Axis Leaders of World War Two 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 hideki tojo was born on the 30th of december 1884 in the japanese capital of tokyo his father hidonori 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 hironori 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 jedi 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 lacked way behind countries such as the united states russia and great britain to name but a few the then shogun tokugawa iamachi 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 cho shu 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 and 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 a 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 am 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 that were designed to produce men who knew no fear and would obey any order without question [Music] 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 1904-1905 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 have 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 their 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 shangdong 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 its 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 had 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-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 its 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 kempeitai 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 tu 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 that 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 they 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 toji 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 north and 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 tojo 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 countries thawed 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 receive 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 modern-day 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 percent 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 to form a 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 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 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 mark 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 tojo 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 kenpei thai 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 three 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 his 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 mass bansai 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 coursed 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 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 formally 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 militarists 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 neighbours 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 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 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 8 was sent to a catholic boarding school at which he performed well academically but his rebellious streak soon rose to the surface once again as he was an unruly pupil who bullied his fellow students and used violence and intimidation to get his own way 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 the mussolini's gift for 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 was 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 clase 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 ilpopolo 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 if 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 manuel 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 by 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 embraced 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 seemed 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 duchess 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 ducey's 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 modelled 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 il 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 il 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 and 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 doji 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 ill duchess 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 convince 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 douche 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 well-wind 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 duty 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 ill 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 rommel 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 wrestled 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 [Music] 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 ducey's 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 he 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 patachi to the village of gualino di mizegra 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 school teacher 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 his 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 the man known to history as adolf hitler was born on the 20th of april 1889 in the then austro-hungarian town of branau 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 schickelgruber 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 thrushings 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 detached 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 seemed 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 moved to new lodgings in the austrian capital by 1909 filled with self-doubt resentment and depression hitler became a [ __ ] spending his nights 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 move 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 aras 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 weaken 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 name 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 would present him with the opportunity and audience to kick-start his political career 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 was 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 hitler 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 cancelled 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 rudolf 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 rudolph 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 two 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 technology 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 voucher 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 burned 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 crawl 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 reacting to the ever increasing numbers of complaints about the essay's often brutal methods hindenburg told hitler he had to reign in the sa and its leader ernst rome who is 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 poured 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 brownell 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 sedatin land 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 polls 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 to 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 martial patan met their german counterparts including hitler a compian 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 hermann 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 goring 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 gerring 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 up plans for a full-scale invasion of the country which was codenamed 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 the 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 [Music] army group north on the other hand was tasked with capturing leningrad on the baltic coast and then driving south to support the push of 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 10 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 hyper active 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 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 counterbombing 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 group center 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 fiera bunker under the reich chancellery 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 you

Channel: The People Profiles

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Length: 149min 39sec (8979 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 15 2021