Axis and Allied Leaders of WW2 Documentary

[Music] before we begin many thanks to our sponsor squarespace the innovative easy to use website builder that allows you to design and launch your own web pages we'll tell you more later on in the video the man known to history as winston churchill was born at blenheim palace in the county of oxfordshire england on the 30th of november 1874. his father randolph churchill had been the conservative member of parliament for woodstock oxfordshire since 1874 when he succeeded his own father john spencer churchill the seventh duke of monbra after he entered the house of lords winston's mother jenny churchill was american her family's wealth coming from success in finance although despite their wealth and connections both randolph and jenny were often in debt and had money worries which was a problem that would become all too familiar to winston later in his life in 1876 the family moved to ireland after winston's grandfather was made viceroy and three years later jenny gave birth to winston's brother jack which sparked rumors regarding his paternity as randolph and jenny did not have a close relationship indeed winston's relationship with his parents was also distant largely due to it being common in the english aristocracy at the time for children to be raised by nannies and winston was particularly devoted to his own nanny elizabeth and everest who he called womany when he was seven winston was sent to a boarding school at st george's in ascot berkshire where he gained a reputation as an unruly pupil and did poorly academically and after a spate of ill health he was moved to the brunswick school near hove in east sussex at this time winston's father randolph was considered to be one of britain's foremost politicians who had reached the peak of his career in 1886 when he was mate chancellor of the exchequer however randolph was renowned for being outspoken and often failed to gain the support of his fellow cabinet members in seeking cuts in public expenditure particularly the military he then only after four months as chancellor handed in his resignation calculating that he was too important a figure for the conservative government to lose but this gamble then backfired in spectacular fashion when the then prime minister lord salisbury accepted his resignation meaning that randolph's career was effectively over in contrast winston's performance at school had improved by this time which then resulted in him narrowly passing his exams in 1888 after which he began studying at one of the best public schools in england harrow his father was determined that winston would pursue a career in the military and after finishing his education churchill tried twice and failed to gain entry to the royal military college in sandhurst but on the third attempt he was accepted and after a year of training graduated as a cadet however winston's pride at doing well at sandhurst was short-lived as in january of 1895 his father randolph died of syphilis which no doubt was a result of his extramarital liaisons and for some time afterwards randolph's cause of death was kept from winston in february 1895 churchill was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the fourth hazard's cavalry regiment of the british army and he then later that year traveled to the caribbean where he fought on the side of the spanish army against cuban nationalists in their war for independence after this churchill made the first of his many visits to the united states where he spent time in new york amongst other cities and it is fair to assume that this journey combined with winston's american heritage did much to form his lasting affection and admiration for his mother's homeland after returning from north america churchill was posted to india in october of 1896 and a year later in 1897 managed with the support of his mother to join the malikan field force as a correspondent and saw combat against the mamand rebels which he reported on in the british daily telegraph after leaving india churchill wrote a book of his experiences which gained positive reviews and he then using his greater notoriety managed to gain a place on herbert kitchener's expedition to the sudan to take on abdullah bin muhammad who had established an islamic caliphate in the country abhin muhammad had previously been one of the right hand men of muhammad the self-proclaimed mahdi or guided one who according to islamic prophecy was supposed to rid the world of evil and along with jesus defeat the false messiah or antichrist the mahdi had started his islamic uprising in the sudan in 1881 and initially led a successful campaign in the region even defeating a british-led egyptian army at the battle of cheycan in november 1883. this prompted the british liberal government who deemed the country not to be worth fighting for to send major general charles gordon to the sudanese capital of khartoum to evacuate egyptian civilian personnel but gordon on arrival decided to fortify the city as the mahdi's army had cut off river traffic on the river nile to the north making an evacuation impossible khartoum then fell to the mahdi in january of 1885 after a 10-month siege and gordon who was by this time a hero in britain was killed in the fighting and beheaded however the mahdi himself also died soon afterwards of typhus and was replaced by abdullah bin muhammad who ruled over the sudan until 1896 when the british fearing a french invasion of the country sent the previously mentioned invasion force to defeat the islamists once and for all kitchener's army then journeyed down the nile and defeated abim muhammad's forces at the battle of omdahman and winston a few days after the battle was involved in a cavalry charge against the remnants of muhammad's forces afterwards churchill wrote his account of the conflict entitled the river war in which he criticized kitchener's handling of the campaign indeed churchill would become a prolific writer during his lifetime eventually publishing over two dozen books with each often consisting of several volumes after returning home winston sailed to south africa to take part in the boer war and was after being involved in several engagements captured when the troop train he was traveling on was derailed during an ambush churchill was then sent to a prisoner of war camp near pretoria but managed to escape by climbing over the perimeter fence surrounding the camp and after being sheltered by sympathetic locals succeeded in sneaking aboard a freight train heading to neutral portuguese east africa his escapades during this period attracted a great deal of public attention as well as praise in the british press as the boers had started a large-scale manhunt for him therefore his successful escape was seen as a propaganda victory instead of sailing home and reaping the benefits of his newly found acclaim churchill sailed to durban and was appointed as a lieutenant in the south african light horse before joining redford's buller's attempt to relieve the siege of the small town of ladysmith in the natal region of south africa the town had been under siege by a force of some 20 000 bores for over three months and supplies were getting scarce with the troops being forced to survive on horses and oxen meat finally after repeated attempts to break the boar's stranglehold buller's force broke through the enemy lines and lady smith was relieved with churchill being amongst the first troops to enter the town winston then arrived back in england six months later and sought to use the fame and notoriety he had earned on his travels to help him emulate his father randolph by embarking on a career in politics he then stood for office as the conservative candidate in the constituency of oldham greater manchester in 1900 winning by a slender margin and afterwards embarked on a speaking tour of britain and the united states in which he gave lectures on his experiences in the boer war churchill then after returning home threw himself into politics with the same vigor or rashness as he had exercised in his military career by making controversial speeches over the next two years in which he attacked the conservative government of which he was a member in these speeches winston continually criticized the prime minister arthur balfour and his cabinet for their policies on free trade restrictions and excessive military expenditure and over the coming years continually voted against his own party which inevitably resulted in him forming close political ties with the opposition liberals this disobedience eventually culminated in churchill crossing the floor and joining the liberal party in 1904 which resulted in his de-selection as a member of parliament for oldham but this gamble eventually paid off a little over a year later when the liberals came to power in 1906 winston was elected to be a member of parliament for manchester north west instead churchill was then given the position of under secretary of state for the commonwealth office and worked to ease the continuing tensions in south africa between british immigrants the boers and the native population winston then embarked on a european and african holiday in 1906 in which he progressed across france and germany at one point meeting kaiser wilhelm before traveling through italy and on to africa and kenya where he went game hunting in 1908 winston who was now president of the board of trade lost his seat in manchester and was instead given a safer seat at dundee in scotland after which he played an important role in the instigation of labor exchanges and unemployment insurance which after a fierce struggle were approved in 1910 along with a myriad of other progressive liberal reforms such as the old age pensions act of 1908 indeed it is fair to say that churchill's political views were complex in the extreme as he supported trade unions and welfare programs early in his political career but later on the other hand argued for the preservation of britain's empire in short churchill was a complex character politically as he evidently had some socialist liberal and conservative views which can perhaps explain his changing allegiances during his career in parliament in 1908 winston married clementine hozier who would come to play a crucial role in his success in life and it is entirely possible that without clementine winston would not have been able to achieve the things he did in his career or recover from his regular bouts of depression which he referred to as his black dog in 1910 churchill despite still being relatively young was appointed home secretary and attracted controversy on various incidents such as the cambrian collary dispute his opposition to the suffragette movement and the infamous siege of sydney street in which two latvian revolutionaries were cornered after committing a number of robberies and murders in greater london during which churchill took control of the incident in person which drew much criticism in the press in 1911 churchill was appointed to be first lord of the admiralty placing him in charge of britain's royal navy which was then the most powerful on earth however this maritime supremacy was beginning to become fragile at this time as a host of nations around the globe were building scores of powerful warships the decade before world war one had seen britain and germany in a naval arms race and winston was now tasked with overseeing the construction of a number of new battleships including the queen elizabeth class which were the fastest and most powerful ships ever launched by the royal navy at this time after the outbreak of world war one and the stalemate of trench warfare on the western front the decision was made to attempt to knock germany's ally turkey out of the war by seizing control of the land surrounding the dardanelles which controlled the western approaches from the mediterranean sea to the turkish capital of constantinople and the black sea beyond a combined british and french naval task force then set sail to capture the dardanelles in early 1915 which ended in disaster after the allied force failed to capture its objectives in the face of stubborn turkish resistance this in turn resulted in a 10-month battle of attrition which only ended with the humiliating withdrawal of the allied forces from the dardanelles in which they lost some 300 000 men dead or wounded churchill who as first lord of the admiralty have been one of the operation's prime advocates was demoted in the aftermath of the campaign as he was largely blamed for the expedition's defeat and the massive loss of life that resulted this was a devastating blow for winston as the gallipoli campaign as it is now known stained his reputation for decades and would almost certainly have ended the careers of less determined or driven men in an effort to redeem himself churchill then volunteered to rejoin the army and was posted to the western front in early 1916 as a manger with the grenadier guards and later a lieutenant colonel with the royal scots fusiliers with whom he saw combat on numerous occasions and was much respected by the troops under his command few if any could question winston's bravery but lloyd george who became britain's prime minister in december of 1916 questioned if churchill cared more about his own reputation and career than the fate of the country and this nagging doubt about churchill's motivations would remain in the minds of many of his detractors for years to come winston then returned to parliament in the spring of 1916 and for the remainder of the war held important positions within the coalition government including minister for munitions secretary of state for war and secretary of state for air an interesting fact about churchill is that he was instrumental in the development of the tank which would prove crucial in breaking the stalemate on the western front in the latter stages of the conflict and it could be said that he played an important role in securing victory in both world wars after the armistice of 1918 whilst at the war office winston had a hand in the failed attempt to intervene in the russian civil war against the bolsheviks and after being appointed secretary of state for the colonies in 1921 was also involved in the instigation of the anglo-irish treaty which made southern ireland an independent nation and started the gradual disintegration of the british empire then in the 1922 election winston lost his seat in dundee largely due to him recovering from an appendix removal after which he drifted away from the liberals but became a vocal critic of the new labour government churchill had by the early twenties begun to once again associate himself with the conservative party and after winning a seat in parliament for the constituency of epping was appointed by the new prime minister stanley baldwin to the post of chancellor of the exchequer in 1924 which prompted him to then rejoin the conservatives however churchill's tenure as chancellor was not that much more successful than his late fathers largely due to his disastrous policy of bringing britain back into the gold standard this was a form of account that fixed the price of money to that of the gold supply and churchill later admitted this was a mistake as deflation of the pound ensued and public spending was limited to the gold supply meaning that in the coming great depression the government had restricted cash flow with which to stop the banks from collapsing and stimulate the economy it should be noted also that churchill was a deeply unpopular figure in many ordinary people's eyes at this time as they saw him as a war monger career politician and political code whose decision to rejoin the gold standard had consigned an entire generation into abject poverty the conservatives were then soundly defeated in the general election of 1929 which resulted in churchill being sidelined within the party largely due to his unpopular opposition to indian home rule his actions regarding the gold standard and his seemingly ever-changing allegiances this in turn led to his decade-long wilderness years in which winston retreated from politics and focused on writing and his painting which he in large part undertook to ease his sense of failure and depression this culminated in him writing a three-volume biography of his ancestor john churchill the first duke of marlborough who had defeated the armies of louis xiv of france during various battles such as blenheim during the war of the spanish succession in the early 18th century indeed churchill was a great expert on marlborough and there is a body of opinion that states his excellent grasp of history enabled him to see the parallels between louis xiv and adolf hitler both of whom sought to dominate europe and persecute religious minorities by this time in the early 1930s hitler was chancellor of germany and was rearming the country at breakneck speed which prompted winston to make speeches and write articles warning of the possible threat that nazi germany posed he was aided in this by ralph wiggram an official in the foreign office who along with many other contacts had been passing intelligence on germany's rearman to churchill which gave his speeches and columns a lot more weight and in turn for stanley baldwin's government who returned to power in 1935 to take notice however churchill was still largely ignored in britain as many people throughout the country and world didn't want to contemplate the possibility of another european conflict but these people were soon shaken out of their complacency as by the late 1930s it all became too evident that hitler was intent on aggressive expansion and as the likelihood of war increased churchill was steadily accepted back into the mainstream of british politics two days after world war ii broke out in september churchill was reappointed as first lord of the admiralty but again concerns over his judgment were raised after his plans to stop german iron ore shipments from norway by raiding the port of narvik in april of 1940 resulted in failure after hitler invaded the country despite this operation being of churchill's design and it having worrying similarities with the gallipoli disaster britain's prime minister newell chamberlain who had consistently tried and failed to prevent an outbreak of war was forced to resign after the labour party made it clear it would not form a coalition government under his leadership the choice of replacement was now between churchill and lord halifax who did not want the position therefore chamberlain then on the evening of the 10th of may 1940 made the short journey from 10 downing street to buckingham palace to tender his resignation after which he recommended that king george vi should invite churchill to form a government winston churchill was now the prime minister of great britain however he had ascended to the post in the midst of the most critical and dangerous crisis since the first world war and the fate of the country was now firmly on his shoulders he was then thrown right into the deep end from day one of his premiership as the very same day he became prime minister germany invaded holland belgium and france resulting in the military disaster that was the fall of western europe winston spent these desperate weeks traveling to and from the continent in the hope of keeping the french in the fight but as its armies had all but collapsed in the face of the german advance churchill along with his commanders resolved to commit no more resources to the defense of britain's ally and instead decided to evacuate the british expeditionary force from france before it was annihilated by hitler's panzers and the luftwaffe this resulted with the aid of civilian craft as well as the royal navy in over 300 000 allied troops being rescued from dunkirk meaning that britain still had an army capable of putting up a fight in the event of a german invasion and later resisting the italian and german incursions into north africa churchill now set about silencing the voices within his own government particularly lord halifax who were arguing for peace negotiations to begin with hitler and after doing so began the mammoth task of reorganizing the country's defenses for the inevitable onslaught after the surrender of france the north of the country was occupied by hitler's armies and the vassalized south remained under the control of philippe patan with its capital being in the french city of vichy however even though france itself had been dismembered the country still had an empire and along with it a large war fleet based in the north african colony of algeria but with vichy france effectively now being under german control churchill decided that britain could not risk the french fleet falling into german hands and ordered a naval task force to set sail into the mediterranean in order to end the threat one way or another then on the 3rd of july 1940 the british fleet arrived off the coast of algeria and demanded the french hand over their battleships but they refused and the british then opened fire on their former allies sinking one of the french battleships damaging two others and killing some 1 300 sailors this was seen as treachery in france and is still seen by many in the country today to be a war crime however from britain and churchill's perspective the danger of the french fleet falling into german hands was too large to ignore and although ruthless its sinking was essential to ensure britain's naval supremacy in the mediterranean hitler's planned invasion of britain then commenced in july 1940 with mass air attacks on ground targets and radar installations across southern england which were designed to [ __ ] the country's air defenses and facilitate a cross-channel invasion however britain was well prepared for the german luftwaffe as it had pioneered the world's first air defense network which is known today as the dowding system after the head of raf fighter command hugh dowding this involved radar stations along england's south coast being linked to via landlines to fighter command headquarters a bentley priory in north west london which along with the royal observer corps enabled the british to build a live strategic overview of all inbound enemy air activity and thusly send the required numbers of fighters to intercept them this system was far more than the british hawker hurricane and supermarine spitfire responsible for the eventual wearing down of german resistance in the battle of britain as without it the raf would only have been able to defend the country's skies by means of random patrols over the coming months the raf and the luftwaffe engaged in aerial combat above the skies of britain with massive losses on both sides until by the end of the summer the raf was on its knees however on the 25th of august 1940 raf bombers hampered by heavy cloud cover over berlin dropped their payloads on residential areas which in turn prompted hitler to undertake reprisal bombing raids across london in what we know today as the blitz this change in strategy effectively saved britain from any possible invasion as the luftwaffe now concentrated its efforts on bombing london instead of destroying the raf which quickly regrouped and strengthened its numbers of pilots and aircraft over the coming months during the battle of britain and the blitz on london churchill rallied the populace with some of the most famous speeches ever broadcast which helped the british people realize the gravity of the threat which faced them and also helped them strengthen their resolve to carry on the fight indeed winston's rallying of the british population was particularly crucial as the country was now alone against nazi germany and as its navy was scattered throughout the world and imperial japan was now threatening military expansion of its own things were desperate in the extreme the war situation was then further complicated when the italian fascist dictator benito mussolini thinking britain was too weak to oppose him ordered the invasion of british-controlled egypt in september 1940 via italian libya this invasion was soon crushed however by british counter-attacks which forced the italians back towards tunisia and in turn prompted hitler who feared a british victory would secure their dominance of the mediterranean to send general erwin rommel and the africa corps to intervene one of the few options that still lay open to britain was to seek the assistance of the united states and churchill being half american on his mother's side had long enjoyed good relations within the country and in particular with its president franklin d roosevelt the two men had much in common with one another as they shared a love of the navy and had been exchanging correspondence and gifts for some years including winston giving roosevelt a signed copy of his biography of the duke of marlborough during the 1930s this relationship was perhaps one of the most important factors in the eventual victory over the axis powers as britain could simply not hope to defeat germany japan and italy alone and desperately needed assistance and supplies despite many within the united states particularly those of irish descent understandably hating the british roosevelt after careful and protracted lobbying secured enough support to assist britain resulting in the system of aid which is known today as lend lease this was a programme which involved the united states supplying britain free france china and later the soviet union with food and war materials in return for gold money and access to naval bases throughout the globe this was crucial in keeping britain which by now was a shrinking world power in the conflict and without it it is almost certain the country would have had to secure peace terms with the axis powers in 1941 it should not be forgotten also that churchill was instrumental in securing the backing of the united states and roosevelt indeed him securing lend lease was arguably one of his most important achievements as without it defeat would have been almost certain the battle for north africa was in full swing by this stage a low point coming when the germans captured talbrook in 1942 and afterwards threatened to overrun egypt which would have almost certainly knocked britain out of the war as the suez canal was vital for the flow of supplies between europe and britain's empire not to mention the massive oil reserves in the middle east beyond it churchill also gave the go-ahead for the formation of the world's first special forces units at this time namely the commandos and the special air service or sas which consisted of volunteers who were given intensive extra training and better weaponry than regular troops the commandos were involved in various raids on the continent during world war ii including the brilliant raid on san nazaire in which the only docks in france capable of holding the massive german battleship tirpitz were destroyed the sas on the other hand were formed in north africa and conducted brilliant raids behind enemy lines in the desert destroying hundreds of german aircraft and various installations severely damaging their fighting capability indeed certain generals were against the use of special forces at the time but churchill overruled them seeing their potential to cause havoc behind enemy lines as crucial to the war effort winston would later go on to champion the use of civilian resistance groups on mainland europe which were often directed and supplied by britain's special operations executive or soe which conducted thousands of daring raids across occupied europe during world war ii perhaps the largest threat germany posed to britain after 1940 was its u-boat fleet which through the early to middle stages of the war conducted daring raids on british and allied shipping in the north atlantic and severely hampered britain's war effort sinking millions of tons of supplies in the process there is no doubt that churchill himself considered the u-boat threat to be top priority but over time the british got the upper hand in the battle for the atlantic with the aid of the code breakers at bletchley park including the brilliant alan turing who cracked the german enigma codes which combined with the ever-increasing flow of war materials from america steadily overwhelmed the limited numbers of german u-boats in the meantime hitler had embarked on his massive invasion of the soviet union in the summer of 1941 which quickly became the main focus of his attention as it became clear to both him and the german high command that subduing stalin's russia was not the easy task they had first thought churchill was by this stage regularly undertaking long and dangerous journeys to and from north africa the united states and britain involving hundreds of thousands of air miles and it is no exaggeration that the stress and workload he had undertaken was immense to say the least and took a serious toll on his health however he was soon given what was perhaps the best news of the war from a british perspective that being the attack by imperial japan on the u.s naval base at pearl harbor on the 7th of december 1941 which led to hitler declaring war in the united states himself four days later indeed hitler declaring war in america can be seen as the point where the war was effectively decided as germany could not hope to outproduce both the united states britain and russia in terms of food supplies or manpower therefore the outcome of world war ii was effectively decided as early as the winter of 1941. this was borne out over the coming years as from 1942 onwards the axis power's lack of resources combined with their increasingly overstretched industry resulted in a long process of retreat and defeat for them culminating in the effective collapse of german resistance in russia from 1943 onwards their defeat in north africa and the subsequent invasion of italy along with a gradual liberation of all the japanese territorial gains in the pacific winston had effectively succeeded in his goals by this stage as britain was now the minor partner in the triple alliance between it the united states and the soviet union and the remainder of the conflict would increasingly see both he and britain taking a back seat in all theaters however without churchill keeping britain in the conflict it is almost certain that the invasion of italy and the later d-day landings would never have taken place in turn meaning that stalin's russia would have had to deal with hitler's invasion alone and very possibly collapsed as a result in contrast to this there has been a large amount of criticism of winston churchill in recent years which has been centered on his involvement or lack thereof in trying to alleviate the bengal famine of 1943 which came about after the japanese occupied burma and cut off rice imports to the eastern subcontinent in 1942 churchill and his war cabinet fearing a full-scale japanese invasion of india ordered a scorched earth policy in the region in which thousands of acres of farmland were seized or even destroyed this combined with a series of natural disasters in 1942 including a cyclone in the bay of bengal effectively compounded the increasingly widespread starvation famine which culminated in the deaths of upwards of 3 million people in the region although some say the figure is much higher churchill has largely been blamed for perpetuating and even instigating this famine by indian and progressive historians in recent publications as by this time his disregard for the country and its freedom-seeking populace was no secret indeed some even compare churchill with hitler claiming that he pursued genocidal policies in the subcontinent even labelling him a racist mass murderer on the other hand churchill's defenders claimed that when both he and his war cabinet became fully aware of the scale of the famine on the 24th of september 1943 they diverted a quarter of a million tons of grain to india they also mentioned the fact that the japanese invasion of burma was one of the prime causes of the crisis along with the lack of shipping due to the war along with poor local government misplaced food allocations and natural disasters although churchill's relationship with roosevelt was cordial if not friendly his relationship with stalin was fiery and interspersed with heated arguments this meeting of ideological adversaries was first forged a year after the nazi invasion of russia had started when churchill made the dangerous journey via the middle east to moscow in august of 1942 where the two men held several alcohol-fueled meetings the man of steel had long pressured the british to start a second front in europe to relieve the pressure on the russians but without american help britain simply did not have the manpower to undertake an amphibious landing on the continent churchill had however championed an invasion of italy to start a second front but the americans were in favor of taking the most direct route through france given the hilly terrain of italy which naturally favored defense it has to be said that choosing france as the main focus of attack by the western allies was the correct one as the invasion of italy proved to be a slow and bloody conflict that did little more than tie down several german armies one of the main ways the british had been able to carry the war to the germans have been air raids and by the later stages of the war the raf had accumulated a massive force of bombers mainly consisting of the famous lancaster the british decided earlier in the war due to large losses over germany to conduct knight bombings which was safer for bomber crews but resulted in less accuracy whilst the americans after entering the war mounted large-scale daylight raids after the blitz it became british policy to target german cities and industrial centers in order to wear down hitler's supply chain and with ever increasing air supremacy it wasn't long before many german cities were reduced to rubble perhaps the greatest example of this was in the bombing of dresden in february of 1945 in which over 20 000 people were killed and after the war both the head of the raf bomber command arthur harris and churchill were blamed for the deliberate bombings of civilian targets as many people maintained it was war crime after victory in 1945 churchill was voted out of office as prime minister being replaced by the labour prime minister clement adley however winston refused to be bitter about the defeat despite him leading his country to victory stating that the british people had had a hard time in the following years churchill argued for the creation of the early european union or the united states of europe as he called it thinking it essential in preventing future conflict and regularly gave speeches warning of the threat of the soviet union he then continued as leader of the opposition during the post-war period until the general election 1951 when he once again became prime minister churchill was the first prime minister of queen elizabeth ii's reign and proved to be a guiding influence for her in the early years of being monarch however his second tenure as premier was largely dominated by struggling to deal with britain's reducing role in the world and its withdrawal from empire which was largely due to the country's near exhausted and massively indebted economy by this stage in his life winston had suffered numerous heart attacks and strokes an early example of which occurred as early as 1941 when he had a heart attack whilst visiting president roosevelt at the white house and he also suffered another two years later after a bout of pneumonia in many ways it is remarkable that winston lived to the age he did as by modern standards he was an alcoholic and was rarely to be seen without a drink or one of his famous cuban cigars his second spell as prime minister was then cut short when he suffered a severe and partially paralyzing stroke on the evening of the 23rd of june 1953 which left him bedridden for the next six months after which he returned to his duties however it was clear that churchill was now unable to undertake the role of prime minister and he finally resigned on the 5th of april 1955 handing the reins of government to his deputy anthony eden [Music] now in retirement winston spent much of his time in his home at chartwell in kent with his wife clementine who had been with him through thick and thin since 1908 spending his time painting writing and relaxing abroad loving the south of france in particular his health continued to fail him however and on the morning of the 24th of january 1965 after suffering another severe