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Rise of Totalitarianism
No other war was as devastating and world altering as WWI; it changed the face of Europe forever as four empires disappeared, Germany, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and the Russian. This war left Europe burned to the ground, and out of these ashes rose new forms of Totalitarian governments, Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany . The rise of these states are marked by profound differences to each other but they share many similarities as well, namely that their existence owes itself entirely to WWI and the actions taken by the victorious allies particularly the Peace Treaties.
The Italian Government was faced with many problems after the war. The first was with Italian dissatisfaction with the territorial settlements at the Paris Peace Conference. The Italians were expecting big land gains when they had entered the war and according to the Treaty of London, released to the public by the Bolsheviks as a way of showing the corruption of Western governments, they were promised Trentino, Trieste, Southern Tyrol, Istria, Dalmatia, the coastal districts of Albania, a share in the division of the Ottoman Empire and of the German colonies in Africa. Even though the Italians had fought bravely in the war loosing 600,000 men, the territories ceded to Italy in the Paris Peace Conference only included Trentino, Trieste, Tyrol and Istria, but she did not get any former German colonies nor any land in Asia Minor, Albania and Dalmatia.# There was much resentment against the weak and unsuccessful foreign policy of the Italian government. In September 1919, a band of alien patriots, under Gabriele D'Annunzio, took Fiume, a port on the Dalmatian coast, by force in defiance of the decision of the
Paris Peace Conference. But the Italians could not enjoy their victory for long because in November 1920 the Italian government had signed the treaty of Rapallo with Yugoslavia, by which Fiume became a free city under the League of Nations and Italy renounced Dalmatia as her sphere of influence.# In January 1921, the Italian troops drove D'Annunzio and his followers from Fiume. Many Italians were deeply disappointed with their government which seemed be too weak in its foreign policy.
Another problem that Italy faced was economic failure. Italy was a poor nation. She could only support her war effort by obtaining foreign loans. Immediately after the war, as Europe was exhausted by the war, the Italian tourist trade and export trade came to a standstill and there was large-scale unemployment throughout the country. The problem of unemployment was aggravated by the return of millions of ex-soldiers to Italy and a new immigration law of the U.S. government which restricted entry of immigrants. Moreover, runaway inflation added to the sufferings of the Italians. The lira had only one-fifth of its pre-war value.# Encouraged by the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the unemployed workers and peasants stirred up riots and strikes throughout the country.
With the current government losing popularity, many citizens turned to the Socialist parties and in the elections of 1919 the Socialist Party won more than one-third of all votes and became the largest single party in the Chamber of Deputies. They were followed at a distance by the Popular Party which won one-fifth of all votes on a platform of social reform. The ruling parties (the Liberals and Democrats) lost heavily. Encouraged by this success, the General Confederation of labor called for strikes in September 1920.
During the strike, workers took over more than six hundred factories and established soviets on the Russian model to rule a number of industrial towns in northern Italy.#
This set the stage for Benito Mussolini to gain power. A former socialist himself, he came emerged from the war with 40 pieces of shrapnel and a realization that the idea of socialism is a failure. On March 23, 1919, Mussolini reformed the Milan fascio as the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (Italian Combat Squad), consisting of 200 members.# The party platform was based on universal suffrage, the abolition of the Senate, land for the peasants, improvement of workers' conditions and a strong foreign policy. It seemed that Mussolini had not completely discarded his early socialist thought. The property class did not like his radical party program. In the elections of November 1919 for the Chamber of Deputies, Mussolini and one of his close associates failed to win a seat for themselves.#
Several key factors lead to Mussolini’s rise to power, one of those factors was D’Annunzio and his followers were driven from Fiume by the end of 1920. This caused the many Italian nationalists to see Mussolini as their leader, for he advocated a strong foreign policy and the annexation of Fiume and Dalmatia. Another factor was that the socialist government from 1919-1920 failed to solve the nation’s most urgent problems, those of economic despair and civil unrest. The most important factor was that after the General Strike of 1920, the wealthy industrialists and landowners feared a communist revolution and desired a strong central government to return law and order. With the support of the property class, Mussolini and his National Fascist Party were able to gain 35 seats out of 355 in 1921, a tremendous gain compared to their pathetic loss 18 months ago.# From 1921-22 the Communists and Mussolini’s Blackshirts fought bitter street
battles which the government did little to prevent. The culmination of this was another strike by the Communists and Socialists in August 1922, but this one was ill-prepared and put down by government troops with Mussolini’s help.
