Familiarization: Take notes on each of the videos for the following dictators and be sure you can explain how each of them rose to power prior to WWII. Answer the corresponding questions for each dictator on the Lesson #3 Worksheet.
Dictator #1: Josef Stalin
Josef Stalin (real name Josif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili...try saying that three times real fast!) was dictator of the U.S.S.R. from approximately 1927 until his death in 1953. His rule was marked by the creation of a police state, terror, fear, mass killing, the gulag system, a world war, and the start of the Cold War. Stalin's attempts at reforms included collectivization in agriculture and a series of five-year plans for industry, both costing the lives of many of his own people.
Click here to discover how the Soviet "Man of Steel" rose to power and ruled the communist U.S.S.R.
Click here to read about Stalin
Click here for more information
Dictator #2: Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini was prime minister/dictator of Italy from 1925 until his dismissal from power in 1943. His rule was marked by the rise of fascism in Italy. All things in Italy were done for the glory of the state as Mussolini sought to unite Italians by restoring the glory of the old Roman Empire . A series of public work projects, police state, propaganda, and extreme nationalism were all elements of fascist Italy. Click here to discover how Mussolini "Il Duce" and his fascists rose to power in Italy prior to WWII.
Click here to read about Benito Mussolini
Dictator #3: Adolph Hitler
Adolph Hitler was dictator of Germany from 1934 to his death in 1945. He was leader of the Nazi party, which eventually permeated into every facet of German society. Hitler promised the creation of a third German Empire (Third Reich) that would rule a thousand years. The use of the Gestapo (secret police), extreme nationalism, racist policies, and the mass killing of "inferior peoples" characterized Germany under Hitler and his Nazis. Click here to discover how Hitler rose to power in Germany prior to WWII.
Click here to read about Adolf Hitler
Dictator #4 Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde[a] was a Spanish general who ruled over Spain as a military dictator from 1939, after the nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War, until his death in 1975. This period in Spanish history is commonly known as Francoist Spain
Upon his rise to power, Franco implemented policies that repressed political opponents and dissenters, as many as 400,000 of whom died through the use of forced labor and executions in the concentration camps his regime operated.Click here to discover how Franco came to power.
Click here to read about Francisco Franco
Dictator #5 Hideki Tojo
Hideki Tojo was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), the leader of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, and the Prime Minister of Japan during much of World War II, from October 17, 1941, to July 22, 1944. He is best known for his actions as Prime Minister during the war, such as being responsible for ordering the attack on Pearl Harbor, which initiated war between Japan and the United States, although planning for it had begun in April 1941, before he entered office. After the end of the war, Tojo was arrested, condemned and sentenced to death for war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and hanged on December 23, 1948. Click here to see what Japan did during WWII. Click here to watch a video about Tojo
Click here to read about Hideki Tojo
Dictator # 6 Pol Pot
Pol Pot ( born Saloth Sâr 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998)[ was a Cambodian revolutionary and politician who served as the general secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from 1963 to 1981. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Khmer nationalist, he led the Khmer Rouge group from 1963 until 1997. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea.
Renaming the country Democratic Kampuchea and seeking to create an agrarian socialist society, Pol Pot's government forcibly relocated the urban population to the countryside to work on collective farms. Those regarded as enemies of the new government were killed. These mass killings, coupled with malnutrition, strenuous working conditions, and poor medical care, killed between 1.5 and 3 million people of a population of roughly 8 million (about 25%), a period later termed the Cambodian genocide. Marxist–Leninists unhappy with Pol Pot's government encouraged Vietnamese intervention. However, Pol Pot forced Vietnam's hand by attacking villages in Vietnam and massacring their villagers. In December 1978, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, toppling Pol Pot's government in 1979. The Vietnamese installed a rival Marxist–Leninist faction opposed to Pol Pot and renamed the country as the People's Republic of Kampuchea. Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge retreated to a jungle base near the Thai border. Until 1993, they remained part of a coalition internationally recognized as Cambodia's rightful government. The Ta Mok faction placed Pol Pot under house arrest, where he died in
April 1998.