stroke sir winston churchill died britain and the entire western world was left grieving at his death and there was a widespread feeling that with churchill's passing an era had come to a close [Music] he was then given the great honour of a state funeral before which his lead-lined coffin was taken up the thames by boat passing the london docks where cranes were lowered in his honor before being taken to saint paul's through the streets lined with tens of thousands of grieving people he was then taken by train to woodstock oxfordshire and laid to rest in the churchill family cemetery at the church of saint martins in the village of bladen less than a few miles from his birthplace at blenheim palace sir winston churchill is today widely regarded as one of britain's greatest prime ministers despite his faults and mistakes both personal and professional there is no doubt that without his resolve bravery and fortitude victory over the axis powers and hitler's germany in particular would have been next to impossible his key contributions to the allied war effort was keeping britain in the war which ultimately enabled d-day to happen and there is also a body of opinion which states that without britain's arctic convoys to the soviet union from 1941 onwards stalin's russia may have also collapsed under the german onslaught some claim that churchill was a warmonger and placed his own personal ambitions above the needs of his country whilst others state that in india he is responsible for war crimes particularly in the bengal famine [Music] to the majority of people however particularly in the west sir winston churchill remains a hero as without his insistence in continuing the fight against hitler's germany western europe russia and possibly the entire world would have fallen to nazi germany and imperial japan [Music] what do you think of winston churchill was he a war hero or a war criminal let us know in the comments section and until next time thank you very much for watching before we continue a quick word from our sponsor squarespace the market leader in web page design squarespace gives you the tools you need to produce a stylish professional website your content it's easy to navigate interface and helpful templates allow you to customize your online presence as you wish you can merchandise your products using the commerce section and management tools and checkout options put you in control of your own personal business website choose your domain name design your website and at checkout head to squarespace.com the people profiles and add promo code the people profiles for 10 percent off your first purchase of your own website domain [Music] the man known to history as hideki tojo was born on the 30th of december 1884 in the japanese capital of tokyo his father hironori tojo whose ancestors came from the noble samurai cast was a lieutenant general in the imperial japanese army and served in various conflicts during his career such as the satsuma rebellion of 1877 when the japanese army crushed an uprising of disaffected samurai as well as the sino-japanese war and the russo-japanese war the former of which he helped to write a history of before retiring in 1907. hideki's mother chitosei tojo was the daughter of a buddhist priest which combined with her husband's profession as a soldier made the family socially respectable and as well as hideki chitose also parented two other sons with hiddenori of which hideki was the youngest young tojo was born at the dawn of one of the most transformative periods in japanese history as the country had from the beginning of the 17th century been ruled by a military government named the tokugawa shogunate that was ruled by a de facto dictator known as the shogun in an era that is now referred to as the edo or tokugawa period the shoguns had ruled japan since the 12th century when they effectively replaced japan's emperors as rulers of the country and in the centuries since various feudal lords known as daimyos vied with one another for the title of shogun in a number of bloody wars most notably during the sengoku zidai period that ended with the establishment of the tokugawa shogunate and the beginning of the edo period in 1603 the edo period itself saw japan adopt a strict isolationist foreign policy whereby all overseas influences were prohibited and restricted and as well as this the government demanded that its population adhere to traditional japanese ways of life but despite this the japanese economy experienced steady growth during this time and japanese art and culture were encouraged and as a result flourished however this period of isolationism and tradition effectively turned japan into a time capsule and when by the 19th century it was evident that the country lagged way behind countries such as the united states russia and great britain to name but a few the then shogun tokugawa iyamachi opened up japan to western trade these policies were met with fierce resistance from the country's traditionalist daimyos and samurai particularly those in such regions as satsuma and choshu in the south of japan who were known as shishi meaning men of high purpose who then rose up against the takagawa shogunate after the then japanese emperor komei ordered the expulsion of all europeans in 1863 these uprisings came to nothing however as iumachi maintained his control over japan's government and then seeing that an overthrow of power was impossible the shishi then sought to combine traditional japanese culture with western technologies and after embracing this new philosophy both satsuma and choshu now armed with western weaponry formed a pact that is now known as the sacho alliance that drove back the shogun's forces in 1866 that eventually forced the new shogun takagawa yoshinobu to resign although he for a time retained a degree of power and influence despite this victory both satsuma and choshu then demanded a full restoration of the emperor to power and enraged by this the armies of tokugawa and the sacho alliance then fought one another in the boshin war from 1868 to 1869 in which the tokugawa shogunate was ultimately defeated and the emperor meiji was restored to power and afterwards moved his seat of government to edo which was renamed tokyo and then seized the lands and holdings of the japanese daimyos that effectively centralized power are marked the beginning of the empire of japan this meiji restoration of 1868 was one of the most important events in the history of japan and although emperor meiji had been restored as ruler as he was still a boy real power now lay in the hands of samurai who over the coming years sought to transform japan into a modern nation by trading with the western powers such as france russia the united states and britain these new trade networks sparked a revolutionary metamorphosis within japan as it quickly changed from insular feudal state into a modern world power in a matter of decades and its military that had formerly been comprised of armies of professional samurai under the command of regional daimyos was over time replaced with a conscripted peasant army of rifle armed soldiers that were under the direct control of the country's centralized government this perhaps inevitably caused resentment among japan's traditionalist samurai who thought the country was changing for the worse and so it wasn't long before uprisings broke out such as the satsuma rebellion of 1877 that was led by saigo takamori who after leading a valiant campaign against the modern imperial army was finally killed in the battle of shiroyama on the 24th of september 1877 in which he led his army of 500 samurai against an army of 30 000 government troops earning him the posthumous title of the last true samurai the satsuma rebellion also marked the end of the feudal era of japan however the sheer heroism and warrior spirit saigo takamori showed during the uprising soon elevated him to near legendary status within japan until he was later posthumously pardoned by emperor meiji in 1889 and as the sun set on the 19th century many within the country began to question the wisdom of abandoning traditional japanese values in favour of western culture this traditional sentiment then began to manifest itself over the coming decades as the influence of the samurai as well as the bushido itself re-emerged within the japanese national consciousness as well as powerful lobbies within the country who sought to turn it into a militaristic state whose primary goal was excellence in warfare by twisting and changing the samurai warrior code to suit the nationalistic political ends bushido which is formed from the two words bushi meaning warrior and do meaning the way or path describes a moral code of conduct that encompasses frugality loyalty to one's lord and the emperor martial skill in battle and honor until as well as during death that was used by those who we today refer to as samurai although in japan itself these legendary warriors are simply known as bushi immediately after the meiji restoration at least japan's new centralized government as well as its military had no need of the customs of the past and over the next decade the country embarked on a period of territorial expansion as it occupied the ryuku islands south of japan in 1879 that included okinawa and then in the 1890s seized control over korea as well as taiwan after the first sino-japanese war in which the modern japanese army soundly defeated the chinese in the korean peninsula this expansion marked the beginning of an increase in the japanese sphere of influence in east asia that would in time bring it into direct competition with the western powers who ironically had helped the country to modernize over the preceding decade as well as japan's newfound military prominence after the emperor's restoration the meiji constitution was proclaimed in 1889 that established the new system of governance in which the emperor was the supreme leader under whom a cabinet of ministers headed by a prime minister was created to form and enact policies all of whom were in turn appointed on the advice from an unelected privy council that advised the emperor who could ratify or reject any policy he wished despite the fact that the emperor was head of state and had the final say in all affairs of state the japanese monarch increasingly took a back seat in the governance of the country while the prime minister ran the government and as the cabinet and prime minister did not have to be elected the constitution was open to interference and manipulation as if a certain political group seized control over the privy council that appointed the prime minister and cabinet they would not only effectively control the emperor but also prevent any other political group from entering government as well as this the constitution also allowed the creation of a house of peers and a house of representatives the former of which was made of the country's nobility who by and large held their positions for life whilst in contrast the latter was made up of representatives who were elected by the wealthiest one percent of the japanese population which was an electorate that was only widened with the introduction of universal male suffrage in 1925 whereas women were not allowed to vote in japan until after world war ii both of these houses had the right to put forward legislation however legislation from the house of representatives had to be passed by the house of peers the country's cabinet prime minister and emperor before coming into law and as the cabinet and prime minister of japan were entirely independent of the houses of peers and representatives being appointed by the emperor and his advisors the houses in effect had little say over the direction of the country it was this system which given japan's increasing revenants and adherence to military tradition eventually allowed powerful militarists to take control of the japanese government largely because each of the emperor's cabinet ministers and their departments were only accountable to the monarch that would in time cause conflict and even violence at the top of the japanese state as vying factions particularly within the military would fight with one another for control of the emperor's privy council which in time led to career soldiers such as hideki tojo being promoted to lead the japanese nation as descendants of samurai the tojo family still retained a degree of prestige during this period and it was because of this combined with the new meiji education system prioritizing military training for young boys the young hideki was schooled in the art of warfare from an early age where he and his classmates would undergo military-style drills and were taught above all that war was the most noble of arts and that the emperor was an earthbound god whose will must be obeyed above all else it is therefore perhaps no surprise that this strict and traditional system of education shaped young hideki into a stern humorless child who was extremely confident in his opinions as he would regularly get into fights with his classmates as after all prowess in the martial arts was to be admired and encouraged because there was no place in the meiji system of education for weaklings or cowards as well as this it is said of tojo that he was an incredibly hard worker despite him showing average intelligence and later in his life hideki would often state that i'm just an ordinary man possessing no shining talents anything i have achieved i owe to my capacity for hard work and never giving up after completing his early education tojo in 1899 aged 15 entered army cadet school where he would for the next seven years be inculcated in the methods and doctrines of the imperial japanese army's officer corps in which young men were trained to almost spartan levels of discipline self-control and willpower they were designed to produce men who knew no fear and would obey any order without question hideki seems to have been ideally suited to this strict regime as he was not creative or imaginative but instead possessed a great capacity for hard work and self-discipline that saw him advance rapidly through cadet school and on into the army itself where he soon became renowned for his eye for detail and methodical nature at the time of tojo's graduation into the japanese army the country was emerging victorious from the russo-japanese war of 1904 to 1905 that had seen the land of the rising sun win what was formerly russian territory on mainland china despite emerging from the conflict as victors the widespread sentiment across the country was that japan had been betrayed and forced into an unsatisfactory peace by the american president theodore roosevelt in the treaty of portsmouth which was a u.s shipyard in maine where the peace agreement had been ratified the reason for this nationwide outrage within japan was that one of the top priorities of the war had been to seize portions of siberia from russia thusly the country being rewarded with a small parcel of land on a chinese peninsula was seen as unsatisfactory due to the meddling of the u.s president which ignited a long-standing hatred and mistrust of the americans across japan and within hideki tojo himself further resentment against america within japan was brought to the surface in 1924 when the united states congress passed the asian exclusion act that prevented all asians from settling within the united states prompting tojo to write at the time that asians would never be seen as equals within america and that the people of japan would need to be strong to secure their place in the world in 1909 tojo was married to katsuko ito whom he would go on to parent three sons and four daughters with and would bring up in the same fastidious manner that he had experienced during his own childhood evidence for which can be found in the fact that when his offspring were ill both hideki and his wife would keep detailed diaries on the children's condition in which temperature dietary intake and bowel movements were all recorded in detail after a short period with the japanese army in siberia aiding its intervention in the russian civil war tojo now a captain was sent for further training to germany in 1919 as the two nations had enjoyed close ties despite the fact japan fought on the side of the allies during world war one and after the conflict gained possession of a number of german islands in the pacific ocean as well as the shang dong region on the eastern coast of china that was given back to the chinese in 1922 under the supervision of the united states which caused yet more distrust and anger across japan whilst in germany tojo became acquainted with the country's military practices and despite the fact his armed forces had been greatly reduced as a consequence of the versailles treaty he would later claim to have been impressed by the german population's courage but above all remarked that the discipline and sheer quality of the officer corps of the german army was something that japan should seek to emulate during the fallout from the armistice of world war one japan became a member of the league of nations which was founded in january of 1920 and have been formed by the american president woodrow wilson in an effort to secure peace for future generations by means of an international body that was designed to police the world and mediate in disputes during the formation of the league of nations japan had asked that all races be treated as equals however this move was rejected by the other major powers particularly those with empires as the move would have inevitably resulted in countries such as france and britain being forced to treat their colonial subjects as equal citizens which at the time was unthinkable to them shortly afterwards in 1922 the washington naval treaty was formally agreed between britain france the united states italy and japan that restricted the number of capital ships or battleships each nation could construct over the coming years that was designed to prevent the kind of naval arms race that had been seen in the lead up to world war one this treaty was controversial to say the least within the japanese government and military as both had previously planned to build a fleet 70 percent the size of the american navy which was the minimum number that was deemed necessary to defeat the americans who the japanese now saw as their main rival in the pacific theater the reason for this large fleet being seen as necessary was that military planners within japan correctly saw that america would be able to build more ships at a faster pace than the japanese in the event of an outbreak of hostilities therefore it was agreed that having as large a navy as possible at the outbreak of war was desirable as japan's only hope of victory would lie in delivering a speedy knockout blow against the united states pacific fleet before its atlantic fleet could reinforce it this strategy effectively remained unchanged for the next 20 years as in the lead lead-up to world war ii japan would employ this plan in the hope of gaining a speedy naval victory over the united states but in the meantime and despite the resistance of the japanese navy the washington naval conference convened with all signatories agreeing to limit the tonnage and number of their battleships battle cruisers and aircraft carriers before returning home in 1922 tojo crossed the atlantic to the united states and embarked on a cross-country rail journey from east to west to form the basis of his first and last visit to america and after returning home he stated that he thought americans to be soft selfish people who were far more interested in wine women and song than the more disciplined japanese populace the early 1920s marked the period in japanese history where the country's military began to hold greater sway over the land of the rising sun which in part caused a severe downturn in the country's economy that was in turn compounded by it suffering a colossal natural disaster in 1923 in the shape of the kanto earthquake near tokyo that measured 7.9 on the richter scale which killed nearly 150 000 people and in the aftermath martial law was declared as looting rioting and massacres of korean immigrants took place across the country this hostility against immigrants was in large part due to korean dissidents who had been undertaking terrorist acts across the country therefore in response the japanese government enacted security measures including an increase in the country's internal security forces the most notable and infamous of which was the kempei who were the military police within the army but also acted as the secret police within japan itself as well as its occupied territories in 1926 the japanese emperor yoshihito the son of emperor meiji died and was replaced by his young and timid son the 124th emperor hirohito who would largely due to his inexperience increasingly come under the influence of the now powerful militarists within the japanese government particularly factions within the army and navy through the country's ministry of war that was only accountable to the emperor himself and had held a veto over all policy decisions within japan since the turn of the century in 1928 together was promoted to the rank of colonel and placed in command of the first infantry regiment of the imperial army and during this period he earned the respect and admiration of those under him as he fostered close relations with his subordinate officers and became well respected for his organizational skills as well as his insistence in the adoption of strict discipline that then in 1934 gained him another promotion to the rank of major general of the army ministry which was the conduit between the army and the government during this period tojo helped to write a book with other high-ranking japanese officers named essays in a time of national emergency in which hideki and his peers called for the establishment of a national defensive state and also argued that japanese soldiers were better than those of other nations such as russia because they were the superior race of warriors japan's government because of the flaws in the meiji constitution have been since the beginning of the 20th century in an almost constant state of flux or upheaval that saw the country between 1900 and the outbreak of war in 1941 being led by a staggering 30 prime ministers of various parties and factions but until 1932 the growing influence of the militarists within the upper echelons of the japanese state had been kept in check however since the signing of the washington naval treaty and economic upheaval of the recession of the 1920s combined with the great depression of the early 1930s the nationalists and the militarists have been calling and plotting to overthrow the civilian government and install a military dictatorship that culminated in the eventual assassination in 1932 of the country's then civilian prime minister inukai to yoshi who was shot dead by a number of young navy officers who were due to popular support across the country given incredibly light sentences over time this militaristic lobby within japan of which tojo was a part began to exploit and enhance this growing nationalistic sentiment by drawing on japan's ancient warrior culture including the samurai as well as bushido and twisting it into a propaganda tool that was used to foster a greater sense of national identity and militaristic zeal in order to transform the country into a state that was geared to military conquest in the meantime the far-reaching consequences of adopting and incorporating or twisting elements of bushido into the japanese armed forces were seen as entirely necessary and logical during the early 1930s as although japan could not compete with its rivals in terms of industrial output it could compete in the quality of its soldiers or rather in its soldiers unflinching obedience and fearlessness in the face of japan's enemies that in a short period of time there would be plenty of a large part of the resentment the growing militaristic lobby within japan held towards the west was its perception that japan had time and time again been prevented from expanding its territories and creating its own eastern empire which many within the country felt was the right and destiny of the land of the rising sun and as well as this there were pragmatic strategic reasons for colonial expansion as the japanese home islands lacked vital commodities such as oil natural gas coal iron copper and rubber to name but a few these aspirations for territory and resources that were meant to help propel japan into a first-rate world power inevitably caused friction with other countries such as france america and great britain who all had overseas colonies in east asia and the pacific and naturally were wary of any potential challenge to their lucrative trade networks especially from a country like japan that had the potential to rival them militarily this suspicion and resistance naturally angered the japanese who increasingly determined to ignore and pursue their own foreign policies in asia regardless of the opinions of the western powers and regardless of what their reactions might be this seemingly irresistible push towards the creation of a japanese empire perhaps inevitably resulted in the country turning its attention to its neighbor china or rather manchuria that japan had been leased portions of after the russo-japanese war in 1905 that included the rights of the operation of the south manchurian branch of the chinese eastern railway that extended over the border of the japanese-held territory into china itself this in short meant the japanese troops were policing sections of the railway network within eastern china and during this time there were numerous reports of japanese troops conducting raids on chinese villages in the area which was a symptom of an increasingly aggressive mindset that was now widespread within the japanese army as many of its officers believe that invasion of manchuria should be undertaken as soon as possible especially as there were fears that soviet russia could annex the northern chinese territory instead therefore in 1931 a decision was taken by the commanders of the japanese army in manchuria in defiance of the civilian government in tokyo to fake a sabotage attack on the railway by chinese dissidents in order to force a reactionary invasion of manchuria and therefore after the explosives were planted near a section of the railway by army sappers on the 18th of september 1931 they were detonated and even though the explosives caused little to no damage the japanese army had fabricated the justification for war it needed in what is now known as the mukden incident and over the coming weeks imperial forces proceeded to occupy the whole of manchuria this largely independent action by a japanese army of occupation goes to illustrate the considerable power and influence the country's armed forces had gained by the early 1930s and perhaps emboldened by the successes combined with a near total lack of effective resistance both from within and without japan further plans for militaristic expansion were put into place over the coming years however japan's invasion of manchuria led to widespread condemnation and criticism from the international community and when the chinese protested via the league of nations a report was published that blamed japan for the outbreak of hostilities therefore imperial delegates stormed out to the league of nations effectively meaning that any prospect of peace between the japanese and the chinese had now been lost and as a consequence the land of the rising sun was now more isolated and aggrieved than ever in 1935 tojo was posted to manchuria as the commander of the now japanese province's kenpei thai secret police force during which time he earned the nickname the razer because of his proactive and decisive manner of command and it was perhaps due to him being appointed to command the kenpaitai in manchuria that tojo would later expand the remit of the military police after his ascension to power resulting in the organization becoming one of the most hated and feared instruments of state repression throughout japan and its overseas colonies as well as this it is likely that tojo's insistence in commanding the kempeitai in manchuria in a by-the-book manner in which he always adhered to the orders of those above him earned him the admiration and praise of his superiors in tokyo resulting over the coming years in him being given a steady stream of promotions especially as the power and influence of the japanese military increased yet further and the country dove deeper and deeper into war across asia since the country's annexation of manchuria after which a puppet state had been set up named manchuku under the rule of the deposed chinese emperor piu yi the japanese army extended its control over an ever-increasing expanse of northern china as the ancient country that had overthrown pew yi in 1911 was now headed by a republican nationalist government under chiang kai-shek who was fighting a civil war against chinese communists the japanese however now sought to annex china themselves which would in time weaken the nationalists under chiang kai-shek and allow the communists under mao zedong to eventually gain control of china after world war ii however in the meantime fearing a japanese invasion the nationalists agreed to a ceasefire and entered a military alliance with the communists in 1936 so that china could more effectively fight the foreign aggressor this agreement was timely as on the 7th of july 1937 japanese troops that had by this time gained control of most of north eastern china without any resistance conducted a late night military exercise near the marco polo bridge in peking modern day beijing and after completing the exercise the japanese complained that one of their soldiers had not returned to their lines and demanded to be allowed to enter chinese territory in order to search for him this ultimatum was then refused by the chinese and over the coming hours tensions between the two armies escalated until at around 5am in the morning gunfire broke out and before long a full-scale battle had erupted between the chinese and japanese troops that eventually culminated in the capture of p king along with the surrounding area the japanese were after this action satisfied with their newly conquered territory however chiang kai-shek had other ideas and refused to capitulate to the invaders resulting in the war escalating over the coming months until nan king the then capital of china was itself captured on the 13th of december 1937 and japanese troops who were enraged by the ferocity of the resistance they encountered embarked on a whole scale massacre of the city's population in which hundreds of thousands of civilians including women children and even babies were literally butchered in what is now considered to be the greatest single war crime undertaken by the japanese empire who had by this time been promoted to chief of staff of the occupying army within china turned a blind eye to the killings as he did not publicly promote or dissuade his troops from killing civilians however his reluctance to intervene in the nan king massacre would later be used against him after world war ii and despite the land of the rising sun pouring more and more forces into china over the coming years the country was never completely occupied and the war would drag on until 1945 resulting in the deaths of a huge number of people including three to five million japanese casualties dead wounded and captured as well as over 10 million chinese military casualties and perhaps as many as 30 million chinese civilians in the meantime tojo whose star was rising fast was recalled to japan in may of 1938 where he was promoted to vice minister of war as well as inspector general of army aviation and in 1940 when tojo's political ally koichi kaido was appointed to be the lord keeper of the privy seal there was a position that essentially controlled what information the emperor was given and also who could obtain an audience with the emperor tojo was promoted to become minister of war that effectively placed him in charge of the japanese army and navy despite tojo's rise to power all was not well with the japanese war effort as during the summer of 1939 the country had been defeated in a series of skirmishes against the soviets along their northern manchurian border in which the land of the rising sun had been soundly defeated and as a result caused the japanese cabinet and war ministry to rethink their aggressive stance against the soviets although this confrontation was relatively minor the ramifications of the japanese defeat would affect the outcome of the entire second world war as the country would two years later sign a non-aggression pact with the soviet union on the 13th of april 1941 that essentially prevented the japanese from attacking the soviet union during germany's later invasion that enabled joseph stalin to divert his siberian divisions to the west and defeat the germans on the outskirts of moscow in the winter of 1941 the russian border confrontations also caused divisions between the japanese army and navy as the army wanted revenge on the soviets whilst the navy saw expansion to the south as being a wiser course of action as the majority of the raw materials the japanese war effort required were situated in south asia such as the oil fields of the dutch east indies therefore as the time for war against russia passed by and relations between the country's thought the army joined with the navy and resolved to undertake the military expansion in the pacific the japanese were also given fresh cause for optimism when germany successfully defeated the western european allies in little more than six weeks during the summer of 1940 and with britain seemingly on its knees and france dismembered the japanese government assuming the british empire was about to collapse chose to throw in their lot with hitler's germany and mussolini's italy culminating in the signing of the tripartite pact in berlin on the 27th of september 1940 that solidified the alliance of the axis powers in which germany and italy promised to respect japan's territorial conquest in the pacific in return for japan respecting both italy and germany's conquests in europe and north africa as well as this all three countries began to cooperate with one another at an intelligence level but crucially the alliance between axis powers would remain a distant one as japan would over the coming years fight alone against the allied powers in asia whilst germany and italy received little concrete help from the japanese however after the fall of france an agreement was struck in july of 1941 with germany and the vassalized french vichy government for france's colonies in indochina that were comprised of monday laos cambodia and vietnam to be occupied by the japanese army the united states however protested against this move and as a result embargoed all exports of raw materials including nearly 90 of japan's oil supply and refused to recommence exports until japan withdrew from indochina meaning that the land of the rising sun had to choose between further expansion to replace its lost imports of raw materials or retreat and as the hardline ultra nationalists were now in charge the decision was taken to continue with a policy of military expansion to the south that would inevitably threaten the united states colonies in the philippines as well as britain's imperial outpost in hong kong and singapore this embargo caused panic amongst the more moderate members of the japanese government who now argued that a peaceful resolution should be found with the united states however the militarists who control the privy council were strongly in favor of a declaration of war against the united states therefore an imperial conference was held on the 6th of september 1941 where it was agreed that a deadline should be set for a diplomatic solution with the united states that was to expire on the 14th of october after which war would be inevitable negotiations continued into the autumn of 1941 in which japan's prime minister konai desperately tried to mediate via the u.s embassy in japan but when the americans demanded a total japanese withdrawal from china and manchuria in return for a resumption of exports the japanese felt they had no other option than to declare war as surrendering their conquest was not an option and so when the 14th of october deadline came and passed prime minister kone resigned