A Brief Comparison Of Hitler's Rise To Power

In this essay I am going to compare and contrast the rise to power of Adolf Hitler in

Germany (by 1933) and of Mao Zedong in China (by 1949). Whilst these two risings were similar in some aspects, such as the political and economic situation which existed in

Germany and in China as well as the propaganda techniques, used by both Hitler and Mao, there were major differences between them, such as the ideology of the dictators, the appeal they used for the people and the way they got into the power, in case of Hitler, through political manoeuvring and in case of Mao, by a civil war. The scope of the essay will be for

Germany the years when Weimar Republic was born in 1918, when the Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated, until 1933, when Hitler became the

One similarity between the rise to power of Hitler and Mao is that both countries –

Germany and China were in a state of disrepair before their rise to power, which largely contributed towards the rising to power by Hitler and Mao. One aspect of this is the fact that the most fruitful lands of both Germany and China were possessed by the foreigners, e.g. after the end of First World War, the Treaty of Versailles gave the region of Alsace-Lorraine to France, coal-producing area of Saar was put under the control of League of Nations and a large part of Eastern Prussia and the so-called Polish Corridor to Poland. In total Germany lost 13% of its European land and all its African colonies. This led to major dissatisfaction among the Germans, who believed that these lands should belong to the Germans. If in

Germany the sense of humiliation began after the loss of the First World War, China had experienced “100 years of humiliation”, after losing the “Opium Wars” in 1839-42 and in

1856-60, followed by a defeat by the Japanese in 1894. The so-called Port Treaties gave the prosperous regions in the hands of internationals, e.g. Shanghai was owned by Britain. This also led to the establishment of many warlords, who refused to obey the central

Another similarity between the rise to power of Hitler and Mao are the numerous coups and demonstrations both in Germany and in China, which followed the political humiliations, e.g. the Kapp Putsch, by ex-soldiers, known as the Freikorps in Germany and the patriotic march in Beijing and nation-wide demonstrations after the announcement of the Treaty of Versailles in China. This was creating instable situation in the countries, and the unsatisfied moods of people, led to two similar risings to take place in Germany and in China – Hitler attempted the Munich Putsch in 1923, which ended with him and his followers being imprisoned, and which persuaded Hitler later to seek other means of taking power, rather than armed revolution, and Mao in 1927 attempted the Autumn Harvest Uprising, which was successfully defeated by the GMD army, following the establishment of Jiangxi Soviet, and after which

Mao and his Army founder Zhu De changed from conventional to guerrilla warfare. So, we can see, how the coups and demonstrations led to the attempted overthrow of the government by Hitler and Mao, but after the failure of which, they turned to other types of struggle, in case of Hitler to political manoeuvring and in case of Mao to guerrilla