The Interwar Years and World War II (^) ‹ 185
The Rise of Fascism
Historians struggle with definitions of fascism because it has no coherent ideology, and its
form varied from nation to nation. But all fascism was a mixture, to one degree or another,
of the following ingredients:
• An intense form of nationalism
• A professed belief in the virtues of struggle and youth
• A fanatical obedience to a charismatic leader
• An expressed hatred of both socialism and liberalismMussolini and Italian Fascism
The birthplace of fascism was Italy, which became the first country in Europe to have
a fascist government. Italy, though a member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and
Austria-Hungary, had originally chosen to remain neutral in World War I. But in 1915,
Italy entered the war on the side of the Entente in hopes of recovering lands previously
taken by Austria-Hungary. Italian war veterans returned home disillusioned, as the war
experience had turned out to be a nightmare. One such veteran, a former socialist named
Benito Mussolini, founded the National Fascist Party in 1919. The new party began to
field candidates for the Italian legislature and to establish itself as the party that could save
Italy from the threat of socialism. By 1922, squads of fascist “Blackshirts” (squadristi),
largely recruited from disgruntled war veterans, were doing battle with bands of socialists
“Redshirts,” and the Italian government was increasingly unable to keep order. In October
1922, Mussolini organized 20,000 fascist supporters and announced his intention to march
on Rome. King Victor Emmanuel III responded by naming Mussolini prime minister of
the Italian government.
Mussolini quickly moved to consolidate his power by pushing through a number of
constitutional changes. A showdown between Mussolini and what parliamentary forces still
existed in Italy came in the summer of 1924, when fascists were implicated in the murder of
the socialist member of the Italian parliament, Giacomo Matteotti. The masses supported
Mussolini, and by early 1926, all opposition parties had been dissolved and declared illegal,
and the king had abdicated, effectively making Mussolini dictator of Italy.Hitler and German Nazism
Understanding the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany requires an under-
standing of the post–World War I context. Wartime propaganda had led the German
public to believe that the war was going well. As a result, Germany’s surrender came as an
inexplicable shock. The peace settlement seemed unfair and unduly harsh, and there was
a growing sense among the German people that Germany must have been betrayed. In
that context, the Nazis became popular by telling the German people several things they
desperately wanted to hear:
• The Nazis appealed to displaced veterans and young people by telling them that they
would build a Germany that had a place for them.
• They promised to get rid of the hated war reparations and to return Germany to military
greatness.
• They provided the Germans with someone to blame for defeat by claiming that the Jews
had betrayed Germany.
• They appealed to frightened business interests and the Church in Germany by promising
to protect them from the socialists.22_Bartolini_Ch22_181-194.indd 185 27/04/18 1:56 PM