on the 16th and acting on the advice of the keeper of the privy seal koichi kaido hideki tojo was summoned by the emperor and asked a former cabinet as japan's new prime minister the reasons for this appointment have been debated ever since however it is largely accepted that the emperor wanted a soldier and not a civilian prime minister to lead japan into war and it is also claimed that of all the candidates tojo was the only man who could gain the support of the army and navy factions as he agreed that war with the united states was now inevitable and therefore after being ordered to conduct a review into the state of war preparations tojo finally told the emperor that conflict with america was inevitable on the 2nd of november 1941 after which hirohito gave his approval for hostilities to commence and the next day plans for an audacious pre-emptive strike against the united states were shown to the emperor by tojo that involved a massive aircraft carrier-borne air raid on the u.s naval base at pearl harbor in hawaii at this stage the prospects for success against america were seen as favorable as in 1941 the japanese navy was the third largest in the world consisting of a dozen battleships 20 heavy and light aircraft carriers over 50 cruisers 350 destroyers and escort vessels and around 200 submarines all of which were concentrated in the pacific theater where in contrast japan's two great rivals for dominance over the seas in the east britain and america were forced to disperse their naval forces across the globe meaning that at this time japan would enjoy naval supremacy anywhere in the pacific providing it struck quickly and in strength preparations for the attack on hawaii were then finalized with the emperor's approval by the commander-in-chief of the japanese navy isiroku yamamoto that involved a massive naval task force attacking pearl harbor along with simultaneous invasions of british and american colonies in the western pacific with a view to ultimately seizing the south asian oil fields that were to replace the lost american imports thusly on the 26th of november 1941 a large naval fleet set sail from the japanese home islands under the command of admiral chiwichi nogumo and headed east across the northern pacific before turning south towards the hawaiian archipelago before finally attacking the islands on the morning of the 7th of december 1941 resulting in over a dozen u.s ships being sunk or badly damaged three days later on the 11th of december 1941 germany and italy joined with their japanese allies and declared war in the united states that in effect sealed their doom as the world's richest and most powerful industrial nation had now joined the conflict with whom the axis powers would soon realize they could not hope to compete with spurred on by the success of the japanese navy the imperial army now also embarked on a whirlwind advance through southeast asia in which hong kong the philippines borneo and malaya were captured and in february of 1942 the vital british outpost in singapore was also taken effectively making the land of the rising sun the dominant power in asia as well as the western pacific these victories marked the high water mark of japanese expansion in the pacific and in japan itself tojo was hailed as a hero by a jubilant populace however the man himself was far more subdued than the rest of the japanese population as he knew his country had not yet delivered a knockout blow against the united states soon after this dojo was shown to be correct in his reluctance to celebrate as the japanese population was then shaken out of its complacency when the americans bombed japan on the 18th of april 1942 in what is now known as the doolittle raid in which 16 aircraft carrier-borne b-25b bombers undertook a daring strike on the greater tokyo area these raids shook the japanese people's perception of invincibility to its core and after the attack a number of american pilots who were shot down during the raid were taken prisoner three of whom were executed in reprisal on the emperor's orders against tojo's advice as he argued that killing prisoners of war would risk the americans doing the same to japanese prisoners this action flies in the face of the modern perception of hideki tojo that labels him as a hardliner within the japanese government and there are also accounts of him going to great lengths to see that the japanese people were not suffering too much due to the war effort as during this time he would often whilst driving through tokyo stop and check the rubbish bins outside ordinary people's houses so he could ascertain what food they were eating great lengths were also taken by the now state-controlled media to portray tojo as a benevolent father figure whose only concern was the care and protection of the japanese homeland and in an effort to garner support from the people and the countries of asia tojo promoted the idea of a greater east asian co-prosperity sphere that involved the japanese leading a coalition of three asian states or as the west saw it japanese puppet states that would join together to throw the western powers out of asia although he was portrayed at the time and is still seen by some in japan today as being a protector of asians throughout the world there was a darker more pragmatic side to tojo's premiership as during the war all radio broadcasts and newspaper articles were subject to strict censorship and although this was not as wide reaching or extreme as in nazi germany around 4 to 5 000 people were arrested and imprisoned during the conflict for what is called thought crimes against the state and in many cases extreme measures such as torture were used to extract confessions by the kempeitai secret police under tojo's orders this insistence on submission and order especially extended to the military as adherence to the way of the warrior was literally beaten into japanese soldiers from the outset of their training in which all individualism was crushed and replaced with a mindset of total obedience to the emperor and on tojo's orders every japanese soldier was issued with a written copy of the military code of conduct known as the senjin-kun which was heavily inspired by elements of bushido as it stated that surrender was not allowed under any circumstances however the increasing reverence to the way of the warrior that after all was born out of feudal japan would during world war ii come to have both positive and negative outcomes for the japanese as the fearless disciplined warriors that this modern warrior doctrine helped to produce prove themselves to be capable of superhuman feats during battle but on the flip side also made japanese soldiers extremely intolerant of enemy prisoners of war as well as foreigners in general one of the most notable incidents of the mistreatment and even murder of prisoners of war by the japanese was the bataan death march of april 1942 during which american and filipino prisoners were marched for almost 70 miles in searing heat across bataan in the philippines resulting in between 5 to 18 000 men dying of exhaustion lack of water and execution another example of the japanese army's mistreatment of prisoners comes from the infamous building of the burma railway that involved as many as a quarter of a million civilians and allied prisoners constructing around 250 miles of narrow gauge railway in the tropical heat of japanese occupied burma in little over a year between 1942 to 1943 which resulted in the deaths of nearly 100 000 men from dysentery beatings execution exhaustion and starvation a stark statistic regarding the death toll of allied prisoners is that 27 percent of all pows died under japanese care whilst in europe the figure was around six percent however tojo would later claim during his trial that the mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war was the responsibility of commanders in the field although it is true that both he and his government could have stopped the mistreatment and killings had they so wished indeed the true number of prisoners of war and civilians who were killed by the japanese during the 1930s and 1940s is widely considered to be at the very least in the region of 3 million people especially in china and manchuria whilst higher estimates state that the actual number of debt is far close to 14 million which is more than double the amount killed during the holocaust another largely negative consequence of the japanese military's obsession with never surrendering to the enemy or viewing defeat as the ultimate dishonor would as world war ii progressed or rather regressed from the japanese perspective resulting japanese soldiers embarking in suicidal attacks against allied forces or even in committing suicide without ever attacking the enemy if the commanders and troops in question felt that the battle was lost this in essence showed the flaws of implementing ancient warrior codes of conduct and morality within modern warfare as in many instances the japanese army and navy would embark in all out suicidal attacks on allied troops and shipping during world war ii rather than considering the far more effective and pragmatic solutions of fighting withdrawals or even full-scale retreats that may have been considered dishonorable by some but in the long run may on the flip side have borne strategic and tactical fruit to counter this it could be said that as many of the battles the japanese army were involved in during world war ii were on small archipelagos or island chains fighting to the last man was in many ways inevitable given that retreat was impossible as the land of the rising sun had lost naval and air supremacy over the majority of the pacific by 1943 however it is hard to justify large numbers of japanese troops embarking in suicidal attacks or rather in the japanese government including hideki tojo in sanctioning such attacks when those in power in japan knew full well the war against america was lost from relatively early on the first and possibly the largest hammer blow the japanese suffered before 1945 then came in the south pacific in june of 1942 at the battle of midway when the united states pacific fleet effectively destroyed the japanese first carrier striking force that lost all four of its largest aircraft carriers along with 248 aircraft and over 3 000 personnel during the battle this defeat is widely considered to be the turning point of the pacific war as the whole japanese war effort in world war ii depended on naval and air supremacy therefore the bravery and fanaticism of its armies and soldiers was made irrelevant after the battle of midway as the united states was from then on able to attack any of japan's territorial conquests with overwhelming force without effective reply instead of taking back all of the japanese gains the americas concluded that the best route to victory lay in taking back a series of strategically vital islands across the eastern pacific that came to be known as island hopping the ultimate goal of which was to bring their naval and air forces within striking distance of the japanese home islands after the defeat at midway the japanese navy attempted to prevent the scale of the losses it had incurred from becoming public knowledge and staggeringly even tojo himself was not informed of the disaster for nearly two weeks after the last japanese carrier had disappeared below the waves however when he did hear of the calamity tojo ordered that conscription should be increased so that every healthy man was brought into the armed forces this belated effort to swell the numbers of men in the japanese armed forces had little effect however as it was japan's inability to compete with allied industrial might that lay at the heart of its reversals and as well as this tojo was constantly hindered by the widespread infighting and squabbling that became increasingly rife throughout the military and government as navy and army factions fought one another for supremacy and resources by 1944 the war situation across the pacific was grim to say the least as the americans led by general douglas macarthur and admiral chester nimitz began to close the noose around the neck of the land of the rising sun by invading and successfully occupying the strategically vital island of saipan during which the japanese defenders mounted desperate masked banzai or suicide charges that resulted in nearly 30 000 deaths including mass suicides of soldiers as well as civilians this defeat meant that the americans were now able to mount bombing raids on japan itself and across the country the civilian population was prepared for the oncoming onslaught even though the majority of japanese houses were made of wood making them particularly vulnerable to incendiary bombing and the resulting firestorms after saipan tojo was blamed for the defeat and seeing his premiership as an obstacle to the possible peace with the allies a powerful lobby began to form within the japanese government for his removal prompting the prime minister to seek the emperor's backing which was not given therefore seeing no other course of action hideki tojo then resigned as prime minister of japan on the 18th of july 1944 although his policies had undoubtedly led to his expulsion tojo was not publicly blamed or shamed for the loss of saipan and afterwards remained a loyal servant of the emperor explaining in his farewell radio broadcast that he was saddened at the worry and stress the ward caused his master but despite this and the growing number of devastating air raids across japan tojo continued to advocate his former policy of no surrender but even he could not have imagined the colossal blow that would within a year of his dismissal bring about japan's final subjugation by the summer of 1945 the americans had now occupied a number of the japanese home islands including iwo jima and okinawa enabling them on the 6th of august 1945 to unleash their secret weapon the atomic bomb that was dropped on the coastal city of hiroshima and three days later a second bomb was dropped on the city of nagasaki culminating the japanese empire surrendering to the allies unconditionally on the 15th of august 1945 tojo who until now had been in retirement was largely blamed in the west for starting the war and was now faced with the decision that his own policies had forced on hundreds of thousands of japanese soldiers that being surrender or death and after the americans began to occupy japan in late august of 1945 tojo prepared his final will and political testament then on the 11th of september 1945 when american military police surrounded tojo's house he greeted them from a window and then slammed it shut and shortly afterwards a gunshot was heard tojo had fired a bullet into his chest but it had missed his heart and whilst he lay bleeding beside him a note was found in which the former prime minister acknowledged that he had been responsible for the war however no doubt to his dismay the attending doctors were able to bring him back from death over the coming days until within a matter of weeks he was well on his way to making a full recovery once he had regained his health tojo was sent to prison to await trial for war crimes along with a number of other high-ranking japanese generals and officials until in late april of 1946 proceedings began in which 28 defendants most of whom came from tojo's war cabinet were charged on 55 separate counts those being of class a war crimes class b conventional war crimes and class c crimes against humanity when he was finally called to give his testimony in 1947 tojo presented the tribunal with his affidavit in which he laid out his version of events up to and during his tenure as prime minister and accepted that he had been responsible for starting the war but claimed that hostilities were necessary as america had forced japan to defend itself with its hostile foreign policy including the build-up of naval forces at pearl harbor and its punitive embargoes of raw materials the prosecution that was led by the former u.s attorney general of ohio joseph keenan who had formerly overseen the prosecutions of some of america's most notorious gangsters including machine gun kelly and al capone rejected tojo's claims as militaristic propaganda and presented the tribunal with evidence that tojo had been fully aware of the mistreatment of prisoners and civilians by the japanese army in so-called class b war crimes in response tojo rejected keenan's accusations as he claimed that killing people in wartime could hardly be seen as criminal however both he and his fellow defendants unanimously accepted that starting the war had been their decision and continually stated that the emperor hirohito had only approved the instigation of hostilities due to their advice this was the militarist's last act of service to their master as to them the emperor was still a living god who was blameless and above reproach therefore they saw it as their patriotic duty to deflect all blame from hirohito even though he had had the final say on nearly every major strategic decision the japanese made during world war ii another reason that hirohito was never blamed for japanese aggression or war crimes was that the commander of the us forces in japan douglas macarthur had decided that the emperor's help and therefore survival was essential in order to subjugate the japanese population as putting hirohito on trial or even convicting him could have potentially resulted in a mass uprising against the occupying americans the decision was therefore taken before the trial that the militarists and in particular tojo himself were to bear the brunt of the blame for japan's actions during the war and therefore it could be said that the tribunal was unfair or even rigged as not all those responsible were put on trial and those who were had effectively been judged before proceedings began the tribunal dragged on until 1948 when on the 12th of november hideki tojo along with six of his co-defendants was sentenced to death and over a month later he was hanged on the 23rd of december 1948. before his death tojo issued a statement in which he apologized for the crimes japan had committed against allied soldiers and civilians and begged the americans to show the japanese people mercy and after the execution tojo's body was cremated after which orders were given to scatter the ashes in secret however japanese patriots obtained the remains of their former prime minister and his fellow defendants and over the coming years several shrines were constructed across japan where even today prayers are offered for the dead men's souls in recent years hideki tojo and his like have come to be seen by some as victims as many japanese believe that tojo's assertion that japan was forced into a war with america as an act of self-defense was the truth and also believed that at his trial he was made a scapegoat by the americans who wanted to portray him as a villain on a par with benito mussolini and adolf hitler this belief is angrily disputed by many of japan's neighbors and many people in japan itself still blame and even hate hideki tojo for starting a war japan had no hope of winning that resulted in the deaths of two to three million japanese soldiers and civilians as well as tens of millions from the lands conquered and enemies of the land of the rising sun most historians agree that hideki tojo was not a dictator such as adolf hitler as he was after all merely the prime minister of japan however there is a consensus he did play a crucial role in the instigation of world war ii in the pacific and in advocating the adoption of a brutal warrior code within the japanese military tojo helped to create the mindset that would lead to many of the atrocities that were perpetrated by japan's armed forces across asia and the pacific during the second world war what do you think of hideki tojo was he an aggressive militarist and war criminal who wanted to form a japanese colonial empire by brutal means or was he simply a humble servant of emperor hirohito who ordered an attack on the united states as an act of self-defense and was after the war unfairly used as a scapegoat by both his own countrymen and the wider world let us know in the comments section and until next time thank you very much for watching [Music] the man known to history as franklin delano roosevelt was born in the town of hyde park new york on the 30th of january 1882 his father james roosevelt was a harvard graduate and successful businessman who had interests and investments in various coal and transport companies and also had connections with the democratic party serving as the minister's secretary at the american embassy to grade britain in the 1850s under the then ambassador an eventual 15th president of the united states james buchanan franklin's mother sarah ann delano whose ancestors came to america on the mayflower had married james in 1880 and was a driven and intelligent woman whose father warren had once operated an opium business in hong kong where she lived for three years and at one stage sarah also attended a girls school in the german city of dresden in the modern world sarah would have undoubtedly had a successful career of her own but she was forced by the social constraints of the time to be a home maker which perhaps inevitably caused her to place much of her hopes for the future in franklin as he was her only child with her husband james franklin himself was an active child who also proved to be intelligent and gifted at almost anything he undertook and he soon became adept in the sporting activities of his class such as horse riding shooting tennis golf and polo instead of allowing the family servants to educate franklin as was the convention of the time sarah chose to educate her son during his early years until he was eventually sent to groton boarding school in massachusetts the headmaster of this school endicott peabody would prove to be an important guiding influence on franklin over the coming years teaching him the importance of christian charity and would later go on to officiate at roosevelt's wedding in 1905. in 1900 franklin's father james roosevelt died which was a devastating blow for him but despite this his prospects then improved a year later when his cousin theodore roosevelt was elected president of the united states and his commanding and energetic leadership soon made him franklin's new role model it was around this time that franklin enrolled at harvard college in cambridge massachusetts at which he failed to shine academically and stated later that he studied economics for four years and everything he had been taught was incorrect despite him not enjoying his time at harvard franklin graduated regardless in 1903 with an ab in history and then after dropping out of law school in 1908 joined the wall street firm of carter leddyard and milburn working in the company's admiralty law division in 1902 franklin began to caught his distant cousin eleanor whom he had known since childhood and after spending several years reaffirming their ties by means of family meetings and correspondents franklin successfully proposed in 1904 eleanor herself was the youngest daughter of theodore roosevelt's brother elliot his branch of the roosevelt family had split from franklin's in the 17th century in the shape of nicholas roosevelt who is franklin's fourth great grandfather and eleanor's fifth great grandfather the couple were then married on the 17th of march 1905 despite fierce opposition from franklin's mother sarah who thought her son was too young to marry and at the ceremony eleanor's uncle president theodore roosevelt gave her away as her father elliot had died in 1894. both franklin and eleanor then moved to the roosevelt family estate at springwood in hyde park at which eleanor had to endure the difficulty of living next door to her mother-in-law and the couple then went on to parent six children together one of whom franklin jr died in infancy in 1909 despite giving birth to six children eleanor found married life to be difficult in many respects and at one point stated that she found intercourse to be an ordeal that had to be endured and this lack of natural intimacy would later result in franklin having numerous affairs and eleanor herself would also go on to form close and possibly intimate friendships with a number of women perhaps the most notorious of franklin's affairs was with his wife's secretary lucy mercer which began in or around 1916 that eleanor then discovered when she found letters between the two by accident which nearly ended their marriage and it was only after franklin's mother stepped in and told him that if he divorced eleanor she would disinherit him that their union was spared despite this tumult both franklin and eleanor would remain married until his death in 1945 but perhaps as a consequence of his extramarital liaisons it remained a union based on mutual respect or duty rather than love or passion however regardless eleanor made franklin promise that he would never see lucy again which was an oath that he would struggle to keep in 1910 franklin joined the local democratic party which was eager to recruit him due to his family's name and after being accepted and nominated roosevelt campaigned for a seat on new york state assembly and after leading an energetic campaign in which he traveled around the local area by car franklin won to the surprise of many despite the local area being predominantly republican and he then assumed his new responsibilities on the 1st of january 1911. roosevelt then quickly gained a reputation as something of a radical within the local democratic party leading a group of so-called insurgents who were opposed to tammany hall which was a political organization in the area that controlled nominations and dictated policy and had a reputation for corruption or looking after the interests of the rich and not the working classes or poor because of this franklin soon became a popular figure with many new york democrats and he then in the 1911 democratic nominations caused controversy within his family when he backed woodrow wilson and not his cousin theodore roosevelt's campaign for the presidency of the united states theodore had left the republicans after failing to secure the party's nomination to campaign during the forthcoming election which caused divisions within the party and he then ran as an independent candidate for a newly created and short-lived progressive party despite him failing to secure his cousin's backing theodore was not angered by franklin's supporter woodrow wilson as he was after all a member of the democratic party which he would have been forced to resign from in order to support him and it could be said that this was in hindsight the correct decision as theodore's progressives fell into obscurity over the coming years [Music] franklin's decision to back woodrow wilson was then vindicated when he won the presidential election of 1912 becoming the first democratic president since grover cleveland who left office in 1889 this election victory was a landslide for the democrats who won nearly 42 percent of the popular vote and roosevelt was then rewarded for his support of wilson by the new president appointing him to be assistant secretary of the navy in 1913 under josephus daniels shortly after this appointment franklin resigned from his seat on new york's state assembly in order to concentrate on his career in washington dc as he was seen by many to have a promising future ahead of him due to his intelligence work ethic and family name during their time in the department both roosevelt and daniels oversaw the introduction of a new merit-based system of promotion within the united states navy as well as extending civilian control over various aspects of naval administration in which franklin oversaw relations between the government and the members of the navy's civilian workforce [Music] this position would give franklin a great amount of experience in dealing with labor issues as well as industrial disputes and also in naval administration during wartime that would both prove to be invaluable to him during the later great depression as well as the second world war and it was this period as assistant secretary that forged his affiliation and love for the american navy that would endure for the rest of his days in 1914 war broke out in europe and there was a strong consensus of opinion that the united states should begin to rearm in case it was forced to join the conflict and as a result president wilson then gave the go-ahead for an expansion of the navy that was accelerated after the sinking of various civilian vessels including the rms lusitania in 1915 because of this the united states navy was more than doubled in size by the end of world war one that ended after america joined the allies against the central powers of germany and austria which greatly hastened their ultimate surrender in the armistice of 1918 and after the conflict the u.s navy was scaled back to peacetime numbers in the aftermath of the first world war president wilson attempted to ensure lasting peace throughout the globe by establishing the league of nations which was first proposed and included as part of the treaty of versailles that was signed on 28th of june 1919 creating the first international convent designed primarily to maintain world peace however the creation of the league of nations greatly weakened wilson's position as president in the eyes of many americans particularly those of a republican persuasion who feared their country's sovereignty could potentially be superseded by an international governing body and who were also opposed to any american involvement in the affairs of foreign nations this opposition then continued to gain momentum until finally the republican-dominated senate rejected the president's plans for america to join the league of nations and wilson's position was then further undermined by him suffering a massive stroke on the 2nd of october 1919 that left him bedridden for weeks and his administration much like himself paralyzed it is no exaggeration to say that woodrow wilson's policies at least in regard to foreign affairs provided a template for franklin roosevelt's own political ideas over the coming decades as he would after the second world war resurrect his mentor's plans for a league of nations in the shape of the united nations as it was now becoming increasingly evident that president wilson's tenure was coming to an end roosevelt and his allies reached out to herbert hoover about the possibility of him becoming the party's next candidate for the presidency in the 1920 presidential elections hoover had formerly been a member of president wilson's administration but had never been a member of either party in the lead up to the election of 1920 but then calculating that the democrats were unlikely to be victorious declared himself as a republican but failed to secure the party's nomination from the presidency by losing to warren g harding this in turn scuppered franklin's plans to run as vice president under hoover but after james m cox was nominated as the democratic presidential candidate instead he chose roosevelt as his running mate and despite both men embarking on a campaign across the country they were defeated by a wide margin in the election by warren g harding who became the 29th president of the united states on the 4th of march 1921. the return of the republicans to power simultaneously heralded the return of america to isolationism in which involvement in foreign affairs was kept to a minimum until finally the sleeping giant that was the united states of america was awoken from its slumber by the rise of nazi germany and imperial japan in the mid-1930s although this loss was a bitter pill to swallow roosevelt had gained valuable experience in campaigning on the national stage and was now a major figure within the democratic party and was also seen by many to be the great hope of the left wing within america going forward however franklin's hopes and dreams would soon be dashed to near smithereens when he in august 1921 began to experience terrifying symptoms of paralysis from the waist down combined with bladder and bowel dysfunction the diagnosis for these ailments was grim to say the least as franklin had contracted polio myelitis otherwise known as polio which is an infectious disease caused by the polio virus that is often transferred from person to person by infected fecal matter entering the mouth possibly via unwashed food or unclean water there has since been speculation that roosevelt's symptoms were more consistent with julian barrett syndrome which is caused by the immune system attacking the peripheral nervous system which in short is the relay between the brain and the limbs but whatever the cause of his illness franklin was now paralyzed from the waist down and would never walk or even stand unaided again this illness would have ended the lives of many men let alone their careers however roosevelt evidently possessed great reserves of strength and determination as he then set about trying to lead as normal a life as possible to ultimately facilitate his return to mainstream politics he did this by having the pedals of his car adapted so he could break and accelerate by hand and even had a pair of iron braces constructed to enable him to stand or walk with assistance where he would use his waist to swivel each limb in turn enabling him to move upright for short distances despite these innovations franklin would spend the majority of his waking hours sitting in one of his custom-built wheelchairs meaning that he would often have to be carried up and down flights of stairs in buildings where no elevators were installed and this soon prompted him to have a service lift adapted at his home in hyde park which enabled him to travel between floors unaided over the coming years franklin would go to great lengths to ensure he was never publicly photographed in his wheelchair and would when he was giving speeches or appearing in public often be seen to stand by using his steel leg braces along with the literal support of an aide or one of his children for the time being at least roosevelt's illness meant that he had to withdraw from frontline politics for a time during the 1920s so he could come to terms with his disability both mentally and physically but despite this retreat he still maintained close connections with the top of the democratic party for which he would eventually give presidential nomination speeches in 1924 and 1928 although these speeches were outwardly a show of support for the democratic nominees they were in reality dress rehearsals for franklin's own political resurrection as he calculated that he could not hope to win any future democratic nomination let alone the presidency without being seen to be able to stand and during both addresses he wowed the crowd whilst gripping the podium with all his strength in a desperate effort to remain upright this effort to appear mobile was in large part due to franklin's fear that his disability would be used against him by his republican rivals whom he thought would claim his inability to walk would also impair his ability to govern and it is certainly remarkable that throughout his lifetime and his later presidency the true nature of roosevelt's disability would remain unknown to the vast majority of the american public who thought him requiring assistance to walk was due to him being lame or arthritic despite franklin's public support the democrats were defeated in the presidential elections by the republicans in both 1924 and 1928 largely due to the fact that the economy was booming and also because the party was divided on various issues such as prohibition that banned the production and consumption of alcohol from 1920 to 1933 indeed roosevelt himself like many men of his class enjoyed drinking expensive cocktails which along with chain smoking would become his guilty pleasures in the lead-up to the 1928 election al smith who was the democratic nominee for the presidency was forced to step down as governor of new york as he could not by law hold the position as well as the presidency meaning that an election had to be held to appoint a new governor as a consequence smith fearing a republican landslide then asked roosevelt to run as the democratic candidate for the governorship of new york and after a hard-fought campaign franklin was eventually triumphant winning by the slender margin of one percent of the vote making him the head of government in america's most popular state and