1) Hitler was one of several ruthless leaders who came into power in the 1920s and 1930s. These leaders took advantage of public anger and distress.

2) Fear added to anger to creat an explosive mixture. Leader such as Hitler promised prosperity and a return to national greatness. These leader became dictators who claimed absolute power and ruled their people by force.

3) The first dictator to rise in postwar Europe was Italy's Benito Mussolini. He appealed to Italians who wanted order in an unsettled time.

4) Mussolini made fascism—dictatorial government that stresses the greatness of a race or nation—popular.

5) Meanwhile, Mussolini built up Italy's military. In 1935 his army conquered the African nation of Ethiopia.

6) Businesses failed, and millions lost their jobs. Hitler took advantage of people's fears to gain support. He also used people's bitterness over the Versailles Treaty to his advantage.

7) In 1939 Mussolini's forces invated Italy's neighbor, Albania.

8) Many Germans resented that their country had to take all the blame for World War 1.

9) After gaining power in 1933, Hitler ended democracy in Germany. He set up totalitarian rule.

10) The Soviet Union and Japan also titled toward dictatorship during the era. In the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin rose to power as the Communists leader of the Soviet Union.