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Facts
- During World War 2, he warned the West of the threat of the Soviet Union expanded.
- He unified Great Britain and led the country to victory.

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- Churchill wanted to become Prime Minister to eliminate an event like Gallipoli. After Chamberlain resigned in 1940, Churchill was elected in.

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Conservative 1940 to 1945, 1951 to 1955

Winston Churchill was an inspirational statesman, writer, orator and leader who led Britain to victory in the Second World War. He served as Conservative Prime Minister twice - from 1940 to 1945 (before being defeated in the 1945 general election by the Labour leader Clement Attlee) and from 1951 to 1955.

Born

30 November 1874, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

Died

24 January 1965, London

Dates in office

1940 to 1945, 1951 to 1955

Political party

Conservative

Major acts

Education Act 1944: raised the school leavers age to 14; introduction of the 11+.

Interesting facts

Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his many published works. More information including archive footage can be found at the Churchill War Rooms.

Biography

David Cameron's Favourite Past Prime Minister
Winston Churchill was born on 30 November 1874, in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire and was of rich, aristocratic ancestry. Although achieving poor grades at school, his early fascination with militarism saw him join the Royal Cavalry in 1895. As a soldier and part-time journalist, Churchill travelled widely, including trips to Cuba, Afghanistan, Egypt and South Africa.

Churchill was elected as Conservative MP for Oldham in 1900, before defecting to the Liberal Party in 1904 and spending the next decade climbing the ranks of the Liberal government. He was First Lord of the Admiralty (the civil/political head of the Royal Navy) by the time of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, which he created. Heavily criticised for this error, he resigned from this position and travelled to the Western Front to fight himself.

The interwar years saw Churchill again 'cross the floor' from the Liberals, back to the Conservative Party. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1924, when he controversially opted for Britain to re-join the Gold Standard. Following the Tory electoral defeat in 1929, Churchill lost his seat and spent much of the next 11 years out of office, mainly writing and making speeches. Although he was alone in his firm opposition to Indian Independence, his warnings against the Appeasement of Nazi Germany were proven correct when the Second World War broke out in 1939.

Following Neville Chamberlain 's resignation in 1940, Churchill was chosen to succeed him as Prime Minister of an all-party coalition government.

Churchill, who also adopted the self-created position of Minister for Defence, was active both in administrative and diplomatic functions in prosecuting the British war effort. Some of his most memorable speeches were given in this period, and are credited with stimulating British morale during periods of great hardship. However, Labour leader Clement Attlee 's unexpected General Election victory in 1945 saw Churchill out of office and once again concentrating on public speaking. In his 1946 speech in the USA, the instinctive pro-American famously declared that "an iron curtain has descended across the Continent", and warned of the continued danger from a powerful Soviet Russia.

By his re-election in 1951, Churchill was, in the words of Roy Jenkins, "gloriously unfit for office". Ageing and increasingly unwell, he often conducted business from his bedside, and while his powerful personality and oratory ability endured, the Prime Minister's leadership was less decisive than during the war. His second term was most notable for the Conservative Party's acceptance of Labour's newly created Welfare State, and Churchill's effect on domestic policy was limited. His later attempts at decreasing the developing Cold War through personal diplomacy failed to produce significant results, and poor health forced him to resign in 1955, making way for his Foreign Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, Anthony Eden.

Churchill died in 1965, and was honoured with a state funeral.

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Facts
- After Germany captured France, Roosevelt pushed the congress to give more support for Britain.
- Roosevelt declared war on Japan after Pearl Harbor.

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-  Roosevelt first became New York State senator. Then won the 1932 election against Herbert Hoover.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of the most influential presidents in American history. He was elected to four terms in office, and his policies helped to shape the country for generations. FDR's rise to power began in the early 1920s, when he was elected to the New York State Senate. He quickly made a name for himself as an effective legislator, and he soon caught the attention of national political leaders.

