Which of the fascist leaders in pre world war two had the most difficulty becoming a leader and

did the most for their country?

After world war one political ideals were changing greatly and fascism was becoming more and more popular. Mussolini is often seen as the father of fascism despite starting out his political carer writing for communist newspapers. Hitler had gained power through using the discontent within his own country for the Weimar government. He had also used the lack of unity within parliament to gain his foothold. Franco from Spain literally fought a war to become the leader of a party he had originally not wanted to collaborate with. Hideki T j was a military leader within the Japanese army and by half way through the war had become prime minister of Japan.

Mussolini had always had a head for politics; even in his youth he wrote and edited the local newspaper for a socialist party. In Switzerland he became involved with socialist politics before moving back to Italy where he joined the party. When world war one started looming the socialist party became against the war and initially he supported this. In the late of 1914 he saw how the war could become useful to further his own objectives and well as the parties. He began his declaration of support for the war in hope that others would follow, and thus he was expelled from the socialist party. He began to change his ideologies being one of the first in Italy to introduce a fascist newspaper. By October he had denounced socialism and had entered the war. He left the war in 1917 with wounds from a mortar round and one again used his newspaper to promote fascism. He gained a lot of support from the war veterans who had no work following the war he started growing power exponentially he had a very close friend lead the fascisti the party for fascism in Italy. In two years he had so much power he headed the National Fascist Party in congress and was elected to the chamber of deputies (the countries lower house of parliament). In 1922 he marched on Rome supported by the military, the business class and the right wing the king refused power to the current leader and gave prime minister to Mussolini. Mussolini had used the propaganda quite like Hitler did eleven years later. Throughout his rise he held a firm control over all the constituent parts of his fascist group and played on his supporters needs to further his own. He led a true fascist nation with full authoritarian power with no discrimination to class, race or religion.

Within the axis powers Hitler was the strongest. He controlled his people using propaganda and Germany need for change and to lose its restrictions from the treaty of Versailles. Nazism was heavily influenced by fascism in the early years and Hitler s brown shirts are comparable to Mussolini s black shirts. While Hitler was gaining power within the German government he openly claimed Benito as an influence and held him with great admiration. Hitler joined the German

workers party in 1919 and leaded by 1921. Two years later he and some three thousand men of the SA and initiated the beer hall putsch. Hitler had been inspired by Benito s march on Rome and now attempted to seize power in Germany. This failed and the leaders of the Nazi party were arrested. Hitler was released in 1924 and soon gained support for his strong views on anticommunism and anti-Semitism. For nine years the Nazi party gained support before in 1933 Hindenburg elected him chancellor. Once he became chancellor of Germany he quickly disposed of all his opposition. In 1933 the Reichstag was set alight and within the building was a communist activist. The communists were blamed for the fire and Hitler had the German communist party shut down and its leaders were exiled or executed. Hitler moved then to gain more control by creating the enabling act to give Hitler a de facto dictatorship. Soon he was fuehrer of Germany taking ultimate control over the Weimar government and got rid of it. This act was great for the German people as most still saw the Weimar government as a terrible thing. Hitler soon erected the third Reich and started mass production throughout the country. Hitler was a more powerful leader than Mussolini and grew his country s economy. While Hitler grew Germanys sense of pride back he had managed to gain full control.

Franco was not part of the axis alliance and Spain did not enter world war two but Franco at the same time was leading his people within a fascist rule. Franco started out in the military and by 1926 he had become the youngest general in Europe. During his service he defended the conservative right winged government by suppressing an anarchist led strike. Soon the left winged popular front had claimed office. This led to a great increase in the countries insatiability and violence ensued. Conservative leader Jose Sotelo was assassinated which led to the other conservative leaders to use his death as a reason to rebel against their government. This attempt to throw the government was not one that Franco was originally part of but he was given the army of Africa. The rebellion turned many against the popular front but not enough within the navy, which meant that Franco could not get any of the army to Spain. This ultimately meant the coup had failed but it had led to civil war. With assistance from Germany, Britain and Italy and was soon given a small fleet of air support and managed to reach the Spanish mainland. The main commander of the rebellions forces died in a plane crash in mid 1936 and Franco was nominated for commander in chief despite not being a part of the initial rebellion. Until the end of the civil war Franco guided all the military operations. In 1937 Mola one of the original rebellion group also died in a plane crash meaning none of the original rebellion leaders were still alive and Franco was becoming higher on the list of leading members of the rebellion. Franco managed to carve his way through Spain finally taking Madrid in 1939 and the leaders of the popular front recognised the Franco regime. Franco had originally not wanted to be part of the rebellion and he was dragged into it initially. He seems to have climbed up the ranks because every one else with power had died. Spain was one of the very few countries to stay neutral during world war two and he had been able to rebuild his country after three years of civil war.

Hideki T j was one of the highest-ranking generals during the Second World War and the Second Sino-Japanese War. T j was promoted to major general and served as Chief of the Personnel Department within the Army Ministry. He was appointed commander of the IJA 24th Infantry Brigade in August 1934. He began an interest in politics as a fascist and militarist and was nicknamed razor for a sharp, legalistic mind capable of making quick decisions C. Peter Chen world war two database. Tojo was a supporter of Nazi Germany and he also feared the long-term plans of Joseph Stalin and in 1938 he advocated preemptive air strikes on both China and the Soviet Union. In May 1938 Fumimaro Kondoye appointed Tojo as his vice minister of war. However, after six months in this post he returned to the armed services and took command of the army's aviation. (Sparticus educational) in 1940, T j was to be given Army Minister in the second Fumimaro Konoe regime, and he stayed in that post in the third Konoe cabinet remained in that post in the third Konoe cabinet. He was a strong supporter of the Tripartite Pact between Japan, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Whilst being the Army Minister he continued to vastly expand the grueling war with China. In November of 1940 he was given the role as prime minister and started plans on Pearl Harbor. Tojo did not go through as much as most other leaders had to gain their roles and he was still acting under the emperor at the time. Tojo also did not do much in the way of his people, as his main focus was the war. Out of all four Hitler had the most difficulty in gaining his position of power because unlike Mussolini his coup did not work which meant that he had to claim leader politically but he also had more political opposition in gaining than Franco despite fighting a war for his position. Hitler rebuilt Germany as a nation; he restored their pride and hope. While Mussolini was hanged in the middle of Milan by his own countrymen so they all could see their countries dictator was dead. Tojo was still a far right extremist and still had to climb to his position but he will never be the figurehead that the European fascists were because all of them fought in one way or another to achieve their rule.

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