Nationalism, Revolution, and Dictatorship

Nationalism, or the desire for national independence and a strong national

government, was originally a European idea. When empires were built, however (see
Chapter 30), and nations all over the world lost their independence to imperialistic
interests, the idea of nationalism spread far beyond Europe.

World War I also intensified the growth of nationalism in Europe. In its most extreme
form, European nationalism expressed itself in the rise of a dictatorial, militaristic
movement known as fascism. This movement grew out of the unsettled conditions
brought on by World War I. The countries of Europe had poured their resources into the
war and came out exhausted. The European countries in which fascist regimes came to
power were Italy Germany, and Spain. On the other side of the world, a similar regime
came to power in Japan.

1. Chinese nationalists founded a republic.

China was one of the oldest civilizations in Asia. It was never a European colony, but
the ruling Manchu dynasty was weak because it rejected Western technology and
opposed modernization. As a result, imperialist nations forced the rulers to give them
more trading rights and territory. These conditions led to the growth of a nationalist
movement.

During the late 1800’s, China was forced to give up territory to Japan. At the same time,
European powers were establishing spheres of influence in China that gave them
special political and economic privileges.

A revolution took place in China in 1911.

Young Chinese who resented this foreign influence organized secret societies to
fight it. Among these nationalists was Sun Yat-sen [sun’yéit'sen']. His revolutionary
activities forced him to flee China, so for 16 years he worked among Chinese
communities abroad to organize the Guomindang [ng’min dang’], or Nationalist People's
party.
In 1911 Chinese revolutionaries overthrew the government. Sun then returned to China
and struggled with regional leaders who did not want to give up their power to a central
government. After ten years of conflict, Sun was elected president of China in 1921 and
made plans to unify the country. The Western powers would not help Sun because he
had criticized them for their imperialistic ambitions in China, so Sun turned to the Soviet
Union for help. The Soviets sent him money, arms, and advisers.

Despite all of Sun’s efforts, he succeeded in establishing a government only in the

south, at Guangzhou (Canton). When Sun died in 1925, powerful regional leaders still
controlled the rest of China, including the capital city of Beijing in the north.

However, Sun was a source of inspiration to his followers. Sun’s writings became
guides for reform. One book, Three Principles of the People, became a guide for the
Guomindang. It called for nationalism amt freed from foreign control, government by the
people and for the people, and economic security for all the Chinese.

Chiang Ka‘-shek united China under an official government.

Upon Sun’s death his place was taken by Chiang Kai-shek [chyang' ki'shek'], a young
military officer. In 1926 Chiang led his army northward from Guangzhou toward Beijing-
also hoping to unite China. However, Chiang had another concern. He was afraid that
the communist wing of the Guomindang was becoming too strong. In 1927 he launched
a surprise attack against the Chinese Communists, killing many of them. A small group
of Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong [mou’ dzu’dt’mg] survived, and from that
time on, the Nationalists and the Communists were bitter enemies engaged in a civil
war.

In 1928 Chiang succeeded in taking Beijing and uniting China. Chiang’s government
was then recognized by the Western powers as the official government of China.

The new government faced many social and political problems.

The new government of Chiang Kai-shek had to deal with a number of difficult problems
during its rule. One problem was growing dissatisfaction among the Chinese people
over lack of reform. A 3mgnd was an unsuccessful attempt by the Communist in 1931 to
set up a Chinese Soviet Republic southeastern China. A third was Japanese aggression
against China m 1931 and a full-scale invasion in 1937' .

Although Chang government was able to deal with the last two of these problems, they
never did effectively solve the problem of the people’s unrest. He was forced, however,
to change the much presented policies that had allowed foreign countries to acquire
special trading rights and territory from China.

By 1931 the Chinese Communists had established 15 rural bases and had set up a rival
government in southern and central China. Three years later, in 1934, Chiang’s army
forced the Communists to evacuate their bases he response, Mao gathered his 90,000
followers and led these Chinese Communists on the Long March-a retreat from the
battle that lasted for more than a year. They marched 6,000 miles (almost as far as from
New York to California and back again) to Yanan, in north central China. Only half of
those who started out survived the Long March, but the remaining Communists won the
support of the peasants in Yanan and continued to fight against Chiang’s armies.

When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, he Communists and Nationalists stopped
their civil war and united temporarily to fight the Japanese. However, the differences
between the Communists and Nationalists were too deep to make the alliance last, and
civil war broke out again in 1945 after Japan’s defeat.