In 1928, he was nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for president. His campaign was built around the promise of "a New Deal for the American people." This message resonated with voters, and FDR went on to win a landslide victory in the election. During his time in office, FDR enacted a series of sweeping reforms that helped to end the Great Depression and rebuild the American economy. He also played a key role in leading the United States through World War II. FDR's legacy continues to be felt today, and he is widely considered to be one of the greatest presidents in American history.

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FDR's Rise To Power - The FD Roosevelt Suite

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Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of the most influential presidents in American history. He was elected to four terms in office, and his policies helped to shape the country for generations. FDR's rise to power began in the early 1920s, when he was elected to the New York State Senate.

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Facts
- Joseph Stalin kept a tight control over the Soviet Union military and war economy.
- Stalingrad was renamed in honor of Joseph Stalin.

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- Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the USSR. He transformed the Soviet Union from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy during his reign of terror.

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Young Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin was born Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili on December 18, 1878, or December 6, 1878, according to the Old Style Julian calendar (although he later invented a new birth date for himself: December 21, 1879). He grew up in the small town of Gori, Georgia, then part of the Russian empire. When he was in his 30s, he took the name Stalin, from the Russian for "man of steel."

Did you know? In 1925, the Russian city of Tsaritsyn was renamed Stalingrad. In 1961, as part of the de-Stalinization process, the city, located along Europe's longest river, the Volga, became known as Volgograd. Today, it is one of Russia's largest cities and a key industrial center.

Stalin grew up poor and an only child. His father was a shoemaker and an alcoholic who beat his son, and his mother was a laundress. As a boy, Stalin contracted smallpox, which left him with lifelong facial scars. As a teen, he earned a scholarship to attend a seminary in the nearby city of Tblisi and study for the priesthood in the Georgian Orthodox Church.

While there he began secretly reading the work of German social philosopher and Communist Manifesto author Karl Marx, becoming interested in the revolutionary movement against the Russian monarchy. In 1899, Stalin was expelled from the seminary for missing exams, although he claimed it was for Marxist propaganda.

After leaving school, Stalin became an underground political agitator, taking part in labor demonstrations and strikes. He adopted the name Koba, after a fictional Georgian outlaw-hero, and joined the more militant wing of the Marxist Social Democratic movement, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin.

Stalin also became involved in various criminal activities, including bank heists, the proceeds from which were used to help fund the Bolshevik Party. He was arrested multiple times between 1902 and 1913, and subjected to imprisonment and exile in Siberia.

Children

In 1906, Stalin married Ekaterina "Kato" Svanidze, a seamstress. The couple had one son, Yakov, who died as a prisoner in Germany during World War II. Ekaterina perished from typhus when her son was an infant.

In 1918 (some sources cite 1919), Stalin married his second wife, Nadezhda "Nadya" Alliluyeva, the daughter of a Russian revolutionary. They had two children, a boy and a girl (Stalin's only daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, caused an international scandal when she defected to the United States in 1967). Nadezhda committed suicide in her early 30s. Stalin also fathered several children out of wedlock.

Rise to Power

In 1912, Lenin, who was then in exile in Switzerland, appointed Stalin to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Three years later, in November 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power during the Russian Revolution. The Soviet Union was founded in 1922, with Lenin as its first leader.

During these years, Stalin had continued to move up the party ladder, and in 1922 he became secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, a role that enabled him to appoint his allies to government jobs and grow a base of political support.

After Lenin died in 1924, Stalin eventually outmaneuvered his rivals and won the power struggle for control of the Communist Party. By the late 1920s, he had become dictator of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union Under Stalin

Starting in the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin launched a series of five-year plans intended to transform the Soviet Union from a peasant society into an industrial superpower. His development plan was centered on government control of the economy and included the forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture, in which the government took control of farms.

Millions of farmers refused to cooperate with Stalin's orders and were shot or exiled as punishment, particularly the kulaks, the more-prosperous farmers who owned land and hired paid workers. The forced collectivization soon led to widespread famine across the Soviet Union that killed millions.

Stalin ruled by terror, 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.

