Lesson video

Hello everybody, and welcome to your History lesson at Oak National Academy with me, Miss Porter.

Today's lesson is the first lesson of a new enquiry looking at why fascists gained support during the 1920s and 1930s.

For today's lesson, please make sure you've got a pen or a pencil to write with and some paper to write on and just to make sure you've moved yourself away from any distractions so you can focus on today's lesson.

Once you've done that you'll be ready to get started and you can do so by writing down today's title, which is "The Long Campaign for Democracy." So, in today's lesson, we're going to be looking at something referred to as the long campaign for democracy.

And by this, I mean the movement in many countries during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries to become more democratic.

A democracy is a system of government by all the citizens of a country.

Everybody in a democratic country has the right to choose their leaders by voting for them.

Common features of a democracy includes strong parliaments, equal voting rights and access to free and fair elections.

And you can see these in many countries today.

But these did not always exist.

Over the next few slides, we will look at some key events in the long campaign for democracy.

I'll talk you through each of these, so you won't need to make any notes, but I'd like you to think about how with each event, you can see some states becoming more democratic throughout this period.

So firstly, we have this painting here on the right and it's called "Liberty Leading the People." It was created to commemorate the July Revolution in France.

Now, the French Revolution was a period of political and economic upheaval that began in 1789.

And it led to the monarch being overthrown and a republic being established.

This event was inspired by ideas of freedom from oppression, equality, and a government that upheld the rights of individuals.

The woman in this image represents liberty.

So, this gives us just one example of an event that led to France becoming more democratic.

Now, this next image shows the Bill of Rights, created again in 1789.

And the Bill of Rights contains the first 10 amendments to the United States constitution.

A constitution is a set of laws and principles that a country's government must be obey.

The Bill of Rights outlines American citizens' rights in relation to their government and it guarantees civil rights and liberties to the individual, including freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Another key event is demonstrated in this image here.

This image records the 1840 convention of the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society, which was established to promote worldwide abolition of slavery or ending the practise of slavery.

It followed two acts in Britain, the Slave Trade Act of 1887 and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which formally ended slavery in British colonies.

We move on to the 20th century now, and this event here is the February revelation in Russia in 1917.

This was a popular demonstration against the monarch, which caused the Russian monarch or Czar, Nicholas II, to abdicate or step down from being king.

In his place, a more democratic, provisional government took control, and they agreed to hold elections for people to vote for their representatives and introduced freedom of speech, press and assembly.

A common feature of the campaign for democracy was more countries granting people with the right to vote.

While as many countries had given some men the vote in the 19th century, in the 20th century, some countries still haven't provided all men or even women with equal voting rights.

However, following the end of the first World War, in Britain, the Representation of the People Act in 1918, granted the vote to all men over the age of 21 and to women over the age of 30, who owned property.

And in Germany, all men and women over the age of 20, were granted the right to vote in 1919.

Therefore, excluding the Soviet union or what had been Russia, following the end of WWI, the vast majority of European countries were becoming more democratic, using elections to form representative governments and granting civil rights to their people.

However, despite this long campaign for democracy in the 1920s and 1930s, the movement towards becoming more democratic in some countries was suddenly halted or reversed.

During this time period, some political movements emerged that opposed democracy, and one of these was called fascism.

This movement started following the first World War and the Russian Revolution in the 1920s.

During this enquiry, we will be looking at what fascism is, why it gained support and why these events took place at this point in history.

To check your understanding of the lesson so far, I'd like you to complete the following multiple choice questions.

So firstly, which is the best definition of democracy? Pause the video, choose your answer from the options on the screen and then resume when you're ready.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got option B, a system of government by all the citizens of a country, where everybody has the right to choose their leaders by voting for them.

If you were unsure, please pause the video here and copy down this definition onto your paper, so you can refer back to it throughout today's lesson.

If you got this correct, really well done.

Your second question is, when did the rise of fascism occur? Again, pause the video, choose your answer from options A to D and resume when you're ready.

Okay, so hopefully you got option A, at the end of World War One.

Fantastic work, if you got those questions correct.

So, fascism became popular in lots of European countries in the 1920s and 1930s.

And during the next three lessons, we will look at some of these in more detail.

In today's lesson, we're going to focus on the rise of fascism in Italy, and you can see Italy here, plotted on this map.

The man pictured here is Benito Mussolini.

He fought in the first World War and enjoyed the military discipline and a feeling that Italians were working together.

He was then proud, that Italy was one of the victors during WWI.

He hoped that this might lead to a new glorious future for Italy, where it could start building an empire again, like it had under the Romans.

However, Mussolini was heartbroken when Italy's democratic leaders failed to gain any big achievements for Italy in the Paris Peace Conference following the war.

To Mussolini, it felt that Italy was being treated like a defeated power.

He started losing faith in democracy as a way to make Italy strong again.