2 Nationalists in India demanded Independence.

In the mid-l9th century, the British took control of almost all of India. Within 50 years.
However, Indian intellectuals began seeking self government for India. Then came
World War I.

Indian nationalists were disappointed after the war. During World War I, India loyalty
supported Britain. Almost one million Indian soldiers fought on the side of the British,
and wealthy Indian princes made large manual contributions to the war effort. lndians
hoped their loyalty and support would be rewarded by self-government.

In1917 Britain promised to give self-rule to India in several stages. At the end of the
war, therefore, the Government of India Act of 1919 turned over certain governmental
powers to India's provincial legislatures. However, the British reserved other. more
important powers in the central government for themselves. Because of the act's
limitations, most Indians were disappointed.

Gandhi, a believer in nonviolent resistance, led the Indian nationalists.

The Widespread dissatisfaction found a spokesman in Mohandas K. Gandhi {gén'déL

This remarkable nationalist leader had been educated in Britain as a lawyer. He then
set up a successful law practice in South Africa, helping the Indians who lived there fight
against discrimination. During World War I, Gandhi returned to India and became the
champion of the oppressed and lowly. He led a very simple and self-sacrificing lite,
following the Hindu faith. Millions of Indians began to look up to him as a holy man, or
mahatma [ma hzit’ma], Albert Einstein, the brilliant scientist, said 0! Candhi:
“Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this walked the earth in
flesh and blood."

Nonviolent resistance. Gandhi believed in the idea of nonviolent resistance protest

that didn't involve Violence of any kind. He also used the tactic called civil disobedience,
which is the deliberate and public refusal to obey a law in order to protest laws or
policies that the protester considers unjust. Gandhi’s approach of nonviolent inspired
many other leaders later periods including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the
height for racial justice in the United States.

Gandhi’s campaign for Indian independence.

Gandhi strongly opposed the government of India Act because it didn't give the Indian
government enough independence. Millions of Indian people fallowed him in a
nonviolent campaign of civil disobedience to force the British to give self-rule to India.
Strikes, lasts, and protest marches were the “weapons" of Gandhi’s campaign.

Not all Indian nationalists believed in nonviolent resistance, however. In 1919 there was
a wave of murder, looting, and arson, and lndian-British relations were tense. That
same year, in the city at Amritsar lam rit'sarl. British soldiers fired on m armed
demonstrators. Nearly 400 innocent people were killed and 1,200 were wounded.
Gandhi and his followers in the Indian National Congress were shocked at the behavior
of the British. They became determined to win complete freedom for lndian.

During the 19205 and 19305, Gandhi launched several campaigns of nonviolent
resistance. One his methods was to boycott, or refuse to buy, British-made goods. He
also began a movement of “progressive nonviolent noncooperation,” in which he led
people to resist British authority they refused to pay taxes. They returned all decorations
and honors awarded by the British. They withdrew their children from government
schools. and they boycotted the courts and the election-‘A The British arrested Gandhi
several times and put him in jail.

While working for the independence of India. Gandhi tried to improve the lives of the
untouchables, those Indians who belonged to the low caste. He also tried to bring about
cooperation I tween Hindus and Muslims. Gandhi believed ma injustice could be wiped
out through love an patience.

India made progress toward independence in the 1930’s

Since l857 the British had been able to keep order in India because the majority of the
lndian people respected and consented to the British authority. Gandhi‘s campaign of
civil disobedience showed me British that this consent was no longer assured, ma they
could feel their authority crumbling. Thus, during the 1930’s the British met with Indian
waders to gradually begin preparing India for self- government.

In 1935 the British Parliament passed a law that gave the Indian provinces self-
government. From the capital of New Delhi, Indian members of the legislature then
controlled all matters except those relating to defense and foreign affairs. However,
because of the onset of World War II. full independence for India was not granted until
1947.

3. Nationalists in the Middle East created new regimes.

Nationalist movements developed among Arabs, Turks, Persians (Iranians), and Jews
in the Middle East. The Middle East, a modern political region, generally includes the
North African and Asian countries of Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt. Jordan,
Syria, Iraq, Iran, and the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. Each group wanted its own
independent country. Often the nationalist goal of independence went along with a
desire for modernization.

Egyptian nationalists were the first in the region to challenge the Europeans.

