Establishment of authoritarian states
Conditions in which authoritarian states emerged
Hitler Mao
Economic Before Hitler came to power, Germany’s population increased by 900,000 annually, Great Depression and ongoing conflict resulted in the Chinese GDP shrinking by
conditions and with that came an increase in demand for resources 35%
Economy was crippled by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles: reparations Heavy taxes on people (70%, which hit peasants the most), widespread poverty
prevented recovery; industry was at 47% of pre-war performance (partly because Great inequalities: 4% of population controlled 50% of the land
industrial regions, eg. Saarland, were lost due to the Versailles settlement) China was then largely an agricultural nation, lagging behind the West
Germany received substantial aid in paying the reparations from the US (1924 Economic reforms during the Nanjing decade
Dawes Plan, 1929 Young Plan). This appeased the moderates, but the radicals only ● Industrial output grew at an average of 6% a year
saw it as further humiliation ○ However, businessmen were subjected to high taxes, and
The way the Ruhr crisis was handled (causing hyperinflation) made the government sometimes intimidated into giving the GMD large sums of money
appear weak, which led to Hitler staging the Beer Hall putsch in 1923. He then used (eg. by the Green Gang)
his trial as a propaganda exercise, making passionate nationalist pleas ● Railway network expanded: 8,000 miles of track increased to 13,000 by
Devastating impact of the Great Depression 1936; the length of road increased from 18,000 miles to 69,000 miles
● 50,000 businesses went bankrupt in 1929-1933; international investment ● China’s financial institutions reformed: foreign debts rescheduled, central
withdrawn; international trade fell by 62% and industrial production bank established, tax on internal trade abolished
declined by 40%, making the budget shrink The GMD mismanaged the economy at the conflict
● American aid withdrawn ● Fuelled hyper-inflation in Chongqing by printing vast quantities of paper
● High unemployment (6 million) meant the state needed more money for money
benefits, but there were no sources of that money → the unemployed ○ By 1945, prices had increased to more than 6,000 times their
were impoverished and unable to support their families 1937 level
● Hewitt: The Depression was the main reason for increased support for the ■ However, by 1949 the crisis had largely been contained,
Nazis. The government, taken by surprise, dealt with it poorly, which made with the rate of inflation decreasing from 1000% in 1937
people turn to parties which promised them something, like the Nazis did to 16% in 1949
● Lee: the economic crisis caused a political one: the moderate parties could ○ People were encouraged to exchange their gold and foreign
not agree so Article 48 was used - democracy was replaced by dictatorship currencies, but the yuan collapsed in XI 1948 due to overissuance,
, ● Bullock (1954): In times of economic crisis, societies radicalise. That with many people losing their savings
phenomenon greatly facilitated Hitler’s rise to power. ● Corruption in the GMD administration resulted in a lot of the supplies
● Carr: Hitler would have not come to power if it were not for the sent by the US being sold by GMD officials on the black market
economic crisis ● Budget deficit, as much of the government’s expenditure was funded by
● The Great Depression exacerbated problems that had existed before, borrowing money
making even more people believe the democratic system was weak and ● During the civil war, 80% of national budget was spent on the 5
incompetent million-men GMD army
‘Austerity measures’ of Bruning (in which he reduced government spending by 15% ○ This meant other areas controlled by the state were underfunded;
and increased taxes by an average of 10%) only worsened the conditions following in 1935, only 3,000 schools functioned in a country of half a billion
the Great Depression people
● The negative impact of the austerity measures caused Bruning to be ● Relied on help from the UK and the US, which the CCP used to present
dismissed the GMD as not patriotic
● Meissner: it was the government’s response to the crisis and not the crisis ○ In fact, the CCP itself was receiving foreign aid (from the USSR),
itself that led to the growth of popularity of NSDAP which was vital for its survival in the early years
○ The US, France, and Britain were also hit by the depression, yet it Mao’s land redistribution in Jiangxi and Yanan helped gather peasant support (by
was only in Germany that extremists rose to power (because the showing the CCP was committed to implementing its ideology)
others actually increased their spending) Lynch: the single most powerful reason for the failure of the GMD government was
○ Areas that saw bigger increases in their average tax rates also saw inflation
larger vote shares for the Nazi Party in the VII 1932-III 1933
elections
Growing unemployment gave the Nazis more support, as the desperate
unemployed saw the Nazi economic measures as their last hope
● The Nazis proposed to tackle unemployment by job creation
● Elections of 1930: 3.5 million unemployed, 107 Nazi seats in Reichstag;
Elections of VII 1932: 6 million unemployed, 203 Nazi seats in Reichstag
● Many of the unemployed also joined the SA, helping the Nazis in their
pre-election campaigns and then in the consolidation of power
, The worst conditions were seen in the countryside, where farms were suffering
from falling prices