During the second half of the 1930s, Stalin instituted the Great Purge, a series of campaigns designed to rid the Communist Party, the military and other parts of Soviet society from those he considered a threat.

Additionally, Stalin built a cult of personality around himself in the Soviet Union. Cities were renamed in his honor. Soviet history books were rewritten to give him a more prominent role in the revolution and mythologize other aspects of his life.

Stalin was the subject of flattering artwork, literature and music, and his name became part of the Soviet national anthem. He censored photographs in an attempt to rewrite history, removing former associates executed during his many purges. His government also controlled the Soviet media.

Joseph Stalin and World War II

In 1939, on the eve of World War II, Joseph Stalin and Germany's Nazi Party dictator Adolf Hitler signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. Stalin then proceeded to annex parts of Poland and Romania, as well as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He also launched an invasion of Finland.

Then, in June 1941, Germany broke the Nazi-Soviet pact and invaded the USSR, making significant early inroads. (Stalin had ignored warnings from the Americans and the British, as well as his own intelligence agents, about a potential invasion, and the Soviets were not prepared for war.)

As German troops approached the Soviet capital of Moscow, Stalin remained there and directed a scorched earth defensive policy, destroying any supplies or infrastructure that might benefit the enemy. The tide turned for the Soviets with the Battle of Stalingrad from August 1942 to February 1943, during which the Red Army defeated the Germans and eventually drove them from Russia.

As the war progressed, Stalin participated in the major Allied conferences, including the Tehran Conference (1943) and the Yalta Conference (1945). His iron will and deft political skills enabled him to play the loyal ally while never abandoning his vision of an expanded postwar Soviet empire.

Later Years

Joseph Stalin did not mellow with age: He initiated a reign of terror, purges, executions, exiles to labor camps and persecution in the postwar USSR, suppressing all dissent and anything that smacked of foreign-especially Western-influence.

He established communist governments throughout Eastern Europe, and in 1949 led the Soviets into the nuclear age by exploding an atomic bomb. In 1950, he gave North Korea's communist leader Kim Il Sung permission to invade United States-supported South Korea, an event that triggered the Korean War.

How Did Joseph Stalin Die?

Stalin, who grew increasingly paranoid in his later years, died on March 5, 1953, at age 74, after suffering a stroke. His body was embalmed and preserved in Lenin's mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square until 1961, when it was removed and buried near the Kremlin walls as part of the de-Stalinization process initiated by Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971).

How Many People Did Joseph Stalin Kill?

By some estimates, Joseph Stalin was responsible for the deaths of 6 million to 20 million people during his brutal rule, either though political executions or indirectly as a result of Stalin's policies. The killings first began in the 1930s, as a wave of executions swept the Soviet Union during Stalin's Great Purge.

"In some cases, a quota was established for the number to be executed, the number to be arrested," said Stanford University history professor Norman Naimark in a 2010 interview. "Some officials overfulfilled as a way of showing their exuberance."

Millions more were killed in the horrific famine that struck Ukraine in 1932-1933 and the Kazakh region from 1930 to 1933, as a of Stalin's cruel efforts to impose collectivism of agriculture and tamp down Ukrainian nationalism. Estimates vary, but about 4 million men, women and children are believed to have starved to death during the Holodomor (a combination of the Ukrainian words for "starvation" and "to inflict death").

Sources

Joseph Stalin (1879-1953). PBS.
Joseph Stalin: National hero or cold-blooded murderer? BBC.
Stalin killed millions. A Stanford historian answers the question, was it genocide? Stanford News.

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Joseph Stalin: Death, Quotes & Facts - HISTORY

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Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953. Through terror, murder, brutality and mass imprisonment, he modernized the Soviet economy.

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facts
- Mussolini founded and led National Fascist Party.
- Mussolini was expelled from school.