a front-runner for the next democratic presidential nomination in 1932 in contrast to this the democrats and al smith were crushed in the presidential election losing heavily to herbert hoover which effectively ended smith's ambitions of claiming the top job and he would later go on to become the president of empire state incorporated which was the company responsible for the construction of the marvel of architecture and engineering that is the empire state building in manhattan then on tuesday the 29th of october 1929 the wall street crash sent the world's economy into turmoil causing share prices of the new york stock exchange to collapse this crash was primarily caused by a huge amount of speculative public investment being made in the u.s stock market during the late 1920s in which millions of americans invested their life savings into the stock market in the hope of making a fortune by buying shares in what they hoped were up and coming companies and or commodities to cash in on this boom of investment many people even took out loans in order to buy more stocks and shares and when no further loans could be obtained they then brought stocks on an iou basis in the hope that they would be able to pay at a later date as and when they made a profit another factor was corruption and insider dealing which was undertaken by men such as joseph p kennedy the father of president john f kennedy who during the 1920s sought to buy worthless stocks on mass which made them appear to be a good speculative investment to the untrained eye this mass buying then inflated the price of these stocks and shares which kennedy and his like would then cash in on by selling them to inexperienced investors such as the general public who would in the end lose nearly all their money when the stock market crashed kennedy would later go on to make millions during the great depression itself by buying up potentially valuable real estate and land at reduced prices that he would then later sell when the market improved over the coming decades which at least in part funded his family's rise to power in u.s politics no one knows what actually triggered the massive selling of stocks that initiated the wall street crash but historians and economists have since speculated that a combination of rumor hearsay and the spread of panic caused a chain reaction of mass selling that flooded the market and as a result caused stock prices to tumble and millions of dollars to be lost it should also be noted that the wall street crash was not the direct cause of the following great depression but it certainly did undermine the confidence of the american public in the country's financial institutions particularly the banks as well as the government and federal reserve indeed although many of america's smaller local banks were still solved and soundly run the larger banks had during the market boom of the 1920s invested their customers investors and depositors money into the u.s stock market meaning that when the crash came the banks lost millions of dollars their customers money that they were unable to give back due to the lack of funds this meant that the banks were soon forced to deny cash withdrawals to the american public which caused a panic driven chain reaction or bank run across america and then the wider world as millions of people rushed to withdraw their non-existent savings this lack of cash flow inevitably crippled consumer spending as well as lending meaning that there were mass shortages of capital within the american economy and as a result businesses laid off workers in their millions or closed altogether and as america was the largest economy on earth the contagion spread across the globe as international loans were recalled in the desperate search for money and private investment was slashed the recall of these international loans inevitably devastated the economies of countries around the world who were still struggling to recover from the devastation of the first world war particularly nations such as germany italy and japan who then saw a rise in radical nationalistic political parties who would seize power over the coming decade and plunge mankind into another world war this panic and lack of capital was then further compounded by president herbert hoover's administration itself as it thought the crisis would be short-lived and therefore refused point blank to stimulate the economy with quantitative easing which involved the printing of money that would enable the banks to stay open and lending an investment to continue the government then arguably made things worse by raising tariffs on international trade which did nothing but damage businesses across america and around the world as it only restricted international transactions as well as the flow of goods the wall street crash and following great depression inevitably damaged herbert hoover's reputation particularly concerning economic matters and with the end of his term fast approaching franklin roosevelt stepped up his plans to run for the democratic nomination for the presidential election in 1932 to help secure his future candidacy roosevelt first sought re-election as governor of new york by enacting and advocating various reforms to alleviate the crisis such as setting up an employment commission endorsing unemployment insurance and aid to farmers as well as better pensions for the elderly these policies clearly resonated with new york's population as he then won the state election by a 14 margin over his republican rival which solidified his position as the front-runner for the democratic nomination for the presidency during the following months roosevelt appointed his campaign team and ramped up his plans for the forthcoming democratic national convention of 1932 at which he clinched the party's nomination by defeating al smith who came a distant second roosevelt then along with his running mate for the vice presidency john nace garner launched his presidential campaign in which he pledged his support for america's workers by promising better regulation of the economy stock market and banking system along with the cutting of trade tariffs financial help for farmers and investment in public works in order to end the great depression franklin then went on to defeat herbert hoover by a massive landslide in the 1932 presidential election by winning 57 of the popular vote and crucially securing control of both houses of congress meaning that he was able to pass legislation with greater ease without republican interference franklin delano roosevelt was then inaugurated as the 32nd president of the united states on the 4th of march 1933 in which he gave one of the most famous speeches in american history stating so first of all let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless unreasoning unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance this rallying cry was important as the american economy had slumped to new lows in the final months of the hoover administration making the task that now faced roosevelt enough to vex a genius as one quarter of the workforce was unemployed and a further two million people were on the streets and in a state of near starvation on top of this food prices had fallen by nearly 60 percent meaning that many farmers were now facing ruin and tens of thousands of banks were refusing cash withdrawals which meant the businesses could not pay their employees and families could not buy food or goods during his tenure as state governor of new york roosevelt gave regular radio broadcast direct into people's homes that he named his fireside chats in which he would lay out his plans for governance or address issues and after becoming president franklin then continued these broadcasts on a national scale informing the population of what he planned to do to address the economic turmoil almost immediately upon assuming his role as president roosevelt sought to address the paralysis that was gripping the banking system when he on the 9th of march 1933 passed the emergency banking act they gave him power to control bank opening times and also enabled him to order the federal reserve to issue currency so that cash withdrawals could recommence this action then had the desired effect as six days later on the 15th of march the banks reopened causing share prices to rise by 15 percent as a consequence as public deposits and withdrawals resumed which effectively ended the bank run after this roosevelt then initiated his program of relief recovery and reform as part of his strategy for ending the great depression which is known today as the new deal he started by setting up the federal emergency relief administration in may of 1933 that was established to provide assistance to state governments by means of loans as well as grants so that they could relieve unemployment through public work programs the president then later that year signed a repeal that brought an end to prohibition largely in an effort to help stimulate the economy and increase tax revenue along with the people's morale and shortly after signing the repeal franklin stated that he thought this would be a good time for a beer these reforms were also augmented by the setting up of the public works administration that would come to spend nearly 7 billion over the next decade which is a massive figure in today's money by initiating infrastructure projects throughout the country from roads to railways to dams and schools this glut of state investment was then further increased by the establishment of further agencies including the civilian conservation corporation that got 250 000 young men back into work on more local rural projects as well as the reconstruction finance corporation which helped industry with funding for railroads along with large infrastructure projects on top of this the federal trade commission helped farmers and homeowners with mortgage relief and the agricultural adjustment act aimed to raise commodity prices by paying farmers to reduce their food production by leaving fields bare and cutting back on livestock to ensure workers were better paid and fairly treated going forward the president then brought in the national industrial recovery act of 1933 that was enacted to regulate industry and ensure fair wages for workers and also restricted production to keep prices at an even level as well as all this roosevelt sought to cut federal spending by slashing military expenditure by over 700 million dollars by restricting serviceman's pensions but after a campaign was instigated by veterans lobby groups congress overruled him and paid out the pension benefits in cash regardless which in the end gave the economy a further boost through consumer spending then from 1935 to 1936 the roosevelt administration enacted the second part of his plans for relief and reform that is known today as the second new deal which by and large consisted of further public investment but more importantly focused on economic reform across various sectors these included the 1935 social security act that ensured the federal government was from then on bound by law to give aid to the elderly the unemployed and the disabled as well as children in need which was augmented with a kind of base state health care provision to ensure the poor had a certain degree of medical care there then came the works progress administration which was the largest public works program to date that funded the building of parks schools bridges and roads in nearly every community across the country and between 1935 and 1943 the wpa employed nearly 9 million people whose wages would then buy food and consumer goods that in turn pump money back into the economy producing the knock-on effect of generating new jobs next came the national labor relations act that prevented the exploitation of workers by giving them fair working conditions as well as pay and also ensured that the industrial disputes the strikes did not occur through civil discourse between employers and employee unions although roosevelt's new deal did produce its desired effect in getting millions of americans back into work it was met with fierce resistance within certain quarters of the private sector as well as the republican establishment who were opposed to any kind of state intervention in the economy and there is still a fierce debate today as to whether the centralized power of the roosevelt administration was in keeping with america's capitalist principles and some even claim that his program of reforms and relief was socialist in its outlook one of the most ardent critics of roosevelt's policies during this period was his old political ally al smith who as a conservative democrat was opposed to the president's interference in private industry and during the lead up to the 1936 presidential election smith tried to portray roosevelt as a communist in albert name and even compared him to karl marx and vladimir lenin but smith's public criticism soon backfired in spectacular fashion as roosevelt's reforms had lifted millions of people out of poverty and meant that he now had the loyal support of the majority of the american public as well as the country's unions who saw al smith and the business leaders opposed to the new deal as the kind of people who had caused the economic upheaval in the first place seeking to capitalize on his overwhelming approval ratings roosevelt then sought re-election as president in 1936 and won an unprecedented victory by securing all but two states which was the largest margin of victory since the uncontested presidential election of 1820 roosevelt's second term was largely dominated by him struggling to overcome the resistance of the u.s supreme court that had blocked or halted several of his new deal reforms and he then sought to end its opposition by proposing a bill to replace aging supreme court justices with his own supporters which was subsequently blocked by a cross-party coalition who feared that roosevelt's bill would make both he and his successors too powerful indeed one of the criticisms that could be leveled at franklin roosevelt is that he was too controlling of his administration as he was notoriously devious and conniving in his dealings and famously once said that he never let his right hand know what his left hand was doing this control and secrecy even extended to his last vice president harry truman he was kept in the dark about many of roosevelt's plans during world war ii including the united states nuclear weapons program however one of the few people franklin was unable to control in his life was his wife eleanor who consistently lobbied him throughout his presidency on matters that were close to her heart such as help for the poor as well as civil and women's rights that she promoted during public appearances and radio broadcasts and even held nearly 350 press conferences during her husband's tenure eleanor would also spend much of her time traveling the country after which she would report back to her husband on the progress of his new deal and it is fair to say that her activism certainly aided her husband who after all could not travel easily as she would after returning from her visits briefed the president at length on the situation across the country and what actions she felt were required this inevitably caused a great deal of friction between franklin and eleanor during his presidency although on the whole they came to form a formidable political partnership that earned them both the respect and admiration of millions of americans by the late 1930s there were growing concerns at the rise of adolf hitler's germany in europe which was seeking to expand its borders by annexing neighboring countries such as austria and czechoslovakia that along with the aggressive expansion of the japanese empire in manchuria modern-day china was starting to threaten world peace the united states foreign policy had since the end of the first world war been isolationist in its outlook because many people within the country did not want to interfere in any costly european wars which was further complicated by large portions of the u.s population being descendants of european immigrants from countries like germany and italy roosevelt who was a believer in woodrow wilson's outward-looking policies was not an isolationist himself but as his hands were largely tied by congress and public opinion he was prevented from interfering in the spanish civil war and the japanese invasion of manchuria in the late 1930s this outlook then began to change however when hitler broke his munich agreement with britain and france that had allowed germany to occupy the sudetenland of czechoslovakia in 1938 by invading the rest of the country the following year on the 15th of march 1939 this prompted roosevelt to begin preparations for a possible war with the excess powers over the coming months as he recognized that america could no longer afford to maintain its isolationist stance particularly as japan was evidently bent on expansion of its own in the south pacific which could in time potentially threaten the united states colonies in the region such as the philippines then when hitler invaded poland on the 1st of september 1939 britain and france declared war on germany which prompted roosevelt to align himself with the western allies and then when france itself fell to germany in the summer of 1940 isolationism in the united states went into a steep decline which garnered enough support to allow the president to sanction a massive increase in military spending along with the country's first peacetime draft that would swell the ranks of the us army to nearly one and a half million men by 1941. roosevelt also proved to be pragmatic in his choice of military advisers at this time as he appointed republican interventionists such as henry stimson and frank knox as his secretaries of war and the navy respectively both of whom were in favour of his support of britain after the fall of france and as both men were not democrats their promotions helped win over many republicans to the president's side the president then increased his support of britain and his new prime minister winston churchill with whom he had been in regular correspondence with since the 1930s by giving the royal navy 50 world war one destroyers in return for access to naval bases across the caribbean which proved to be invaluable in strengthening ties between the two nations as well as the united kingdom's naval defenses roosevelt had before this sought to help the european allies by passing the neutrality act in november of 1939 that allowed the sale of u.s weapons in return for cash however this aid to britain free france china and later the soviet union would be escalated into the 50 billion dollar programme of aid that is known today as lend lease which was passed into law in march of 1941 that allowed war materials and resources to be lent or leased to allied nations under the pretext that doing so would aid u.s national security although it was traditional for u.s presidents to only serve two ten years in office as the two-term period was not yet enshrined within the u.s constitution because the united states was clearly entering into another period of crisis roosevelt then decided to campaign for re-election that resulted in him winning an unprecedented third term on november the 5th 1940 in which he won nearly 55 of the popular vote and 38 of the then 48 states this election was timely to say the least as less than a month later imperial japan would force america into world war ii by launching one of the most notorious and daring preemptive strikes in the history of warfare in an effort to secure domination of the pacific ocean although the head of the japanese state was its emperor hirohito the country's government had since the devastation of the great depression much like germany come under the control of militaristic nationalists who advocated the rejection of democracy along with western liberal culture and sought to end japan's dependence on foreign imports of raw materials by means of the creation of an asian pacific empire the first stage of this expansion took place in 1931 with japan's invasion of manchuria which was then followed six years later by its annexation of china in 1937 that prompted the united states and roosevelt to halt all exports of material from america that could aid the japanese war effort which included nearly 95 of japan's oil supply this essentially forced the japanese to choose between halting their expansion or escalating it the former of which was not an option therefore plans were put into place for further invasions and attacks on territories and islands across south asia as well as the western pacific including british imperial outposts along with us colonies in the philippines the japanese now saw the nullification and subjugation of both britain's eastern empire and america's pacific colonies and naval bases as key to securing their supremacy over the region and it was also decided that the united states pacific fleet based in hawaii would have to be destroyed in order to ensure navy supremacy in the far east and plans were then drawn up in the late 1930s to bring this about the likelihood of war was then increased by the appointment of hideki tojo as prime minister of japan on the 17th of october 1941 who had long advocated a pre-emptive strike against the united states and over the following months preparations were finalized with the emperor's approval by the commander and chief of the japanese navy isuruku yamamoto for a massive naval task force to attack the u.s naval base at pearl harbor along with simultaneous invasions of british and american colonies and overseas stations in the western pacific in the meantime negotiations were attempted with the aim of preventing hostilities but when the americans demanded a full japanese withdrawal from china in return for the re-establishment of trade the decision was taken by the japanese to initiate war with the united states on the 26th of november 1941 a massive task force set sail from the japanese home islands under the command of admiral chiwichi nagumo and headed east across the northern pacific before turning south towards the hawaiian archipelago this fleet consisted of six aircraft carriers the akagi kaga soryu hiroyu shukaku and zukaku which carried over 400 aircraft and were escorted by two battleships three cruisers nine destroyers and 23 submarines the japanese then continued to approach hawaii and finally attacked the islands on the morning of the 7th of december 1941 resulting in over a dozen u.s ships being sunk or badly damaged including eight battleships and over two thousand servicemen and civilians being killed or injured however the prime targets of the japanese the aircraft carriers uss enterprise lexington and saratoga were out of port at the time of the attack which was of vital importance as these carriers would later form the nucleus of the united states pacific fleet that would come to decimate the japanese navy over the coming months and years one day after the attack on pearl harbor president roosevelt declared war on imperial japan and the same day delivered a speech to a joint session of the us congress stating that yesterday december 7th 1941 a date that will live in infamy the united states of america was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the empire of japan three days later on the 11th of december 1941 germany and italy joined with their japanese allies and declared war on the united states that in effect sealed their doom as the world's richest and most powerful industrial nation had now joined the conflict with whom the axis powers could not hope to compete this overwhelming might did not take long to manifest itself as little more than six months after pearl harbor in june of 1942 the united states navy along with the aircraft carrier uss enterprise engaged and defeated the japanese navy at the battle of midway in the south pacific in which all four of the japanese aircraft carriers were sunk meaning that the country's offensive capability in the pacific theater was effectively ended in one fell swoop the japanese were from this point onwards forced onto the defensive across the pacific and the americans then started their operations against the european axis powers when they landed in north africa in late 1942 culminating in over 300 000 axis troops surrendering in tunisia six months later which came only a few months after hitler had lost a further half a million troops in the battle of stalingrad on the eastern front the main reason for these allied victories were not simply their advantages in sheer manpower but also lay in the colossal industrial capability the united states possessed as between 1941 and the end of the war in 1945 the americans produced nearly two and a half million trucks 90 000 tanks and in 1944 alone produced more aircraft than britain germany japan and the soviet union combined this industrial might combined with plentiful natural resources were the key to the american and allied victory during world war ii as both germany and japan's natural resources were pitiful in comparison and their industrial capacity was a mere fraction of the united states alone although roosevelt decided that the war against hitler's germany was to be given priority over japan the americans were still able after the battle of midway to steadily retake all of the japanese conquests in the south pacific in a succession of hard-fought amphibious assaults over the coming years until by 1945 japan was cut off surrounded and starving in the lead up to the opening of the second front in europe president roosevelt had advocated that any allied invasion should take place via northern france whereas winston churchill in contrast argued that any invasion should be conducted through the italian peninsula stating that the country was hitler's soft underbelly however the italian theatre in reality turned out to be hitler's tough old gut as the country's hilly terrain naturally favored the defensive therefore the americans assertioned that the major allied invasion should be conducted through france can in hindsight be said to have been the correct course of action as it resulted in a relatively speedy advance through normandy after the d-day landings ensuring that western europe was not overrun by the soviets after germany's collapse despite roosevelt's disability it soon became evident during late 1942 that a conference was needed between the leaders of the allied powers in order to better coordinate the war and as the soviet premier joseph stalin refused to travel far from moscow the decision was taken for both churchill stalin and roosevelt to meet in the iranian capital of tehran in late november of 1943 this involved roosevelt having to travel over 7 000 miles from america to the middle east which took a massive toll on his health and at the conference he sought to appease the soviet premier by distancing himself from winston churchill over the future of eastern europe as he did not want stalin to think that the americans and the british were acting as a unified force this involved roosevelt refusing to partake in discussions regarding the postal status of poland as he felt there were more pressing concerns and seeing as the soviets were bound to occupy the country over the coming months roosevelt calculated that it was more important to appease the soviet premier rather than alienate him this cordial approach towards the soviet premier is illustrated by roosevelt's response to stalin's demand that 50 000 german officers should be shot after the war to which the president jokingly replied that maybe 49 000 would be enough that was met with outrage and disbelief from the british prime minister in the end churchill's approach towards stalin would prove to be correct as eastern europe was subjected to nearly half a century of soviet occupation after world war ii therefore it would perhaps be argued that roosevelt's cordial attitude towards the soviet union was misguided however the tehran conference and the 14 000 mile round trip that it entailed had a devastating effect on roosevelt's health as he had been under massive stress for over a decade by this time which was in no doubt down to the fact that during his presidency america had been in an almost constant state of crisis a chain smoker roosevelt had enjoyed a daily diet of fine food and cocktails for many years but as he was unable to undertake regular exercise it soon became apparent that his lifestyle and workload was taking its toll which would later be further exasperated by him embarking on an even longer journey to meet with stalin and churchill in the crimean city of yalta in february of 1945 as a result of his visible deterioration roosevelt then underwent tests at bethesda hospital maryland in march of 1944 and was found to the great alarm of his attending doctor to have incredibly high blood pressure and at one point hit 240 over 130 and was also found to be suffering from coronary artery disease and heart failure effectively meaning his time was short to avert imminent disaster roosevelt undertook a period of rest and recuperation over the coming months in which he cut down his smoking to a dozen cigarettes a day as well as a single cocktail in the evenings after meals and during this period spent some weeks fishing with friends and after returning to the white house only worked for four hours per day another source of comfort for franklin during this time was the rekindling of his relationship with his former flame lucy mercer who had married after the breakup of her affair with franklin nearly 20 years before but was now widowed and their reunion was instigated by roosevelt's daughter anna who organized them to see one another again behind her mother's back this was perhaps because eleanor and franklin were not close as husband and wife by this stage as they acted more like close friends or political allies rather than a couple therefore anna sought to alleviate her father's stress as well as his loneliness by helping him to see lucy once again however later after his death eleanor discovered that franklin had been seeing lucy with her daughter's help resulting in them not speaking to one another for some time it was evident by late 1944 that the americans were going to be victorious on all fronts in world war ii and despite being advised not to by those close to him due to his ill health roosevelt decided to campaign for a fourth term as president in november of 1944 from which he emerged victorious once again by claiming over 53 percent of the popular vote and winning 36 of the 48 states making him by far the longest serving president in american history in early 1939 top scientists such as albert einstein had written to roosevelt warning him of germany's possible nuclear weapons program and shortly afterwards the united states initiated the manhattan project with the help of many german jewish scientists that had fled the country during the 1930s this program eventually bore fruit on the 16th of july 1945 when the first nuclear weapon codenamed trinity was successfully detonated in new mexico and three weeks later the united states dropped two further atom bombs on the japanese cities of hiroshima and nagasaki on the 6th and 9th of august 1945 prompting emperor hirohito to announce his country's surrender on the 15th of august this weapon more than anything made the united states the world's most powerful country after 1945 and until the soviets developed their own nuclear weapons in 1949 the country was practically invulnerable as a nation as it now had along with the atom bomb the largest navy air force and economy the world had ever seen one of franklin roosevelt's lasting legacies was his resurrection of the league of nations in the shape of the united nations the formation of which had first been agreed between the president and winston churchill as early as 1941 and was finally brought into being in san francisco on the 25th of april 1945 at which the un charter was drafted which bound all the participating nations to certain standards of human rights as well as the preservation of peace for future generations over the coming years eleanor roosevelt would also play a key role in the founding of the united nations when she was invited by her husband's successor president harry truman to become a delegate to the general assembly after 1945 in which he chaired the committee that came to pass the universal declaration of human rights in 1948 and would continue to take an active role in politics and humanitarian issues until her own death in 1962 the united nations was in many ways the zenith of president roosevelt's political career in which he had brought america out of the depression overseeing its victory in world war ii and in the united nations formed an international body whose aim was to prevent a reoccurrence of the massive bloodshed and suffering that had plagued mankind in the first half of the 20th century however roosevelt would never live to see the world he did so much to form as on the 12th of april 1945 while sitting having his portrait painted at his retreat the little white house in warm springs georgia the president complained of a terrific headache and soon afterwards lost consciousness and slumped forward in his chair he was then rushed to his bedroom at which he was diagnosed as having suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage and a few hours later at 3 35 pm president franklin delano roosevelt died aged just 63. it is no exaggeration to say that many americans were left in despair at the president's passing as to millions of people he was a savior that had not only delivered the country from the greatest recession of the 20th century but had also crushed imperial japan as well as nazi germany in the largest and most destructive war the world had yet seen a day after his passing the president's coffin draped in the star-spangled banner was taken to washington dc and progressed through the streets of the capital lined with thousands of mourners before being taken by train to his birthplace at hyde park where he was laid to rest in the rose garden of his springwood estate where he along with his wife eleanor remains to this very day franklin delano roosevelt is today considered by many american historians to be one of if not the greatest president in the history of the united states of america although he certainly enjoyed a privileged upbringing in his early years of life there is no doubt that he possessed immense reserves of strength and bravery to overcome the paralyzing disease that is polio and for him to then go on to become president let alone one of the greatest presidents in u.s history is nothing short of extraordinary and stands as a testament to his strength of character as well as his intelligence and ability many critics of roosevelt's new deal have since his death claimed that his programs of relief and reform were far too liberal or even socialist in their outlook as they increased the size and power of the federal u.s state which in some people's eyes is at odds with the founding principles of the u.s constitution his defenders would argue however that his reforms were simply necessary measures in a time of crisis that lifted millions out of unemployment as well as abject poverty and set the united states firmly on a course for a period of prosperity and wealth that was hitherto unparalleled in human history what virtually all people can agree on however is that franklin roosevelt successfully guided america through the greatest war in human history from which it emerged as the world's most powerful country therefore it is difficult to argue against the assertion that america was stronger as a nation both internally and externally after his presidency than it was before it what is also certain is that franklin delano roosevelt is one of the most important figures in the entire 20th century as his presidency shaped the geopolitical landscape of the entire world for decades after his death and in many ways his life and career form the world we all of us live in today what do you think of franklin roosevelt was his new deal a socialist program that increased the power of the american state or was he a hero who despite not being able to stand himself lifted the american people from their knees and set the united states on a course to greatness let us know in the comments section and until next time thank you very much for watching [Music] the man known to history as benito mussolini was born on the 29th of july 1883 in the