well, in germany it wasn't the great depression alone, you have to throw the versaile treaty into the equation.

As myshelf points out, the situation in Germany after WWI was completely different to that in Great Britain, as it then was. This is what led to the rise of the Fascists & under Hitler the German people regained a sense of national pride & put Germany back on its feet. The drastic conditions of the Treaty of Versailles directly or indirectly caused this situation which I feel was almost inevitable.

Despite what we might like to think, there are still active Fascist movements in most democratic countries today as indeed there were throughout WWII. This is all part of the democratic system & the right to free speech, without which we would have no real democracy. It's a Catch 22 situation & this basic right is often used against democracies to fight them from within. In my view this is possibly just as (if not more) prevalent today as during any other period in history.

PS. Change the word Fascist to any movement of extremists as appropriate.

Hagar's thought for the day: I like to think that I've never held extremist views on anything during my whole lifetime. Therefore I have no personal knowledge of how they work. Others might well disagree. From what I can make out, most extremists would not regard themselves as such.

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I agree with Woodie on this one.  The Versailles Treaty cannot be pointed at as the cause for the rise of fascism in the various countries.  The onerous conditions of the Treaty imposed on Germany could be considered to be one of the factors that in the German political mind kept the German nation "oppressed", but one has to look at other roots.

To some degree, I think that fear of rampant socialism /bolshevism may have been a larger factor of the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain and even Germany.  I note that Italy, Spain and Germany were countries with a long autocratic history of monarchies, whereas GB had a strong constitutional monarchy where the people's voice was heard to a greater degree than in the other countries mentioned.

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that stability might have well to do with the isolation of the british isles.

the spanish facists were supported by the germans in their civil war, after the anschluss of the "ostmark" (austria) the italian shared a border to germany ...

Could it be said that Facism was a continental Western Europe political trend, during the 20-40s ?



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True enough!


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Bombardier, where do you live? I'm in Australia as well, but have never seen the likes of those!


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Going back to the original question, I hadn't considered Italy or Spain. This oversight was due to my lack of knowledge of Franco & Mussolini & rightly or wrongly considering them less of a threat to the world at large than Hitler & the German Nazis Whenever I think of Nazis I naturally think of Nazi Germany, a subject that I know far more about. I must rectify the situation & learn more about the others as it's impossible for me to discuss this without knowing the full picture.

There are different types of dictator, some far less abhorrent than others & some that could even be regarded as benevolent. General Francisco Franco remained absolute ruler of Spain long after WWII & until he died in November 1975. His word was law & this could be enforced with an iron hand. Like many British holidaymakers I first visited Spain in the early 1970s while he was still leader & found the people friendly & their country very interesting & welcoming. By this time Franco was a respected leader & regarded as part of the Western fight against Communism. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/general_francisco_franco.htm

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Hi Andrew



I live in Australia too! I'm in Perth, and in the slightly trashy part of it too. I'm not much of a bogan myself though. As I told you, it's a bit trashy with some bogans. And someone who does burnouts every night around the joint is your average motorist Fortunatly the cops have sorted them out and you will hardly ever hear burnouts here

Glennlcasey (Glenn/Glenno) lives in a part of Perth close to the part I'm in.

I've seen some very big neo nazi grafiti here before! M.O.R.O.N.S

Happy flying,



Bombardier