On October 26, of that same year, Mussolini threatened a “March on Rome” if he was not accepted into the cabinet. Bands of armed supporters from all over the country marched to Rome, which caused genuine alarm in the politicians of Rome who failed to deal with the emergency. The liberal Prime Minister, Luigi Facta, stepped down quickly on October 28 when he didn’t receive any support from King Victor Emmanuel III. The King then handed power over to Mussolini who created a new coalition government of Fascists, nationalists, liberals and even two Catholic ministers from the Popular Party.#
Mussolini then started to slowly build up his totalitarian state, from 1922-23 he put loyal Fascists in key political positions, integrated the Blackshirts into the Italian Military, thus securing the army under his control. Also in 1923 he sent Italian forces to invade Corfu in what is known as the “Corfu Incident” which proved that the League of Nations was powerless and the Treaties of Paris could be defied without repercussions.#
He introduced strict censorship and altered the methods of election so that in 1925-1926 he was able to assume dictatorial powers and dissolve all other political parties. Skillfully using his absolute control over the press, he gradually built up the legend of the "Duce, a man who was always right and could solve all the problems of politics and economics.”# Italy was soon a police state. With those who tried to resist him, for example the Socialist Giacomo Matteotti, he showed himself utterly ruthless. But Mussolini's skill in propaganda was such that he had surprisingly little opposition.
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Mussolini personally took over the ministries of the interior, of foreign affairs, of the colonies, of the corporations, of the army and the other armed services, and of public works. Sometimes he held as many as seven departments simultaneously, as well as the premiership.
Most of his time was spent on propaganda, whether at home or abroad, and here his training as a journalist was invaluable. Press, radio, education, films--all were carefully supervised to manufacture the illusion that fascism was "the doctrine of the 20th century that was replacing liberalism and democracy.”# The principles of this doctrine were laid down in the article on fascism, reputedly written by himself, that appeared in 1932 in the Enciclopedia Italiana. ‘...The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone.…”.# In 1929 a concordat called the Lateran Agreements, was signed with the Vatican by which the Italian state was at last recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.# All teachers in schools and universities had to swear an oath to defend the Fascist regime. Newspaper editors were all personally chosen by Mussolini himself, and no one could practice journalism who did not possess a certificate of approval from the Fascist party.# The trade unions were also deprived of any independence and were integrated into what was called the “corporative system”. The aim (never completely achieved) was to place all Italians in various professional organizations or “corporations” , all of them under governmental control.
In order to combat the disastrous economy, Mussolini launched many public
works projects, the most famous of which was his “Battle of Wheat” in which 5000 new farms were created and marshes were reclaimed in order to make more farmland. This was ultimately unsuccessful in creating a self-sufficient Italy because the land that was used for the production of wheat took away from the production of valuable crops like olives and grapes.