northern italian town of pradapio his mother rosa was a devout roman catholic as well as a school teacher which was a position that gave her family a better standard of living than the rest of prodapio's population as the mussolinis were allowed to make their home within the school building during their son's adolescence benito's father alessandro mussolini was a blacksmith and an ardent left-wing socialist who named his son after the left-wing president of mexico benito juarez who was his idol and often attended local political meetings with benito which no doubt had a considerable impact on his son during his early years given his mother's position it could be said that benito should have had an advantage over other children in his age group however his parents soon became concerned over their son's inability to speak and feared him to be a mute but his mother's patient tutelage eventually produced the desired results and benito soon proved himself to be an intelligent young man in contrast to this alexandra was not nearly as caring or responsible apparent as rosa as he was often away from home and proved to be reckless with money largely putting his own needs and desires before those of his family even though benito idolized him perhaps as a result of this young mussolini soon gained a reputation as a pest or bully making fun of the other children in his class and would pinch people during church services resulting in his unsuspecting victims crying out in pain for no apparent reason in 1892 benito aged eight was sent to a catholic boarding school at which he performed well academically but his rebellious streak soon rose to the service once again as he was an unruly pupil who bullied his fellow students and used violence and intimidation to get his own way but his temperamental nature soon landed benito into trouble in his new school as he was expelled for stabbing another pupil with a pocket knife and after attending several more schools for one of which he was also expelled mussolini eventually gained a teaching diploma in 1901 but after working as a school master decided he was not suited for the profession benito then spent the next few months indulging his love of drink and women by visiting local brothels but was soon forced to leave italy for switzerland in 1902 partly to escape military service and after gaining work as a labourer he started attending socialist meetings in the swiss town of lusan it was around this time that mussolini's gift or oratory began to manifest itself as he quickly became a leading figure within the far left around lusan but he once again obtained a reputation for bullying and intimidating his fellow socialists and would often browbeat them into submission during this period benito also began working as a writer for a socialist newspaper named the future of the workers which was run by italian immigrants within switzerland and it was the profession of journalism that would grant mussolini both the platform and opportunity to gain notoriety over the coming decades and eventually lead him to become a prominent political figure within italy itself being heavily influenced by his father who hated the italian monarchy as well as capitalism benito regularly called for the overthrowing of democracy by violent means resulting in him being arrested for political agitation by the swiss authorities on numerous occasions during this period mussolini also argued against religion in the form of the catholic church as well as conscription to the armed forces which he had fled italy to avoid and also claimed to be opposed to state censorship which would ironically later become one of his most effective means of control mussolini then returned to italy in 1904 after an amnesty was declared for deserters of military service which led to nearly five years of relative obscurity in which he once again took a job as a school master but benito soon grew tired of living a normal life and he then returned to his previous existence of extreme left-wing politics in 1909 when he became the editor of local socialist newspapers in northeastern italy after which he moved to milan at the age of 26 in 1914 mussolini moved in with a young woman named raquel guidi whom he had fallen in love with in 1909 and who was also born in benito's hometown of pradapio but with seven years his junior the couple would go on to have five children together and would later marry in a civil ceremony in 1915 and gone to renew their vows in a religious service after mussolini's rise to power in an effort to appease church-going italians benito had been writing articles for various socialist newspapers for some time and was quickly becoming recognized as rising influence within socialist circles indeed mussolini was one of the first politicians to fully realize the potential the printed word could have in the spreading of ideas not to mention its potential for increasing his own fame and celebrity as it is clear he was not only a gifted speaker but also a talented writer this newfound talent then prompted him to start his own newspaper titled le lotta de class a or the class struggle which gained him such notoriety that he was appointed in 1912 to be the editor of the foremost socialist newspaper in italy named avanti meaning forward under his guidance avanti soon more than doubled his readership in which benito voices anti-militaristic anti-nationalist and anti-imperialist views and also argued initially against italy's potential intervention in world war one soon after this mussolini changed his views regarding italy's involvement in the conflict and began writing articles expressing his support for the war and subsequently resigned from the editorship of avanti which led to his expulsion from the italian socialist party this was perhaps one of the most important turning points in benito's life as he now began to embrace nationalism rather than socialism and would later merge the two ideologies into his most notorious creation that being fascism after this bonita then took the editorship of another newspaper named el popolo de italia or the people of italy which he would use to form and voice his growing nationalistic views over the coming years the papal was backed by powerful italian arms manufacturers as well as the french government who both wanted italy to join the conflict against the central powers of germany and austro-hungary and it was with the support of these powerful patrons that mussolini continued to argue for intervention in the conflict until in may 1915 italy joined the western allies and declared war on the central powers however despite his celebrity status benito was then drafted into the italian army where he according to accounts served with distinction and fought against the austrians for nine months before being wounded by an accidental mortar explosion mussolini then after a long period of convalescence left the army to resume the editorship of ipopolo de italia at the behest of its rich patrons and it is perhaps fair to say that much like his fellow fascist dictator adolf hitler benito's experiences of frontline combat during world war one did much to harden his nationalistic outlook benito had returned to an italy that was in the immediate post-war period crippled by widespread unemployment and growing unrest amongst its population which resulted in polarization between the country's political groups and led to the upper and middle classes becoming ever more concerned by the potential threat of the revolutionary far left mussolini then used his influence as editor of a national newspaper to exploit this polarization by arguing for the need of a man who in his own words was ruthless and energetic to make a clean sweep this would eventually culminate in mussolini forming the revolutionary fascist party which was initially comprised of people with various political persuasions such as discontented socialists and former italian soldiers in order to combat the growing threat of the country's communists the word fascism itself comes from the italian flashy which was a symbol of authority in ancient rome consisting of an axe head surrounded by a bundle of sticks which were carried by the attendance of magistrates who kept order in public meetings and also administered punishments on offenders mussolini and his followers who wore black shirts then began to use violent tactics to crush any opposition to their ideology over the coming months and the fascist movement soon grew into a large scale organization culminating in them holding regular mass rallies in which benito would use his grasp of the written word as well as his bombastic self-confident persona to woo and persuade the masses it is perhaps no surprise that the fascists gained an upper hand in italy during this period as after all the country's population on the whole had a religious conservative outlook and as italy was in the center of the roman catholic world it is also perhaps no surprise that the far right was aided against the left by the establishment who feared that a communist revolution may lead to the downfall of the monarchy the aristocracy as well as the church itself this grand swell of right-wing sentiment combined with mussolini's aggressive tactics and journalistic propaganda machine soon resulted in the socialists being crushed throughout the country and by the time of the early 1920s the fascists were arguably the dominant political force within italy as the majority of his major opponents were now dealt with mussolini more and more turned his attention to the government or rather the overthrow or taking over of the government which had done little to interfere with the state of upheaval which benito had in part created as it was dominated by moderate middle class liberals who feared the far left more than they did the fascists mussolini's power and influence within italy then grew even further when the revolutionary fascist party won 35 seats in the italian parliament during the 1921 elections and afterwards mussolini agreed with his fellow fascist leaders to change the name of the movement to the national fascist party at the third fascist congress in november 1921 by this time the far-right had effectively eliminated or replaced the vast majority of the country's unions however when the last vestiges of the socialist trade union movement called an anti-fascist general strike in july 1922 mussolini gave the government the ultimatum that they did not crush the unrest the fascists would save the state this strike was eventually ended however and then at a gathering of some 30 000 party members in naples on the 22nd of october 1922 mussolini stated that the government will be given to us or we will seize it by marching on rome which was met with rapturous applause and cries of approval from his masked supporters he then along with his party leaders resolved to march on the italian capital four days later but he still hoped for a relatively peaceful takeover of power as the italian monarch victor emmanuel iii was still the country's head of state and mussolini needed the king to summon him to take control as a violent takeover of the monarchy and government would not have been popular in italy to say the least the fascist march on rome then began on the 28th of october 1922 which prompted the italian government under luigi factor to ask the king to declare a state of siege which would have resulted in the italian army attempting to put down the fascist march but victory emmanuel refused to sign such an order probably fearing that the monarchy would be overthrown if the fascists defeated the italian army the king then asked mussolini to form a cabinet on the 29th of october 1922 leading to him arriving in rome on the 29th after which he held a triumphant parade of his masked black shirts through the city and he was then officially recognized and appointed as head of government on the 31st of october benito mussolini was now the prime minister of the kingdom of italy and he would later call his seizure of power a conquest but as king emanuel was still the head of state and technically his superior benito was still bound by the country's constitution which would later become the instrument of his dismissal and the downfall of his fascist regime as well as this mussolini was only the leader of a coalition government at this time which was comprised of many liberals from more moderate political parties and despite the growing oppression and political control mussolini enjoyed the country then experienced a relatively calm period this was perhaps due to the fact that many people within italy welcomed mussolini's premiership as they were tired of the constant strikes and unemployment which he now resolved to alleviate but the end to the chaos would in time come at the price of the end of italian democracy which would over the coming decade be demolished in favor of a fascist police state however the rise to power of the fascists was not without repercussions which is perhaps best demonstrated by the kidnapping and murder by mussolini's black shirts of the socialist party deputy giacomo matotti in 1924 which severely damaged his reputation despite this setback mussolini managed to hold on to power even though there was little doubt that he had sanctioned the murder and after a public outcry he was forced to act by arresting three suspects from within the fascist party only one of whom served any time in prison when mussolini first came to power his coalition government adopted an economic policy based on free trade and tax reform which was headed by the talented liberal finance minister alberto de stefani which culminated in the country benefiting from economic growth and low unemployment over the next few years this nationwide improvement is perhaps best exemplified by the famous saying that mussolini was the man who made the trains run on time which could perhaps be explained by the fact that most trains had fascist guards on board whilst the more profitable and prestigious main lines of the country's railway network received large amounts of investment whilst the country's branch lines were left in the state of disrepair however this upturn in the italian economy was not destined to last as de stefani was dismissed after a devaluation in the italian lira in 1925 after which mussolini acted to take a greater degree of control of the italian economy which was an act that may possibly have been made more likely by the fascist gaining a majority within the italian parliament in the general election of 1924 which some say was rigged this apparent validation of his government combined with his newfound majority within the italian parliament then enabled mussolini on the 24th of december 1925 to pass the so-called christmas eve law which effectively made him accountable only to the king and ended any say parliament had in the rule of the country this consolidation of power now prompted mussolini to further extend his control over the entire country by finally outlawing any political opposition in which no citizen could hold any government or civil service position unless they carried the card of the fascist party in conjunction with this mussolini began from 1925 onwards to be known by the title of il ducey or the leader of fascism amongst other grandiose titles including head of government and his excellency although to the wider world he was still largely known as the italian prime minister although many people in the modern world view fascism and communism to be polar opposites in terms of ideology it should be noted that the two forms of governance share many similarities as well as their obvious differences mussolini himself had after all spent much of his early life as an ardent follower of the ideas of karl marx and therefore it could be said that in many ways his ideological birth child fascism was born out of socialism or at least was a mutation of it or even a reaction to it with nationalism being the major difference between the two this is perhaps best exemplified in mussolini's italy and in national socialist germany by the fact that both regimes embrace socialist ideas in the running of their respective states which in simple terms meant that nothing happened within the country without the government's approval however both nations still incorporated a kind of highly regulated or controlled capitalism within their respective borders in which private companies worked under the direction of the italian state rather than being consumed or run by the state entirely such as in the soviet union despite these differences mussolini slowly increased his control or interference of virtually every aspect of the italian economy from 1925 onwards until by 1934 he stated that three-quarters of the italian economy industry and agriculture lay in the hands of the state meaning that italy was second only to the soviet union in terms of its nationalization this included the government having control over which crops were grown on italian farms which often led to a surplus of certain types of produce as well as shortages in others and when the great depression hit the italian economy particularly hard in the early 1930s the collapse of the banking system inevitably resulted in further mistrust of capitalism leading to the state extending its influence over virtually every sector of the italian economy this increased control has led some to claim that mussolini's gradual nationalization of the italian economy was born out of socialistic principles but on the other hand others have argued that his increasing interference in the italian economy was nothing more than a power grab as taking control of the country's collapsed banks as well as the country's agriculture and heavy industry did nothing but grant him near total dictatorship however this control was in fact an illusion as the bailouts of the banks had already been paid for by massive loans which were more often than not obtained from foreign sources which did nothing but put italy's national debt through the roof and meant that higher interest payments on its loans were inevitable which the government would struggle to repay as the country and italian population could not afford the necessary taxes for example in the year of the fascist rise to power in 1922 the italian national debt stood at around 93 billion lira whereas 12 years later it had ballooned to 148 billion until in 1943 at the height of world war ii the figure stood at a staggering 405 billion this lack of cash was only made worse by the fact that nearly 50 percent of the italian workforce was employed in low-paid agricultural jobs during the 1930s with only four percent working in heavy industry which mussolini was desperate to rectify in order to transform italy into an industrial power this could perhaps explain the later inability of mussolini's italy to sustain an industrialized war economy and could also explain the relatively poor quality of the majority of the equipment the italian armed forces relied on during the second world war which was often inferior to those used by its enemies and indeed its allies as with many if not all fascist and socialist governments long-term prosperity was often sacrificed for short-term gain in the shape of state-funded projects but the root problem still remained however that being the relative weakness of the italian private sector economy which was now crushed in favor of an incompetitive state-run economy but the main goal for mussolini at this stage was to maintain and increase his own power and also at least be seen to be making things better in the short term which thanks to his propaganda machine initially succeeded in convincing both those at home and overseas of the effectiveness of fascism in bringing both order and prosperity to the kingdom of italy however the great depression in the fast approaching world war would first weaken then lay bare this facade of strength as the italian economy was simply not strong enough to take the strain of these major events and it could even be said that italy at this time had become the mirror image of mussolini himself as both he and his country's power from the outside at least seem to be considerable when in reality they were both deceptively weak or at least deeply flawed but not everyone in italy was prepared to submit to mussolini and his rule and various attempts were made on his life during the late 1920s including on one occasion when ill ducey came within inches of being killed when a pistol bullet grazed his nose despite these attempts on his life mussolini's fascists had effectively silenced any and all opposition by the early 1930s as by this stage ill duchess power and influence were unrivalled and nearly all political opposition had either been silenced or forced underground this control is perhaps best exemplified but the complete stranglehold mussolini enjoyed over the italian mass media by the 1930s which culminated in him making himself the supreme editor of the press within italy and he would on a daily basis review the nation's newspapers after which he would promote articles he approved of but also stopped any news he deemed to be inappropriate with potentially dire consequences for the journalists responsible but with this control and power came a sense of invulnerability as well as a reaffirmation of mussolini's self-imposed superiority and ego as he began to more and more see himself as a caesar-like figure he was destined to make his country the regional and world power he felt he deserved to be this period of the late 1920s in which ill dj's reputation was never higher soon gained him the adoration and praise of many of europe's fellow far-right parties and the leader of one of these adolf hitler even wrote to mussolini asking for an autograph around this time which was subsequently turned down as unbeknownst to the italian dictator hitler would in time effectively become the master not only of his fate but also that of italy's as well mussolini's rise to power had been a great inspiration to hitler during his struggle to secure power himself in germany during the late 1920s and the fuhrer had in many ways modeled his own nazi party on mussolini's fascists and would in time draw inspiration from mussolini's example with regard to his suppression of political opposition and control of the press which the third reich's propaganda chief joseph goebbels would improve on and master over the coming years despite his early rebuff to hitler il ducey was soon forced to take the nazis seriously after the party's rise to power in germany in 1933 resulting in him a year later inviting germany's new fuhrer to a state visit of italy in which hitler was greeted with typical italian fascist pomp and pageantry much to his displeasure as he had only requested an informal meeting with the italian dictator this frosty relationship was temporarily thought by mussolini being able to speak fluent german but despite this ill ducey would in private claim that he did not like hitler describing him as paranoid and their relations were then severely damaged the year after hitler's visit when mussolini's ally the chancellor of austria engelbert dolphus was assassinated by nazi supporters in july of 1934 hitler wanted to bring his homeland of austria under his control but the murder of his ally prompted mussolini to threaten war with germany and he then after the assassination moved italian troops to italy's border with austria which temporarily produced the desired effect until ultimately germany and austria were unified in 1938 over the coming years mussolini worked to improve relations with as many nations as possible and would often call hitler a genius in public but insult him in private and also told the french and british he was with them in their opposition to nazi germany this was perhaps an intelligent strategy as it kept mussolini's options opened in the event of a european war but his judgment would later backfire as he would eventually end up on the losing side another of ill duchess titles had been since the mid-20s founder of the empire the only problem being that the italian empire at this time consisted of the north african colony of libya eritrea on the red sea coast and somalia on the western african coast of the indian ocean it was because of the relatively small size of italy's overseas colonies combined with the desire to attain more natural resources for italy's industrial sector the lay of the heart of mussolini's territorial ambitions and he soon identified what he thought would be an easy first target that being ethiopia which was an ancient but poor kingdom that lay between italian eritrea and somalia which the ill duchess seemed to be an easily obtainable outlet for his imperialist ambitions therefore on the 3rd of october 1935 italian forces invaded ethiopia and by may of 1936 had captured its capital addis ababa after which mussolini proclaimed an italian victory but sporadic fighting would continue within the country for the next six years in which ill duchess forces committed various war crimes including the killing of entire ethiopian villages and the use of poison gas which had been banned under international agreement since 1925. after the fall of addis ababa ill duches claimed that the conquest of ethiopia was a great victory but it was funded by yet more borrowing and proved the relative weakness of italy's armed forces against an inferior enemy but despite this mussolini was convinced both the superiority of his army's fighting abilities as well as his own brilliance as a military leader which gave him a full sense of security and confidence going forward in september of 1937 adolf hitler invited mussolini to a state visit of germany which il ducey no doubt arrived at feeling that he was meeting with an equal in hitler given his recent conquests but he soon realized that hitler's germany was well on the way to surpassing his own country in terms of its infrastructure organization state control and most importantly its military which was fast becoming one of the best in europe if not the world an immediate sign of change in the balance of power can arguably be seen shortly after mussolini's visit to germany as upon returning to italy he enacted new laws to severely restrict the rights and freedoms of the country's jewish population which overnight saw jews throughout italy being treated as pariahs an ill duchess then ordered the printing of anti-semitic newspaper articles in order to appease nazi germany from this point on mussolini would become more and more subservient and intimidated by the ever-growing strength of hitler's third reich and even ordered his own soldiers to adopt the nazi goose step in parades as he began to align himself more and more with his northern neighbor it is fair to say at this stage that ill duje had calculated that hitler was stronger than the western allies of france and britain and thusly sought to align himself with the fuhrer but in doing so he more and more played second fiddle to hitler who is now on a collision course with the western allies and in aligning himself with the third reich mussolini bound both his own fate as well as that of his countries to nazi germany for better or for worse for the time being however germany was in the ascendancy and in the lead up to world war ii ill duty oversaw the agreement between nazi germany britain and france which handed over the sudetenland areas of czechoslovakia to hitler in the munich agreement of 1938 the british prime minister neville chamberlain had asked mussolini's government to help persuade hitler not to embark on his planned invasion of czechoslovakia after which il duches telegraphed the fuhrer telling him that whatever happened that he would be on his side but also asked for a delay to the start of the german invasion in the hope that a peaceful resolution could be found the four premiers of germany italy france and britain then met on the 29th of september 1938 at which an agreement was reached to hand over the sudetenland areas of czechoslovakia to germany on the condition that hitler did not seek any more territorial conquests on the continent this conference was hailed as a success by neville chamberlain who proclaimed the munich and secured peace in our time but unbeknownst to chamberlain hitler was still bent of militaristic expansion and in backing down over czechoslovakia the western allies did nothing but convinced both hitler and ill duchess of their relative weakness ultimately germany reneged on the munich agreement six months later by annexing the remainder of czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939 which made war virtually inevitable as hitler now had designs of further conquest to the east in the shape of poland which would be the spark that would light the fire that was the second world war emboldened and perhaps envious of hitler's success ill duchess then ordered italian forces to invade albania in april 1939 which after five days proved to be successful and having now shown himself to be germany's true diplomatic and military partner both mussolini and hitler then formalized their alliance on the 22nd of may 1939 by signing the pact of steel treaty which for better or for worse meant that italy's fate was now irrevocably tied to that of germany's in signing this agreement mussolini had gambled that hitler would be victorious in any forthcoming war but despite the grandiose title of the pact of steel the treaty was largely a one-sided affair as ill duchess would in reality only commit his armies to fighting the western allies when he felt sure victory was certain this reluctance to join the war immediately was largely due to the fact that italy's armed forces were still not ready for prolonged conflict and mussolini also heard that the fuhrer would delay the commencement of hostilities until he was ready however hitler was working to his own timetable and after formalizing a non-aggression pact with the soviet union on the 23rd of august 1939 he gave the go ahead for the invasion of poland on the 1st of september which prompted both britain and france to declare war on germany two days later despite hitler's successful invasion of poland ill duchess continued to wait to see how germany's forces would fare against the western allies but after the fuhrer's werewind advance across france in the summer of 1940 mussolini now feared that italy would be eclipsed by hitler's germany and even though his armed forces were not yet ready the italian dictator now felt emboldened enough to join the conflict and declared war on the allies on the 10th of june 1940 shortly before this on the 29th of may 1940 mussolini had finally persuaded the italian king victor emmanuel who was technically the supreme commander of the country's armed forces to hand over his authority to him and on the 11th of june the king gave a proclamation which named mussolini as supreme commander of the armed forces operating on all fronts after the armistice was signed completing france's surrender on the 22nd of june 1940 mussolini predicted that britain would itself soon be overwhelmed but its successful withdrawal of over 300 000 troops from dunkirk in the lead up to the fall of france and allowed the island nation to reinforce both its home defenses as well as those of its empire perhaps the most crucial of these was egypt and the suez canal which was not only the fastest route from britain to india and the far east but was also a gateway to the middle east which was the source of the vast majority of britain's oil supply this meant that losing egypt would almost certainly force britain to seek peace terms with the axis powers of which britain's new prime minister winston churchill was well aware and in the weeks after the dunkirk evacuation he sent considerable reinforcements to egypt in the build-up to italy's attempted invasion mussolini himself had long dreamt of resurrecting the roman empire as he wanted the mediterranean sea to become an italian lake and as france was no longer a threat in the region and britain was greatly weakened after the fall of france ill duchess calculated that this was the time to strike he then ordered the italian 10th army to cross the libyan egyptian border on the 9th and 10th of september 1940 after which he advanced towards alexandria and cairo but despite early successes the italian forces were met and pushed back by british forces and archibald wavel in the humiliating defeat that was operation compass that effectively ended il duchess hopes for establishing a new roman empire in a matter of months in which he lost some 150 000 troops dead wounded and captured whilst this encounter was taking place it became commonplace for entire italian divisions to surrender to the british in their thousands as many of mussolini soldiers were conscripts who had little desire to die fighting in his wars and this was a pattern that would come to repeat itself across north africa russia and italy itself as ill duchess troops were not nearly as motivated well-equipped or trained as hitler's armed forces mussolini had in short overestimated his troops willingness to fight and greatly underestimated the capabilities of his enemies to resist him which in turn severely damaged germany's own chance of success in world war ii as they now had to prop up their weakened allies who were now little more than a liability although we often think of the north african campaign as being dictated by the brilliance of the commanders involved such as erwin rummel and vernon montgomery in reality what really decided the outcome of the african and mediterranean campaigns was the struggle for domination of the skies and the mediterranean sea itself at the start of the war italy had boasted one of the most modern and powerful fleets in the world which mussolini had intended to use to secure supply shipments to and from north africa and simultaneously wrestle control of the mediterranean from the british royal navy the italian fleet by this time far outnumbered and outmatched the british mediterranean fleet and consisted of scores of powerful modern warships including seven battleships 11 cruisers 61 destroyers and over 100 submarines against the four battleships six light cruisers and 20 destroyers of the royal navy this meant that to defeat the italians the british would have to use every trick in the book and the royal navy was fortunate that the commander-in-chief of the mediterranean fleet andrew brown cunningham or abc as he was known was one of the most capable admirals of the entire second world war cunningham whose ships were older slower and outgunned by italy's modern battleships knew that he needed to inflict a decisive blow on his enemy as soon as possible in order to secure britain's own supply shipments in the mediterranean and thusly devised a plan to [ __ ] the italian fleet in one fell swoop by attacking its main naval base at toronto in southeast italy this attack then commenced on the 11th and 12th of november 1940 in which the british assaulted the docked italian fleet at taranto with 21 obsolete swordfish torpedo bombers and after the chaos of the attacker died down one italian battleship had been sunk and two more were heavily damaged this raid marked the beginning of the end of the age of the battleship and gave the japanese imperial navy fresh inspiration for their own forthcoming attack on the united states naval base in pearl harbor in which they also used carrier-borne aircraft to attack their enemies fleet at anchor the biggest loser of the raid at toronto was undoubtedly mussolini himself as the strength of the italian navy in terms of its capital ships were halved overnight and this loss was then further compounded by the italians losing another engagement with the royal navy in the battle of cape matapan in march of 1941 in which cunningham once again defeated the italian navy meaning that it never again posed a threat to british supremacy in the mediterranean after his invasion of egypt had failed ill duchess ordered the invasion of greece through albania in october of 1940 which led to another military disaster in which the italians lost another 100 000 troops hitler had by this time lost all confidence in his ally and realizing that his alliance with mussolini's italy was now more of a hindrance rather than help resolve to send his own german troops to rectify the italian reversals in greece and north africa which crucially delayed his planned invasion of the soviet union and perhaps was the root cause of hitler's failure to capture moscow before the onset of the russian winter in late 1941 to