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In 1922, Benito Mussolini ( Il Duce) came to power as the prime minister of Italy and the National Fascist Party leader. At first, he ruled democratically and constitutionally, but in 1925, he turned Italy into a one-party, totalitarian state and ruled as Italy's dictator. He forcefully governed Italy until 1943, when the Allied invasion of the country led to his downfall and execution.

His rise to power was remarkable. He went from being a journalist and a minor political figure to becoming prime minister of Italy within five years. The fear of a communist revolution abetted his remarkable rise and allowed Mussolini and his fascist party to seize power, with little opposition.

Who was Mussolini?

Mussolini was a well-known journalist and had strongly advocated for Italy's entrance into the war in his newspaper in 1914. Mussolini was an Italian Nationalist, and he wanted to unify his country. He regularly employed nationalist rhetoric that portrayed Italy as a great power to eliminate regional loyalties that had kept the country divided despite the country's official unification in 1871.

Many of these men were unemployed after the war, and they felt that their sacrifices during the war had been in vain. Mussolini cleverly formed these veterans' squadrons and employed them against all those he declared to be the enemies of Italy. These former soldiers' squads became known as 'Blackshirts,' and they proved to be a formidable paramilitary force.

How did World War I change Italy?

Italy's military performed dismally during the war and had sustained extremely high casualties, and there had also been mass desertions. Many people, and especially soldiers, were disenchanted with the political class's handling of the war. They were widely seen as corrupt and ineffective, and many held them personally responsible for the country's failings during the war. The Italian political system, though technically a democracy, was dominated by the traditional landowning and business elite.

The Italian middle class, which was very nationalistic, was especially disappointed. Many grew disenchanted with the country's democratic government model. They came to believe that it could never truly unite the nation and establish it as a world power like France or Britain.

Like many Germans, Italians believed that the old political elite had betrayed the nation. The general population, primarily the Italian middle-class, became increasingly disenchanted with the nation's political class and system. Mussolini never lost an opportunity to denounce the political class, which increased his popularity.

The end of the war also led to a significant economic crisis in Italy. Unemployment was widespread, as was hunger, especially among the urban poor and in the South of Italy. This made the Italian political class and even the King, Victor Emanuelle III, extremely unpopular. By 1920, the old political parties were deeply unpopular, and there was a widespread sense in Italian society that change or some revolution was needed to save the country. The postwar economic and political circumstances in Italy created a great deal of unrest and disillusionment. Mussolini was fully prepared to exploit the opportunities.

How did Mussolini's Fascist Organizations become powerful and popular?

By 1920, Mussolini and his fascists were a force to be reckoned with in the land, especially in the industrial north. Within a short period, Mussolini and his party were almost a state within a state. They were soon running a parallel administration in many towns. Mussolini's rise was aided by several factors that were exacerbated by World War I.

There was no leadership at the national or state level. The Italian government was divided, as the country's democratic parties could not come together. The Italian Liberal Party and the Catholic Party refused to work together because of Church-State relations in Italy. This division meant that the country lacked a strong government in the vital period of the war, which, in turn, allowed the Fascists to become a powerful force in the land. Additionally, many people in the government, civil service, and the army were conservatives and somewhat sympathetic to the aims and the rhetoric of Mussolini. His ideology appealed to them.

Mussolini's appeal and the government's weakness meant that Mussolini was rapidly able to build up his power in the country. Mussolini and his Fascists also effectively used violence and terror to gain control. The Black Shirt Squads used violence to intimidate, torture, or even kill those who opposed Mussolini's will. They were feared by many. However, many in the confused post-war period saw them as a source of stability and security, which won them a measure of popular support among many in the middle class.

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Why did the Rise of Communism help Mussolini's Rise to Power?

The radical left was particularly strong in Italy during the Great War, as it benefitted from the government's unpopularity and the war among the poor and the working class. In 1917, the Italian Socialist Party allied itself with the Soviet Union and agitated for Italy's revolution.

Industrial workers in the major Italian cities had formed themselves into powerful trade unions. During the difficult war years, they frequently went on strike and were often brutally repressed by the Italian police and armies. After the end of the First World War, these strikes paralyzed many cities, and these actions greatly alarmed the middle class and wealthy Italians.

