The Rise of Communism and Fascism

The Rise of Communism and Fascism
· Textbook: Chapter 4, 5, 6
· Lesson
· Minimum of 1 scholarly source (in addition to the textbook)
Compare and contrast communism and fascism. Select one example for each to examine the origins of the governments, their accomplishments, and their failures. What accounts for the fact that the masses mobilized to support these movements? Elaborate.
The mass mobilization of armies, societies, and economies produced devastating effects on soldiers and civilians alike after WWI. As F.L. Carston and Geoffrey Hosking explain, the war was a major catalyst in driving people to support new and exciting ideologies that promised a solution to the ills of society. What were some of the main reasons ordinary people chose to support these ideologies that produced some of human history’s most destructive and violent policies? Could such a political climate replicate the rise of similarly extreme policies today?
References:
F.L. Carston, The Rise of Fascism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982)
Geoffrey Hosking, The First Socialist Society(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992)
Course Outcomes:
· Explain the challenges of developing effective long-term foreign policy.
· Examine the goals, methods, and effectiveness of violent and/or non-violent movements for social, economic, and political change.
· Analyze a failed 20th century political and/or socio-economic system and the reasons why democracy did not succeed.
· Analyze the factors that have contributed to the increase in governmental authority over economic and social activities and the loss of personal liberties during the contemporary period.
Week 2 Lesson: Postwar Europe and the Russian Revolution
The years between World War I and World War II were dominated by unbridled capitalist greed, depression, and the rise of totalitarian states in Europe and Japan. The peace agreements at Versailles that ended World War I were largely ineffective in stemming the tide of nationalism. These combined forces inexorably led to World War II.
The forces that led to World War II began at the palace of Versailles in 1919. The victorious Allies met at the Paris Peace Conference to decide the new makeup of Europe. The Central Powers and Russia were not allowed to participate, a fact that hindered their path to self-determination. The three Allied leaders (British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, French leader Georges Clemenceau, and American President Woodrow Wilson) had different goals. While the British focused on rebuilding England, the French wanted to punish Germany. Wilson insisted on the creation of a new League of Nations to prevent future wars. In June, the Allies forced the new German Republic to sign the Treaty. The German delegation was horrified because it imposed harsh reparations that Germany could not fulfill. Its economy was nearly bankrupt, and morale was low. The Allies also drew up treaties with the other defeated powers (Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Turkey, and Bulgaria) that left the powers weakened and impoverished. The colonial system remained, essentially, intact, especially in England and France. The harsh stipulations laid down at Versailles laid the seeds for the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy. Benito Mussolini built the first totalitarian state and set the pattern for Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
Click through the following slide show and watch clips from the video Benito Mussolini. You will watch the video in its entirety for the assignment this week. Click the following link to access the transcript for the video:
Link (video): Benito Mussolini (53:48)
Click on the following link to learn more about Futurism:
Interdisciplinary Connection: Futurist Art
Mussolini built the first modern totalitarian state. In this form of government, a one-party dictatorship attempts to control every aspect of citizens’ lives. Fascism is a form of totalitarianism rooted in extreme nationalism. Whereas socialism sought direct control of a society’s economy through direct control of the means of production, fascism sought it indirectly through private owners. Although the government did not directly own the means of production, it did control it in the national interest. The fascists hatred for communists was more a case of self-interest than an affinity for capitalism. Mussolini described it in My Autobiography:
The citizen in the Fascist State is no longer a selfish individual who has the anti-social right of rebelling against any law of the Collectivity. The Fascist State, with its corporative conception, puts men and their possibilities into productive work and interprets for them the duties they have to fulfill (Mussolini, 1928 p. 280).
Mussolini was, in fact, praised by prominent Americans and Britons for his economic program. Mussolini’s fascist regime set the pattern for other fascist leaders, especially Adolf Hitler and General Francisco Franco in Spain.

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