Secondly, during the post-war period, both Italy and Germany suffers a lot. The economic conditions were extremely bad. Problems faced by both counties were more or less the same, yet in different extent. Both countries’ industries and agriculture were declined as factories and farmlands had been destroyed. Industrial in Germany fell even sharply. Problems like the shortage of daily necessities, inflation and unemployment rate were serious in both countries. In Italy, there were more than two million returning soldiers were unemployed. Situation in the Germany was even worse. At the end of the war, the value of German mark had already dropped 50% and there was increasing unemployment rate. Italians had a very difficult life and Germans had an extremely hard life because the even worse economic situation in Germany. The main different between two countries was Germany had to pay a huge indemnity. The loss of Alsace-Lorraine, resources, coal fields and overseas colonies made Germany even harder to pay her reparation. In 1923, when Germany failed to make her payment of reparations, the French armies marched into the Ruhr, a industrial area. This worsened the economic situation as the German government encouraged the people to go on strike and thus issued a large amount of banknotes to subsidize the strikers. This further pushed up the inflation. Although it had been improved by the help from US(the Dawes Plan), providing loans to Germany, in1932 to 1933 the economic situation was deemed to hopelessness again. This was due to the Great Depression during that period. The whole world including the Italy suffered. However, Germany was even worse. The whole German nation was in a deep distress and deeply worsened. While the US stopped its assistance to Germany, France and Britain pressed her for payment for reparations. Germany’s economy was utterly collapsed. Enterprises went bankrupt and banks were closed. The unemployment rate rose to 6 million in 1932. As the governments in Italy and Germany were failed to solve post-war economic difficulties, their people were discontented with the democratic government. This resulted in paving the seeds for the rise of Mussolini and Hitler as they desperately wanted a strong leader to restore glory.
Thirdly, Italians and Germans were both disappointed with the democratic government as both governments failed to solve the problems, especially in dealing with the Paris Peace Settlement. The inabilities of both democratic governments were also revealed in tackling with the political instability. For Italy, the democratic government was not supported by the people because the government failed to get Dalmatia and Fiume in the Paris Peace Conference. Moreover, although Fiume was occupied by some Italians nationalists in 1919, the government did not support their action and even expelled them from Fiume. This greatly disappointed the Italians.
For Germany, it was similar to the Italians. The Germans also did not support the democratic government because they thought the government had betrayed them and they did not believe that they were defeated in the war. Therefore, both countries’ citizens wanted a strong leader to search for glory and prestige. Germany would especially want to take vengeance.
Furthermore, neither Italy nor Germany had solid democratic foundations although both countries had been practiced democracy especially Italy since 1870. There were different political parties in both countries, yet, none of them was able to win the majority in elections. As a result, only coalition government could be formed. However, most of them were short-lived due to political differences among the parties. The frequent change of governments caused political instability, leaving many problems unsolved. As the Italians and Germans lost their confidence in democracy, a strong, forceful and effective government or leader could easily get the support. This helped the rise of totalitarianism.
Fourthly, after the First World War, a communist government was set up in Russia. Later, communism spread to Europe and eventually to Italy and Germany. With the growing influence of communism in both countries, landlords, industrialists and businessman were especially worried thus support the Fascist Party in Italy and Nazi Party in Germany. Situation in both countries were similar. In Italy, the leftist faction of the Socialist Party expanded quickly, there were 200,000 members in 1919. The Socialist Party organized many strikes and took control of a number of factories.
In Germany, the Communist Party gained more and more seats in the Reichstag and labour unions were established. Strikes and demonstrations were common. The activities of communists intensified social and economic instability. This worried countries’ landlords, industrialists, businessman and capitalist. To protect their own interest, they preferred to support a totalitarian government. Thus, the Italians and the Germans gave full support to the Fascist Party and the Nazi Party respectively. As both parties were strongly anti-communism, both leaders promised to put the spread of communism under control. This facilitated the rise of Mussolini and Hitler.
Some may argue that Mussolini rose in power in 1922 but Hitler rose to power in 1933. It seemed that the rose of Nazi Party was not a direct result of the First World War. However, the truth was because there was a barrier hindering the rise of Nazi Party. The barrier was the Great Depression in 1932 to 1933. As the economic situation of Germany was worse than Italy, it therefore facilitated the rise of Nazi Party. If Germany had not suffered from the serious post-war economic difficulties, the Great Depression would not have such important effects on Germany.
Some may also argue that the ability of the two leaders was also an important reason for the rise of the Fascist Party and Nazi Party. This was because they were strong and capable leader. They both were good at making use of the circumstances to arouse the discontent of the people about the government. They acted according to people’s needs and made different promises to different kind of people in the society. For instance, they promised the rich to suppress the communism, the unemployed to provide jobs and bread and the military men and nationalists to revive the nation’s glory through foreign expansion. All these promises satisfied the desire of the people. Moreover, they both were good at making use of the circumstances to arouse the discontent of the people about the government. In order to get people’s support, both leaders displayed propaganda everywhere, held political rallies and delivered public speeches. Their eloquence and charm fascinated the public. Besides, the personalities of Mussolini and Hitler were perceived as suitable for the idea of national recovery in political and economic aspect Thus, many people were attracted to them and supported them wholeheartedly.. With popular support, they were rise to power. However, without the circumstances created by the First World War, they were unable to make use of the circumstances to arouse the discontent of the people about the government. Furthermore, if the ability of both leaders were so important, they should have rose to power soon after establishment of Fascist and Nazi Party. The rose in power of Hitler in 1930s instead of 1920s further proved the failure of only relying on the ability of leader. This indicates by comparing the ability of leaders with the favourable circumstances, the former was insignificance while the latter was significance.
All in all, although ability of leaders was also important, by comparison, the favouarble circumstances created by the First World War outweigh the importance of personal contribution. The above reasons proved that the rise of Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany was primarily a result of the First World War.