Revision Table
Create your own copy of a revision table like this and complete by researching and making notes on the rise to power of authoritarian leaders. This will help you to revise in a comparative way.
Hitler 1919-1933 |
Mao 1921-1949 |
Castro 1953-1959 |
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Historical Conditions - war, economic crisis, political instability, weak government, fear of revolution, social divisions, new ideas |
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Role of Leader and Party - ideology, policies, organisation, membership, support, methods used (violence vs. legal), tactics, characteristics, intelligence, personal skills |
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Weaknesses of Opposition - unpopular regimes or policies, rigid or insensitive attitudes, lack of experience, failure to reform, divided leadership, underestimated opposition |
Revision Questions
When comparing and contrasting the rise to power of Authoritarian leaders, the following questions maybe useful to you:
- Assess the state of the economy, before, and at the time of, the revolutions that brought the rulers to power.
- To what extent was society divided, and did those divisions contribute to the revolution?
- To what extent were the revolutions ideologically driven?
- What was the role of violence in bringing the rulers to power?
- To what extent was revolution made possible by the unpopularity and/or mistakes of previous or rival rulers? Had the previous political system collapsed beyond repair?
- Who supported the revolutions and what did they expect to gain?
- What were the contributions of the leaders of the revolutions?
