The Rise of Fascism

Fascism is the right-wing political movement that appeared World War I. In the 1920s, Fascist parties promised strong leadership and a war on Communism. They roused people by promising national glory, more jobs and revenge for past humiliations. The two most prominent Fascist leaders were Italy’s Benito Mussolini and Germany’s Adolf Hitler.

Italy was the first country to have a Fascist government. Benito Mussolini marched his followers into Rome in October 1922 and threatened to overthrow the government. The king asked him to form a new government. Armed Fascists terrorized and killed members of other political groups, and, by January 1923, Italy had become a one-party state.

Two years later, Mussolini started ruling as dictator and became known as ‘Il Duce’ (The Leader).

Spain’s Fascist group, the Falangist party, was founded in 1933. In 1936, under the leadership of General Franco, the Falangist party overthrew the elected government in Spain. A terrible civil war lasted until 1939, when Franco became dictator of Spain.

In Germany, the Nazi party and its leader Adolf Hitler won power in 1933. Hitler set up a programme to create jobs and built up munitions and the armed forces. He banned other political parties, introduced a secret police and persecuted the Jews. In 1936, Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, a region of Germany that bordered France and had been declared a military-free zone by the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I. two years later, Austria and Germany were unified, a move known as the ‘Anschluss’. Hitler also threatened to take over the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. To try to keep the peace, the Munich Agreement, signed by Germany and various European powers, gave the Sudetenland to Germany. The following March, however, Hitler’s troops took over the whole of Czechoslovakia and threatened to invade Poland.