From 1919, Mussolini's Fascist Black Shirts fought with Socialists and others in the streets of Italy. The Black Shirt squads were very effective, and they managed to break many strikes and intimidated, injured, and killed many socialists and trade unionists. This made them very popular among those who feared a revolution. This meant that many in the Italian middle class and elite began to see the Fascists capable of saving Italy from a 'Red' revolution as in Russia. However, many, even some conservatives, were not in favor of Mussolini and his party. Still, he was seen as the lesser of two evils and anything, was better than Communism and Socialism for many upper-class Italians.

What role did Fascist Propaganda play in consolidating Mussolini's power?

The Fascists presented themselves as the saviors of Italy by Mussolini, who was a skillful propagandist. Propaganda is a method of persuading people to do things and commit actions to further some interest group or faction. Mussolini was a pioneer in its use, and an admiring Adolf Hitler would model his public speaking on Mussolini. The Italian Fascists leader was a charismatic speaker, and he spoke in an emotive style that appealed to Italians, which won him many supporters. The Fascists used a series of symbols to associate themselves with Rome and Italy's past glories. The party was named after the Roman symbol of justice - the Fascii.

The use of symbols of such symbols appealed to many Italians when they felt that their nation had been humiliated in the war and by the Treaty of Versailles. Above all, Mussolini's anti-communist rhetoric won him a substantial following in Italy, among all classes. It seems that most Italians, the middle class, the elite and Catholics, all feared communism, particularly, and lived in fear of a revolution. Mussolini was able to portray himself and his party as the defenders of Italy as the only ones who could save the country from the red menace.

What was the March on Rome in 1921?

However, Mussolini though increasingly popular, was unable to secure power through constitutional means. The Italian Fascist party only won 35 seats in 1921, far less than the Socialists. Still, Mussolini was determined to win power for himself and his Party. The coalition government was very unpopular, and during a period of instability, the Fascists descended on Rome in their thousands to demand the resignation of the Prime Minister. Some 30,000 Blackshirts traveled from all over Italy, demanding a government change. This became known as the 'March on Rome.'

Typical of Mussolini, the event was stage-managed and theatrical. The Black Shirts were well drilled and disciplined. This was a deliberate policy of demonstrating that the Fascists were a force that supported law and order and the opposite of the Communists and Socialists, who were seen as dangerous and destabilizing. During the March on Rome, Mussolini made sure he was photographed with the marchers and made many speeches when he repeatedly stated that Itlay was in danger and that only he and his party could save the country. The March on Rome was a theater designed to win him and his party the popular support they needed to seize the country's government. The Fascists arrived in Rome, and many wondered what would occur. Mussolini and others feared that there would be bloodshed and that the army would fire on the marchers.

Was there a right-wing conspiracy to install Mussolini as Prime Minister of Italy?

They did not really like Mussolini but believed that he could secure their interests and prevent the country from a Soviet-style revolution. However, they believed that they could manage him and agree not to interfere with their privileges. When Mussolini became Prime Minister, he set about to create a one-party state. However, he did not attempt to interfere with the interests of the Monarchy, army, church, and other members of the elite, who had allowed him to seize power. This was their reward for allowing Mussolini to become the undisputed leader of Italy 'Il Duce.'

Conclusion

The Italian Fascists would later portray their seizure of power as a 'revolution.' Powerful elites in Italy allowed them to take control in 1921. Italian elites wanted to ensure that Italy did not become a Socialist or Communist country. They saw the establishment of the Fascist government as the best way to avoid this fate. Without the fear of a 'Red Revolution,' the Italian army, monarchy, and others would never have allowed Mussolini to assume Rome's power. Mussolini and the Fascists were not the most popular group in Italy, and they could never have come to power by purely democratic means. The fear of the Communist Revolution meant that they were permitted to assume power and stay in power.

Suggested Readings

Kallis, Aristotle. 2000. Fascist Ideology London, Routledge, 2000.

