Test Two: Essay One
Following the Great War, much of Europe found itself in an economic depression. While Russia had fared better with the introduction of Lenin’s New Economic Policy, it still saw surges in unemployment and a widening gap between economic classes. Italy and Germany in particular had suffered as a direct result of the Paris Peace Treaties, leaving their peoples angry. It was this socioeconomic and political turmoil, coupled with the opportunistic nature of Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, that allowed these authoritarian leaders to come to power.
The 1919 Paris Peace Conferences had given Italy no satisfaction as a member of the allied forces during the Great War. Rather, Italy suffered from high unemployment
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In order to gain insight into the resistances, the Weimar Republic hired Adolf Hitler to spy on the German Worker’s Party, unknowingly providing Hitler with the first step toward power. Within a year, Hitler had changed his mind in spying for the government, and by 1922, his talent as an orator had made him leader of the Worker’s Party. Mimicking Mussolini, Hitler would attempt to overthrow the government in the Beer Hall Putsch; however, less successful than Mussolini, Hitler would be arrested and put in prison until 1924. After his release, he would again mimic Mussolini, using his SA to threaten voters in the election for Chancellor, a position which he would be appointed to in 1932. Perhaps echoing Stalin, following the Reichstag fire and death of German President Hindenburg, Hitler utilized the Enabling Law in 1933 to consolidate power under his position and essentially becoming Fuhrer. During his reign, similar to Mussolini, Hitler utilized a heavy amount of propaganda, though more extreme than that of Mussolini. While Mussolini’s propaganda focused on glorifying conquest, Hitler pushed a more negative propaganda against what he considered to be the “undesirables” of Germany. Though not originally intended to be as severe as Stalin,