Fascism
Fascism: Political and Economic Background
The Versailles conferenceleft both Germany and
Italy bitter. It imposed harsh conditions on Germany, and denied Italy promised
territories, despite them having fought on the side of the Allies. The Great Depression,
too, played a contribution to the rise of fascism, having undermined faith in
capitalism. The 1920s was a period of political, and later, economic strife in
Europe. The Russian Revolution held out communism as a solution to Europes
problems at this time. Fascism arose claiming to be a ‘third way’, an
alternative to capitalism and communism.
Intellectual
foundations
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was an influential
German philosopher, who provided the philosophy for fascism. He felt modern
concern with reason had suppressed passion, instinct, and sapped civilization
of its vitality. Nietzsche blamed the Christian ethos, with its love of the
meek. He decided that this way of thinking gave the weak too much say, and
smothered nature’s superheroes, as did Parliamentary government did the same.
He urged re-discovery of the Übermensch, the Superman, to lead Europeans to the
light.
Italy, 1919-1920s
Italy had been a unified nation since 1861 and
was a fledgling democracy. However, a sort of power vacuum after WWI allowed
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) to ‘invent’ fascism. He was anti-democratic, fiercely
nationalistic and had socialist influences (for the masses). He was a master
orator and exploited superbly the bitter post-Versailles mood of 1919 felt by
his countrymen. He made an effective appeal, particularly to ex-soldiers.
Early Italian Fascism
Mussolini founded the first fascist group in
Milan, on 23 March, 1919 called the ‘fascio di combattimento’ (combat group).
It was a protest group for the generally disgruntled. The name came from the
word “fasces” which meant sticks with an axe in the middle, a symbol of power
in Republican Rome.
Fascism in practice
Fascism was opposed to the ‘weak’ ideology of
liberalism which put the individual first. It placed the community (nation)
before the individual, an ideology which was the opposite of liberal ideology. It
was an attempt to deal with problems thrown up by mass, modern society. People
were to serve the nation and this would be their source of gratification.
Fascism revolved around the idea of one strong
leader, the il duce, or the Führer. The slogan used was “one single heart, one
single will, one single decision.”
Fascism’s rise to
power in Italy
The original appeal of fascism in Italy was as
an anti-socialist popular movement. Members were known as ‘blackshirts’ and made
a name for themselves with raids on small socialist headquarters. They practiced
the ‘fascist purge’ and other violent acts.
Mussolini used this movement as a base for the
National Fascist Party, created in 1921. He presented himself as the saviour of
the nation from confusion and division.
He organised a march on Rome in 1922. There was
a mass rally of blackshirts at Naples, October 1922, which set the stage for an
attempted ‘seizure of power’. However, the king invited Mussolini to become Prime
Minister, removing the need for violence.
Fascist regimes in
power
Fascist regimes in power aimed for
‘Totalitarianism’, following through with their ideal of complete state control
over all aspects of its subjects’ lives. Fascist states intervened in family,
private life, gender and sexuality as never before, women suffered a reaction
to their partial emancipation during the war, were encouraged to be fecund.
Italy
In fascist Italy there were double taxes on
unmarried men and preferment for promotion to dads with big families. There was
also persecution of homosexuals.
Germany
The Nazis took the idea of social engineering
much further. Race was, for them, a fundamental driving concept of Nazism.
During the drive for a perfect Aryan race, Jews and other ‘inferior’ races were
persecuted to point of mass-murder.
World War II was the ultimate clash of ideology.