Anthony James Gregor (1979). Young Mussolini and the Intellectual Origins of Fascism. University of California Press, 1979.

De Grand, Alexander. The Hunchback's Tailor: Giovanni Giolitti and Liberal Italy from the Challenge of Mass Politics to the Rise of Fascism Praeger, 2001.

De Grand, Alexander. Italian Fascism: Its Origins and Development. University of Nebraska Press, 2007 (3rd Edition).

Farrell, Nicholas. Mussolini: A New Life. London: Phoenix Press, 2003.

Bosworth, Richard J. B. Mussolini's Italy Penguin, 2007.

John Whittam. Fascist Italy. Manchester University Press, 2006.

References

Edited 1/23/2023

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How did Mussolini Rise to Power as the Dictator of Italy

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In 1922, Benito Mussolini ( Il Duce) came to power as the prime minister of Italy and the National Fascist Party leader. At first, he ruled democratically and constitutionally, but in 1925, he turned Italy into a one-party, totalitarian state and ruled as Italy's dictator.

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- When he first became the leader of Italy, he started out by ruling democratically but in 1925 he changed Italy into a one party system and became a dictator of totalitarian rule.

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facts
- killed 6 million Jewish people in the Holocaust.
- started the biggest most deadly war to ever happen in the world.

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- Hilter was rejected from art school and became an officer in the German military during WW1, later he started the Nazi party and became chancellor and dictator of Germany.

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Discharged from the hospital amid the social chaos that followed Germany's defeat, Hitler took up political work in Munich in May-June 1919. As an army political agent, he joined the small German Workers' Party in Munich (September 1919). In 1920 he was put in charge of the party's propaganda and left the army to devote himself to improving his position within the party, which in that year was renamed the National-sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ( Nazi). Conditions were ripe for the development of such a party. Resentment at the loss of the war and the severity of the peace terms added to the economic woes and brought widespread discontent. This was especially sharp in Bavaria, due to its traditional separatism and the region's popular dislike of the republican government in Berlin. In March 1920 a coup d'état by a few army officers attempted in vain to establish a right-wing government.

Munich was a gathering place for dissatisfied former servicemen and members of the Freikorps, which had been organized in 1918-19 from units of the German army that were unwilling to return to civilian life, and for political plotters against the republic. Many of these joined the Nazi Party. Foremost among them was Ernst Röhm, a staff member of the district army command, who had joined the German Workers' Party before Hitler and who was of great help in furthering Hitler's rise within the party. It was he who recruited the "strong arm" squads used by Hitler to protect party meetings, to attack socialists and communists, and to exploit violence for the impression of strength it gave. In 1921 these squads were formally organized under Röhm into a private party army, the SA (Sturmabteilung). Röhm was also able to secure protection from the Bavarian government, which depended on the local army command for the maintenance of order and which tacitly accepted some of his terrorist tactics.

Conditions were favourable for the growth of the small party, and Hitler was sufficiently astute to take full advantage of them. When he joined the party, he found it ineffective, committed to a program of nationalist and socialist ideas but uncertain of its aims and divided in its leadership. He accepted its program but regarded it as a means to an end. His propaganda and his personal ambition caused friction with the other leaders of the party. Hitler countered their attempts to curb him by threatening resignation, and because the future of the party depended on his power to organize publicity and to acquire funds, his opponents relented. In July 1921 he became their leader with almost unlimited powers. From the first he set out to create a mass movement, whose mystique and power would be sufficient to bind its members in loyalty to him. He engaged in unrelenting propaganda through the party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter ("Popular Observer," acquired in 1920), and through meetings whose audiences soon grew from a handful to thousands. With his charismatic personality and dynamic leadership, he attracted a devoted cadre of Nazi leaders, men whose names today live in infamy-Johann Dietrich Eckart (who acted as a mentor for Hitler), Alfred Rosenberg, Rudolf Hess, Hermann Göring, and Julius Streicher.

