Rise of Fascism and World War II: Causes, Ideologies, and Global Conflict
Crisis of Democracy and the Emergence of Fascism
3.1 The Crisis of Democracy
World War I, pacifism, and optimism acknowledged the triumph of freedom. The empires of the defeated acknowledged the right to independence by various nationalities, and the creation of the League of Nations assumed that war would not recur. However:
- The Russian Revolution encouraged the world proletariat to the revolutionary conquest of power and the replacement by the dictatorship of the working class.
- The harsh economic conditions of the postwar period, exacerbated by the 1929 NYSE crisis, worsened the social and economic situation of many workers, increasing unemployment and causing distrust of parliaments.
- The Treaty of Versailles angered nations unsatisfied with their complaints and was interpreted as the diffusion of nationalist approaches.
3.2 Characteristics of Fascism
Fascism, a conservative, ultra-nationalist ideology opposed to liberalism and Marxism, was systematized by the Italian Benito Mussolini and his followers. It presented characteristics common to many authoritarian and dictatorial regimes:
- Advocates for an authoritarian state.
- Rejects democracy as an expression of the will of the majority.
- Structures society hierarchically.
- Rejects the Marxist revolutionary workers’ movement, advocating class warfare and dividing the nation.
- Supported by the upper classes who finance the movement.
- Controls basic economic resources.
- Exalts violence.
- Implements a police regime to suppress any contradiction.
- Uses propaganda and censorship, which serve the party.
- Myths become the historical past while enhancing nationalism as a higher value.
3.3 Italian Fascism (Benito Mussolini)
Italy, a victor in World War I, faced a postwar economic and social crisis, with trade unions and workers’ parties struggling to implement a Soviet-style model. Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist Party to build a new, strong state. In 1922, he organized the March on Rome, a demonstration supported by the ruling groups and the king, who appointed him head of government. Mussolini dismantled the liberal democratic system through violence, the police system, and control of institutions:
- Repealed rights and liberties, banning political parties and trade unions, and establishing a single party.
- Created the corporate state, uniting employees and employers in state-controlled professional corporations that provided economic programs based on industrialization, agricultural modernization, and economic self-sufficiency.
- Exalted the figure of the Duce through intense propaganda.
- Glorified the Roman imperial past.
- Aimed to reconstruct the ancient Roman Empire through an aggressive imperialist policy in Abyssinia, Albania, and Greece.
3.4 German Nazi Germany
After World War I, the Second German Reich became a democratic republic beset by serious social and economic problems arising from the postwar period, including large reparations payments to the victors, industrial crisis, factory closures, unemployment, and rising prices. This led to partisan political positions advocating for the revision of peace treaties. In this environment, Hitler joined the Nazi Party in 1919 and participated in a failed coup, leading to his imprisonment, where he wrote Mein Kampf, outlining his political ideology. His nationalist ideology, along with contributions from Italian Fascism, included military buildup, expansion, personal dictatorship, removal of inferior races, and revision of the Treaty of Versailles. With the existing unemployment crisis exacerbated by the 1929 crash, his party won a majority in 1933. Hitler implemented his program, using violence and police repression. He outlawed all political parties except the Nazis, persecuted Jews and opponents of the regime, militarized society, exalted the figure of the Führer, and developed an economic program based on rearmament, highway construction, and support for large industries. Hitler pursued an imperial policy to construct the Third Reich.
4. World War II (1939-1945)
4.1 Background to the Conflict
Historians agree that the aggressive policies of the Axis powers were responsible for the global conflict that started in 1939. As seen, the basic traits of fascism are violence, anti-democracy, and expansion at the expense of people considered inferior, which foreshadowed a violent clash. Democratic nations tried to curb fascist expansionism through the League of Nations, and at the 1938 Munich Conference, they seemed to have reached an agreement on Hitler’s claims, avoiding war. The Soviet Union negotiated a secret pact with Germany to divide Poland. Hitler’s desire to unite Germany and Eastern Russia, not accepted by the Allies, led France and Britain to declare war on Germany after it invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.
4.2 A Global Conflict
The conflict developed in two phases:
- First phase (until 1942): German victories and its allies reached their greatest territorial extension.
- Second phase (from 1942): Allied dominance, with the entry of the Soviet Union and the United States into the war.
World War II introduced features of total war from the beginning, but with important new aspects:
- The German strategy was based on the blitzkrieg, massively using tanks and warplanes to swiftly destroy enemy defenses.
- Occupied countries were controlled by the army or friendly fascist governments, leading to resistance and guerrilla warfare.
- The territorial extension covered almost all European nations, northern Africa, most of Asia, and the seas and oceans.
- New, more destructive weapons were tested.
- The civilian population became a military target.