Click here to read about Pol Pot
Click here to watch a video about Pol Pot
Dictator # 7 Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong[a] December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who became the founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he ruled as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. His theories, military strategies, and political policies are collectively known as Maoism. During Mao's lifetime the Westerm media universally rendered his name as Mao Tse-tung, using the then common Wade-Giles system of phonetic spelling.
Mao was the son of a prosperous peasant in Shaoshan, Hunan. He had a Chinese nationalist and anti-imperialist outlook early in his life, and was particularly influenced by the events of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and May Fourth Movement of 1919. He later adopted Marxism–Leninism while working at Peking University, and became a founding member of the Communist Party of China (CPC), leading the Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1927. During the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the CPC, Mao helped to found the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, led the Jiangxi Soviet's radical land policies, and ultimately became head of the CPC during the Long March. Although the CPC temporarily allied with the KMT under the United Front during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), China's civil war resumed after Japan's surrender and in 1949 Mao's forces defeated the Nationalist government, which withdrew to Taiwan.
On October 1, 1949, Mao proclaimed the foundation of the People's Republic of China (PRC), a single-party state controlled by the CPC. In the following years he solidified his control through land reforms and through a psychological victory in the Korean War, as well as through campaigns against landlords, people he termed "counter-revolutionaries", and other perceived enemies of the state. In 1957, he launched a campaign known as the Great Leap Forward that aimed to rapidly transform China's economy from agrarian to industrial. This campaign led to the deadliest famine in history and the deaths of 20–45 million people between 1958 and 1962.[3][4][5] In 1966, Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution, a program to remove "counter-revolutionary" elements in Chinese society which lasted 10 years and was marked by violent class struggle, widespread destruction of cultural artifacts, and an unprecedented elevation of Mao's cult of personality. The program is now officially regarded as a "severe setback" for the PRC.[6] In 1972, Mao welcomed U.S. President Richard Nixon in Beijing, signalling the start of a policy of opening China to the world. After years of ill health, Mao suffered a series of heart attacks in 1976 and died at the age of 82. He was succeeded as paramount leader by Premier Hua Guofeng, who was quickly sidelined and replaced by Deng Xiaoping.
Familiarization: Take notes on each of the videos for the following dictators and be sure you can explain how each of them rose to power prior to WWII. Answer the corresponding questions for each dictator on the Lesson #3 Worksheet.
Dictator #1: Josef Stalin
Josef Stalin (real name Josif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili...try saying that three times real fast!) was dictator of the U.S.S.R. from approximately 1927 until his death in 1953. His rule was marked by the creation of a police state, terror, fear, mass killing, the gulag system, a world war, and the start of the Cold War. Stalin's attempts at reforms included collectivization in agriculture and a series of five-year plans for industry, both costing the lives of many of his own people.
Click here to discover how the Soviet "Man of Steel" rose to power and ruled the communist U.S.S.R.
Click here to read about Stalin
Click here for more information
Dictator #2: Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini was prime minister/dictator of Italy from 1925 until his dismissal from power in 1943. His rule was marked by the rise of fascism in Italy. All things in Italy were done for the glory of the state as Mussolini sought to unite Italians by restoring the glory of the old Roman Empire . A series of public work projects, police state, propaganda, and extreme nationalism were all elements of fascist Italy. Click here to discover how Mussolini "Il Duce" and his fascists rose to power in Italy prior to WWII.
Click here to read about Benito Mussolini
Dictator #3: Adolph Hitler
Adolph Hitler was dictator of Germany from 1934 to his death in 1945. He was leader of the Nazi party, which eventually permeated into every facet of German society. Hitler promised the creation of a third German Empire (Third Reich) that would rule a thousand years. The use of the Gestapo (secret police), extreme nationalism, racist policies, and the mass killing of "inferior peoples" characterized Germany under Hitler and his Nazis. Click here to discover how Hitler rose to power in Germany prior to WWII.
Click here to read about Adolf Hitler
Dictator #4 Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde[a] was a Spanish general who ruled over Spain as a military dictator from 1939, after the nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War, until his death in 1975. This period in Spanish history is commonly known as Francoist Spain
Upon his rise to power, Franco implemented policies that repressed political opponents and dissenters, as many as 400,000 of whom died through the use of forced labor and executions in the concentration camps his regime operated.Click here to discover how Franco came to power.