The majority of people living in the Middle East are Arabs, those people whose native
language is Arabic. Before World War 1, none of them had total independence. They
were controlled either by the French, the British, or the Ottoman Turks. World War I,
however, weakened the rule of the British and French and ended that of the Ottomans.
After the war, for example, several nonviolent underground movements challenged
French rule in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.

Since 1914, Egypt had been a protectorate of Britain. A protectorate is a country that is
under the direct control of another, usually stronger country. After a delegation of
Egyptian nationalists was denied permission to attend the Paris Peace Conference of
1919, Egypt rose up in revolt. Order was not restored until 1922, when the British
agreed to end the protectorate. However, Britain kept the right to have troops in Egypt,
to direct Egyptian foreign affairs, and to defend the all-important Suez Canal. This 118-
mile, human-made canal connects the Mediterranean and Red seas and was crucial to
the British because it shortened the route between Britain and India by 6,000 miles.

Arab leaders in the old Ottoman Empire sought self-government.

In the Middle East Arab resentment against the corrupt rule of the Ottoman Turks had
been building for a long time. When the Ottoman Empire entered World War 1 on the
side of Germany, Britain weakened Turkish power by winning over the Arabs
disgruntled with Ottoman rule. In 1915 and 1916, Britain promised independence to the
Arabs in hopes of sparking a rebellion against the Turks. In June, 1916, the Syrian and
Arabian Arabs, supported by British arms and money, broke lose from the Ottoman
empire in the so called Revolt in the Desert. The revolt weakened the already decaying
Ottoman empire.

When World War 1 ended, Arab leaders claimed self-government as they reward. It
soom became clear, however, that Arabs Independence would be a victim of European
power politics. During the war, Britain and France had made a secret agreement to
divide the middle east region between themselves.

After the war the newly formed League of Nations divided the regions into mandates,
which as you remember from chapter 31, were lands ruled by countries defeated in
World War l, Syria and Lebanon were given to France. Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan
were given to Britain. The Britain and French grew boundaries to suit their own
convenience and stalled their own rules in the mandates.

In the year that followed, Arab hostility toward European rule grew and the European
began to respond. The British give Transjordan partial independence in 1958 and Iraq
full independence in 1932. However, the British army stayed in both countries to protect
Britain’s interests there.

The collapse of the Ottoman empire in 1918 also brought independence to several
states in the Arabian Peninsula. The most important of these independent states was
the newly created kingdom of the Hejaz. Its ruler was Abdul-Aziz, commonly known as
Ibn- Saud. Ibn- Saud conquered the warring Bedouin tribes and controlled nearly all of
the Peninsula by 1926. In 1932, Ibn- Saud changed the name of his kingdom Saudi
Arabia. A few years later, rich oil reserves were discovered there, adding to Saudi
Arabia’s power and prestige.

Kemal Atatürk arose as a new leader in Turkey.

Since Turkey had been on the losing side on World War l, it had to accept significant
territorial loses as part of the peace settlement. Moreover, the Allies occupied various
part of Turkey, including the City of Istanbul. However, the Turks strongly resisted
having their country occupied.

A new Turkish leader. In the early 1920’s, a powerful army officer named Mustafa
Kemal became the leader of Turkish National resistance . Under Kemal’s leadership the
Turks drove out allies forces and regained control of Istanbul. For more security they
moved the capital to the interior City of Ankara.

Kemal and his followers also carried out a successful political revolution. They
overthrew the ruling sultan and in 1923 formed the Turkish Republic. Kemal was elected
Turkish first president and was given the named Atatürk, meaning “father of all the
Turks”, by the Turkish Parliament in 1935, becoming Kemal Atatürk.

The Turkish Republic was much smaller than the Ottoman empire had been. The new
republic consisted mainly of the Anatolian Peninsula, which is bounded on three sides
by the Black, Again and Mediterranean Seas. The majority of the republic’s people were
Turks, but the Greeks, a people who had been living in the area since 1000 B.C, formed
an important non Turkish minority. Turkish nationalistsconsidered the Greeks to be
‘foreigner’, and Fighting eventually broke out between the two groups. To settle the
problem, 1.4 million Greeks were forced to moved to Greece, and 400,000 Turks living
in Greece were moved to Turkey. Uprooting so many people caused great hardship, but
it gave Turkey and Greece, more homogenous population.

Atatürks program for reform. As president, Kemal Atatürks main goal was to
modernized Turkey. Under his leadership, Turkey became the first traditional Islamic
State in which church and state were separated. The new republic tolerated all religions.
and instead of the law of the Koran, the government adopted a law code modeled on
the Napoleonic code.

