*Economic problems that beset many parts of the world in the 1920s and 1930s led to dissatisfaction with their existing leaders, which in turn led to the rise of new, stronger governments.

*In the United States, the Great Depression led Americans to choose a new president, only the third Democrat since the Civil War:  Franklin D. Roosevelt.  He promised Americans a New Deal, and delivered on that promise, providing welfare, bailing out failing banks, creating jobs, and essentially making the government the caretaker of the people.  This led to increased taxes and increased government power, and while it helped stabilise the country during the Depression, it did not end it.  However, it was one thing that prevented America from following the paths of many other countries.

*In Italy, many people were disappointed by the Treaty of Versailles.  Italy had been promised land in the Austro-Hungarian Empire if it joined the allies, and it got some of it, but not all.

*Many Italians were also poor, and, inspired by the Communist Revolution in Russia, began to seize land or go on strike in their factories.  Veterans faced unemployment and taxes went up.  The existing government seemed powerless to stop this.

*Out of this chaos a young veteran named Benito Mussolini created a new political party made up mostly of other veterans.  He called his party the Fascists, after the Roman fasces.  He promised to bring peace, order, prosperity, and to restore the glory that was Rome.  Fascism was ultra-nationalistic, elevating nationalism to (or very close to) racism--at its worst, to the most infamous acts of racism in modern history.

*Because Mussolini was in some ways a traditionalist, glorifying Italy’s Roman heritage (and later working with the monarchy and the Pope), but in other ways was a revolutionary, proposing voting rights for women, support of labour unions, creating a minimum wage, and putting railroads under state control, his philosophy was sometimes called the Third Way.  In fact, Mussolini’s followers were often used to break strikes and suppress socialism, and eventually he adopted a fairly conservative programme that pleased most of the people who feared a Communist revolution.

*Mussolini formed armed groups of veterans called Blackshirts to support his political candidates (and terrorise his enemies).  They said they created order in Italy (partly by starting fights and then ‘creating order’ when they stopped them). 

*In 1922, Mussolini’s Blackshirts began a March on Rome, in which they overthrew the prime minister when King Victor Emmanuel III refused to allow him to stop the Blackshirts.  Mussolini and the king agreed to work together, and the king handed control of the government to Mussolini, who had the support of many businessmen and aristocrats.  Once in power, Mussolini created an authoritarian government.  It glorified the military, as militarism was also a principal element of fascism.

*Mussolini was privately hostile to the church and opposed its power, but publicly he was baptised a Catholic and in 1929 recognised the Pope’s sovereignty over the Vatican (in return for the Pope giving in to Mussolini’s confiscation of other papal property and for the Pope recognising Italy as a state).  However, he had a Jewish mistress who helped create the culture of Italian Fascism and, unlike some other fascists, Mussolini was not inherently anti-Semitic.

*Mussolini was very popular.  He had brought order out of chaos (some of which he had first created).  He ruled the country through force, but also through propaganda—one of his slogans was ‘he makes the trains run on time,’ although he often did not (they re-set the clocks to make it look like trains arrived on schedule).  Another slogan was ‘Mussolini is always right.’  Although his government was often corrupt and inefficient, he convinced Italy that he was their national saviour, and titled himself Il Duce, ‘the leader.’

*To rebuild the glory of Rome, Mussolini consolidated Italian power in Libya, which they had controlled since 1912.  He set up a puppet government in Albania (only independent from Turkey since 1912) under the rule of King Zog I (who did reform the country in many ways, among them gradually ending serfdom and adopting a civil code of law based on Switzerland’s rather than on Moslem Law).  Eventually Italy demanded too much of Zog, though, and he began to resist until Italy invaded and conquered Albania in 1939.

*Mussolini also tried to avenge the one great African defeat of a European colonial power, King Menelik II’s defeat of Italy in 1896.  In October 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia from its neighbouring colonies in Eritrea and Italian Somaliland after provoking an attack by building a well inside Ethiopian territory.  Emperor Haile Selassie went to the League of Nations to protest, but was initially ignored, partly because the British and the French wanted to work with the Italians in case Germany became aggressive again.  This was called the Abyssinian Crisis and demonstrated the weakness of the League of Nations.

*Even though the Ethiopians were poorly equipped (with weapons ranging from spears to late 19th century artillery to WWI surplus to three biplanes in the Air Force) they held off the Italians through the winter until Mussolini authorised his army to use mustard gas.  This was too much for the Ethiopians, and in May 1936, they surrendered.

*This alienated Italy from the League of Nations, and Italy withdrew when the rest of Europe, finally began to criticise its tactics (but when it was too late to actually stop Italy from winning).

*Italy, despite a desire to work with France, now began to turn towards other fascist countries, such as Germany and Spain.

*During the 1800s, Spain had a number of civil wars that polarised the population.  Both the right wing and left wing held extreme positions, and there was little room for moderate politicians or compromises.  Spain was a constitutional monarchy, but by the 1920s needed the support of the army to such an extent that Spain effectively became a military dictatorship.