In foreign policy, he proved to be an aggressive nationalist, starting with his invasion of Corfu and the setting up of a puppet state in Albania. In 1936 Italy conquered Ethiopia in the second Italo-Abyssinian War.# From 1936 to 1939, Mussolini gave unlimited support to Francisco Franco and the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. His support of Franco officially ended all relations with France and Britain, but gained him an ally in Adolf Hitler. When Mussolini decided to ally with Germany officially in the “Pact of Steel” of 1939, and unofficially since 1936, he became the subordinate, agreeing to Germany’s annexation of Austria and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.#
In the years following the German revolution of 1919 Hitler was employed by the Army’s Political Department as a V-man, someone who investigated all the political organizations that seemed to have communist ties. It was at this time that he attended a meeting of the small Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers' Party, abbreviated DAP) on September 12, 1919.# During the meeting Hitler joined in and severely criticized a man in the audience who suggested that Bavaria should be independent of Germany and join Austria. Hitler’s oratory skill impressed the DAP leaders who invited him to join the party. Hitler decided to join the party because it was poorly organized and he therefore could be more influential in it. In the early 1920’s Hitler’s party began to gain attention
and they added National Socialist to the party’s name forming the NSDAP, it was at this time that Hitler began giving speeches regarding Jews, the Treaty of Versailles and political phenomenon. He also created a detachment group called the SA, much like Mussolini’s Blackshirts, these were ex-soldiers who would be the enforcers at NSDAP meetings.
Inspired by Mussolini’s “March on Rome” Hitler decided a coup d’etat would be the only way to secure power, so in November 1923, Hitler led the Beer Hall Putsch which failed and Hitler was put on trial for treason. The trial was in fact a way that Hitler could put the Weimar government on trial in front of a national audience. He was sentenced to five years but was paroled after eight months in which time he wrote Mein Kamf where he put down on paper all his ideas and prejudices.
After his release in 1924, he decided that the best way to achieve power was through democratic means within the Weimar Republic. For five years the NSDAP struggled to gain seats in the Reichstag despite the Brownshirts best efforts. Street violence increased as the SA members attacked the Rotfront during Hitler’s campaign for presidency. He lost to the monumentaly popular Hindenburg, but by the end of July, the Nazi party had secured 230 seats in the Riechstag and Hitler asked to be made Chancellor.# The current Chancellor, Franz Von Papen offered him the position of Vice Chancellor, but Hitler refused. After Chancellor Papen left office in 1933 he told Hitler he could sway Hindenburg to make him Chancellor only if Papen was made Vice Chancellor, to this Hitler agreed and on January 30, 1934, Hitler was made Chancellor of a coalition government of the NSDAP-DNVP-Centre Party.# SS and SA members held
torchlight parades throughout Berlin. After the death of Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Hitler called a referendum to approve his assumption of full power as Führer and Chancellor of Germany. In a speech given by Rudolf Hess a few days before the referendum, he called upon the German people to vote yes, and 90% did indeed. “As I said when I began, I cannot explain why Hitler, and only he, can be the Führer.”#
The question still remains as to why a person like Hitler or Mussolini was able to gain support and eventualy institute their totalitarian governments. The answer to this question lies in the treaties signed by the victorious allies in Paris after the war and the war itself. The effects that the war had on the populations of Germany and Italy set the scene for unrest afterward, thousands of returning soldiers were out of work and disillusioned with the liberal governments that had failed them. The harsh punishment leveied on Germany by the Versailles Treaty was scene as an unforgivable insult against the German people. Had the leaders been able to put aside their animosity and political aims, the situation in Europe might have been less inviting to an ultranationalist like Mussolini and Hitler.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in it was laid out the conditions of which Germany had no choice but to comply. One of the most important and controversial required Germany to accept sole responsibility for causing the war and, under the terms of articles 231-248 (later known as the War Guilt clauses), to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers.# The result of the sometimes conflicting goals among the allied victors, notably Loyd George, Clemenceau, and Wilson would leave no party
happy, Germany was not pacified nor permanently weakened
France came into the negotiations of the treaty seeking revenge and protection from any other German threat. This was understandable because most of the fighting had taken place on French land and she had lost over 1.5 million military personel and 600,000 civilians.# President Woodrow Wilson came in to the talks with high ideals and soaring ambition, and represented this with his 14 points. His plan called for the establishment of a Leauge of Nations to prevent any future conflicts from spiraling out of control and self-determination of nations. England and Loyd George were in the middle between, he supported reperations, but to a lesser extent than France, and was cautious of Wilson’s idea of self-determination for he wanted to keep Britians empire intact. In the end the treaty laid out the following restrictions on Germany: Article 231 (the "War Guilt Clause") lays sole responsibility for the war on Germany, which would be accountable for all the damage done to civilian population of the allies. The Rhineland will become a demilitarized zone administered by Great Britain and France jointly. German armed forces will number no more than 100,000 troops, and conscription will be abolished.
