Hello, students, welcome to one of the most interesting chapters of your X standard History textbook ‘Dictatorship in Europe’. In this particular module we will be talking about the period after the First World War and also we will be studying the reasons for the rise of dictatorship in Europe.

So without wasting any further time let’s start this very interesting chapter, one of my personal favourites, ‘Dictatorship in Europe’.

Now first and foremost let us understand what is dictatorship. Dictatorship is nothing but a centralized rule or a one man rule. One man decides to rule the whole country as per his whims and fancies, no rules, no regulations, no constitutions, his wish is the final command for everybody in the country and that is what dictatorship is all about.

In this chapter we will be talking about dictators from four countries. First one Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy. Second one, Kemal Pasha, dictator of Turkey. Third, the most famous or should I say the most notorious one, Adolf Hitler, of Germany. And although the chapter’s name is Dictatorship in Europe, the textbook mentions about an Asian dictator as well, his name was General Hideki Tojo from Japan. So we are going to be talking in detail about these four people in this particular chapter. And as I told you they were ruling their countries singlehandedly and making decisions for everybody in the respective countries.

So come on, let’s proceed further with this interesting chapter.

First and foremost, let us understand what was the scenario in the world after the First World War. What was the biggest change that came about? We had studied these when we were doing the effects of World War I. The biggest change was that democratic countries came into existence. In many countries the royal rule, the royal reigns came to an end and they were replaced by representative democracies. Apart from democratic governments, my dear friends, the European continent underwent a lot of changes between 1920 to 1930. This was the map of Europe. Let us see what Europe was divided into. Europe was basically divided into two groups after the First World War. First one were the victorious nations, the allied powers, and second one were the defeated nations, the central powers. Which were the European nations a part of the victorious nations, they were France, Italy and England. These were the three nations in Europe that had won the war on account of being in the allied powers. But, my dear friends, winning the war did not help them much because all the money of the country they had put in fighting the war and unfortunately after the First World War, these three countries had become bankrupt. Imagine if the victorious nations were bankrupt what would be the conditions of the defeated nations. They had no resources whatsoever.

First and foremost let us see which were the defeated nations. As you can see the list in front of you, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Germany and Turkey were the nations which were defeated, my dear friends. They were not only bankrupt but, unfortunately, they were made to sign a lot of peace treaties and as we have studied in the previous chapters, these peace treaties absolutely humiliated the defeated nations, laid down certain conditions on them because of which they felt insulted, and these peace treaties were something that they wanted to absolutely get rid of. So this is what the condition of Europe was, be it the victorious nations or be it the defeated nations nobody in Europe was happy after the First World War. And that is where rise of dictatorship happened. A new form of government came into the world, dictators took charge.

A very important answer we are going to do now, a four mark question, ‘explain the reasons for rise of dictatorship in Europe’ where we are going to write about the eight points which are given to us in the textbook.

Come on, let’s start, after the First World War the first and the most important thing, the international situation had become absolutely unstable and very alarming. People were worried, countries were worried that their condition is very bad, they have no money to run the country. Imagine everybody was in a lot of stress, everybody was in a lot of tension, my dear friends.

Not only that, the financial depression gave rise to dissatisfaction among the common people, absolutely poor condition, no food to eat, no clothes to wear, no houses to live, people were absolutely miserable and this is what helped dictatorship as well.

The third point that we will see here was growing tension among the defeated nations which were imposed upon increasing sanctions. What are sanctions? Sanctions are nothing but punishment like reducing the strength of the navy, taking war reparations from them, reducing their military, a lot of unjust conditions were laid upon. But do you think the victorious nations were happy, absolutely not. The conquerors too were desirous of more power, they wanted more power, more land, more money so that their status can increase in the world. So be it victorious, be it defeated, conditions were equally bad everywhere, my dear friends.

The fourth point, the hope of getting security, we have done in the previous chapter, League of Nations was established to maintain peace in the world, security in the world. But these hopes were absolutely shattered, there was no peace, no security, and as the first point says, things were unstable, things were alarming. People never knew that when another war might break out.

The fifth point says that democratic government in many nations started to collapse one after the other. Imagine we just studied that the biggest change was advent of democracy, coming of democracies in many countries, but unfortunately these democratic governments were not able to solve anybody’s problems and that is why they started to collapse one after the other. Many countries stopped having democratic governments.

Next point, because democratic governments started to collapse people started losing faith in democracy. People said that democratic governments just cannot solve our problems, we want a centralized rule.

And that is what the seventh point says that a centralized rule, one man should take the bull by the horns and get rid of our problems absolutely. So the faith in solving problems through centralized military power began gaining ground and democracy started losing its roots.

And this condition was, my dear friends, favourable for the dictators to rise in Europe. That is how dictatorship started in Europe because of these eight points.