*In 1930 the dictatorship was overthrown, and in 1931 King Alfonso XIII was deposed and Spain became a Republic.  In theory it offered civil rights to all, but it outlawed the teaching of religion (even in private schools), banned the Jesuits, confiscated Church property, and generally was hostile to Catholics.  Even advocates of separation of church and state thought this went too far—it was not just separation, but outright opposition.

*Elections in 1933 and 1936 failed to give any party a majority, and led first to a strongly right-wing government that used the army to crush socialists, and then a left-wing government in which the socialists would not cooperate with less radical left-wing parties.

*The USSR and the Comintern saw this as a chance to support Communist Revolution abroad, and supported the Socialist Workers’ Party of Spain.  Soon the military revolted against an increasingly radical, socialist, and anti-religious government.

*The Nationalists were led by Francisco Franco.  When one of his supporters described the state they wished to create, he said that if such a state was fascist, then he was a Fascist.

*The Nationalists (backed by monarchists, the wealthy, the clergy, and most practising Catholics, as well as Ireland, Italy, and Nazi Germany) fought against the Republicans (the socialists, who had the help of the USSR, the Comintern, other socialist groups, Mexico, and the International Brigades made up of about 30,000-60,000 volunteers from (perhaps) 53 nations around the world).  Spanish fascism was called Falangism (after a group called the Falange (Spanish for phalanx)), and spread to parts of Latin America as well, where some fascist leaders ruled in the mid 20th century.

*During Fanco’s siege of Madrid, he said that his four columns of troops outside the city would be supported by the ‘fifth column’ inside the city, who rose up to support his army when they attacked.  This term has come to mean a group within a country that supports an outside enemy.  During World War II it would be an excuse to intern foreigners living in many countries.

*About 500,000 people were killed during the Spanish Civil War and at least 50,000 people were executed during and after it, although some estimates range up to 200,000-300,000.  The war ended in 1939, although sporadic guerrilla warfare continued for years afterwards.  Although Franco had been supported by the monarchists, he did not actually install a king, although he did specify that after his death, the heir to the Spanish throne would succeed him, and King Juan Carlos I is still king today and has transformed the country into a constitutional monarchy.

*Other countries turned to fascism as well.  In Romania the Iron Guard took power in 1927. 

*Other countries, although not precisely fascist, still created authoritarian regimes (some quite close to fascism). 

*Following World War I, Hungary had declared itself a Kingdom, but could not choose a king.  Instead, it chose Admiral Horthy Miklós as regent.  He was extremely conservative and anti-communist.  He was not a fascist himself, but some of his most important advisers were, and under Horthy, Hungary became allied with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.

*Portugal, under Antonio Salazar (1932-1968) was strongly anti-Communist. 

*Austria had the Fatherland Front, which claimed that Austrians were better Germans than Germans, because they were more true to German culture (specifically the Catholic Church). 

*Greece had fascist leanings under a military dictatorship supporting King George II from 1936-1941.

*King Alexander I of Yugoslavia took nearly dictatorial powers in 1929 and tried to eliminate traditional ethnic differences in his country by abolishing political parties, jailing political enemies, and renaming the traditional provinces after local rivers.  He was assassinated in 1934.  In the late 1930s Yugoslavia was divided by ethnic tensions between Serbs and Croatians (both of whom tried to take land from the Bosniak Moslems).  In 1941 Yugoslavia created a fascist government in hopes of pleasing Germany and Italy, but it was shortly invaded and conquered.

*In Poland, the hero of the Polish-Soviet War, Jozef Pilsudski, created an authoritarian centrist regime in 1926, which lasted until 1939.  During this period Poland tried to ally with France, but felt betrayed by the Treaty of Locarno.  Poland also nationalised German and Jewish property, and the 1930s saw a significant rise in anti-Semitism in Poland.

*After World War I, Bulgaria had to reduce its army and pay reparations, which was humiliating and expensive.  At first socialist and other left-wing groups tried to win control of the government, but were killed in a ‘White Terror.’  Tsar Boris III put an end to this in 1926, and in 1931 the leftist Popular Bloc won national elections.  In 1934 a military coup overthrew this government and set up an authoritarian system.

*In all of Central Europe, only Czechoslovakia remained truly democratic, but it was surrounded by countries where democracy was abused or eliminated. 

*Finland also managed to avoid authoritarian government.

*Even Ireland had fascists, called the Blueshirts, although they did not manage to take control of the new government. 

*Japan also created an authoritarian government, although not as extreme as some of those in Europe.  Although a constitutional monarchy with an elected Diet, the Army and Navy essentialy had veto power over its actions.  Because political parties were seen as divisive, all the parties dissolved themselves in 1940 and formed the Imperial Rule Assistance Association.  Above all, Japan was extremely militaristic and nationalistic (to the point of racism) in the early 20th century, and would become increasingly aggressive towards their neighbours in the 1930s.

*Ireland may have created a republic, and Czechoslovakia and Finland may have maintained theirs after their independence, but authoritarian governments, including fascist ones, where militarism, totalitarianism, and nationalism elevated nearly to the point of racism, became the norm in most of Central Europe.  Fascism would become most powerful and most terrible in Germany.