The climax of this rapid growth of the Nazi Party in Bavaria came in an attempt to seize power in the Munich (Beer Hall) Putsch of November 1923, when Hitler and General Erich Ludendorff tried to take advantage of the prevailing confusion and opposition to the Weimar Republic to force the leaders of the Bavarian government and the local army commander to proclaim a national revolution. In the melee that resulted, the police and the army fired at the advancing marchers, killing a few of them. Hitler was injured, and four policemen were killed. Placed on trial for treason, he characteristically took advantage of the immense publicity afforded to him. He also drew a vital lesson from the Putsch-that the movement must achieve power by legal means. He was sentenced to prison for five years but served only nine months, and those in relative comfort at Landsberg castle. Hitler used the time to dictate the first volume of , his political autobiography as well as a compendium of his multitudinous ideas.

Hitler's ideas included inequality among races, nations, and individuals as part of an unchangeable natural order that exalted the " Aryan race" as the creative element of mankind. According to Hitler, the natural unit of mankind was the Volk ("the people"), of which the German people was the greatest. Moreover, he believed that the state existed to serve the Volk-a mission that to him the Weimar German Republic betrayed. All morality and truth were judged by this criterion: whether it was in accordance with the interest and preservation of the Volk. Parliamentary democratic government stood doubly condemned. It assumed the equality of individuals that for Hitler did not exist and supposed that what was in the interests of the Volk could be decided by parliamentary procedures. Instead, Hitler argued that the unity of the Volk would find its incarnation in the Führer, endowed with perfect authority. Below the Führer the party was drawn from the Volk and was in turn its safeguard.

The greatest enemy of Nazism was not, in Hitler's view, liberal democracy in Germany, which was already on the verge of collapse. It was the rival Weltanschauung, Marxism (which for him embraced social democracy as well as communism), with its insistence on internationalism and economic conflict. Beyond Marxism he believed the greatest enemy of all to be the Jew, who was for Hitler the incarnation of evil. There is debate among historians as to when anti-Semitism became Hitler's deepest and strongest conviction. As early as 1919 he wrote, "Rational anti-Semitism must lead to systematic legal opposition. Its final objective must be the removal of the Jews altogether." In Mein Kampf, he described the Jew as the "destroyer of culture," "a parasite within the nation," and "a menace."

During Hitler's absence in prison, the Nazi Party languished as the result of internal dissension. After his release, Hitler faced difficulties that had not existed before 1923. Economic stability had been achieved by a currency reform and the Dawes Plan had scaled back Germany's World War I reparations. The republic seemed to have become more respectable. Hitler was forbidden to make speeches, first in Bavaria, then in many other German states (these prohibitions remained in force until 1927-28). Nevertheless, the party grew slowly in numbers, and in 1926 Hitler successfully established his position within it against Gregor Strasser, whose followers were primarily in northern Germany.

The advent of the Depression in 1929, however, led to a new period of political instability. In 1930 Hitler made an alliance with the Nationalist Alfred Hugenberg in a campaign against the Young Plan, a second renegotiation of Germany's war reparation payments. With the help of Hugenberg's newspapers, Hitler was able for the first time to reach a nationwide audience. The alliance also enabled him to seek support from many of the magnates of business and industry who controlled political funds and were anxious to use them to establish a strong right-wing, antisocialist government. The subsidies Hitler received from the industrialists placed his party on a secure financial footing and enabled him to make effective his emotional appeal to the lower middle class and the unemployed, based on the proclamation of his faith that Germany would awaken from its sufferings to reassert its natural greatness. Hitler's dealings with Hugenberg and the industrialists exemplify his skill in using those who sought to use him. But his most important achievement was the establishment of a truly national party (with its voters and followers drawn from different classes and religious groups), unique in Germany at the time.