rectify what he saw as mussolini's blunders the fury then issued directive 22 on the 11th of january 1941 in which he sent the africa corps under irwin rummel to intervene in north africa in february and also diverted more troops to secure greece in april over the next two years rommel caused chaos in north africa meaning that the italians increasingly took a back seat across the mediterranean until the africa corps was itself decisively defeated in the battle of el alamein in egypt in 1942 and was forced into a fighting retreat until tunisia finally fell in a pincer movement between the british and the newly arrived americans in may of 1943 the fall of north africa as well as america now sending large numbers of troops to europe made italy and particularly sicily a prime target for allied invasion which then began on the 10th of july 1943 with operation husky and after a brief fight which lasted just over a month sicily fell and the allies then wasted no time by starting the invasion of mainland italy itself a month later ill duchess health was in decline by this time as the gravity of his mistakes became more and more apparent to him and as he was now out of control of events steps were then taken to remove him from office until ultimately the italian fascist grand council voted to replace him on the 25th of july 1943 and afterwards king victor emmanuel summoned mussolini to rome and told him that the war was lost and he then appointed marshal pietro badoglio as prime minister after this mussolini was arrested and imprisoned but hitler had by this time determined to occupy italy himself in the summer of 1943 in order to halt any allied advance and thusly move german troops into the country whilst the allies in turn advanced north from southern italy to meet them despite his massive mistakes and incompetence hitler would ultimately remain loyal to mussolini and then determined to rescue his old ally who was being held in the campo imperator which was a mountain resort in central italy east of rome the fuhrer then sent a force of paratroopers in gliders to rescue el duce in the grand sasso raid on the 12th of september 1943 which was a complete success and mussolini was taken back to germany without a shot being fired in a small stork airplane which was capable of short takeoffs and landings before mussolini's rescue prime minister badoglio had signed an armistice with the allies on the 3rd of september 1943 but was now forced by hitler's occupation of the northern half of italy to declare war on germany in october in support of the western allies hitler then appointed mussolini as the leader of a german puppet state in northern italy named the italian socialist republic in september 1943 and the country was now firmly divided in two with mussolini's nazi-backed state in the north along with the kingdom of italy backed by the western allies in the south el duce was now completely under hitler's thumb by this stage and had little say in the war's conduct or outcome in his own country which itself proved to be a bloody struggle through the hilly and rough terrain of italy earning the campaign the nickname of hitler's tough old gut the outcome of the war was now inevitable however and rome soon fell to the allies on the 4th of june 1944 which was overshadowed by the d-day landings two days later and after this the germans were forced to withdraw north after which they once again stood firm mussolini was now a shadow of his former self by this time and was effectively a prisoner rather than an ally as he was now under a 24-hour ss guard who monitored his telephone calls and restricted his movements the fighting in italy was in many ways a sideshow to the eastern front and the allies advanced through france and therefore the italian campaign continued at a snail's pace for the next few months until the germans were finally forced to withdraw from the majority of the country in the later winter and spring of 1945 during this retreat mussolini hoped to accompany a group of german soldiers north in order to get across the swiss border after which he also planned to find his way to the relative safety of fascist spain but he was soon discovered hiding in the back of a truck by a group of pro-communist partisans on the 27th of april 1945 and was afterwards then taken into custody mussolini was then transported along with his mistress carla pettache to the village of gualino de miszegra where they spent their last night alive and then a day later on the 28th of april 1945 benito mussolini was shot by a firing squad along with his mistress and a number of his followers their corpses were then taken to milan where they were strung up in front of a crowd of thousands until they were cut down and dragged through the streets whilst being spat on and kicked by the angry mob and afterwards the former dictator's body was then buried in an unmarked grave in the musaco cemetery in milan and later reburied in his hometown of pradapio where it remains to this very day the vast majority of the italian people whose country had now been devastated by the war did not mourn mussolini's passing and in the years following world war ii democracy was restored to italy resulting in the new neo-fascist party of italy only receiving two percent of the vote in the elections of 1948 during his lifetime benito mussolini went from being a schoolteacher to founding fascism and attempting to recreate the roman empire by joining with adolf hitler in world war ii in which he gambled both his own future as well as that of the country he loved in his dictatorship of italy mussolini built a police state that rivaled that of adolf hitler and joseph stalin as his control over italy was near total as he crushed all opposition and eliminated anyone who he considered to be a threat he is also considered to be responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and executions within italy which were carried out on his instructions and it is also claimed that during his invasion of ethiopia mussolini's troops committed war crimes and murdered tens of thousands of innocent civilians there has been a great deal of debate since his downfall regarding mussolini's true intentions during world war ii as some claim he was a mere opportunistic ruler who sought to capitalize on the weakness of his enemies to see its territory and power whilst others claim he was an intelligent calculating dictator who backed the right side in june 1940 but ultimately fell due to his allies blunders as well as his own there are also questions regarding his personality as some have claimed that he showed narcissistic traits whilst others state that his wars were not vanity projects designed to swell his ego but were instead born out of a need to unite his country against its enemies and in the process draw the italian population's attention away from the country's ailing economy even though he was the founder of fascism mussolini was in the end eclipsed by his one-time admirer adolf hitler and in the end became his servant as did italy itself but both hitler and mussolini's arrogance proved to be their undoing as they started wars they could not hope to win which ultimately resulted in both of them along with fascism itself being finally defeated in the spring of 1945. what do you think of benito mussolini was he an egotistical megalomaniac or a calculating dictator who was overcome by events and simply backed the wrong side let us know in the comments section and until next time thank you very much for watching [Music] the man known to history as joseph visarionovich ugashvili or joseph stalin was born on the 18th of december 1878 in the eastern georgian town of gory his father bizian ugashvili was a cobbler and for a while had a thriving business but he failed to change with the times and his shoes eventually became unfashionable which resulted in poverty in his family jose's mother ekaterina galadze was a devout orthodox christian who had married biseon at the age of 16 and went on to give birth to three sons the two oldest of which both died in infancy resulting in ekaterina placing much of her hopes for the future in her only surviving son it is clear that joseph's parents had a tempestuous relationship to say the least and often argued and fought one another over their son's future with the katarina wanting him to join the priesthood was bizion was adamant that he should become a cobbler when joseph was 10 ekaterina left bizean as he was by this time an abusive alcoholic who would on his infrequent visits home beat his wife and son and on one occasion gave joseph such a severe thrashing that he had blood in his urine for a week to escape her husband ekaterina sought the help of a family friend named yakov engeshvili who had been the best man at her wedding to besian and had also been the godfather of her two deceased sons this acquaintance enabled both mother and son to live in relative security for a time and to get by ekaterina undertook housework for her friends in the local area including a priest named christopher vianney who later helped gain joseph her place in the guri church school in 1888 where he proved himself to be a capable student and quickly rose to the top of his class this upturning fortune yosef was nearly denied the chance of further progression in life as around this time he narrowly survived a smallpox epidemic which left his face pot marked and he also had another close encounter with death soon afterwards when his left arm was mangled in the wheel of a horse-drawn cart that left it with it for the rest of his days after recovering joseph continued to shine academically but also gained a reputation for fighting and being naughty with his classmates but despite his unruly nature was soon recommended by his teacher to join the spiritual seminary school at tbilisi and was finally admitted in 1894. after this yosef continued to perform well and even had some of his poetry published in local newspapers but his performance soon went into a steep decline after he began to openly state he was an atheist in class and was often disrespectful to the local monks this contempt for the old order was soon increased when joseph began to read forbidden publications such as nikolai chermochevsky's famous novel what is to be done and the notorious capital by karl marx of whom he subsequently became a great admirer joseph then joined secret socialist workers meetings within georgia as resentment and anger was growing in the region at the oppression of the russian czarist government and soon after this he began to become active in the local resistance and left the spiritual seminary school as a result by the end of the 19th century the romanov dynasty had ruled russia with an iron fist for 300 years and although various attempts had been made to modernize the country it still lagged behind its western rivals as its economy was largely based on agriculture rather than industry at this time a third of russia's 126 million people were living in serfdom even though it had been abolished in 1861 and the vast majority of the populace also lived in abject poverty and had little or no chance of an education or advancement spending their lives tilling the soil or serving in the army the government of the country was also highly centralized during this period with ultimate power lying in the hands of the tsars who had near total control over virtually every aspect of russian life and had along with a deeply conservative orthodox church ruled the russian people's hearts and minds from time immemorial but this grip on power was beginning to erode by the time of stalin's birth as resentment within the country was reaching boiling point and was fueled by technologies such as printing presses becoming more and more widespread which meant that when the restrictions on the press were lifted in 1912 the reality of modern affairs became accessible to the literate citizens of russia and political expression became more prevalent in many ways the centralization of power was russia's greatest strength as well as its greatest weakness as the fortunes the romanov dynasty as well as those of the nation as a whole largely depended on the qualities or deficiencies of the sovereign which had until 1894 binsar alexander iii alexander had descended to the russian throne in 1881 after his own father alexander ii who was arguably the most liberal of the czars had been assassinated by socialist radicals in a bomb attack just before he was due to announce the creation of a parliament within the russian state which was designed to give the people a greater say in governance enraged by the death of his father alexander iii scrapped his father's reforms and initiated an authoritarian clampdown on the country ending any hope of a more libertarian russia this decision more than any other would later unleash widespread resentment and hatred across the country but as alexander iii was a strong capable czar the likelihood of revolution was remote as any discontent was stamped on mercilessly as soon as it arose then in 1894 alexander iii died suddenly of kidney disease at the relatively young age of 49 and was replaced by his timid and inexperienced son nicholas ii who possessed average intelligence and was nowhere near as capable or ruthless as his late father nicholas then continued with alexander's authoritarian policies but as he did not have the wherewithal or willpower to carry them out effectively it was not long before unrest and revolution began to rear their ugly heads and over the next two decades the tsar's incompetence and weakness slowly allowed those within the country who were now toughened by oppression and filled with hatred at their lot in life to rise up and overthrow the romanov dynasty georgia had itself been a part of the russian empire since 1801 but had since the assassination of alexander ii been relegated to the status of a mere colony and restrictions were implemented on its population such as the learning of the georgian language this inevitably only fueled the flames of resentment within georgia over the following decades and also provided the perfect conditions for the proliferation of radical anti-establishment ideas in 1899 yosef began work as a meteorologist in tbilisi which was an easy stress-free job meaning that he was able to read more revolutionary literature whilst at work and he soon developed an even more fierce hatred and opposition of the czarist regime as well as the orthodox church during this period yosef also began to give talks to local workers and attend clandestine meetings in which he organized strikes in local factories which inevitably attracted the attention of the tsarist secret police or ocrana and to avoid arrest he then went into hiding and lived off the charity of his friends and socialist supporters joseph then joined the fledgling russian social democratic labour party or rsdlp in 1899 which was a left-wing socialist movement that had been founded in 1898 that would eventually become the communist party in 1912. the tactics the party used were often infiltration and agitation where members would obtain jobs in local factories in which they would then stir up opposition against the workers employers as well as the local authorities that would then result in strikes and demonstrations which would often result in fighting with the local police joseph was particularly gifted at this kind of agitation or rabble rousing and he soon proved himself to be one of the more radical or hardline members of the party as he had a reputation for promoting the use of violence which was a tactic he would come to excel at over the coming years he then rose rapidly within the tbilisi branch of the rsdlp and helped to organize further strikes in the local area which resulted in him being nominated to join the committee of the local party in 1901 but fearing arrest he then moved to batumi on the coast of the black sea where he again organized protests at one of which many people were shot by the local police a year later joseph was involved in the instigation of an attack on a local prison where several party leaders were being detained during which over a dozen of the attackers were killed and after he organized yet another protest on the day of his comrades funerals he was arrested and sentenced in 1903 to three years exile in siberia this was at the time not a death sentence in all but name as it would later become as people were sent to siberia as a punishment for a definite period after which they could return but yosef would later use this punishment as one of his instruments of terror and order the exile of millions of dissidents political enemies and class traitors to labor camps in the frozen wastes of the russian hinterland despite being exiled yosef had no intention of respecting its duration and eventually managed to return to tbilisi where he helped edit an underground newspaper called the proletarian struggle in which he advocated for the georgian branch of the rsdlp to split off from the russian branches as he began to become disillusioned with the movement's methods and objectives it was also around this time that divisions began to occur within the rsdlp which would eventually split into various sub-factions or groups including the bolsheviks under vladimir lenin and the mensheviks under julius martov the bolsheviks were seen as the hard-line wing of the party who advocated strict membership rules as well as the nationalization or collectivization of farmland whilst the mensheviks argued that worker productivity would be increased if a degree of private ownership was maintained yosef who was himself a hardliner as well as being pro-violence naturally sided with the bolsheviks as he hated many local menshevik party members within georgia who were also in the minority then on the 22nd of january 1905 at a mass protest in saint petersburg zara's troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed civilians in which hundreds were killed and many times more were injured this caused large-scale unrest and civil disorder throughout the country which would become known as the 1905 revolution and in georgia itself rioting and ethnic violence broke out between various groups which prompted joseph to form the bolshevik battle squad with which he undertook robberies raided arms caches stole printing equipment and attacked government troops having now established himself as a leader within the bolsheviks in georgia joseph was then sent in november of 1905 to saint petersburg where a party conference was taking place and it was at this meeting that joseph would meet vladimir lenin for the first time he then a year later traveled to the swedish capital of stockholm to attend the 4th congress of the rsdlp at which a vote was taken to restrict the raising of party funds to peaceful means only which both lenin and joseph disagreed with and they then determined to continue with their armed robberies regardless as a result of this joseph increased his campaign of violent robberies culminating in him planning along with lenin a notorious robbery on an armed convoy into bilisi which was carrying a large amount of money to the imperial bank and after the gunfire had died down around 40 bolsheviks laid dead but yosef escaped unharmed with the loot as well as armed robberies joseph also undertook other forms of illegal money raising such as kidnapping the children of wealthy locals and holding them to ransom but this spree of violence and intimidation soon enabled the zara's secret police to catch up with him and he was eventually arrested and exiled once again in 1912 yosef was asked by lenin to join the bolshevik central committee which he agreed to but he was then later that year arrested once again and sent into exile but soon escaped and went underground in st petersburg where he secretly edited the bolshevik newspaper pravda meaning truth and it was whilst working on this newspaper that yosef started to use the pseudonym stalin meaning steel which he would be known as for the rest of his life indeed it was the editorship of pravda that brought stalin to the attention of many bolsheviks within the communist party and also cemented his position as one of lenin's right-hand men until by the outbreak of the first world war he was one of the most influential men in the movement over the coming years stalin was arrested and exiled on several occasions and after the first world war broke out and the situation on the front became more and more desperate both he and his fellow exiles were conscripted into the russian army although he was then after a medical ruled out of military service due to his disabled left arm stalin then requested to be allowed to serve the rest of his exile in siberia which was accepted but whilst he was there the february revolution of 1917 broke out in saint petersburg which culminated in nicholas ii being forced to abdicate the russian throne and he was then replaced by a provisional government headed by alexander karensky but the new regime's grip over the country was still relatively weak meaning that the influence of the far left in the shape of the bolsheviks continued to grow unchecked over the coming months and eventually after a series of crackdowns lenin secured a majority within the party to try a coup and in the early hours of the 7th of november 1917 the bolsheviks took control of power stations in st petersburg along with other important public services such as the telephone exchange then the soviet-controlled warship the aurora which was anchored off the shore of the city opened fire in the now surrounded winter palace which soon afterwards forced the provisional government to surrender meaning that lenin and the bolsheviks were now in power in russia and they then began the process of consolidation in this clampdown lenin used newly formed bolshevik secret police or the checker to crush anyone who was deemed to pose a threat to the new regime and estimates indicate that over a hundred thousand people were killed over the following months many consisting of zarya's supporters the middle class and the intellectual elite the capital of the newly instated russian soviet federate socialist republic was then moved to moscow mainly because of its centralized location and also because lenin wanted to distance the new regime from saint petersburg which had been the tsarist capital since the reign of peter the great despite this success russia was still at war with germany and austria and as the dilapidated russian economy had been unable to sustain the army during the conflict the resulting food shortages discontent and widespread chaos meant that lenin was eager to sue for peace another reason for peace being necessary was that the bolsheviks needed to consolidate their power over russia and any continuation of the war could potentially weaken their tenuous grip over the country but their position was soon strengthened when a ceasefire was agreed with germany on the 15th of december 1917 and hostilities with the central powers then formally ceased with the signing of the treaty of bressler tusk on the 3rd of march 1918. despite the conclusion of russia's involvement in the first world war there was still fierce resistance against lenin's regime within the country itself as the bolshevik seizure of power in the october revolution had effectively unified people from all corners of the political spectrum against the communists who became known as the white russians and it was not long before fighting broke out between the two factions igniting the conflict known to history as the russian civil war this war effectively split russia into dozens of regions and in some cases states that fought one another for supremacy over or independence from moscow however the bolsheviks with the help of leon trotsky who had established a million strong fighting force by this time in the shape of the red army was eventually able after fierce fighting to subdue the government's enemies as well as the intervention of foreign powers on the side of the white russians until by the 1920s they held the upper hand and controlled the country once again as food and supplies were often scarce in russia during the conflict stalin who had returned from exile in the aftermath of the february revolution in 1918 and had been an important supporter in lenin's later coup was sentenced to ritz in which he would later name stalingrad in order to procure food supplies and oversee the red army's campaign against the whites in the region during his mission of food procurement stalin ordered the execution of anyone who defied his orders and his tenure as the commander of the red army in the region was largely met with criticism from his bolshevik party comrades who disapproved of his strategy of sending mass numbers of red army troops against the whites which often resulted in massive losses it is clear that in their campaign against the white russians the bolsheviks had started to use methods which far outweighed the former czarist regime in terms of brutality and ruthlessness although to be fair both sides in the russian civil war committed atrocities however it is clear that one of the most effective and relentless advocates of the communist policy of terror was stalin who was more and more seen as a hardliner within the regime as he more than anything wanted to eradicate resistance in all its forms perhaps the most famous example of the increasingly ruthless approach the communists employed then came on the 17th of july 1918 when nicholas ii and his wife and children were executed by the bolsheviks in yekaterinburg where they were being held in which the tsar and his family were peppered with bullets and then bayoneted and clubbed to death by their communist captors during this period stalin was assigned to various military commands during the latter stages of the russian civil war in which he proved to be ruthless in dealing with the deserters and was ultimately rewarded by the government with the order of the red banner for his services to the communist cause shortly after this stalin was also involved in the polish soviet war which had started when the newly re-established republic of poland had sought to capitalize on the state of upheaval within russia in order to expand its eastern frontier during the conflict stalin often disobeyed orders and again received criticism from within the bolshevik party for his increasingly harsh methods however the war eventually ended in poland's favor and a peace treaty was signed shortly afterwards as russia was still too weak to fight on multiple fronts this treaty combined with the bolshevik victory in the russian civil war finally allowed them to concentrate their efforts on internal affairs which in the early years of the regime's rule was centered around centralizing control of the country in virtually every respect however in the early 1920s opposition to the soviet regime resurfaced in the shape of strikes and unrest particularly from the country's rural population who had by and large not been involved in the communist seizure of power and were on the whole supporters of the deposed tsar or the white russians the civil war had also caused massive upheaval across the country itself as although the soviets controlled the urban centers nearly 80 percent of the russian population were rural peasants whose lives and farms had been most affected by the fighting and soon led to widespread food shortages across the country that caused a mass exodus from russia's northern cities as its urban population migrated south to find food this migration was a problem for the bolsheviks because the vast majority of their supporters were industrial workers and city dwellers who were now becoming more and more dissatisfied with the regime's inability to secure adequate food supplies to resolve this issue the soviets then ramped up their policy on food requisitioning that was put in place to concentrate russian agriculture output and feed the red army as well as the dwindling population of the country's urban centres such as moscow but this policy soon resulted in mass starvation and famine across rural southern russia as hundreds of thousands of farmers crops were simply taken from them which left both they and their families with no source of income or food and culminated in the russian famine of 1921 to 1922 in which several million peasants died from starvation this dire situation then prompted lenin in 1921 to make concessions in his new economic policy which allowed state industry and private enterprise to co-exist and replace food requisitioning with taxation that allowed the country's farmers to keep and sell the crops they produced this policy was largely successful in restoring adequate food production however it was unpopular with certain members of the communist regime such as trotsky who argued that the state should repossess all worker output whilst economic moderates such as lenin and stalin were in favor of a degree of private enterprise so long as it was controlled and directed by the state stalin's support of lenin had made him an important figure within the regime by this time and was then in 1922 nominated to become the party's new general secretary which was an administrative position that placed him in charge of party membership along with disciplinarian duties this role also gave stalin a foothold in virtually every aspect of the governance of russia as after all the party was the state and as power was highly centralized the responsibility of stalin's new role was spread across the entirety of the soviet government and therefore the country this meant he was able to gather information on potential enemies and he then gradually and quietly began to accumulate power through ever expanding bureaucracy which lay at the root of his eventual rise then in may 1922 lenin suffered a severe stroke which left him partially paralyzed and bedridden although he was still able to make decisions and dictate policy and stalin who is now his right hand man acted as a messenger between him and the council of people's commissars which kept him fully informed of all political events and decisions but also enabled him to control lennon's communications soon after this lenin began to complain to his wife about stalin saying he was unintelligent and later perhaps fearing death was imminent dictated the document that is now known as lenin's testament in which he urged for a reform within the party's ruling elite and criticized his leaders and also recommended that stalin should be removed from his position as general secretary this document which lenin wanted read out on the 12th party congress could have if it had ever seen the light of day ended stalin's career but both he and his fellow party leaders who were also criticized in lenin's testament had the documents suppressed and did not allow it to be released to subordinate party members it was around this time in late december of 1922 that the separate soviet republics of russia ukraine bello russia and the trans-caucasian soviet which was comprised of states such as armenia azerbaijan and georgia agreed to form the union of soviet socialist republics that would last until 1991 and would with stalin's help become the second most powerful nation on earth in a matter of decades lenin however would never see his brainchild reach the zenith through his power as he died on the 21st of january 1924 and the major figures within the soviet regime then began to vie with one another for control of the communist party and stalin as general secretary then began to position himself as one leading candidate to succeed his former master perhaps his biggest rival in this power struggle came in the shape of leon trotsky who had joined the bolsheviks from the mensheviks just before the october revolution of 1917 and had founded the red army and led it to victory in the russian civil war which made him a hero in many people's eyes within the communist party and secured his position as one of lenin's most trusted lieutenants initially trotsky seemed at least by adword appearances to be the favorite to succeed lenin however stalin had over the previous years been using his position as general secretary which controlled party appointments to surround himself with loyal followers who owed their promotions to him and meant he was gradually able to wrestle control of the party away from trotsky and his allies and fill its leading positions with persons answerable to him trotsky himself then began to criticize stalin whom he saw as a rightist arguing that lenin's capitalist new economic policy should be reversed and then began to ally himself with other leading bolshevik members known as the left opposition and later the united opposition who were opposed to the general secretary's ever increasing grip of the soviet union stalin's position as general secretary also gave him another advantage over his opponents as he now had control over the now widespread bureaucracy across russia which fed him information on political developments as well as people and it is certainly fair to say that even though stalin in his early life had proven himself to be brutal and ruthless he was also incredibly intelligent and cunning stalin then capitalizing on trotsky's growing weakness and isolation within the party aligned himself with influential people within the regime many of whom owed their careers to him until within a matter of months his rival was alienated and excluded from the country's governance this policy of surrounding himself with very effective yes men proved to be extremely effective in securing power for stalin as well as maintaining it but eventually proved to be counterproductive as later in world war ii government officials and red army generals were terrified of making independent decisions in fear of provoking the boss's wrath for the time being at least stalin was secure at the center is bureaucratical spiders web which enabled him to replace his enemies from important government positions until trotsky himself was removed as the people's commissioner of military and naval affairs in january of 1925 and was then also expelled from the central committee in october of 1927 and later from the soviet union altogether in 1929 during his exile trotsky became the figurehead of the opposition to his old rival and went on to write numerous books and articles condemning his former comrade until finally stalin ordered his secret services to assassinate his arch enemy which succeeded after trotsky was attacked with an ice axe by a soviet agent at his house in mexico city and after being taken to hospital died from his injuries on the 21st of august 1940 trotsky's exile meant that joseph stalin was now the leader of a coalition within the central committee of the soviet regime and as most of his fellow committee members were under his thumb he was now the boss in all but name as the role of the head of government lay in the hands of his right-hand man vashislav molotov who was one of his most trusted supporters molotov would later play a crucial role in the re-establishment of the collectivisation of agriculture and would also in his later role of minister of foreign affairs become one of the most famous and recognized members of stein's inner circle as he met with world leaders including hitler in the lead up to world war ii for some time during the 1920s there were growing concerns that lennon's new economic policy was too capitalist as there were fears that the peasant farmers who had benefited from lenin's reforms were profiteering by controlling the sale of their crops and this sense of distrust was then further compounded by grain supplies plummeting by 70 percent between 1926 and 1927 which prompted stalin to revise lenin's economic policy as he could not afford russia's urban centers to experience food shortages yet again another reason for the need for economic change was the relative backwardness of the soviet industry that lagged decades behind its western rivals and it was this combined with the dwindling food production that finally prompted stalin to enact the first of his five-year plans from 1928 to 1932 in which collectivization was reintroduced and the growth of heavy industry was given priority this resulted over the coming years in hundreds of factories mines and plants being opened across the soviet union that doubled the country's industrial workforce from three to six million in five years and also increased industrial output by over 100 percent this rapid and forced industrialization which arguably came at the cost of tens of