Miles Thomas
Some may ask themselves, what led to the rise of dictators, and why do dictatorships flourish during times of depression? There are many factors that lead to the rise of dictators during WWII. Soon the people and economy begin to struggle, thus leading to the rise of dictators. Usually, the state of the economy contributes to the mindset of the people. For example, if the economy goes through a time of recession, then it is common for the people to feel a little unconfident. We begin to see one form of this in Germany, after WWI. The worldwide economic depression had hit the country especially hard, and millions of people were out of work. Still fresh in the minds of many was Germany's humiliating defeat fifteen years earlier during World War I, and Germans lacked confidence in their weak government. These conditions provided the chance for the rise of a new leader, Adolf Hitler, and his political party called the Nazis. People sought that the war would have been won, if it weren't for the politicians and protesters. His words found resonance in a society with many anti-semitic people, and drew increasingly larger crowds. The Nazis denounced Communism, Judaism, and Nationalism, thus leading to society's hatred towards these groups of people. Hitler was easily able to take advantage of the people’s anger, and create scapegoats in their society. While the Nazi’s beat up “perpetrators” in streets, Hitler gained popular opinion and fear in the nation's people. The people became tired of blaming themselves, so they decided to blame others, this ultimately helped with Hitler’s flourish as a leader. We see another example of this from a ruler named Joseph Stalin. Stalin was an absolute ruler of the Soviet Union during the 1920’s. He was remembered as one of the bloodiest tyrants in the history of the world. Before Stalin took control of office, Lenin was the Soviet’s known leader.. Lenin was in the process of having Stalin removed from office because he realized what a brute the Georgian really was, but died before anything could happen. By 1938 Stalin was in complete command of the Soviet Union. Stalin ruled by terror and with a totalitarian grip in order to eliminate anyone who might oppose him. He expanded the powers of the secret police, encouraged citizens to spy on one another and had millions of people killed or sent to the Gulag system of forced labor camps. The people included in the society were too scared to step up too Mussolini, causing him to stay in office, and ultimately flourish. This later comes up again through a ruler named Benito Mussolini. He was the ruler of Italy during WWII. In the 1920’s, Mussolini’s opportunity presented itself. The remnants of the trade-union movement called a general strike. Mussolini declared that unless the government prevented the strike, the Fascists would. Fascist volunteers, helped to defeat the strike and thus advanced the Fascist claim to power. Many Italians, especially among the middle class, welcomed his authority. They were tired of strikes and riots,Mussolini seemed to them the one man capable of bringing order out of chaos. Soon a kind of order had been restored, and the Fascists inaugurated ambitious programs of public works. The public’s eye for a new figure is generally the reason for Mussolini’s flourish. Lastly, we see an example of this through Hideki Tojo, the leader of Japan during WWII. In 194i, Tojo became Prime Minister, Tojo also held spot of Minister of war, home minister, and foreign minister. He had very strict rule, and was one of the most unforgiving dictators. when Tojo felt the Emperor and civilian politicians were unable and unwilling to provide leadership, he aggressively took direct power over the empire of Japan. He felt that he was the only one who could be a leader of the People, so he decided to take full control of the war and its actions. Plus no one was able to stand up to him, thus causing him to flourish as the dictator of Japan. Me and my group feel that the dictators were too harsh in how they lead. The people in the societies went through anger and fear and did not deserve the ways they were being treated. Not to mention the results for their countries after the war was over. We feel that people should have realized the wrongness in the societies and made a change. http://www.livescience.com/54441-how-hitler-rose-to-power.html https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007671 https://www.quora.com/How-did-Joseph-Stalin-come-to-power https://prezi.com/8cdjjp5usx8y/hideki-tojo-rise-to-power-in-japan/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benito-Mussolini http://www.historytoday.com/russel-tarr/foreign-policies-hitler-and-mussolin
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