Unremitting propaganda, set against the failure of the government to improve conditions during the Depression, produced a steadily mounting electoral strength for the Nazis. The party became the second largest in the country, rising from 2.6 percent of the vote in the national election of 1928 to more than 18 percent in September 1930. In 1932 Hitler opposed Hindenburg in the presidential election, capturing 36.8 percent of the votes on the second ballot. Finding himself in a strong position by virtue of his unprecedented mass following, he entered into a series of intrigues with conservatives such as Franz von Papen, Otto Meissner, and President Hindenburg's son, Oskar. The fear of communism and the rejection of the Social Democrats bound them together. In spite of a decline in the Nazi Party's votes in November 1932, Hitler insisted that the chancellorship was the only office he would accept. On January 30, 1933, Hindenburg offered him the chancellorship of Germany. His cabinet included few Nazis at that point.

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Adolf Hitler - Nazi Leader, WW2, Germany

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Adolf Hitler - Adolf Hitler - Nazi Leader, WW2, Germany: Discharged from the hospital amid the social chaos that followed Germany's defeat, Hitler took up political work in Munich in May-June 1919. As an army political agent, he joined the small German Workers' Party in Munich (September 1919).

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- Prime Minister of Japan during WW2.
- Failed a suicide attempt after Japan surrendered.

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- Tojo was appointed minister of war in 1940 and succeeded Konoe as prime minister in 1941.

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How did Tōjō Hideki change the world?

Where was Tōjō Hideki educated?

Where is Tōjō Hideki buried?

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Tōjō Hideki, (born December 30, 1884, Tokyo, Japan-died December 23, 1948, Tokyo), soldier and statesman who was prime minister of Japan (1941-44) during most of the Pacific theatre portion of World War II and who was subsequently tried and executed for war crimes.

Early life and rise to power

A graduate of the Imperial Military Academy and the Military Staff College, Tōjō served briefly as military attaché in Japan's embassy in Berlin after World War I. He was an esteemed administrator and skillful field commander and became noted as a stern disciplinarian. In 1928 he was made commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment, members of which participated in a mutiny of the Tokyo garrison in late February 1936 that he helped suppress. In 1937 he was named chief of staff of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria.

He returned to Tokyo in 1938 as vice-minister of war and was one of the leading advocates of Japan's Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy (1940). In July 1940 he was appointed minister of war in the cabinet of Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro. Tōjō succeeded Konoe as prime minister on October 18, 1941, and pledged his government to a Greater East Asia program, a "New Order in Asia." He retained control of the Ministry of War and was also minister of commerce and industry from 1943.

World War II and conviction for war crimes

A hardworking and efficient bureaucrat, Tōjō was also one of the most aggressive militarists in the Japanese leadership. He led his country's war efforts after the attack on the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, and under his direction smashing victories were initially scored throughout Southeast Asia and the western Pacific region. After a series of Japanese military reverses in the Pacific, Tōjō assumed virtual dictatorial powers, taking over the post of the chief of the General Staff. The successful Allied invasion of the Mariana Islands so weakened his government, however, that he was removed as chief of staff on July 16, 1944, and on July 18 he and his entire cabinet announced their resignation. Four days later he was succeeded as prime minister by Koiso Kuniaki. Tōjō spent the remainder of the war in the military reserve, effectively banned from power.

On September 11, 1945, after Japan's formal surrender, Tōjō shot himself in a suicide attempt, but he was nursed back to health and on April 29, 1946, with other Japanese wartime leaders, was indicted for war crimes before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo. At the trial he was found guilty and then hanged. Tōjō's legacy continued, as he was one of those convicted of war crimes who also had been included among Japan's military dead commemorated in the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Periodic visits to the shrine by various Japanese prime ministers and other government officials have sparked strong protests from China, South Korea, and other countries that were under Japanese occupation during the war.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Michael Ray.

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Tojo Hideki | Biography, Early Years, World War II, Facts, & Death

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Tojo Hideki, soldier and statesman who was prime minister of Japan (1941-44) during most of the Pacific theater portion of World War II and who was subsequently tried and executed for war crimes. Learn more about Tojo's early life, military career, and political leadership in this article.