thousands of peasants lives eventually would give the soviet union the industrial capability it needed to maintain the war against nazi germany as without it the country would almost certainly have not been able to manufacture the thousands of tanks aircraft and other war materials that were required in order to claim victory another part of stalin's first five-year plan was the ramping up of his policy of collectivization which inevitably meant that the soviet union's farmers who had hitherto enjoyed a degree of freedom or private ownership would have to be brought into line under state control these affluent farmers who were known as kulaks were a class of land owner who had through reforms in the 19th century and lenin's new economic policy accumulated some degree of wealth as they have been allowed to sell their crops instead of handing them over to the government on the condition they paid taxes instead this was effectively capitalism in many people's eyes within the soviet regime and it was this assertion combined with a drop in food production and rumors of profiteering that prompted stalin and the central committee to order the seizure of the kulak's grain supply along with their farms by force after which it was declared that they were to be liquidated as a class resulting in hundreds of thousands of arrests across the country estimates vary but the number of kulanks who are either arrested sent to siberia or killed is thought to number in the hundreds of thousands and very likely the millions but this policy of arrest exile and eradication meant that the class of people who were primarily responsible for producing most of russia's grain was wiped out in the space of a few years and would eventually lead to mass starvation and famine the coolants were then replaced with collectives and communes which involved peasants working on the now state-owned farms although as those involved in this state-run system of agriculture did not own the land they worked on or indeed the food they produced productivity slumped as there were no positive incentives for the communal farmers to work hard riots and uprisings then broke out across the soviet union in the late 1920s as a result of these policies that were then stamped out by the red army and nkvd which controlled internal affairs across the soviet union and would eventually be combined with the secret police in 1934 and become stalin's most dreaded tool of terror and suppression stalin then in 1929 enacted a further cultural clampdown on the population of the soviet union in which schools were brought fully under state control as were newspapers and libraries and religion was also effectively outlawed and churches were either burnt to the ground or demolished in short stalin was seeking to bring about total state control over every aspect of life from cradle to grave and some have since suggested that he was merely concerned with gaining absolute power over the soviet population but it could also be argued that he saw state control as a necessity in order to suppress ideas such as individualism which had to be prevented in order to lay the ground for a true communist society which religion money and social classes were not a part of in essence stalin faced a choice between allowing a degree of private enterprise to continue as well as freedom of thought and speech which would have potentially resulted in the death of socialism and by extension communism itself or enacted the principles of socialism which inevitably meant that he would have to end all individual freedoms as many people throughout the country simply did not want to live under a socialist state capitalist historians argue that this is perhaps the greatest weakness that lays in the heart of socialism which seeks to end class structure within nations as well as private ownership in order to pave the way for a true communist utopia that is free of money and the state as implementing socialism is entirely dependent on the population of a given nation wanting to give up their private property which has always resulted in every country collectivization has been attempted in the state having to use force which is arguably best exemplified by stalin's russia in essence stalin's solution to the resistance of those who did not agree with his policies of collectivization was the use of force and suppression which inevitably meant that the state control of speech and thought was also necessary in order to crush dissent modern day socialists in the western world have argued that the path to true socialism must lie in gaining the approval of a given population for collectivization via democratic means however as no socialist country has successfully enacted a class-free communal society the validity of true socialism as a form of governance not to mention its economic merits remains hotly debated and deeply contentious to say the least in the case of stalin's soviet union at least the state was everything state farms state schools state libraries state industry and everything a person thought or did was influenced and dictated by the state and any dissension no matter how minor was stamped on with merciless efficiency stalin and his allies were in effect bringing about the most ruthless and all-powerful dictatorship in human history as control was totaled by the early 1930s an outside influence was zero but these policies of the centralization of power soon backfired in early 1932 when a particularly harsh winter in the ukraine and southern russia along with collectivised farming resulted in an unprecedented famine that would ultimately result in the deaths of nearly 3 million people this was despite the fact the grain harvest in the soviet union was roughly the same as in 1930 but the government's increasingly harsh requisitions of grain resulted in the majority of the country's food being sent to its population centres culminating in massive food shortages in rural areas another cause of these shortages was that stalin had enacted the policy of selling the soviet union's grain supplies abroad for which he in return received aid and materials for the country's industrial base that he was attempting to modernize and enlarge her breakneck speed many have argued that this famine was entirely avoidable and that stalin's policies of redistribution have been its direct cause although he himself blamed subversive elements within the ukraine and southern russia and attempted to deflect the blame from himself what then followed is known as the great terror and the great purge which was instigated after the murder of stalin's close friend sergey kirov the head of the communist party in leningrad formerly saint petersburg in december of 1934 some have claimed that it was in fact stalin who ordered the murder of kirov as he suspected him of disloyalty and was resentful of his growing popularity within the communist party whatever the reason and whoever gave the order stalin used his friend's death as a pretext to order the arrest and execution of anyone he thought was complicit in the incident as well as anyone who had opposed him in the preceding years during the great purge which lasted from 1936 to 1938 stalin ordered the nkvd to undertake massive clampdowns on the soviet population the red army and the communist party itself in which potential dissidents were arrested including many high-ranking government officials who were often exiled or executed after public show trials estimates vary but the total number of deaths that resulted from this purge is thought to have been as high as one and a quarter million people including former aristocrats business owners and clergymen many of whom posed no kind of threat to stalin who even had the wives of many of his closest followers arrested and sometimes killed in order to terrify them into submission another weapon in stalin's arsenal of terror were the gulags which was a government-run system of forced labor camps that had been set up in the early 30s in mostly remote areas where people were sent as punishment and where in many cases worked to death as many as 18 million people passed through the gulag system between 1930 and 1950 but the exact number of deaths is still unknown however some historians state that the total number to be around one and a half million people as previously mentioned a major part of stalin's great perch was his liquidation of the officer corps of the red army which was instigated to rid any opposition within the armed forces and further consolidates stalin's control in which hundreds of red army officers and generals were arrested and executed as well as former white army soldiers from amongst the civilian population historical consensus is that this purge severely weakened the fighting capability of the red army as many of its best and brightest were arrested exiled or killed meaning that when nazi germany invaded the soviet union the army's leadership had in effect been crippled and this arguably contributed to many of the massive defeats and losses the russians experienced in the early stages of the war by this time germany was a rising power in europe and stalin was well aware of adolf hitler's hatred of bolshevism and as a result started to prepare for a possible war with germany but due to the purges of the red army its ability to fight was minimal to say the least and its equipment although plentiful was in many cases outdated or in a state of disrepair to buy time the soviet premier then pursued a tactic of appeasement with germany during the late 1930s that culminated in russia signing a non-aggression pact with germany on the 23rd of august 1939 and after germany defeated the poles in their invasion one month later the soviets occupied the eastern half of poland which had been arranged as part of the agreement between the two nations during this occupation the red army and the nkvd captured thousands of polish officers who were later executed on stalin's orders along with members of the country's intelligentsia in the catian massacre of april and may 1940 in which upwards of 22 000 poles were murdered this occupation of the western half of poland then prompted both britain and france to declare war on germany on the 3rd of september 1939 and anticipating as many did that the war between the allies and the germans would be a long drawn-out affair much the same as world war one stalin offered germany support in the shape of food and oil supplies whilst germany was preoccupied with the western powers stalin turned his attention to his northern neighbor finland which he saw as an easy target as he wanted to use the country as a buffer zone against the possible future war with hitler and also wanted to secure naval ports for the soviet navy in the baltic sea stalin then attempted to intimidate the finns into submission by offering their government an ultimatum in october of 1939 to hand over the border region of finland to soviet control along with numerous baltic islands and also allow soviet troops to be stationed in finnish territory but the finns refused the soviet demands and after negotiations broke down stalin ordered a full-scale invasion of the country which began on the 30th of november 1939 despite the fact that the red army was the largest on earth at this time the finns who had constructed an elaborate defense network along the southern border wore down the advance of stalin's troops in which he lost some 250 000 men whilst the finns only lost 25 000. this was seen as a humiliation for stalin himself as his red army had been unable to steamroll at the numerically inferior finnish army and after a peace treaty was signed in march 1940 that secured the buffer zone that the soviets had wanted a rapid overhaul of the red army was instigated over the coming months in which tactics training and equipment were reformed and overhauled stalin who was himself responsible for the massive losses the red army had endured privately acknowledged that he had made mistakes in the lead-up to the war and afterwards sought to reform the leadership of the red army by sacking his defence commissar clement varashilov and replace him with semi and timochenko it could be argued however that stalin's disastrous invasion of finland in the end worked to his benefit as many of the deficiencies within the red army were identified during the conflict which enabled the soviets to prepare for the later german invasion the flip side to this is that the ineffectiveness of the red army in the winter war as it is now known only further encouraged adolf hitler to hasten his invasion plans of the soviet union and at one point he even stated in reference to stalin's regime you only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down next stalin turned his attention to the baltic states of estonia latvia and lithuania as well as northern romania which he again wanted to use as buffer zones between him and germany and after they were incorporated into the union of soviet republics in august 1940 mass arrests and deportations were instigated to subdue the local population during his early years as soviet premier stalin regarded france and in particular britain as greater threats than germany as they had supported the white army during the civil war however as fascism and in particular german national socialism began to manifest itself during the 1920s and early 1930s the man of steel was forced to take the threat of hitler's third reich seriously and thusly began to build up his nation's armed forces it could also be argued that the signing of the non-aggression pact with germany gave stalin a full sense of security as he understandably calculated that a war between germany and the western powers would last for years and would give him plenty of time to build up his defenses the strength of which he hoped would make hitler think twice before starting any war then both to stalin and to the world surprise germany defeated the french and allied forces in just six weeks between may to june 1940 culminating in the french surrender which left britain alone in the war and hitler after failing to invade the island nation during the battle of britain perhaps inevitably made the soviet union his next target this invasion which was scheduled to begin in the early summer of 1941 was co-named redbeard or barbarossa after the teutonic king that had fought the slavs in the middle ages and was comprised of three massive army thrusts involving three million german troops who would use blitzkrieg or lightning war to surround and annihilate stalin's forces before driving onwards towards leningrad in the north kiev in the ukraine as well as moscow itself stalin in contrast to popular myth received no concrete intelligence on hitler's true intentions before the invasion began as the reports he did receive were vague or unclear therefore he continued to stall for time as he believed the german reassurances that the build-up of his troops on the soviet border were not part of an invasion and hoped it worse they were to be used to threaten him and were part of an impending ultimatum the reality was however that hitler was planning to invade the soviet union and he then gave the go ahead for the invasion by broadcasting the word dusseldorf on the afternoon on the 21st of june 1941 and at around 3 15 in the morning on the 22nd of june operation barbarossa began with bombing raids on cities across the western soviet union as far afield as leningrad and after a massive artillery barrage had ceased hitler's forces crossed the soviet border over the coming weeks the germans cut through the russians like a knife through butter and it seemed to all including stalin that disaster and defeat was certain however despite the colossal losses the red army sustained during the opening stages of barbarossa which numbered in the millions it ultimately managed to mount one of the greatest military comebacks in human history and defeated hitler's germany once and for all another myth which is often cited about stalin is that he failed to prepare the soviet union for the war with hitler however when the fact is considered that the red army in 1941 had the most men tanks and aircraft of any army in the world the man of steel can hardly be said to have neglected the country's defenses if anything the soviet red army was too large or unwieldy as resupplying and equipping it with modern equipment inevitably took time and as the russians had never fought a modern large-scale industrialized war against a major european power before the true effectiveness of its armed forces as well as its equipment was still unknown at this time it should also be remembered that the german army in 1941 had just defeated the armies of france and britain in a very short period of time therefore it should be no surprise that the russians folded under the german onslaught during the early stages of barbarossa as they were fighting the most highly organized fighting machine in the world at that time since world war ii many theories have been put forward regarding why and how the soviet union was triumphant over nazi germany some claim that hitler was incompetent and simply declared war on the wrong countries at the wrong time whilst others state that it was a close run thing and could have gone either way and many often claim that stalin himself was incompetent and only won the war because he allowed his generals to do their jobs in truth all the parties involved including stalin hitler and all the leading generals and military commanders on both sides made massive mistakes during the war in russia therefore it is overly simplistic to attribute blame or praise to any one person or sight any given mistake as being a turning point in the conflict although the soviet union was far poorer than the western powers its greatest advantage in its war with hitler was arguably the sheer size of its population which in the early 1940s totaled around 200 million people whilst germany on the other hand had a population of 90 million including austria czechoslovakia and occupied poland more importantly around 45 percent of the population in the soviet union was under the age of 20 in 1941 compared with only 33 percent of the german population meaning that stalin could call on around 45 million men in total if needed whilst hitler had a maximum of around 15 million men of fighting age this meant that germany had a far smaller pool of potential troops to call upon during the war on the eastern front as by 1943 both the german and russian armies that had started the conflict had effectively been wiped out but the russians were soon able to replace their lost comrades with men of fighting age whilst germany by the end of the war had to call upon reserves of men who were not of fighting age such as children and even pensioners these figures do not include the 800 000 women who served in the soviet armed forces during world war ii many of whom were deployed in combat roles including fighter pilots bomber crews and even snipers one of the most famous of whom tatiana kostrina a master staggering 120 kills during the early stages of the war before she herself died in hand-to-hand combat in 1943 and was later posthumously awarded the title of hero of the soviet union another important and better known factor was geography as the russians could afford to lose massive expanses of ground to the germans after the invasion began which in turn stretched their supply lines to the limit and combined with freezing russian winters and the ill-preparedness of germany's industry to supply a large-scale war soon led to disaster this of course ignores the massive impact the western allies had on germany during the conflict across multiple theaters such as the blockade of germany by britain's royal navy its arctic convoys to russia the allied bombings of germany throughout the war the german enigma codes being cracked and the axis defeat in north africa which in terms of the troops lost was comparable to stalingrad it should also be noted that the first stages of the war in russia from a german perspective were incredibly successful and the fact that the veil marked maintained its fighting capabilities in the soviet union for so long against such overwhelming odds is a testament to the talent of its commanders as well as the fighting ability of its soldiers as the near total success that hitler's armies enjoyed during the early stages of the war have as much to do with german military brilliance as they have with soviet deficiencies in the initial stages of hitler's invasion his soldiers wiped out entire soviet divisions who often surrendered by the hundreds of thousands and after the fall of the city of minsk a week after the start of the invasion stalin was left in such a state of shock that he locked himself away for days resulting in the paralysis of the country's government since world war ii much has been made of the fact that stalin at the start of the war at least acted incompetently as he refused to move troops up to his border with germany before the fighting began however it could be argued that this was the correct strategy as the primary goal of blitzkrieg was to surround and destroy the enemy forces in the field therefore stalin choosing to hold back large portions of his troops in the lead up to the invasion could be said to have been the correct decision as they would have almost certainly been eradicated in the first few days of operation barbarossa if they had been stationed closer to the german border as well as this recent research undertaken by german military historians states that the soviet counter-attacks caused severe delays and losses to the verb mark in the early stages of operation barbarossa and in the end delayed them for long enough to make the seizure of moscow in 1941 impossible it should also be remembered that the german army and german industry were geared to fighting short-term quick decisive wars thusly the longest stalin could prolong the conflict the more likely a positive outcome became as hitler's armies were at their strongest at the very start of the invasion and with every day that passed its numbers dwindled its resources declined and its supply lines lengthened in short although many of stalin's counter-offensives early in the war resulted in colossal losses he had more than enough reserves behind the front to replace them as in a brutal war of ideologies which the russian invasion became the normal rules of warfare were increasingly ignored and each side fought with a ferocity that was hitherto unknown in the annals of warfare essentially world war ii in the east was about numbers which stalin came to appreciate more than anyone certainly more than hitler as he understood that the key to victory lay in manpower efficient and plentiful logistics and perhaps most of all in industrial capacity an excellent example of this soviet numerical advantage in equipment was in the production figures with their most celebrated tank the t-34 which the russians were able to produce 35 000 of between 1941 and 1945 and these numbers were then added to by then producing nearly 30 000 t-34 85 tanks which were the t-34s upgraded with an 85 millimeter gun that was designed to take on the powerful german panther and tiger tanks these figures compare starkly with the germans producing around 50 000 tanks from the pre-war period in the mid to late 30s until 1945 which included all variants of german tank design from the panzer one which was a light tank fitted with machine guns to the massive tiger twos or king tigers [Music] in short the russians produced more models of one world-class tank in four years than the entire german tank output from the mid-30s until 1945 excluding self-propelled guns which if included in these figures means that the soviets produced some 100 000 tanks and self-propelled guns in four years while the germans only produced around 63 000 tanks and self-propelled guns in 10 years also when one takes into consideration that tens of thousands of american sherman tanks as well as all the other types of allied tanks and self-propelled guns the germans were vastly out produced and outnumbered on all fronts in terms of tanks and self-propelled guns by nearly three to one these figures also exclude aircraft transport vehicles food oil and manpower which were limited for the axis powers but almost unlimited for the russians and the western allies another staggering fact about the soviet union during world war ii was the demolition transport and rebuilding of hundreds of factories in the wake of the german invasion which involved entire industrial complexes being taken apart and moved by railcar sometimes for thousands of miles to the east where they were then rebuilt safely out of the reach of hitler's luftwaffe soviet archives and records state that in each case up to 10 000 rail cars were required to move a single factory which must have presented a colossal logistical nightmare for the people responsible for overseeing this mass transportation and also caused a huge amount of upheaval to the soviet rail network which was already strained to the limit with moving and supplying the red army let alone the transportation of as many as 1 500 factories all in all these mind-bending figures paint a picture of a country which was by 1942 completely get to fight a long-term industrialized war where in contrast hitler did not place the german economy on the total war footing until well after the war was lost therefore it could be said that the most crucial factor in the soviet union winning the war against germany was simply the fact that stalin's regime did not collapse and it was almost entirely down to his own willpower determination and absolute control that continuing the fight against hitler's invasion was possible let alone winnable in comparison when one looks at the russian defeat in the first world war the main reason the country capitulated to the germans was the fall of the tsar's regime itself where in contrast in 1812 the zardom and the russian population had remained steadfast in the face of napoleon bonaparte's invasion and won as a consequence therefore the fact that stalin's russia did not collapse in 1941 and halted the german advance outside of moscow made victory all the more likely which was then made all but certain by the americans entering the war at the end of that year after the german reversal in moscow in the winter of 1941 the story of world war ii in russia was one of continuing heavy losses on both sides until the strength of the german army was finally broken in the battles of stalingrad and kursk after which the soviets ground down german resistance until in 1945 the country collapsed and with berlin surrounded hitler committed suicide although stalin is rightly considered as being responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of his own people it must be remembered and respected that both he and russia itself defeated hitler's germany during world war ii losing nearly 26 million troops and civilians in the process and it is hard to see how anyone else other than stalin could have held the soviet union together during the conflict as his near total control of the country was essential in securing victory this in a nutshell is one of the greatest paradoxes of stalin's russia as although he committed some of the greatest crimes ever perpetrated in the history of mankind without the resolve of the man of steel as well as the massive sacrifices of the russian people during world war ii the later allied invasions of italy and france would have almost certainly have ended in failure as hitler's armies would have been far too strong to overcome in many ways world war ii transformed the soviet union into the world power it would remain until the early 1990s but despite the massive size of its armed forces which dwarfed the american military in 1945 and occupied the entirety of eastern europe the united states still emerged from the conflict as the world's only superpower as it had been the first to produce nuclear weapons stalin had known that the americans were developing an atomic bomb for some time and discussions have been ongoing in the soviet union since the 1930s regarding the possibility of building such a weapon and after the americans delivered the coup de grasse on the japanese with the aid of nuclear weapons in 1945 the soviet program was greatly accelerated until in august 1949 the russians tested their first atomic bomb in kazakhstan this made soviet russia the world's second superpower along with the united states and with the two countries now facing off against each other there now started an atomic arms race in which stalin continued to build up his nuclear and conventional forces over the coming years this consisted of each side creating larger and more powerful nuclear bombs which ultimately led to the development and testing of the hydrogen bomb named ivy mike that was detonated by the americans on november 1st 1952 and the soviet soon followed suit by detonating their first hydrogen bomb on november 22nd 1955 which was code named rds 37 but stalin would never see the creation of this ultimate weapon however as his health was now failing him meaning that he took longer and longer breaks away from government sometimes for months at a time and would often not allow doctors to examine him by his increasingly serious ailments and even had several of his physicians arrested through fear they wanted to kill him the man of steel had in 1945 alone suffered a minor stroke as well as a severe heart attack that was no doubt at least in part caused by the massive stress he had been under over the preceding 30 years along with the fact that he was a heavy smoker and a regular drinker then on the 1st of march 1953 stalin was found semi-conscious at his volensco dacha he had suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage and despite the best efforts of the available doctors died on the 5th of march 1953 his daughter later stating that his end was difficult and terrible joseph stalin went from being a peasant in the 19th century to being one of the most powerful men who has ever lived in the late 1940s in his early years he was little more than a crime boss stealing money and killing his enemies but by the time he died he had ordered the deaths of tens of millions of people either through execution forced labor or warfare during what many regard to be the greatest communist experiment of the 20th century it is also said of him that he abandoned the ideals of marxism by centralizing control under him and in doing so created a highly centralized dictatorship which only served to increase his own power as he denied the workers any say in the governance of the country which remained in the hands of the few rather than the many in opposition to this many capitalists state that every time socialist states have tried to bring about true communism the process has failed as many people naturally did not want to give up their family's property in assets that often resulted in the state having to use force and in many millions of cases resulted in violence and death this is why many people around the world today still hope for the realization of true communism which is a society based on communal ownership as many feel the transition from capitalism to socialism and then communism has never been enacted as many socialist governments perhaps inevitably are taken over by power-hungry people such as stalin who denied the workers the right to govern their own destinies whether he is a true socialist or not many historians consider joseph stalin to be the most successful dictator in human history as adolf hitler for example only ruled over germany for 13 years while stalin on the other hand led russia for nearly three decades and transformed the country from the weak man of europe into the continent's only superpower which on the global stage was only rivaled by the united states in the modern world there are still those who argue that both stalin and mao zedong were justified in ordering the deaths of millions of their own people as in their eyes there was no other way of transforming russia and china whose population largely consisted of peasants into modern industrialized states other historians have counted this by stating that there is no justification for the millions of deaths ordered by stalin and chairman mao as industrialization could have been achieved with free markets and property rights such as in the west it is also argued that millions of deaths under communism were inevitable as there was no other way of capitalism of property rights ever being ended in soviet russia or maoist china other than the use of force and as the state controlled every aspect of life reducing the population to near slave status and crushing all opposition to the ending of private property was necessary in order to compete with the advanced western nations when he was young joseph stalin grew up hating the oppression of the czarist regime but in the end he personified the orwellian observation that those beset in overturning the hierarchical structure of society often seek power for themselves when offered the opportunity and in the end the man of steel created a state that was authoritarian oppressive and psychologically invasive i was far more terrifying than anything those living under the tsarist empire could ever have imagined no one really has an accurate idea of how many deaths joseph stalin is responsible for conservative estimates range from 20 to 30 million whilst others estimate the number to be far greater whatever the true figure there is little argument that joseph stalin was one of the three greatest mass murderers in human history along with adolf hitler and mao zedong in the west we tend to think we had an important role in defeating nazi germany which in many ways is true however it is widely accepted that it was the soviet union and its people that crushed nazi germany and won world war ii in europe as despite massive losses the country still had the largest army in the world when the conflict was over and dominated the geopolitical landscape for the next 50 years this gives one an idea of how ruthless stalin's russia was and it is no surprise that he is still considered to be a hero in russia today as he after all oversaw the defeat of hitler's germany and turned the soviet union into the superpower it remained until 1991 all in all joseph stalin was an intelligent hard-working ruthless pragmatist who destroyed every enemy who dared pose him during his lifetime and in doing so built the most powerful and all-encompassing dictatorship in history in which he ordered the deaths of millions and in the end got away with it what do you think of joseph stalin was he the gold standard of dictators or a hero who brought about the downfall of hitler's germany and transformed his country into a superpower let us know in the comments section and until next time thank you very much for watching the man known to history as adolf hitler was born on the 20th of april 1889 in the then austro-hungarian town obrano am inn close to the southern border with germany his father alois hitler was a custom civil servant and was by all accounts an overbearing strict and domineering man who had changed his name from shickelgruber to hitler in 1877. in contrast adolf's mother clara was a kind and gentle woman who had initially been hired as a servant by alois but after the death of his second wife he took the much younger clara as his third in 1885 and the two then went on to parent six children only two of which had often his sister paula survived childhood the deaths of so many of her children no doubt shaped clara's close relationship with her only surviving son who she came to dote over and protect as she understandably feared for his well-being and would often smother him in affection after his father's regular thrashings in return clara was perhaps the only person that adolf hitler ever truly loved and he would go on to carry her picture on his person until the very end of his life in 1900 adolf's younger brother edmund died from the measles which was a particularly severe blow for the family and three years later when his father also died adolf's performance at school deteriorated markedly and he became increasingly solemn and attached an average student hitler then went through several schools making few friends and despite being idle and often insolent to his teachers eventually passed his exams but as yet did not have a clear idea of what he wanted to do with his life after school adolf seems to have taken little