Click here to read about Francisco Franco
Dictator #5 Hideki Tojo
Hideki Tojo was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), the leader of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, and the Prime Minister of Japan during much of World War II, from October 17, 1941, to July 22, 1944. He is best known for his actions as Prime Minister during the war, such as being responsible for ordering the attack on Pearl Harbor, which initiated war between Japan and the United States, although planning for it had begun in April 1941, before he entered office. After the end of the war, Tojo was arrested, condemned and sentenced to death for war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and hanged on December 23, 1948. Click here to see what Japan did during WWII. Click here to watch a video about Tojo
Click here to read about Hideki Tojo
Dictator # 6 Pol Pot
Pol Pot ( born Saloth Sâr 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998)[ was a Cambodian revolutionary and politician who served as the general secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from 1963 to 1981. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Khmer nationalist, he led the Khmer Rouge group from 1963 until 1997. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea.
Renaming the country Democratic Kampuchea and seeking to create an agrarian socialist society, Pol Pot's government forcibly relocated the urban population to the countryside to work on collective farms. Those regarded as enemies of the new government were killed. These mass killings, coupled with malnutrition, strenuous working conditions, and poor medical care, killed between 1.5 and 3 million people of a population of roughly 8 million (about 25%), a period later termed the Cambodian genocide. Marxist–Leninists unhappy with Pol Pot's government encouraged Vietnamese intervention. However, Pol Pot forced Vietnam's hand by attacking villages in Vietnam and massacring their villagers. In December 1978, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, toppling Pol Pot's government in 1979. The Vietnamese installed a rival Marxist–Leninist faction opposed to Pol Pot and renamed the country as the People's Republic of Kampuchea. Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge retreated to a jungle base near the Thai border. Until 1993, they remained part of a coalition internationally recognized as Cambodia's rightful government. The Ta Mok faction placed Pol Pot under house arrest, where he died in
April 1998.
Click here to read about Pol Pot
Click here to watch a video about Pol Pot
Dictator # 7 Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong[a] December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who became the founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he ruled as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. His theories, military strategies, and political policies are collectively known as Maoism. During Mao's lifetime the Westerm media universally rendered his name as Mao Tse-tung, using the then common Wade-Giles system of phonetic spelling.
Mao was the son of a prosperous peasant in Shaoshan, Hunan. He had a Chinese nationalist and anti-imperialist outlook early in his life, and was particularly influenced by the events of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and May Fourth Movement of 1919. He later adopted Marxism–Leninism while working at Peking University, and became a founding member of the Communist Party of China (CPC), leading the Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1927. During the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the CPC, Mao helped to found the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, led the Jiangxi Soviet's radical land policies, and ultimately became head of the CPC during the Long March. Although the CPC temporarily allied with the KMT under the United Front during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), China's civil war resumed after Japan's surrender and in 1949 Mao's forces defeated the Nationalist government, which withdrew to Taiwan.
On October 1, 1949, Mao proclaimed the foundation of the People's Republic of China (PRC), a single-party state controlled by the CPC. In the following years he solidified his control through land reforms and through a psychological victory in the Korean War, as well as through campaigns against landlords, people he termed "counter-revolutionaries", and other perceived enemies of the state. In 1957, he launched a campaign known as the Great Leap Forward that aimed to rapidly transform China's economy from agrarian to industrial. This campaign led to the deadliest famine in history and the deaths of 20–45 million people between 1958 and 1962.[3][4][5] In 1966, Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution, a program to remove "counter-revolutionary" elements in Chinese society which lasted 10 years and was marked by violent class struggle, widespread destruction of cultural artifacts, and an unprecedented elevation of Mao's cult of personality. The program is now officially regarded as a "severe setback" for the PRC.[6] In 1972, Mao welcomed U.S. President Richard Nixon in Beijing, signalling the start of a policy of opening China to the world. After years of ill health, Mao suffered a series of heart attacks in 1976 and died at the age of 82. He was succeeded as paramount leader by Premier Hua Guofeng, who was quickly sidelined and replaced by Deng Xiaoping.