Social Growth of urban, industrial middle class, to which Hitler’s socialist policies appealed There were 250 million agricultural workers and 3 million industrial workers
division (although the majority of his support came from rural, Protestant voters) Great inequalities: 4% of population controlled 50% of the land
Unions were very strong (in 1920 ended the right-wing Kapp putsch by calling a Two major political options developed: the Guomindang (GMD, Nationalists) and
general strike) CCP (Communists)
Growing polarisation: in XI 1932, KPD got 17% of the vote and NSDAP 33%, Neither wanted to accept a long-term compromise with the other faction
compared to 11% and 3% in 1928, respectively ● However, the CCP recognised the need to cooperate with the GMD, while
Fear of communism - support for communists had been growing, and in the 1930 Jieshi, was suspicious of the communists, which prevented him from
elections they received 77 seats and noted the highest growth of support among all effectively resisting other threats (eg. in 1941, during the invasion of
parties. Many members of the middle class and peasantry felt that they had much to Manchuria, the CCP’s New Fourth Army was destroyed by the GMD’s
lose if the communists were to take over so they turned to the other extreme - force)
NSDAP There was a discrepancy between the structure of the population (80% peasants)
● Overy: “[NSDAP] was the only party demonstrably combating the threat and governmental policies (treating the peasants harshly, eg. taxes on agricultural
of communism” goods were as high as 70%; most investment and effort went into improving urban
● The nationalism of NSDAP proved more effective than the pro-Soviet conditions, where 20% went to primary school, 1% to secondary school)
outlook of KPD ● → Higher quality of life in the cities, widespread poverty in the
Evans: “The Nazi vote was a protest vote”; the Nazis benefited from their tactic of countryside
presenting what they stood against rather than what they supported, as this ● Jieshi’s government imposed high levels of conscription on the peasants and
exploited people’s fears requisitioned their horses and equipment → the peasantry became
● True with regard to communism, but in other areas (eg. unemployment, increasingly hostile towards GMD
foreign policy, anti- Semitism) the Nazis did not appeal to fear
Fisher: authoritarian government in Germany was inevitable because of the nation’s
history and development: the origins of Nazism can be found in 19th century
Germany and the Prussian militarism of the 18th century. The Germans valued
strength, power and control over negotiation. These factors meant the democracy
of the Weimar period was destined to fail.
, Hitler was able to accommodate all parts of the divided society in his
nationalist-socialist ideology
Weakness Lack of public support for democracy: the republican setup was seen as something No effective central government in 1916-1927 (warlord period)
of political imposed by the West and democratic politicians were called the “November The GMD lacked popular support
system Criminals” who had “stabbed Germany in the back” by accepting the Treaty of ● Once in power, the GMD lost its revolutionary outlook; it became
Versailles self-interested, and corruption became a growing problem (many imperial
● The Germans wanted a strong leader, as illustrated by the election of a and warlord civil servants joined the GMD after 1927)
former general and an anti-demcrat, Hindenburg, for the presidency in ○ In 1927 the GMD purged those of its members who were
1925 interested in a broader social and political reform
● Stern: “born in defeat, humiliated by Versailles, mocked and violated by its ○ The GMD showed little interest in the conditions of the peasants,
irreconcilable enemies at home, the Weimar Republic never gained the who constituted the majority of the population
popular acceptance which alone could have given its parliamentary system ● The GMD’s rule was de facto authoritarian, which turned the people
permanence, even in crisis.” against it
● Williams: “in 1933, there were simply not enough Germans who believed ○ The GMD failed to introduce parliamentary government
in democracy to save the Weimar Republic.” ○ The 1931 provisional constitution established a five-branch
● The distrust and radicalisation of people expanded with time government, but the GMD showed no sign of being genuinely
Lack of unity in the left wing (between the socialists and communists) prepared to abandon their single party monopoly of power and
● Impact of the Kapp Putsch of 1920, during which the communists opposed these constitutional provisions were not put into practice
the socialists ○ The press was heavily censored
Weakness of the government ○ GMD relied on a large secret police, the Special Services,
● In the summer of 1932, the SA murdered 99 Communists and wounded comprising 1,700 agents by 1935, and used it to spy on opponents
more than 1000. The police did nothing and break dissident groups
Weakness of the democratic system ● Mismanagement of the war against Japan contributed to public
● The voting system was proportional representation - very small parties dissatisfaction with the Nationalist government
gained representatives in the Reichstag and no single party ever had a ○ The decisions of the GMD caused suffering of the people: Jiang’s
majority in 1919-1932; governments had to be formed by coalitions, which order in VI 1938 to destroy dikes keeping the Yellow River from
often disagreed flooding to stop the Japanese resulted in a flood that killed a