Now, Benito Mussolini went on to found the first fascist movement in Italy in 1919, and became Prime Minister of Italy in 1922.

His belief in fascism differed from other ideologies, such as communism as it didn't have a founder who gave it fundamental principles, such as Carl Max had for communism.

Whilst fascism had some common features, it often took slightly different forms in different countries.

Mussolini was the first fascist leader to form a government.

So, we're going to focus on fascist Italy over the course of this lesson.

And for us to understand fascism, we can look at it on the political spectrum to compare some political beliefs you may be more familiar with.

It helps to think of the political spectrum as a scale with two opposite ends, the left wing and the right wing.

Each end represents a group of principals and those on the left tend to oppose those on the right and vice versa.

Most of these principals refer to the best way to organise society.

Now, in the middle are people with more moderate or less extreme beliefs.

For example, the political groups, which form the parliament in England today are likely to fall with an either side of the moderate section rather than the extreme sections at each end of the spectrum.

Generally speaking, those on the left side of the spectrum strive for a much more equal society and believe that the government should play a large part in people's lives to achieve this.

They are more likely, for example, to tax richer people more heavily.

On the extreme left, you can see communism, and this is the belief that everybody should be equal.

Generally speaking, those on the right believe that a certain level of social inequality is unavoidable and that the government should play a limited or lesser role in people's lives.

People on the right are less likely for example, to tax the richer people more heavily.

On the extreme right, you can see fascism, and this is a much more extreme belief as it is also anti-democracy.

Here you can say some of the fundamental beliefs of fascism.

The belief in nationalism, the use of war to strengthen a nation, a powerful dictator or leader, and a one party government and the use of paramilitary organisations.

And over the next few sides, we will look at these in more detail.

So firstly, a key feature of fascism is nationalism.

This means extreme pride in one's country and a sense of belonging to a nation.

It can also be the belief that one's country is superior and support for its interests should be put above all else.

As the strengthening of the nation is one of the core principles of fascism, fascist leaders were willing to use any means necessary to expand their nation, often using violence and war.

In Italy, Mussolini pledged to restore Italian power and prestige.

On the map on the right, you can see Italy in the 19th century or 1800s.

Surrounding Italy, across the Adriatic sea, you can see place names such as Dalmatia.

Fascists wanted to gain control of these territories in order to strengthen Italy and make it a great power, and this was a key part of nationalism.

Another key feature of fascism is strong leadership.

Mussolini wanted to unite all the Italians under his leadership.

Fascist also believed in one party government, meaning that only the one political party in power is allowed to exist.

In Italy's case under Mussolini, this was the Fascist Party.

Fascists activists seek to remove other political parties, as they could pose a threat to their leader's power.

And therefore, Mussolini sought to remove the threat of communism and socialism in Italy.

Lastly, fascists believe in the use of power military organisations to gain and maintain control.

Paramilitary means to be organised like an army.

Acts of violence are often used by paramilitary organisations to attack political opponents and in Italy, these squads were referred to as fasces or fascist squads.

On the right here, you can see the emblem of the Italian blackshirts, a paramilitary wing of the fascist party.

In the middle, you can see the fasces or the fascist symbol used by Mussolini, made up of a rod and an axe.

The bound sticks are a symbol of the Roman empire, as they represent the symbol of office, used by Roman magistrates.

It also demonstrates strength as one stick is weak by itself, but the stick in a bundle is strong.

This symbol demonstrated Mussolini's belief that Italy would be strong if it was united under the Fascist Party and his leadership.

But the use of axe as a weapon also demonstrates that this state would be aggressive.

Based on your understanding of the lesson so far, I'd now like you to read through this paragraph and see if you can identify the correct words from the box below to fill the gaps.

You can pause the video here to complete the task and resume when you're ready to check your answers.

Welcome back everybody, and well done for completing this task.

I've added the correct answers in bold here, and I will go through them with you now.

So, democracy is a system of government by all the citizens of a country.

Everybody in a democratic country has the right to choose their leaders by voting for them.

By the end of WWI, many countries had established representative governments.

During this time period, some political movements emerged that opposed democracy.

One of these was called fascism.

The first fascist movement was established in Italy by Mussolini.

Excellent work if you've got those correct.

You can now pause the video if necessary to make any corrections and then resume when you're ready.

So, over this enquiry, we are going to look at the reasons why this extreme political ideology, gained support in Europe throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

Here, you can see on the left, the reasons we've touched on so far this lesson.

Some people began to support fascism because it offered the following things, national unity, a strong leader and a strong nation.

You will also see that people supported fascism because of what it opposed.

Fascists opposed extreme leftist ideologies, such as communism.

Therefore, people who feared the spread of communism, could turn to fascism for support.

Fascism was also anti-democracy.

