Rise of fascism in europe - why?

Intro to rice of fascism

• interwar years were extremely challanging

• democracies collapsed becase

  • they couldnt deal w problems

  • or people blamed the problems on democracy

• when democracy failed people looked for an alternative

four MAIN headings for the rise of fascism in europe

• economic difficulties

• dissatisfaction with the terms of the treaty of versaille

• fear of communism/fascism

• weak leadership/democracy

explain economic difficulties in general

• high inflation reduced value of savings and led to insecurity in middle class

  • in turn supported right wing parties - strong and stable

economic difficulties in italy

• during war years prices rose by 250%

• 170,000 demobilized soldiers faced unemployment after ww1 ended

• social unrest increased

• 1920 - 500,000 workers occupied steel factories in northern italy

mussolini’s party, in 1919, exploited this and promised to bring stable government to italy and to end unemployment by starting massive public work schemes

economic difficulties in germany

• under weimar republic, germany suffered two economic collapses

• 1923 - economy collapsed for the first time under the burden of reparations

• 1929 - post streseman years, collapsed again

• unemployment - 1933 - 6 million

• weak govt couldnt deal with this

• german voters voted far let and far right

• nazi votes 2.6 to 37.4

explain how the treaty of versaille effected this

• italy - mussolini championed the cause of nationalists who were annoyed ab not getting yugoslavia in TOL 1915

• + didnt get fiume and dalmation ports on the coast

• germany - article 231 held germany responsibe

• 6.6 BILLION dollars

• politicians who “lalowed it” called november criminals

• hitler promised to dismantle the treaty

rise of communism general

• coming to power post october revolution 1917 caused concern in europe

• industrialists and large landowners thought they were cooked

rise of communism in italy

• mussolinis party clashed with communists during industrial unrest in italy 1920 - 1922

• industrial towns/citys - mussolini’s blackshirts attacked communists and broke up strikes

• broke up attempt by socialists to call national strike in 22

• industrialists, landowners and bankers financed the party

• convinced mussolini to seize power by force in october 1922

fear of communism in germany

• nazis financed by industrliasts who viewed hitler as only lad strong enough to prevent spread of communism

• post wall street ccrash - communist went from 62 seats in 28 to 120 by 1932

• reichstag was burnt down in 1933 during election campaign

• convinced germany strong leader was needed

• hitler blamed commies, presented himself as a savior against the red threat

failure of democracy general + eastern europe

• fascism flourished where democracy was weak

• true in eastern europe

  • democratic couldnt deal with economci and social difficulties of the interwar year s

  • all of the govts bar czehcoslovakia fell to fascist type governments

failure of democracy italy and germany

• new voting system FUCKED italy

• weimar republic weaked by its constitution - it wasnt reall elected, was based on proportional repersentation

• bruning,pape and schleicher were all fucking useless

• hindenburg had to invite hitler to take over chancellorship of germany

• 1933 - hitler into power to rule by decree