Kemal's modernization affected people throughout Turkish society. Women gained the
right to vote and to hold public office and they were encouraged to become doctors,
lawyers, and teachers. In addition, the government set out to reduce illiteracy and
encourage industrialization through the development of mines, railroads, and factories.
By the time Kemal Ataturk died in 1938, the nation of Turkey had moved a long way
toward monetization of its economic and social structure.

Iran developed more slowly under the shah. In 1921 an army officer named Reza
Khan took over Iran, “Land of the Aryans." In 1925 he became shah and changed his
family name to Pahlavi, becoming Reza Shah Pahlavi. The shah was a strong
nationalist and fought Soviet and British influence in Iranian affairs. Like Kemal Ataturk,
the shah tried to modernize his country. He built schools, developed national resources,
and supported the rights of women. However, the shah was also a harsh despot.

During World War II, the Iranians tried to remain neutral, but the Allies wanted to use
the Trans-Iranian Railway to ship war supplies from Britain to the Soviet Union. When
Reza Shah refused to cooperate, British and Soviet troops invaded Iran in 1941. They
forced Reza Shah to abdicate. or abandon his throne. His son, Muhammad Reza
Pahlavi, took command and signed a treaty that allowed the British and Soviets to use
the railway and to keep troops in Iran until the end of the war.

The Jews established a homeland in Palestine.

As you teamed earlier, both Jews and Arabs had lived in Palestine for many centuries.
The country, however, had not been independent since the days of the Romans. Jewish
nationalists, who called themselves Zionists, wanted to rebuild a Jewish state in
Palestine. and some European Jews began to settle there in the late 1803. To gain the
support of the Zionists, in 1917 the British issued the Balfour Declaration, promising that
a national home for the Jews would be established in Palestine In 1920 when Palestine
became a mandate of the British government, large-scale Jewish immigration began.
Over the years immigrants started farms and industries and generally prospered.

The Arabs made up the larger part of the population in Palestine, and they were
alarmed by these developments. They viewed the Jews as intruders and feared
possible economic and political domination As refugees fled from Nazi Germany in the
1935 and Jewish immigration increased, the Arabs turned to demonstrations and
guerrilla warfare.
In guerrilla warfare bands of fighters who are not part of a regular army harass the
enemy through small skirmishes, ambushes, and other forms of attack. The British
failed to bring peace to the area during this period, and there is still not peace there
today.

4 Extreme nationalists in Europe and Japan established dictatorships.

In some parts of Europe and in Japan, the aftermath of World War I brought deep
discontent. Extremist groups in these nations took advantage of widespread fears and
frustrations to gain support for their own causes. They preached that national pride had
to be restored and that the only way to accomplish this was through the bold actions of
strong leaders. The goal of these extremists was to establish dictatorships.

Communist and fascist dictatorships arose after World War I.

A dictator is a person who seizes control of a government without getting that control
through inheritance or free election. The power of the dictator is not limited by law or by
the acts of any official body, such as the congress in the United States. After World War
1, several major countries came under the rule of dictators. In Russia the communist
dictatorship centered on government ownership property and capital.

Another type of dictatorship, fascism, permitted private ownership of property and

capital but placed strict government rules on the people and the economy. The term
“fascism” did not refer to just any dictatorship, however. The word usually described a
government that favored rule by a dictator, with strong control of industry and labor, and
extreme nationalism and militarism.

Fascism arose first in Italy under the leadership of Benito Mussolini [mus'a lé'né], and
later, similar forms of government appeared in Japan, Germany, and Spain. Neither
communism nor fascism allowed opposing political parties to exist. Each type of
government used censorship, denied civil rights (the rights of personal liberty), and took
complete control of people’s lives. Communism and fascism became the strongest
antidemocratic movements in the world.
Mussolini gained power in Italy.

There was much unrest in Italy after World War ll The war had been much more
expensive in Money ,nd lives than the people had expected. and many yahans were
angry that Italy, though on the win’ “mg side, had received so little territory in the peace
settlement‘ Italy also faced the same problems of economic slowdown, unemployment,
and high prices that existed in other countries. By the end of 1920, the cost of living was
eight times higher than it had been in 1914. Many people found it difficult even to buy
bread. The government. which was split into many different parties, had no strong
leaders or programs.

