Totalitarianism: Hitler

Terms:

Nazism
Mein Kampf
Hitler Youth
Fuhrer
Enabling Act
Nuremberg Laws

Questions:

• Why was Hitler's approach to fascism more extreme than Mussolini's?
• Why were conditions in Germany between the wars ripe for the rise of a leader like Hitler?
• Why was Hitler so popular among Germany's youth?
• After he was elected chancellor, how did Hitler ensure that he would remain in power?
• In what ways did Hitler's approach to governing become more extreme after he had secured power?

Totalitarianism: Mussolini

Terms:

Mussolini
Black Shirts
Lateran Agreement


Questions:

• What situations upset the Italian citizens enough to make them support a leader like Mussolini?
• When discussing how Mussolini assumed power, the textbook puts the word "legally" in quotations.  Why is the legality of his rise to power up for debate?
• What strategies did Mussolini implement to turn Italy into a Totalitarian state?
• What were the limits to Mussolini's totalitarianism (especially when compared to the Soviet Union and Germany)?

Totalitarianism Part I: Overview and Stalin

Terms:

Totalitarianism
Fascism
Five Year Plan
New Economic Policy (NEP)
Joseph Stalin
Kulaks
The Great Purge

Questions:

What is the difference between totalitarianism and older authoritarian governments (like absolutism)?

Why do you think fascism arose specifically in Italy and Germany?

Why did Lenin need to institute the New Economic Policy (NEP)?

Why did the Five Year Plans fail?

How did Communism in Russia affect average people (particularly women)?

In what ways did Stalin take extreme measures to maintain control of the government?

Democracy in the Interwar Period

Chapter 28 Part II

Terms

Weimar Republic
Freikorps
Spartacists
John Maynard Keynes
"stab in the back" theory
Kapp Putsch
Ruhr Crisis
Beer Hall Putsch
Dawes Plan
Locarno Pact
Kellogg-Briand Pact
1926 General Strike
Labour Party

Questions

In what ways did the Weimar Republic experience challenges from both the left and the right?  Why were both sides opposed to the new Weimar government?  Why did the Treaty of Versailles contribute to the opposition of the Weimar Republic?

Describe the economic problems that the Weimar Republic faced.  How did France and Britain's opinions about the treatment of Germany differ?

In what ways did Germany begin to improve its relations with Europe by the late 1920s?

How, in general, was France and England's economy fairing in the 1920s?

The Great Depression

Questions:

How did the World War I economy/production eventually lead to the Great Depression?

Why didn't the Hawley-Smoot Tariff work?

What plan did the US implement to curb the effects of the Great Depression?  To what extent did countries like France and Britain follow suit?

Why was Scandinavia more successful in recovering from the Depression?

Age of Anxiety

No Terms - YAY!

Questions:

Describe logical empiricism and existentialism, and explain how both of these ideas contribute to the age of anxiety.  Be sure to explain the specific views of some of these philosophers (i.e. Jean-Paul Sartre argued...).

How did Christian existentialists differ from atheist existentialists?

Explain how the ideas of scientists like Max Planck and Albert Einstein led to uncertainty in science.

How did the literature of the interwar period differ from that of the late 19th century?  How does this reflect the uncertainty of the times?

Lastly, name a few examples of artists and musicians that reflected this anxiety in their work (do you see a common thread here)?

The end of World War I

Terms:

14 points
League of Nations
"Big Four"
Versailles Treaty
War guilt clause


Questions:

How does Woodrow Wilson imagine ending the First World War?  How can his 14 points be seen as liberal?  Why did he think this would prevent future conflict?  In what way were his 14 points unsuccessful?

Why might the attenders of the Paris Peace Conference along with their decisions reached through the Treaty of Versailles act to fuel the tensions leading to World War II?