Causes of German and Italian expansion
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Question
Define fascism.
Answer
Mussolini's ideology: an extreme, nationalist dictatorship that glorifies the state, the leader and war, and crushes all opposition.
Question
Define Nazism.
Answer
Hitler's German version of fascism, adding extreme racism (antisemitism) and the demand for racial 'living space' (Lebensraum).
Question
What was the Treaty of Versailles (1919)?
Answer
The WWI peace treaty that punished Germany with land losses, a 100,000-man army limit, the 'war-guilt' clause and reparations. Germans saw it as a humiliation to overturn.
Question
What is Lebensraum?
Answer
German for 'living space' — Hitler's aim of seizing land in eastern Europe and the USSR for German settlers and resources.
Question
What is autarky, and why did the dictators want it?
Answer
Self-sufficiency in food and raw materials. Both regimes pursued it for a war economy, partly through conquest of resource-rich land.
Question
What did 'mare nostrum' mean to Mussolini?
Answer
Latin for 'our sea' — his dream of dominating the Mediterranean as a revived Roman Empire.
Question
When did Mussolini and Hitler take power?
Answer
Mussolini in Italy in 1922; Hitler became German Chancellor in 1933.
Question
How did the Great Depression push Germany and Italy to expand?
Answer
It caused mass unemployment; rearmament and expansion revived industry, created jobs, pursued autarky and distracted people from hardship.
Question
What was the invasion of Abyssinia (1935)?
Answer
Mussolini's conquest of Ethiopia — proving Italy a great power, gaining resources, distracting from the Depression, and exposing the League's weakness.
Question
Compare the main aims of Germany and Italy.
Answer
Germany: overturn Versailles, unite German-speakers, win Lebensraum in the east. Italy: revive a Roman Empire and dominate the Mediterranean.
Question
Name the two strands of cause behind German and Italian expansion.
Answer
Ideology (national greatness, Versailles, Lebensraum, a new Rome) and economics (the Depression, unemployment, autarky) — the I-E strands.
Question
What does the command term 'evaluate' require?
Answer
A judgement: weigh the factors (here, ideology vs economics) and reach a supported conclusion — not just a list.
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Topic 3.2 hub
German and Italian expansion (1933–1940)
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