As unrest grew, many Marxist workers in the factories of northern Italy went on strike.
The many strikes scared middle class people who were afraid of a communist
revolution. As a result, many Italians swung their support to the newly organized Fascist
party, headed by Benito Mussolini, which was strongly anti-communist.

Mussolini’s Fascist party. Mussolini had organized the Italian Fascist party shortly after
the war ended. He took the name fascist from the Latin word fasces. It meant the
bundle of rods bound around an ax that had become the symbol of authority during
Roman times. The Fascist party was made up mainly of out-of-work men who had been
soldiers in the war. They wanted results in place of the do-nothing policies of the
government. In addition, the Fascists were super patriotic and had a strong devotion to
Italy and to Mussolini, who was known as ll Duce [el' dtj'cha], “the leader.”

The Fascists were a frightening group. They wore black shirts as uniforms, used the old
Roman salute of the raised arm, and followed strict military discipline. They practiced
violence and beat up, tortured, and sometimes killed political opponents.

At first Mussolini tried to gain political power legally through elections, but the Fascists
did not win many votes. Therefore, in September, 1922, some 10,000 armed Fascists
marched on Rome to take over the government. The king, afraid of a civil war, invited
Mussolini to become prime minister. In the next nine years, Mussolini used every
means, including terror, to make himself dictator of Italy. The Fascist party became the
only legal party in the country, and the secret police arrested anyone who dared to
criticize the Fascists.

Mussolini’s conquest of Ethiopia. By 1930 the world depression had increased the
problems within Italy. Although powerful, Mussolini felt that only a successful military
move would enable him to keep his hold on Italy. Thus, in 1935, he attacked Ethiopia,
then one of the four independent states left in Africa. Ethiopia had defeated Italy in 1896
when Italy attempted to enlarge Italian Somaliland, but in 1935, the Italians were armed
with more advanced technology, including bombs, mustard gas, and tanks. The Italians
quickly defeated the poorly equipped Africans. Mussolini was stronger than ever.

Military leaders won control in Japan.

In the 19205 democracy was making some progress in Japan, but the Japanese
parliament held little power. It could not control the prime minister, who was responsible
only to the emperor. In addition, military leaders were nearly independent of the
government, and they were eager for more power. They disliked democracy and
disagreed with Japan’s moderate policy toward China. These militarists gained strength
in parliament during the 19305. They were supported by the farmers, who blamed
democracy for bad conditions.

By 1930 the effects of the world depression were also deeply felt in Japan. The
disruption caused by striking workers gave the militarists a chance to seize more power,
and by late 1932 a strong military clique gained control. Their main goal was to build up
the most powerful army and navy in East Asia. These military leaders terrorized the
civilian members of the government, using murder to scare off political opposition and
justifying their acts by declaring that they were glorifying Japan. Their nationalistic
cause was supported by young men whose careers had been hurt by the depression.
They also had ‘the support of people with business interests in Manchuria who wanted a
more aggressive policy toward China.

Hitler and the Nazi party rose to power in Germany.

Germany began the postwar years with a new national assembly that met in the city of
Weimar [vi'mar] in January, 1919. The Weimar constitution included many democratic
features: freedom of speech and religion, compulsory education of children, and a
freedom of association that protected labor unions. However, the Weimar Republic was
weak from the start, and Germany suffered from all the same economic problems that
existed in other countries.

The Weimar Republic. The ruling group in the Weimar government was a coalition, or
grouping, of socialist parties. Extremists on both the Right (fascists) and the Left
(communists) threatened the ruling group. They blamed the coalition for accepting the
hated Treaty of Versailles and declared that the socialist were traitors to their country.
As the German economy grew weaker, people in Germany began to listen to these
charges. To nuke matters worse, the most stable element in the German population, the
middle class, had been all but ruined by the terrible inflation, or sharp increase in prices,
of the postwar years.

In 1929 a worldwide depression began, and millions of Germans lost their jobs. The
WW Republic seemed unable to help. The younger generation, disillusioned by this
chaos, blamed the problems on the way their elders ran the country. Militarists also
blamed the German defeat a World War 1 on liberals, pacifists, and Jews.

Many Germans had long felt deep-seated envy and even hatred-of the Jews, who made
up lessman one percent of the population. These Germans resented the fact that some
Jews had achieved success as doctors, dentists, lawyers. au‘ mom, and musicians. It
became popular to blame the Jews for Germany's troubles. Many Germans were willing
to listen to anyone who made the Jews the scapegoats-the ones that were blamed for
all the nation’s ills, Adolf Hitler did just that.
Hitler was born in an Austrian village in 1889. During World War I, he enlisted in the
German army. While in a hospital recovering from war injuries, news of the armistice
and the German defeat reached him. He felt great anger and shame for his adopted
country and came to hate the new German government, Jews, and anyone associated
with the Versailles Treaty.