At the start of this lesson, you saw how the long campaign for democracy had led to more democratic governments being established at the start of the 20th century.

However, despite this, some people supported fascism because it opposed the idea of democracy.

And you will soon find out more about why people supported fascism in today's reading.

Now, in a minute or so, you'll be able to complete that reading and I'd like you to answer these comprehension questions here.

So firstly, one asked you what is a democracy.

Question two asks you to describe one common feature of democracies.

The third question asks you, who was the first fascist leader of Italy? Question four asks you to describe chief features of fascism.

And question five is your challenge question, what did fascism oppose in the 1920s? And I'd like you to provide at least two examples, if you can.

So, you can now pause the video, open the worksheet and complete today's questions.

There is a glossary to provide you with some definitions of the key words if needed.

And once you have finished, you can return to the video to check through your answers.

Hey, welcome back everybody, and very well done for completing those questions.

So, we will now go through of these answers together.

Remember that my answers may be different to yours, which is absolutely fine.

You may want to just pause the video after each question to tick through your work or to make any changes, if necessary.

So, the first question asks, what is a democracy? An acceptable answer could be a system of government in which people can vote.

A good answer would put this into a full sentence such as, a democracy is a system of government by all the citizens of a country where everybody has the right to choose their leaders by voting in elections.

Second question asks you to describe one common feature of democracies, so, something you'd expect to see in a democracy.

So an acceptable answer could be the right to vote.

And again a good answer would put this into a full sentence, such as, one common feature of democracies is the right to vote as all citizens are given the right to vote for their leaders in free and fair elections.

Third question asks, who was the fascist leader of Italy? An acceptable answer is Benito Mussolini.

A good answer could add the date when he became the leader, such as, the fascist leader of Italy was Benito Mussolini, who became prime minister in 1922.

Fourth question asks you to describe two features of fascism.

So, there are a few acceptable answers here.

You could have had nationalism, strengthening the nation, a powerful leader, one party government, or the use of war and violence.

Again, good answer could be that one feature of fascism is a powerful leader or dictator.

They would also be the leader of the only political party that was allowed to exist.

Another feature of fascism is nationalism and the belief that the nation should be strengthened.

So, in that good answer you can see there's a little bit more description rather than just naming the two features as well.

Your challenge question today asked what did fascism oppose in the 1920s? And if you could, try and provide at least two examples.

So some of your acceptable answers could be liberalism, democracy, communism.

And a good answer could be that fascism opposed democracy and the existence of multiple political parties in favour of a one party style of government.

Fascism also opposed communism and was fearful of the spread of communism following the Russian Revolution in 1917.

So again, a good answer just gives a couple more detailed examples as well.

So, you may want to spend a few minutes now adding some extra detail to your answers.

If so, pause the video here and again, very well done for completing those questions.

We are now going to return to enquiry and think about the nature of fascism and why people supported it.

To do this, I'd like you to use your knowledge from today's lesson to complete this table.

On the left, I'd like you to write down what fascism offered to its supporters.

So, you'll want to think about fascist beliefs to help you complete this column.

For example, I have written that one thing that fascists offered was to make the nation stronger.

On the right column, I'd like you to write down what fascism opposed.

So, anything fascism disagreed with or was actively against.

For example, I have written that fascism opposed having multiple political parties in one state, as we knew, they supported a one party style of government.

You can now pause the video here and see if you can write down maybe three or four examples.

Once you have completed the task, you can resume the video to check through your answers.

Okay, welcome back everybody.

So, hopefully, you've added two, maybe three or even four examples to your table.

So, in terms of what fascism could offer, you might have added that it offered to make the nation stronger.

You could also add that it offered national unity or that it offered strong leadership or one party style of government.

However, that could also be something that they oppose.

So, for your opposition column, you may have included that having multiple political parties in one state was something that they opposed.

You could also have added liberalism as something that they opposed or communism.

Well done, if you've also recognised that they opposed democracy as well.

Excellent work if you got any of those answers and really well done if you've got something that I haven't mentioned there as well.

You might have something extra on your table.

So, to conclude the lesson, we are going to look quickly at what you've covered so far in this enquiry.

So, in this lesson, we have looked at the long campaign for democracy and also the nature of fascism, so what fascism means.

In your next lesson, we will look at the growth of fascist support in the 1920s.

So, we'll look at more reasons why the fascists gained support in the 1920s.

In the third lesson, you will look at a period known as the Great Depression to look at why this caused people to support fascism in Germany, and in the final lesson, you will look at why the fear of communism caused the fascists to gain support in Spain, Italy, and Germany.

You will also be able to answer our enquiry question, why did the fascist gain support? So, you've now completed today's lesson.

Thank you so much for your hard work and really well done for completing the questions today.

Please now complete the end of lesson quiz, to check your understanding and I look forward to teaching you in the next lesson of this enquiry soon.