• Minimum wage and unemployment benefits were created.
• Public investment in infrastructure was increased to reduce unemployment.

Other countries adopted similar policies, and the economy began to recover.

Totalitarian Regimes: Fascism and Nazism

Characteristics of Totalitarianism

• Authoritarian System:
  • Controlled by a charismatic leader.
  • No freedom; only one political party, which eliminates opposition through repression and violence.
• Economic and Social Control:
  • The state controls the economy and is anti-capitalist and anti-communist.
  • Society is manipulated through propaganda and censorship.
  • The state teaches the youth to believe in the system.
• Ideological Inequality and Fanaticism:
  • A certain race is considered superior to others.
  • Symbols, uniforms, songs, and slogans are used to unite supporters.
• Nationalism and Militarism:
  • Emphasis on the greatness of the nation, fostering a belief in the right of territorial expansion.
  • Significant investment in weapons and military power.

Italian Fascism: Benito Mussolini

Mussolini was a journalist who founded the Fascist National Party.

The members were known as “black shirts” and were supported by landowners, the middle class, the church, and King Victor Emmanuel III, primarily against the workers' parties.

In 1922, Fascists organized a march into Rome; the king proclaimed Mussolini as the head of state, marking the start of a Fascist dictatorship.

Mussolini banned trade unions and any opposition, controlling Italy through censorship and propaganda with the help of the Ovra (Political Police).

German Nazism: Adolf Hitler

Hitler was an ex-soldier who fought in World War I.

He founded the National Socialist Party and fought against communism.

During the crisis of 1929, he blamed the Jews, communists, and democrats.

In 1932, he won the elections. In 1933, he was appointed Chancellor of Germany.

He ended the Weimar Republic and proclaimed the Third Reich.

He imposed a dictatorship, eliminating all opposition with the help of the Gestapo (Political police), sending enemies to concentration camps.

He promoted the idea of the superiority of the Aryan race and the persecution of Jews.

He controlled education, art, and culture through propaganda and censorship.

Hitler rejected the Treaty of Versailles and claimed that lebensraum was necessary for the expansion and survival of the German nation.

The Second World War started in 1939.