After the war Hitler joined a small political party, which in 1920 adopted the name of
National Socialist German Workers’ party, or Nazi party. Hitler helped draw up the
program for the party, a set of goals that appealed to all discontented persons. He
slowly began to build the party through public speeches. Hitler was an extremely
talented public speaker and had a spell-binding effect on his audiences. Still, he
wasimpatient for power.

In 1923 be tried, but failed, to seize power in Bavaria. a state in south‘ e n Germany, in
what became known as the Beer Hall Putsch (revolution). As a result, Hitler was
arrested for treason and sent to prison. While spending about a year in jail, he wrote
the book Mein Kampf, which meant "My Struggle." The book was based on racist ideas
and presented Hitler's plan for aggression against other peoples and countries.

The Third Reich. In Germany, near the end of the 1920’s, economic conditions became
worse. Businesses failed, people lost jobs, and it took more and more money to buy
less and less. More people began to vote for Nazi representatives in the Reichstag
[rTHs’tak'], the German parliament, hoping that a new government would find new
answers to these growing problems. By 1932 the Na~zis were the largest political party
in Germany.

In 1933 Hitler became chancellor (prime minister) of Germany, running a government

known as the Third Reich [riH]. (The First Reich, or empire, was begun by Charlemagne
in 800 and was ended by Napoleon in 1806. The Second Reich began in 1871 with the
unification of Germany and continued until 1918, when Germany was defeated in World
War I.)

In 1934 Hitler stripped the Reichstag of all power. He also eliminated all political parties
except the Nazis, outlawed trade unions, set up labor camps, and overturned laws he
did not like. The Nazis seized control of the courts, industries, newspapers, police, and
schools. Many children were taught to spy for the Nazis, even on their own parents. On
August 2, 1934, Hitler became Füher [fv'rar], or leader, of Germany.

The “super race.” The Nazis preached the idea of a “super race." According to the
Füher, Germans were Aryans and were the "master race" or “super race." All other
peoples, particularly Jews and Slavs, were inferior. According to the Nazi party. Jews
were to be killed, and Slavs were to be made mm slaves.

The Nazis thus began a carefully planned program to eliminate Jews from German
national life. in 1935 the infamous Nuremberg Laws were passed, which took citizenship
rights away from Jews. The laws forbade the intermarriage of Jews and gentiles (non-
Jews). In addition. Jewish children were not allowed to attend German schools. The
government also encouraged other Germans to boycott Jewish businesses and
services.

By 1939 the Nazis had put tens of thousands of Jews into concentration camps and had
eliminated all Jews from the economic life of Germany. The government took away the
Jews' property and forced them to live in ghettos [get’bsL sections of dues restricted to
Jews.

Hitler's ideas of the German "super race" gave a Sense of prestige to many Germans.
They felt that Hitler was replacing weakness, defeat, and depression with strength,
importance, and prosperity. Most Germans gladly accepted Hitler as their leader. Those
who didn’t were beaten up, imprisoned, murdered, Some of Hitler’s opponents managed
to leave Germany, but this became very difficult as the specter of war approached.

The military. The Third Reich prepared for war. As they did in Italy and Japan, fascists
in Ger. many tried to mold the minds of their citizens through a program that glorified
war. Textbooks were rewritten to show German military history in its best light. and the
press and radio were censored to carry out that program.
Hitler believed that Germany must have "living space," that is, more territory for the
German people. He began huge preparations for German expansion. Strict food-
rationing laws were put into effect to make Germany self-sufficient in case of war. A
highway system called the autobahn was built so that troops could move rapidly. In
addition, a huge stockpile of arms was created.

German business leaders who in 1932 thought they could control Hitler found out too
late that they could not. He had changed Germany into a police state. The government
controlled every area of life-the economy. schools, labor unions, newspapers, radio, and
films. Such a system of total control of a country is called totalitarianism [t6 tal'a ter'e a
niz'am].

Many people outside Germany also believed that their countries could deal with Hitler.
They felt that he only wanted to return Germany to its rightful place among nations.
Some people in democratic countries even admired Nazism for its discipline and its
hostility to communism.