Francisco Franco, the Ultimate Fascist Dictator?

Fascism was a totalitarian political movement that developed after 1919 as a reaction against the political and social changes brought about by World War 1 and the spread of socialism and communism. It flourished between 1919 and 1945 in several countries, mainly Germany, Spain, Italy, and Japan. Fascism is a form of totalitarian dictatorship that had ideals such as extreme nationalism, economic self sufficiency and military strength. The dictators abolished all opposition against them and basically took complete control of the lives of everyone in their country.

Fascism admitted strong totalitarian overtones until it became interested in wars of colonial conquest. It had come to power because of the decaying social, economic and political conditions of post-World War I Italy. It had brought order out of chaos. Indeed, order was its strong selling point when, after a series of crippling strikes sponsored by the socialists, it had managed when the liberal democratic state could not manage.

After WW II, Fascism, “Instituted in Germany by Hitler” (America a Concise History 695) created an authoritative government. Hitler was controlling the government and making people do what he said and wanted. They believed that they were the superior race. Fascism came about in Italy in the years of 1920, but developed in the countries Germany, Spain, and France (America a Concise History 695). WW I caused the rise of fascism because Italy was destroyed and took an economic downfall so Mussolini decided to take it upon himself along with Adolf Hitler to get their countries back again. As stated in Chapter 24, “fascists leaders worldwide disparaged parliamentary

The etymology of “fascism” is denotative of power and dominance. For example, the term derived from the Roman fasces which were bundles of rods bound to each other, carried in advance of Roman magistrates. The rods were symbolic of power to punish through severe beating and the axes which extended from the center were symbolic of punishment by death (Grolier Education p.110).

Q6. Fascism began to rise after the fallout of World War I, this new militant political movement attracted many people who had felt angry or frustrated with the war. As you can imagine, during this time millions of people were unhappy with the turnout of World War I, many countries were on the edge of their breaking points. Countries were trying to return to the previous normal they obtained before the world had fallen into a deadly and pointless war. People were full of spitefulness and anger and they wanted answers; henceforth, the popular idea of fascism was created. Fascism was a political movement that promotes an extreme form of nationalism and militarism, the movement also relied heavily on the loyalty to the state and their one strong

The problems in Germany Japan and Italy during the 1920s led many different groups to try to gain political power.  At times there were riots in the streets among the supporters of different political parties.Both Adolf Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini in Italy believed in the political system called fascism.  In a fascist government system, total power is given to a dictator.  Individual rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press are denied.  The nation and its power are what counts, not the life of the individual.

Fascism is a type of right-wing totalitarianism which places importance on the subordination of individuals to advance the interests of the state.  It is important for

The consolidation of fascist power in Italy in the years 1922-1929 was mainly due to the use of force and intimidation, because from all his steps to

Benito Mussolini outlines several essential characteristics of his preferred political ideology, Fascism, in what has become known as the Doctrine of Fascism. In this paper, Mussolini outlines his vision of the ideology, and explains the major issues that Fascism will address once it becomes the leading political system in Italy. Mussolini’s major points as outlined in the Doctrine included an extreme emphasis on nationalism, organization and modernization of the state, persistent focus on religion, life as a struggle, and the notion that individuals exist only for the improvement of society as a whole. Wolfgang Schieder, after reviewing the Doctrine of Fascism, explains Mussolini’s success based on it and

Dictatorship throughout the ages has mainly led to oppression and conflict between people and government. Some of the notoriously bad dictators took office around the 1920’s and 1930’s. There were three main dictators in that time period and they all ran different countries in very different ways. Josef Stalin was known as the dictator of the Soviet Union, he was all about communism and did not care if there was opposition to his ideas. On the other hand, Benito Mussolini was in charge of Italy and all about fascism. Possibly the worst known dictator of all times was Hitler, in charge of, Germany, he was all about Nazism. Each had a different outlook on ruling, but they all did things similarly to lead to nations hatred against them. Basically, their ultimate goal was to do what was best for their countries, however, there want for power tended to get in the way. They all wanted to accomplish many things, they used many different ideas and ways to run their nations. They were all blamed for their nations demise in one way or another. This essay will discuss the similarities and differences between Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini.

The state of Mussolini’s Fascist Italy and Hitler’s Nazi Germany, can be highly comparable in their policies and ideologies. Fascism is a political ideology, in which the country is to be racially and culturally pure. Mussolini said himself that “Fascism desires the state to be strong and organic and to always be prepared for conflict”. Fascism includes things such as nationalism, hostility to democracy, racism, the love of symbols such as uniforms, parades and army discipline. It is a totalitarian philosophy which worships the state and nation. Fascism is an extreme right-wing that celebrates the nation or race as a pure community which exceeds all other loyalties and expectations (Downing, 2001). Most of the time it celebrates masculinity and male supremacy, rarely it will promote female solidarity (De Grand, 1995). Fascist aims are to prepare for conflict and violence and to prepare and educate the youth. Both were able to gain support from military associations,

The Spanish civil war of 1936-1939 was an important conflict in Spain’s history. This war was initiated by a military revolt led by General Francisco Franco on the 17 July 1936 and ended with Franco’s victory on the 1 April, 1939. This victory resulted in the replacement of the Second Spanish Republic with the conservative dictatorship of Franco. This conflict triggered the clash of the various cultures and ideologies within Spain. One important example of an ideological clash was that of Communism versus Fascism. This clash was so important that, based on an analysis of the level of involvement of Fascist and Communist factions in said clash, one must concede that the conflict between Communism and Fascism was represented to a great

The Spanish Civil War is the name given to the struggle between loyalist and nationalist Spain for dominance in which the nationalists won and suppressed the country for the following thirty nine years. However, because of the larger political climate that the Spanish Civil War occurred in, it is impossible to view the war as a phenomenon contained within one nation. Despite its obvious domestic orientation as a civil war it was a major international conflict. The reason for this, I would maintain, is the political dogma which surrounded the war. This essay takes the form of a political survey of the

Francisco Franco was the dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975, including the time of WW2. Perhaps he was better known as “El Caudillo,” translated into English as The Leader. He was born and raised in Spain. He was a very brilliant military general who led Nationalist rebels in defeating the Spanish government during the Spanish Civil War. Although he was viewed as a Fascist Dictator, he strongly opposed communism. He was an extremely important figure in the course of world history.

Generalissimo Francisco Franco came into power after his victory in the Civil war in 1939 and ruled over Spain till his death in 1975. In this 40-year period Spain was massive changed that causes much debate as to the political nature of Franco’s regime whether it is fascist or something different, Francoism. To understand if Franco’s regime was fascist, fascism must first be defined. There are many working definitions of a fascist regime, Stanley Payne’s states that the dictator must alien his regime to the idea of anti-isms, them being aintiliberalism, antidemocratic, anticonservatism, anticommunism and antidemocratic. Payne states these are fundamental in the description of a fascist regime. Another useful definition is Robert Griffin, stating that a fascist regime will use symbolism, violence to pursue its political aims, with the importance aimed at expansionism. Finally Griffin also states the need of the dictator to implement an authoritarian and totalitarian government. All these help to create a fascist regime and more importantly a truly fascist dictator. There is little doubt Franco holds to some of these definitions yet in later year the idea of Francosim becomes more viable however to understand if Franco was a truly fascist dictator we must look to the similarities and differences and determine by examining Franco’s rise politically his general style of government and finally his foreign policies it will determined whether Franco was a truly fascist dictator.