Rise of Nazism and Fascism

World History Period between World War I and World War II

FASCISM & NAZISM

Fascism refers to an authoritarian and extreme nationalistic right wing system of governance led by a supreme dictator or a party. It is essentially opposed to basic liberties and all other political ideologies and maintains its existence by use of Brute force.

Fascism name is derived from the National Fascist Party of Italy which was the first example of such form of governance. Later on fascist forces arose in almost all countries of Europe like Norway, Germany etc. The German fascism is called Nazism after the Nazi party of Hitler.

Fascism in Italy

First World War had ravaged the European economy and just like other countries there was widespread unemployment and poverty in Italy. Amidst this popular unrest the socialist movement had emerged as a powerful force supported by the working class. The industrialists and the ruling classes were in a constant fear of a socialist revolution.

Further, the ruling classes had led Italy to First World War on the side of Allies and at the end of it they felt cheated. Though Italy gained some territories at the cost of Austria, it was not enough to satisfy the colonial and power ambitions of the ruling classes of Italy.

The National Fascist Party under Benito Mussolini was formed in 1921. With its extreme right wing agenda that stood in opposition to Socialism, it found immediate backing of the Industrialists. The armed cadres of the party called Fasces or the Blackshirts were successful in breaking the worker strikes and unions and peasant movements. By the use of extreme force and assassinations of popular communist/socialist leaders, the Fascist party wiped out the socialist forces from Italy.

Also, the extreme Nationalist stance of the party was likened by the Ruling classes. The fascist party preached the cult of war and promised to revive the glory of ancient Roman Empire in Italy.

Due to these reasons the fascists found support among the Ruling and Capitalist classes of Italy and the government remained mute to their aggressive and violent actions against their opponents.

The Fascist party had a narrow social support (only upper classes) and hence it fared badly in the elections of 1921. But nevertheless using the cult of violence they organized a march on Rome in 1922 and the ruling government surrendered power to them. Mussolini formed the government and by 1926 all other political organizations were wiped out of Italy and Fascism was firmly established.

Nazism in Germany

The rise of Fascism/Nazism in Germany should be seen in the context of unfair clauses of the Treaty of Versailles post World War I. Some of the clauses-

· Germany was forced to accept blame/guilt for the war even though it was an outcome of a series of colonial ambitions and rivalries among all the major European powers.

· Germany had to pay 6600 million pounds as war reparations.

· German military was reduced in numbers and it was not allowed to have Tanks, Submarines or an Airforce.

· Several territories were seized from Germany and distributed to victorious Allies.

These clauses were seen as too harsh and were popularly despised all across Germany.

The destruction caused by war coupled with the heavy war reparations led to economic hardships in Germany and the economy started contracting. The economic crisis was worsened by rising inflation and extreme fall in the value of German currency Mark.

Following the crisis the war reparations were stopped and as a result French and Belgian forces occupied the Ruhr Valley region, the main mining and industrial zone of Germany. This further led to unemployment and added to the humiliation. To arrest the deepening economic crisis new currency was printed and thousands of people lost their life savings which was accumulated in old currency. This further led to popular unrest.

Amidst this crisis some recovery was seen when USA started giving loans to Germany. But following the Great Depression of 1929, these loans stopped and German economy was totally ruined.

This period also witnessed the simultaneous rise of Socialist forces as well as Nazi party (National Socialist German Workers’ Party formed in 1923). The socialists though popular were not a unified force and were divided between the Social Democrats and the Communists. Also, they were not able to arrest the worsening economic situation in the country. This was one of the contributing factors towards the rise of Nazism.

Amidst this turmoil, Nazi party led by Hitler rose to prominence. Hitler as a charismatic leader was seen as the one capable of pulling out Germany from its existing situation. The nationalists supported the cult of war and violence propagated by Nazi party to avenge the humiliation of the World War I and Treaty of Versailles that led to dictated peace, War Guilt and Reparations.

The anti-Semitism and the notion of purity of German race (Pure Blond Aryan) also appealed to many narrow minded nationalists. They were also moved by Hitler’s claim of annexing vast territory consisting of Semitic and Slavic regions of Eurasia as a future fatherland for the German people. Hitler’s dream of making Germany the biggest power in world caught the imagination of Nationalists and they supported the Nazi party.

Further, the use of force and violence against the Socialist leaders and workers’ movements by Nazi party was immensely supported by the Industrial class of Germany. They supported the armed cadres of Nazi party called the SA or the Brownshirts.

The Nazi party though quite unpopular initially, started gaining popularity and in the elections to Reichstag (Parliament) in 1932, the Nazi party emerged as the single largest party and Hitler was invited to form government.

After coming to power, Hitler embarked upon massive militarization of Germany and openly violated several clauses of Treaty of Versailles. He created an Airforce, a submarine division and increased the strength of Army. Under Hitler, Germany occupied Rhineland which was demilitarized by the treaty and also extended support to the Nationalists in Spanish civil war. Later on he occupied Czechoslovakia also. During all these expansion and annexations, the western powers remained silent as they were following the policy of non-interference or the Policy of Appeasement.

During the course of Germany’s rise as a military power, Hitler kept on generating popular support by invoking Nationalist sentiments of the Germans.

He entered into alliances with Austria, Italy and Japan thereby paving way for the Second World War