Totalitarianism in Italy and Germany

The Rise of Fascism in Italy

Italy participated in the First World War. It was claimed that Italy was going to get great benefits from its participation in the war, but after the war, the country met with economic difficulties. In postwar Italy, social tensions worsened. Strikes by workers proliferated throughout 1919 and 1920.

In 1922, Mussolini created the National Fascist Party while organizing armed gangs formed by demobilized soldiers. In that same year, Mussolini launched the "March on Rome," a mobilization toward the capital that proved successful.

In 1927, the Fascist government created the Secret Police, and in 1928, it adopted a new electoral system.

The Emergence of Nazi Germany

The economic and social crisis of the postwar era was very intense. As a result, the economic recovery from the war faced serious difficulties. During that period, there were significant political changes. Emperor William II abdicated, and political parties organized a liberal republic.

However, the social and economic situation worsened, and the non-democratic government could not control the unrest. In 1923, a process of hyperinflation began. The workers, peasants, and middle classes were the hardest hit. France occupied the Ruhr, which was about to unleash a civil war. Nationalists staged many coup attempts—one in Berlin and another in Munich. The latter was led by Adolf Hitler; after its failure, he was jailed for one year. Hitler combined violent methods and the parliamentary struggle in order to gain access to political power. In January 1933, the President of the Republic appointed Hitler as Chancellor.

In 1934, Hindenburg died and Hitler was proclaimed "Führer." Since then, the Nazi government dissolved political parties and trade unions, bypassed the Reichstag, established concentration camps, and dictated racial segregation laws. In 1938, Germany annexed Austria and began an expansion with the aim of achieving the former German Empire it lost in the First World War.

Core Principles of Nazi Ideology

They believed that the nation had to be a homogeneous community from a cultural and racial standpoint. For the Nazis, Germany was leading the union of the Germanic peoples who were scattered and were part of the population of other countries. Another important component of Nazi ideology was the rejection of Marxism and liberalism. For the Nazis, Marxism was absolutely intolerable, as they associated it with individuals belonging to "inferior races" such as Jews and Slavs.