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Fascism in the Twentieth Century

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Submitted By taranjade
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Fascism in the Twentieth Century; Hitler and Nazism
‘Fascism’ is one of the most controversial political terms in modern history. The lack of a universally accepted definition for the term has meant that it can and has been applied to a wide variety of political contexts. Fascism developed from the destruction caused by the First World War. Its origins can be traced, however, to the intellectual revolt against liberalism in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century. While there was a revolutionary reaction against the ideals of the French Revolution before 1914, it was the First World War which acted as a real catalyst for the emergence of fascism. The war swept away the Hohenzellern, Halsburg and Romanov dynasties in Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia respectively and sharpened class-consciousness (the idea of lower, middle and upper classes) and increased ethnic tensions, severely weakening the social fabric of many nations. Fascism, in part, was also the result of a reaction by the middle classes against the perceived communist threat caused by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. Fascism was the most severe reaction to the post-war political, social and national crisis. The First World War also had a positive significance on the rise of fascism. The survivors of the ‘lost generation,’ (the survivors of the First World War) had become disillusioned and embittered, and were attracted to the direct-action approach of fascist paramilitary organisations. This increased influence of the state, which assumed greater powers through massive orders for munitions and the control of consumption in many combatant nations, in turn influencing the rise of the fascist movement.

The impact of hostilities transformed the fringe subculture of fascism into a virulent political form in inter-war Europe. A whole generation of young men lost their lives in the trenches

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