Chapter 23: The Rise Of Fascism And Totalitarian States -Introduction

Chapter 23 - When Some Countries Stopped Being Nice Places

1. Beginning

A long time ago, President Woodrow Wilson of the United States said we needed to make the world a safe place where everyone could have a say in things. But after a big fight called World War I, things didn't get better like he hoped. Some countries that won felt sad like they lost, and the countries that lost were very upset, especially Germany. They were treated very unfairly and it made them angry. Many places had a hard time fixing their towns and money problems after the war.

The 1920s were not happy times. Countries were upset with each other and inside their own borders. Then, a really bad money problem started in America and spread everywhere, making things even worse. Because of all these troubles, some people in countries like Germany, Italy, and a few others thought it was a good idea to let very strict bosses take over. These bosses promised to fix everything, but they wanted to be in charge of everything, too. Some people thought that was okay if it meant life could be better.

Main Points

- When countries love their country a lot and listen only to very strict leaders, and don't let people have freedoms, it's called fascism.

- After the big war and during the big money problem, countries got very mixed up. This helped strict leaders take over.

- Under these strict leaders, the government decided how people could use their money and what jobs they could do.