The Rise of Fascism

The rise of fascism in interwar Europe was one of the most dangerous political developments of the 20th century. Emerging from the wreckage of World War I, fascist movements exploited economic crisis, national humiliation, fear of communism, and the failures of liberal democracy to seize power — first in Italy (1922), then in Germany (1933), and eventually across much of Europe.

Fascism offered an intoxicating cocktail of ultranationalism, militarism, anti-communism, and the cult of a charismatic leader who promised to restore national greatness. It rejected both liberal democracy (seen as weak and corrupt) and Marxist socialism (seen as a threat to national unity). In its place, fascism offered a totalitarian state that subordinated the individual to the nation, glorified violence and war, and demanded absolute obedience.

Mussolini's Italy provided the template; Hitler's Germany provided the most extreme and destructive version. The Nazi regime combined fascist politics with virulent racial ideology, culminating in the Holocaust. Franco in Spain, Salazar in Portugal, and authoritarian regimes across Eastern Europe adopted fascist elements. The rise of fascism demonstrated how quickly democratic institutions could be dismantled, and how economic desperation and wounded national pride could be weaponized by demagogues.