Hello, students, welcome to one of the most interesting chapters in your X standard history textbook that is ‘First World War’. In this particular module we will be studying about the Age of Conflicts. Now before we start this chapter what does Unit 2 of your X standard textbook talk about, it talks about 20^th Century – Age of Conflicts. A lot of conflicts happened. What are conflicts, conflict is nothing but a clash or a fight and eventually a war in terms of history is what we call it. So 20^th Century Age of Conflicts, now before we start with the chapter World War, let me explain the timeline of the entire 20^th century Age of Conflicts which will help us understand the term history better going forward, right. So there is a timeline.

The first major event that happened was in the year 1914 when World War I started. This First World War ended in the year 1918.

Between 1914 and 1918 another major event in history broke out in 1917 and that was the Russian Revolution.

Once the war ended in 1918, lot of efforts for peace began. So in the year 1920, an international organization was formed to establish peace in the world and it was called League of Nations. Eventually, it didn’t prove to be very successful.

1922 a violent ideology rose in the world, it was called Fascism, so Rise of Fascism happened in 1922.

Similar ideology came up in Germany in 1933, Rise of Nazism. Eventually all these violent ideologies led to another world war which started in 1939 where World War II began and finally this war ended in 1945 which led to another international organisation being formed which was known as United Nations Organization.

So if you ask me what does this represent, this represents chapters of Unit 2. Your 2A talks about World War I, 2B talks about Russian Revolution, 2C talks about League of Nations, 2D talks about Rise of Dictatorship in Europe where we talk about Nazism, Fascism and other features, and finally 2E talks about United Nations Organization.

So let’s not waste any further time and start with the first chapter World War I, that is 2a first chapter of Unit 2. Age of Conflicts, as we have already seen what is a conflict, a conflict is a clash or a fight. These conflicts in the 20^th century they had certain positive dimensions and they had certain negative dimensions as well. Now what were the positive dimensions? Now first and foremost what are dimensions, dimensions are nothing but aspects. So what were the positive dimensions? A lot of new inventions happened, right, in the 20^th century on account of industrial revolution. For example we had the airplane which was developed for the first time, invented for the first time. Man could fly from one place to another. How did this come about? It came about because of a very simple reason, progress in science and technology. A lot of changes happened and a lot of developments happened in science and technology, right. Next not only that, destruction of despotic reigns. What are despotic, despotic means cruel or unjust and reign means rule. So many despotic, many cruel, many unjust rules of the world came to an end, right. Example, Tsar Nicholas II, he was a very cruel ruler, and his rule in Russia came to end through the Russian Revolution, right. There was spread of democracy, very positive aspect. Democracy is nothing but government of the people, for the people, by the people. Many people realized that we do not want the kings to rule us anymore, we the people, we will rule ourselves, and that is how democracy came about in many countries in the world. And not only that, experiments in internationalism began. What do you mean by experiments, very simple, countries met at international level to discuss peace, to discuss progress, to discuss development which was never the case earlier. Earlier the countries only knew to fight. But after the Age of Conflicts, countries realized that fighting each other doesn’t give much, let us work with each other and contribute for the development of this world.

But as we are aware, every coin has got two sides. If there are positive dimensions, of course, there will be certain negative dimensions also, right. Experiments in internationalism, for example League of Nations was formed in 1920, United Nations Organization was formed in 1945. Now, my dear friends, every coin has two sides, if there are certain positive dimensions there will be certain negative dimensions also. Use of destructive weapons happened in the 20^th century. Atoms bombs were thrown in Japan at Hiroshima Nagasaki. Generations were destroyed together, right. Rise of dictatorship, one of the most cruel forms of government, where a person or a party decides to run a country by their own terms, just or unjust, which causes a lot of trouble for people, right. Rise of dictatorship, Nazism came about. Nazism was nothing but an ideology founded by the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler in Germany. Similarly there was Fascism, fascism was nothing but the ideology of the Fascist Party started by a person called as Benito Mussolini in Italy. So if you noticed dictators came up in the world, Germany saw dictatorship, Italy saw dictatorship. Things were looking very bad and all these dictatorships led to what? They led to a lot of conflicts. Lives were destroyed, properties were destroyed and eventually a whole loss to the entire world. So these were the positive and negative dimensions of the war.

Now when I talk about the First World War, or when I talk about any war, usually a few questions pop up to our mind. What are these questions that pop up?

First question is, when did the war happen? The First World War happened from 1914 to 1918.

Second question is, where did the war happen? See World War means happens across the world, but what was the epicentre, what was the central point, the central point was Europe, that is where it all started, it originated, right.

Next question is between whom did the war happen? Originally two groups were formed that is FER – GIA. FER represents France, England and Russia, right. So as you can see on the map, France, England and Russia, these were three countries which were in one team, versus we had Germany, Italy and Austria. This is how it all began, these two groups were supposed to fight each other initially. So remember FERGIA, France England, Russia known as Allied Powers and Germany, Italy, Austria known as Central Powers.

And the most important question, why did the war happen? And that is where we will be studying the causes of World War I.