Enlisted men will be retained for at least 12 years; officers to be retained for at least 25 years. German naval forces will be limited to 15,000 men, 6 battleships (no more than 10,000 tons displacement each), 6 cruisers (no more than 6,000 tons displacement each), 6 destroyers (no more than 800 tons displacement each) and 12 torpedo boats (no more than 200 tons displacement each). No submarines are to be included. The manufacture, import, and export of weapons and poison gas is prohibited. Armed aircraft, tanks and armored cars are prohibited. Blockades on ships are prohibited. Other articles of the treaty
dealt with the transference of territory, particulary Germany’s colonies were divided up and Alsace and Lorraine were returned to France.#
A major cause for outrage among the German people in reponse to the treaty was the fact that no fighting had actually taken place on German soil. The returning soldiers were greeted as victorious heroes, not defeated and broken boys. The general feeling was that the German High Command had stabbed the army in the back, Hitler capitalized upon this and used it as propaganda in his caimpagn against the Jews.# The treaty was seen as unacceptable on both the left and right side of politics. Since Germany after WWI was engulfed by inflation, partially stemming from the $56,500,000,000 France and Britain wanted in reparations, the German economy floundered. At the end of the war, the mark was worth about 25 cents; by November 1923, the value of the mark had shrunk a billion times.# Workers in Essen took their pay home in barrels, and three hundred paper factories and one hundred and fifty printing establishments were unable to turn out notes fast enough to keep the economy off a barter basis. Eventually, Hjalmar Schacht, later Hitler’s Minister of Economy, introduced the Rentenmark, based, theoretically on a mortgage of all Germany. This device created a new currency but did not salvage the ruined and embittered middle class. John Maynard Keynes wrote about the failings of the Versialles Treaty in his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace, “The Treaty includes no provisions for the economic rehabilitation of Europe, - nothing to make the defeated Central Empires into good neighbors, nothing to stabilize the new States of Europe, nothing to reclaim Russia; nor does it promote in any way a compact of economic solidarity amongst the Allies themselves; no arrangement was reached at Paris
for restoring the disordered finances of France and Italy, or to adjust the systems of the Old World and the New.”#
The treaty proved to be a failure in its design to keep Germany in check. Violations were committed by Germany, Italy and Britain at various times leading up to WWII. When the Weimar government failed to pay the reparations, France occupied the Ruhr valley where it took control of the coal and heavy industry, but this only further antagonized the population as German workers called for a “passive resistance” in which they refused to work for French factories. Many nationalists gave their support to Hitler at this time because he was so vehemently against the Treaty.
As stated before, Italy was dissatisfied with the treaty because it denied her the acquisition of Fiume, which it had been promised. The Italian PM Vittorio Orlando left the negotiations after his claims were rejected, but returned in June to sign.# Although Italy did gain a lot from the treaties it signed, the people and especially the fascists saw it as a “mutilated victory”. The combination of economic hardship in converting an inflated war industry back to civilian production and the large amount of crippled ex-soldiers led to social unrest.
WWI ended with an armistice and a feeling that war was over for good. It was the War to End All Wars, and the leaders who met at the Palace of Versailles attempted to make sure of it. Unfortunately the treaties that were drawn up in Paris did little to prevent future war and allowed for the rise of totalitarian governments promising an end to the economic hardships the war and Peace Treaties forced upon them. Hitler and Mussolini rose to power through the use of violence that so many former soldiers were accustomed
to, charisma, and sheer greed for power. The environments were ripe in postwar Italy and Germany for fanatics like these to find a sympathetic audience and a weak central government. Had the victorious allies focused more on returning all of Europe to normalcy rather than revenge and punishment , there might not have been an interwar period at all, for the governments responsible for WWII would never have come to fruition.