responsibility for himself instead choosing to live in comfort with his mother spending his days with drawing painting and attending the local opera with seemingly little or no desire to fledge the nest and make his own way in the world finally at the age of 18 hitler who had still never had a job and whose mother was undergoing treatment for breast cancer chose to leave home and moved to the austrian capital where he applied to the vienna school of fine arts and was after taking the entrance exam rejected this career setback which hitler had not expected in his wildest dreams then turned into outright tragedy and despair when in 1907 his beloved mother died of breast cancer which was no doubt a devastating blow and the family's doctor would later state that he had never seen anyone so overcome with grief after his mother's funeral hitler returned to vienna but instead of doing everything he could to obtain a decent income remained unemployed spending his time reading painting or attending performances of richard wagner's operas in 1908 hitler once again applied to join the academy of fine art but was rejected out of hand not even being allowed to sit in the entrance exam and afterwards move to new lodgings in the austrian capital by 1909 filled with self-doubt resentment and depression hitler became a [ __ ] spending his night in homeless shelters and his days wandering aimlessly around vienna between soup kitchens until he finally started to sell his paintings as postcards to earn a living however adolf would often sell his paintings to jewish businessmen with whom he was according to accounts on good terms and there is no reliable evidence to believe hitler's later assertions that he formed his anti-jewish and bolshevik views at this time we do know that hitler was a lover of germanic culture from an early age therefore living in the ancient city of vienna which was populated with many different ethnic groups and nationalities from all four corners of austria's empire may have affected his opinions on non-german-speaking people as well as this hitler came to resent the austrian government itself for its policy of integration towards foreigners who he felt were better treated than the native population this increasing disdain of the country of his birth combined with him receiving his share of his father's inheritance at the age of 24 as well as his desire to avoid military service then prompted him to leave vienna and moved to munich in 1913 where he continued his profession of the painting of postcards after the outbreak of the first world war hitler despite being a foreigner was allowed to enlist in the german army in which he served as a dispatch runner and was involved in various battles such as the somme arras and passchendaele on the western front mostly against british forces he was decorated for bravery on various occasions ultimately receiving the prestigious iron cross second class and later first class which he was nominated for by his jewish commanding officer [Music] hitler then suffered a bout of blindness due to mustard gas exposure in august 1918 which then resulted in him spending the remainder of the war recuperating in hospital starved exhausted and rampant with socialist uprisings germany surrendered three months later much to hitler's disbelief as just prior to his hospitalization the country had seemed to be on the verge of victory he would later blame this defeat on radical elements within germany such as the jews and the communists that had in his mind weakened the state from within although in reality the blame must lie with the german kaiser high command and in particular eric ludendorff who would coincidentally become hitler's political ally during his later failed push attempt the myth that an international conspiracy was behind germany's defeat had also been fueled by the russian bolshevik revolution of october 1917 which in reality had been facilitated by the german high command itself who had allowed vladimir lenin to return to russia earlier that year in short it was far easier for those of a nationalistic persuasion to blame the outsider or enemy within than to consider the possibility that germany had been defeated in a fair fight and hitler who himself was incapable of self-criticism later latched on to this myth and thusly determined to make those responsible pay in 1919 munich and bavaria as a whole became a hotbed of communist agitation which eventually led to the bavarian revolution in april after which the soviet republic was set up which was shortly afterwards overthrown hitler had around this time been assigned as a guard of a prisoner of war camp and after it was disbanded was then assigned to guard a train station in munich's city center records during this period named him as his company's representative to the ruling communist regime and after the soviet republic of bavaria had been proclaimed in april of 1919 he continued to represent his company and liaise with the revolutionary movement after the collapse of the soviet regime in bavaria hitler remained in the much reduced german army but was now posted to a counter-revolutionary intelligence unit in which he would be tasked with gathering information on the area's various radical political groups before the commencement of his duties hitler was sent to munich university where he attended an army-funded course on german history the political situation and most importantly public speaking which were designed to educate informants in the necessities of combating the region's far left revolutionary movements it was this education more than anything that formed adolf hitler's right wing political views after world war one as it was the increasingly widespread hostility within bavaria towards the far left along with his new education and position that present him with the opportunity and audience to kick-start his political career soon after this hitler was noticed by one of his superiors having a heated debate with one of his colleagues which in turn led because of his debating skills to him being promoted and tasked with giving lectures to troops within the army who had been identified as having marxist sympathies hitler also started to air his anti-semitic views around this time which he would later merge with his anti-communist sentiments to form his world view which was largely of a far-right nationalistic outlook opposed to the pernicious outside influences such as jews marxists and the versailles treaty that he had felt had undermined germany and caused or perpetuated its downfall then on the 12th of september 1919 hitler attended a meeting of the tiny and seemingly innocently named german workers party and either by his own instigation or after being ordered by his army superiors joined the movement as member 555 he then rose rapidly within the movement in which he gave rabble-rousing speeches in munich's beer halls leading to him before long effectively becoming the party's figurehead even eclipsing its leader anton drexler a common conception is that hitler's political views were already fully formed at this stage however it is far more likely that he whilst giving speeches observed the reactions of his audience and over time played on any subjects or viewpoints which got a reaction and simply dropped any viewpoints which got no reaction or were unpopular in short hitler did not invent anti-semitism in germany he merely rode the wave of public opinion amplifying and projecting it to gain notoriety and power in 1921 members of the newly renamed national socialist german workers party or nazi party executive committee put forward a motion to merge with the rival german socialist party and hiddle of fearing he would lose influence immediately resigned in protest which caused a panic due to the fact that he was by this time the key figure in the movement and him leaving would potentially spell doom for the party essentially hitler whose life would be shaped by high-risk gambles correctly calculated that the party could not afford to lose its star performer and after drexler canceled the merger hitler stated that he would only rejoin on the condition he was made party chairman leading to a vote being taken which he overwhelmingly won now in full control the leader or fuhrer as hitler was now known escalated his speeches and public appearances and soon became a recognized political figure within bavaria and beyond then in 1923 hitler appealed to the former head of germany's armed forces eric ludendorff who had been one of the key architects of the myth of the enemy from within to aid him in a coup to seize power of the bavarian government the aging general agreed to join with the former corporal and on the 8th of november 1923 hitler and his followers stormed into a public meeting being held by the head of the bavarian government gustav von kaar at which hitler proclaimed that a revolution had begun the next day hitler and his followers which included rudolph hess hermann goring ernst rome and the unknown heinrich himmler attempted to seize the bavarian war ministry but after troops arrived and opened fire on the gathered nazis a panic ensued and hitler and his supporters fled the scene hitler was then subsequently arrested and tried for high treason in february of 1923 and was given five years in prison at landsberg along with several other ringleaders of the porch including rudolf hess but ludendorff was released without charge whilst at landsberg prison hitler wrote one of the most inflammatory and notorious books of the 20th century mein kampf which was part autobiography part political doctrine in which he laid out his ideas for a racially pure germany as well as his hatred of marxism on the 20th of december 1924 hitler was pardoned and released from prison and immediately retook control of the nazi party but as the german economy was now in good health and also recognizing that taking power through violence had been counterproductive hitler decided to now seek to gain control of germany via political or peaceful means however between may 1924 and 1928 hitler's popularity only diminished as he secured only 800 000 votes in 1928 as opposed to nearly 2 million votes four years earlier meaning that obscurity and failure seemed certain then in october 1929 the wall street crash sent the world's economy into turmoil and because germany's economy was comparatively weaker than most as it still had massive debts inflation skyrocketed in turn resulting in mass unemployment and food shortages throughout the country this more than anything else gave hitler and his nazi party the ammunition they needed to seize power and as the population got more and more desperate the fuhrer stepped up his campaigning utilizing modern technologies such as aircraft which enabled him to make speeches in several different cities in a day during the increasingly frequent national elections this along with the ever-growing public presence of the nazi party in the shape of its brown shirts or the sa firmly catapulted hitler onto the national stage which combined with the widespread unrest led to his vote share increasing as he promised the german people bread and work which seemed like manna from heaven at the time this state of crisis combined with the increasingly regular elections then led to a hung parliament within the reichstag meaning that no political party had a majority or overall control this deadlock then prompted leading politicians to write to the head of state paul von hindenburg in which they recommended he appoint hitler as chancellor and after two further elections in which no party claimed an outright majority hindenburg did so culminating in adolf hitler being made chancellor of germany on the 30th of january 1933 after this hitler immediately sought to claim total control of the country and asked hindenburg to dissolve parliament so that fresh elections could be held in march however a month later in february of 1933 the reichstag caught fire and burnt to the ground after which hindenburg hitler's insistence enacted the reichstag fire decree which suspended all basic civil rights and allowed detention without trial the nazis had been quick to blame the far left for the fire which led to the german communist party being all but shut down over the coming months even though the national socialists and hitler himself had gained the most from the incident next the reichstag met at the kroll opera house and voted on an enabling act which gifted hitler de facto control over germany for the period of four years and enabled him to pass laws without the consent of the country's parliament in voting for this act the reichstag effectively signed its own death warrant as the bill's passing made hitler the dictator of germany in all but name meaning the german democracy was now dead over the coming months all political opposition was crushed throughout the country as its political parties were forced to shut down and any persons who were considered any kind of threat were interned either in prisons or in the newly constructed concentration camps that were now springing up throughout germany hitler now began an ambitious plan to rebuild and rejuvenate the country's economy by cancelling austerity and instigating by means of loans a massive public works program which in turn slashed the country's unemployment figures only two obstacles now stood between the fuhrer and absolute power in germany one of which was hindenburg who was still technically hitler superior and the second was the army or rather the army high command who were now increasingly voicing their concerns regarding ernst rome's now massive sa or brown shirts the sa had been set up as the fighting arm of the national socialist party to fight back against his communist opponents during the 1920s but by this time numbered in the millions and was far larger than the german army to the ever-increasing numbers of complaints about the essay's often brutal methods hindenburg told hitler he had to reign in the essay and its leader ernst rome who was now a direct threat to the army the government and to hitler himself plans were then set in motion with hitler's approval to permanently muzzle the sa in an operation code named hummingbird which was headed by hermann goring the head of the ss heinrich himmler along with his right-hand man reinhard heydrich the operation was then carried out from the 30th of june to the 2nd of july 1934 in which arrests were made throughout the country leading to dozens of the nazis political enemies including the leaders of the sa being arrested and executed without trial amongst them were the sa leader ernst rome and hitler's political opponents coming from all corners of the political spectrum including rita van kar the former leader of the bavarian government who was dragged into a wood by two ss men and hacked death with axes in essence hitler used this operation which became known as the knight of the long knives to eliminate any and all opponents both from within and without the nazi party which simultaneously appeased the demands of paul von hindenburg and the army high command then on the 2nd of august 1934 hindenburg died and after he was given a lavish state funeral by the nazi regime hitler acted to remove the final obstacle between him gaining supreme power by making himself head of state after which he had the german army swear personal allegiance to him this meant that hitler after little more than a year of being made chancellor had unrivalled control over every single aspect of german life and was now the fuhrer of the entire german nation germany was now national socialist germany the third reich had begun over the coming four years more and more money was pulled into germany's infrastructure industry and its armed forces whose numbers were swelled by the recruitment of hundreds of thousands of sa members many of whom had been forced after the night of the long knives to either join heireck himmler's ss or now the much larger german army or velmarkt germany was rearming new aircraft new tanks new guns but by this time the old enemies of france and britain had begun to take notice of the growing threat as certain voices within those nations had started to warn their governments of what may lay ahead but despite these warnings many people didn't want to imagine another european war only a madman could want such a thing and there was still no certainty about the fuhrer's future intentions indeed his rejuvenation of the german economy was greatly admired and praised throughout the world for the time being the nations of the world watched and hoped for the best because they didn't or couldn't countenance the worst as it was too terrible to contemplate but as time passed and the warning signs grew so did the calls for france and britain to act against germany before things went too far hitler then turned his attention to his native country of austria as there were growing calls from the nationalist supporters of the nazi party on both sides of the border for the countries to unite the fuhrer then exerted pressure on the austrian government to allow the union but after meeting resistance from them gave the country's government an ultimatum on the 11th of march for all those who so desired to be allowed to cross the border into germany however after the austrians continually stalled for time hitler's patience deserted him and he then ordered the veil mark to cross the border into austria on the morning of the 12th of march 1938 after opposition in the fuhrer's homeland had melted away he embarked on a celebratory tour of the country in which he crossed the border by motorcade along with a heavily armed 4000 strong ss bodyguard after which he passed through his hometown of brown owl before working his way towards vienna where he was met by hundreds of thousands of cheering people this meant that the fears first great strategic gamble had paid off and as the western powers had done nothing to intervene in his annexation of austria hitler who was now emboldened with a new sense of confidence turned his attention to czechoslovakia pressure was then exerted on the czech government for the sudetenland areas of the country which contained a sizable population of german-speaking people to be handed over to german control however the british and the french pressured the germans to back off but at the munich conference they signed an agreement allowing germany to occupy this dayton land on the condition hitler made no more territorial claims in the continent the territory was handed over to the germans on the 29th of september 1938 but hitler was still not satisfied with the agreement and subsequently ordered the veil mark to invade the rest of czechoslovakia the following spring which broke the munich agreement between himself france and britain there was now no doubt that hitler was a man who could not be trusted and who wanted war at any price therefore the major powers started to rearm in earnest as war was now inevitable germany now began to prepare for an invasion of poland the reasons for which were down to hitler wanting to reclaim the german territory of west prussia which had been handed over to poland after world war one and now separated germany from east prussia another reason for the invasion of poland was the fuhrer's long-held assertion that germany needed more living space in eastern europe for colonization or as he called it leben's realm however before attacking the poles germany needed to secure an agreement with the soviet union to avoid any possible conflict over the country so on the 23rd of august 1939 germany and the soviet union signed a non-aggression pact which stipulated that poland would be divided between them this pushed europe to the very brink of war and led two days after the german soviet agreement was signed to britain and poland signing their own anglo-polish alliance in which britain guaranteed polish independence hitler again gambled after this as he calculated that britain would be unwilling to commit to another european war and thusly gave the invasion the go-ahead regardless which then began on the 1st of september 1939 when german troops crossed the polish border on mass two days later britain and france declared war on germany in response world war ii had begun poland despite brave resistance was no match for germany which using a combination of tanks and mechanized infantry along with close air support from hermann goering's luftwaffe quickly pounded the country into submission and on the 17th of september the soviet union invaded eastern poland carving the country in two what followed is now known as the phony war as britain and france hesitated deciding not to attack which gave hitler time to build up his forces on germany's western border and after the fall of denmark norway in the spring of 1940 the fuhrer ordered the invasion of holland belgium and france itself on the 10th of may 1940 army group b in the north advanced through the low countries of holland and belgium which forced the british and french armies to advance to meet them [Music] this pinned the allies in the north whilst to the south in the heavily forested ardennes region which had been judged to be impassable to tanks by the allied leadership the main force of the german army advanced army group a then smashed straight through the poorly defended french lines and raced towards the channel ports cutting the allied armies in two and leaving paris open to direct assault this brilliant maneuver sent the allies into outright panic and after various sporadic counter-attacks failed and being surrounded on all sides the british decided to withdraw from france in what became known as the dunkirk evacuation with the british now neutralized the germans turned their attention towards paris and under massive pressure the french declared the city open leading to it being occupied by the veil marked on the 14th of june 1940 eight days later on the 22nd of june delegates from the french government under the newly instated marshall patan met their german counterparts including hitler at compien in the very same railway carriage which in 1918 the germans had surrendered to the allies hitler then toured paris on the 24th of june via motorcade visiting napoleon's tomb in the eiffel tower along with the city's other landmarks in what would prove to be his only visit to the french capital in a matter of weeks germany had defeated france and delivered britain a crushing blow making hitler the master of europe and a national hero as he had erased the shame and defeated the first world war and claimed revenge on the country's enemies however britain refused to enter peace talks as its new prime minister winston churchill was determined despite detractors within his own government not to give in to hitler and thusly resolved to continue the struggle to the bitter end herman goering had assured hitler that the luftwaffe alone was strong enough to defeat the british royal air force to facilitate a cross-channel invasion and hitler who had no reason to doubt going at this stage gave the go-ahead for the aerial assault which began on the 10th of july 1940 with mass air raids on targets in southern england including airfields and radar installations these attacks and aerial battles continued with massive losses on both sides until on the 2nd of august an raf bombing raid over berlin which was intended to hit industrial targets accidentally dropped its payload on residential areas largely due to heavy cloud cover hitler who was outraged then ordered going to bomb london in reprisal which shifted the focus away from the now near disabled airfields across southern england and allowed the raf valuable time to recoup its depleted numbers the luftwaffe then continued its bombing of civilian targets as did the raf until in october 1940 acknowledging the british defenses were still too strong to make an invasion viable hitler cancelled operation sea lion the invasion of britain judging the country to be no serious threat and turned his attention eastwards towards russia hitler had long hated bolshevism and stated that the soviet union was a backwards ramshackle state which was ripe for the picking and thusly ordered the german high command to draw plans for a full-scale invasion of the country which was code-named operation redbeard or barbarossa after the teutonic king that had fought the slavs in the middle ages barbarossa was to become the largest ground invasion in human history consisting of nearly three million german troops in three massive army thrusts three armies consisted of army group north centre and south the strongest of which was the army group center which was tasked initially at driving through the heart of the soviet union towards moscow army group north on the other hand was tasked with capturing leningrad on the baltic coast and then driving south to support the push on moscow whilst army group south was tasked with capturing the ukraine and its capital kiev hitler then gave the invasion the go-ahead and on the morning of the 22nd of june 1941 german troops flung themselves at the stunned soviet defenses initially all went well with millions of russian troops being massacred or captured in huge encircling maneuvers and it seemed only a matter of time before the soviet union as a whole would collapse stalin himself was so shocked by the invasion that he locked himself away for days meaning that no orders were issued to the front as his military leaders were terrified of making a wrong decision and incurring stalin's wrath meaning that the entire russian army was effectively crippled for weeks over the coming months the germans continued to advance but were increasingly held up by both long supply lines and the fact that the majority of the german infantry still had to move from a to b by using horses hitler then began to become concerned by the sheer massive numbers of tanks and infantry the germans were coming up against as well as the sheer toughness and bravery of the soviet troops whose determination to resist seemed to grow the more the germans advanced rather than weaken when the autumn reign of 1941 came the russian dirt tracks down which the germans were advancing turned into quagmires resulting in the advance grinding to a halt which only continued again when the ground started to freeze with the onset of winter however the german army and war effort was only geared to conduct short decisive wars which combined with its troops not being equipped with winter clothing soon meant that the advance shuttered to a halt once again in short hitler's impatience in invading russia quickly and not preparing for the winter conditions made matters ten times worse as men and horses literally froze solid in the subzero temperatures and the german vehicles unlike the soviet vehicles ran largely on petrol which turned to jelly in low temperatures whilst diesel on the other hand remained a liquid the german army then after failing to capture moscow in december 1941 was forced to dig in for the winter which in turn gave the soviets who after all were accustomed to the severe cold all the time they needed to regroup and resupply it was around this time that another influence began to take its toll on hitler as his personal physician dr theodore morrell who was considered a quack by his peers but who had been appointed to the post after curing hitler's stomach cramps began to administer the fuhrer with powerful and dangerous combinations of hard drugs these included methamphetamine which would often make hitler hyperactive and cause him to stay up late into the night often until past three in the morning meaning that to counteract this morel gave hitler brom nervous it a powerful bromide based sedative which would in turn knock hitler out completely and cause him to sleep well into the next day this combination of uppers and downers no doubt had a considerable detrimental effect on hitler's ability to make coherent decisions regarding the war in russia and may in part explain many of his irrational strategic choices later in the conflict one of the fuhrer's more fateful mistakes was his insistence as the war went on in making all the major strategic decisions himself joseph stalin in contrast who had not trusted his generals to command his armies early in the war eventually allowed the experts to do their jobs and essentially gave his commanders the freedom they needed to conduct the war themselves this is certainly one of the most important factors in germany's eventual defeat in the east as hitler like stalin had little or no knowledge of military command but unlike the soviet leader gradually wrestled control of his armies away from his generals with a disastrous consequences also in early 1942 ss leaders met at vanci near berlin in a meeting which was chaired by himmler's second in command the ice-cold and ruthless reinhard heydrich at this meeting heydrich and other leading nazis thrashed out the details of what became known as the final solution to the jewish question resulting in millions of jews gypsies and homosexuals being transported across europe to massive death camps in which they were gassed and incinerated this also placed a massive strain on the german economy as thousands of troops and millions of reich marks were needed to organize and build the camps required and goes to illustrate the lengths the nazis went to to meet their fanatical ends as even though the final solution severely depleted germany's limited resources hitler himmler and heydrich still continued with their plans to exterminate the jews despite the resources the holocaust required being badly needed on the fighting fronts in the spring of 1942 the germans resumed their eastern offensive but by this time japan had attacked the united states pearl harbor on the 7th of december 1941 which led to hitler declaring war in the united states in support of his ally this was another colossal mistake as it meant america's massive industrial potential was now unleashed and also meant that germany was now at war with another major power on four fronts these included russia the ever-increasing bombing and counter-bombing against britain the struggle to disrupt allied shipping in the north atlantic and north africa where germany had intervened after mussolini's failed invasion of egypt had meant that the british were in danger of dominating the mediterranean all this combined with ramping up of the final solution stretched germany's industry to breaking point and it was now only a matter of time before its troops and industry were worn down in 1942 the german army continued to advance into russia extending its supply lines and meeting ever increasing numbers of russian troops and tanks in the process leningrad was at this time surrounded by army group north but army groups sent her to the south-east and failed in its attempt to take moscow and was slowly being pushed back by soviet counter-attacks hitler now turned his attention south to the crimea or rather the oil fields in the baku region and during the remainder of that year the germans attempted to seek a knockout blow in the south the fuhrer then ordered that stalingrad an industrial city on the river vulgar was to be taken which only served to weaken his drive into the crimea and also resulted over the coming months in one of the most bloody and intense battles in military history taking place the city then quickly became a meat grinder as both sides poured tens of thousands of troops into it but as the germans were the weaker in numbers the soviets were able to launch a counter-attack in november of 1942 which cut through the weakened german lines to the north and south of the city as the german army inside stalingrad was now cut off the luftwaffe attempted to airdrop supplies to maintain them but the russians continued to tighten the noose and after an attempt to break through to the city failed the german sith army was forced to surrender in february of 1943 meaning that hitler had lost around three quarters of a million troops in a single battle this was a crushing blow to the germans and to hitler himself and from this point onwards the war in the east from a german perspective was one of defeat and withdrawal interrupted by desperate counter-attacks such as the battle of kursk in july 1943 which was one of the largest tank battles in the history of warfare this battle cost the germans hundreds of thousands of troops and was hitler's last serious offensive against the soviet union in the east as its failure meant that the fate of germany and the fuhrer himself was all but sealed by 1943 the americans and the british had taken north africa and were now invading sicily meaning that the clock was ticking and hitler as a consequence became more and more desperate and irrational in his decisions often ordering his troops to die fighting and forbidding withdrawal the final nail in the coffin came on the 6th of june 1944 with the allied landings on d-day and as hitler was asleep when the invasion started no orders were issued to the front around normandy until later that day which effectively handed victory to the allies paris then fell to the americans shortly afterwards and the german army began to crumble under the pressure as the third reich's industrial centers along with many of its cities had now been flattened by the relentless allied bombing hitler now resorted to sacking general after general as he had lost all confidence in them even though he had been the head of the armed forces since december 1941 and made all the major strategic decisions himself despite having limited experience or knowledge this downward spiral continued and various attempts were made on hitler's life including the infamous bomb attack undertaken by klaus von stauffenberg at the furious eastern headquarters the wolf's lair on the 20th of june 1944 which only compounded his paranoia and mistrust of virtually everyone around him and also severely damaged his fragile health by the spring of 1945 berlin itself was surrounded and hitler was now a quivering wreck of a man showing the early symptoms of parkinson's disease or possibly drug withdrawal he then chose to marry his long-term mistress eva braun on the 28th or 29th of april 1945 who had been by his side since the mid-1930s and who was 23 years his junior then at around 1pm on the 30th of april 1945 hitler locked himself inside his private chambers within the fira bunker under the reich chancellory gardens in berlin and a few moments later a gunshot was heard the door was opened and hitler was found dead he had shot himself in the right temple with a pistol whilst simultaneously biting into a cyanide capsule whilst eva braun who was slumped on the sofa next to hitler had also taken cyanide in his 56 years of life adolf hitler went from being a [ __ ] to becoming the most powerful man on earth in 1940 to destroying the country he loved and everything he had fought for over his career he had in his early life been little more than a waste rule who was only given the chance of notoriety by chance happenings and after gaining that notoriety played on the prejudices of the german people to seize power and later conduct a war he had neither the resources intellect or talent to win he is regarded as being responsible for both the second world war and the holocaust which combined led to the deaths of upwards of 50 million people and we owe a massive debt to the soldiers and resistance members of all nations who fought against him and his ideas we would like to draw your attention to our revamped patreon and buy me a coffee membership pages which contain rewards and perks such as early access to our content merchandise discounts and audio versions of our videos along with much more that we give to our valued supporters if you have not yet signed up to help our cause we'd like to ask you to please consider doing so as we need to secure the channel by safeguarding it from possible demonetization and also invest in better equipment software and more people to help us improve our videos going forward in short without your contributions these videos would not be possible so if you would like to ensure this channel never has to shut down due to demonetization please spare whatever you can per month and become people profiles patrons thanks for listening you

Channel: The People Profiles

Views: 80,435

Rating: 4.7916336 out of 5

Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles, Biography channel, the biography channel

Id: C0qD0-y2fv0

Length: 319min 0sec (19140 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 12 2021