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AP European History AMSCO Guided Notes

8.6: Fascism and Totalitarianism

AP European History
AMSCO Guided Notes
8.1 Contextualizing 20th-Century Global Conflicts
8.2 World War I
8.3 The Russian Revolution and Its Effects
8.4 Versailles Conference and Peace Settlement
8.5 Global Economic Crisis
8.6 Fascism and Totalitarianism
8.7 Europe During the Interwar Period
8.8 World War II
8.9 The Holocaust
8.10 20th-Century Cultural, Intellectual, and Artistic Developments
8.11 Continuity and Change in an Age of Global Conflict

AP European History Guided Notes

AMSCO 8.6 - Fascism and Totalitarianism

Essential Questions

  1. What factors led to the development of fascist and totalitarian regimes in the aftermath of World War I?
  2. What were the consequences of Stalin's economic policies and totalitarian rule in the Soviet Union?
I. Fascism and Authoritarian Rule

1. What conditions in post-World War I Europe made fascism increasingly popular?

2. How did pre-war nationalism and militarism contribute to the rise of fascism?

II. Mussolini in Italy

A. Rise of the Blackshirts

1. How did Mussolini use postwar discontent and economic instability to gain political support?

2. What role did the Blackshirts play in Mussolini's rise to power and consolidation of control?

B. The Promise of Order

1. How did Mussolini transform Italy from a parliamentary system to a totalitarian dictatorship between 1922 and 1926?

2. What institutions retained some independence under Mussolini's fascist rule?

III. Hitler in Germany

A. Hitler's Emergence

1. What weaknesses of the Weimar Republic made it vulnerable to extremist movements like the Nazi Party?

2. How did Hitler's early experiences in Vienna and his time in prison shape his political ideology and strategy?

B. Finding Supporters

1. Why did Hitler shift his focus to gaining support from the middle class in small towns and rural areas rather than urban workers?

2. How did right-wing elites in business, the military, and aristocracy contribute to Hitler's appointment as chancellor?

C. Taking Power

1. How did Hitler use the Reichstag fire and emergency powers to establish totalitarian control while maintaining the appearance of democracy?

2. What role did Hermann Göring and the Storm Troops play in consolidating Nazi control over Germany?

IV. Dictatorships and Propaganda

A. Charismatic Leaders

1. How did Mussolini and Hitler use the cult of personality to consolidate their power and control their populations?

2. What symbols, titles, and organizations did fascist leaders use to project power and demand loyalty?

B. New Methods of Propaganda

1. How did Hitler use radio and film technology more effectively than Mussolini to spread propaganda to mass audiences?

2. What was the purpose of The Triumph of the Will and how did it serve Nazi propaganda goals?

3. How did Nazi architecture function as a form of propaganda?

V. Franco and the Spanish Civil War

1. What political and economic conditions led to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936?

2. How did the Spanish Civil War serve as a testing ground for World War II and what role did foreign powers play?

3. What fascist characteristics did Franco's government exhibit despite Spain not being a purely fascist state?

VI. Authoritarian Dictatorships

1. Why did most new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe after World War I give way to authoritarian dictatorships?

2. What factors allowed Czechoslovakia to remain democratic while neighboring countries became authoritarian?

3. How did the fascist governments in Italy and Germany influence the spread of authoritarianism in Eastern Europe?

VII. The Soviet Union Under Stalin

1. How did Stalin consolidate power within the Communist Party and eliminate his political rivals?

2. What was the fundamental disagreement between Stalin and Trotsky regarding the Soviet Union's future direction?

VIII. Rapid Economic Modernization

1. What were the goals of Stalin's Five Year Plans and how did they transform the Soviet economy?

2. What were the human costs of rapid industrialization for Soviet workers?

IX. Consequences of Economic Modernization

A. Liquidation of the Kulaks

1. Why did Stalin view kulaks as enemies of the communist state and what policy did he implement against them?

2. How did peasants resist collectivization and what was Stalin's response?

B. Famine in the Ukraine

1. What caused the famines of 1932-1933 in Ukraine and what were the human consequences?

2. How did Stalin prioritize industrial growth over the survival of peasants during the famine?

C. Purges of Political Rivals

1. Who were the Old Bolsheviks and why did Stalin target them during the Great Purge?

2. What groups beyond political rivals were targeted during the Great Purge of 1936-1938?

3. What was the Gulag and how did Stalin use it as an instrument of terror?

D. Repression Under Stalin

1. How did Stalin create a climate of fear and control through the secret police and surveillance?

2. What social policies did Stalin reverse from the post-1917 revolutionary period?

E. Women in Stalin's Russia

1. What contradictory policies did Stalin implement regarding women and family in the Soviet Union?

2. How did women's participation in higher education in the Soviet Union compare to other major powers in the 1930s?

Key Terms

Benito Mussolini

Leni Riefenstahl

Joseph Stalin

Blackshirts

Francisco Franco

Five Year Plan

Adolf Hitler

Spanish Civil War

kulaks

Nazi Party

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

collectivization

cult of personality

Gulag

Joseph Goebbels

Soviet Union