Why were so many Germans and Italians willing to support totalitarian dictators during the 1920s and 1930s?
483350
Let's clarify a little bit things out. \n\nItaly and Germany originally didn't have the same goals. But the reason leading the two populations to endorse the two dictators were similar. \n\nGeneralized economic, political and social crisis in both countries and a lack of a strong capable political class able to tackle with problems in a serious and efficient way gave an opportunity to Hitler and Mussolini to gain more and more followers with some main differences between the two leaders.\nHitler had racial purification in his agenda since the beginning; some say Hitler was mentally insane when he conceived the systematic extermination of Jewishes while others state that Hitler's project to exterminated Jewishes fell within a precise plan aimed at stopping Jewishes from gaining increasing economic and political influence (they were slowly and silently taking over the country as they owned banks and were deeply involved in politics). Germany in that period was undergoing a serious crisis with a lot of unemployment while jewishes appeared very thriving which made it easier for Hitler to focus the hatred of the starved population towards them, as well as against all handicapped people, gipsies (eastern european origins, mainly from Romania) etc etc.\n\nAs to Mussolini, in his agenda Racial Purification was never considered till he joined Hitler. \nThe original goals of Mussolini were\n1) Deep political reforms aimed at evening the social inequalities\n2) Deep economic reforms (agriculture and industry) aimed at turning ITaly in a totally self-sufficient country (Autarchy)\n3) Expand its colonies (Ethiopia, Lybia, Somalia)\n4) Improve the image and the "weight" of Italy in Europe.\n\nHe did manage to implement a lot of his goals: \nCriminality in Italy dropped to almost 0%, with Mafia being non existent.\nHe reclaimed many marshes in several parts of Italy turning them into fertile lands that still today provide most veggies and fruits to the rest of Italy\nHe promoted an intense enhancement campaign aimed at modernizing agricultural equipment \nHe build from scract several new towns in places like Sardinia, populating them also with people from other regions (like in the case or Arborea in Sardinia, populated by Mussolini with people from Veneto in order to teach Sardinians how to apply the most innovative agricultural strategies).\nIn short, Mussolini's mistake was joining Hitler and his racial plans (we had basically no issues with Jewishes while Hitler did have).\nIn short, the reason why Italians and Germans endorsed the political agendas of these two dictators are the the following:\n1) Critical economic and social situations\n2) Lack of a political class able to tackle with the problems in an efficient way, providing jobs and granting people a decent living standard\n3) In the case of Germany, the increasing power of Jewishes, which clashed with the poverty of Germans, causing fears  (justified, unjustified? who knows) and feeding the rage (which turned into popular consent for Hitler) of millions of people forced on the edge of starvation.\n\nIf you still find it difficult to understand, think of what is going on in the US with Mexicans and in the rest of the world with Muslims and you will understand why people endorsed those actions.
384212
The Nazis were a political party in Germany,like the democrats and the republicnas are a party. The reason so many poeple liked the Nazis is because they were the only middle party. Either the parties in Germany were to much to either extreme for the average person to relate with. The Nazis were a party the average citizen in Germany could relate with. Believe it or not the Nazis were voted into office instead of the popular belief that they just ruthlesly took control. The objective of killing off the jews was not one of their original policies though. It wasnt  until Hitler became chanclor of the Nazi party that he implemented it. He used propoganda and lies to turn the German people agianst the Jews.\n\nPS\n\nThe party wasnt formed by Hitler. He just later become chancelor later on.
324910
You should look up something called "World War II." It's a little known fact that while Germany was killing Jews in Europe, the U.S. WAS FIGHTING A WORLD WAR. I'm sure that the U.S. would have loved to have helped out earlier, but they were preoccupied.  Invading Germany to free prisoners aint no trip to cleveland.  Here's a question, why didn't Italy, the USSR, England, Spain, or Iran intervene sooner?
380402
True.  I forget when Mussolini was toppled and Rome seized, but Italy switched sides.
201179
I think italy believed that germany would win the war and wanted to be on the winning side.
139891
I like the first answer!\n\nHowever, I'll give in and give a bit more information.\n\nLook at Germany after WWI.  They were devastated, morally and economically.  They were supposed to pay gigantic reparations which realistically they could never pay.  Thus, they fell into a huge depression and were quite vulnerable to anyone who promised to "save" them.  A little wimpy untalented artist named hitler used incredible propaganda to bolster himself and his disgusting ideas.
84219
If Germany would have known when to stop with it's expansionism, Nazism would probably still be in place.\n    Sucking up a few smaller countries just wasn't enough for the madman Hitler, he had to push his agenda of extermination of the Jews and total world conquest.
184536
The original Nazis needed a scapegoat for their hatred. A sort of punching bag if you will that they could direct everyones hate against and so they could gain power. In Germany at the time of the rise of Nazism, poverty and unemployment rates were very very high, and the Jews of Germany (for the most part) had their own businesses and compared to the rest of the people, they were well off. Hitler took those facts and convinced people that it was the Jews fault that Germans (whom he considered to be a pure superior race) were poor. People believed him because there had been anti-semitism in Europe for centuries already, and Hitler was brilliant at giving speeches. It didnt take much to get people all rallied up. If you were poor, jobless, and destitute and someone came and told you that the Jews are rich and they are responsible for your misery, what would you do? Remember how good Hitler was as a talker. He succeeded in rallying most of Germany behind him using the Jews as a scapegoat...\n\n\nPeace
264146
Josef Stalin (Russia)\nAdolf Hitler (Germany)\nBenito Mussolini (Italy)\nFrancisco Franco (Spain)\n\nFranco defeated the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)and although neutral in WWII,his was a totalitarian government.
327381
Simply stated, a fascist government always has one class of citizens that is considered superior (good) to another (bad) based upon race, creed or origin.  It is possible to be both a republic and a fascist state. The preferred class lives in a republic while the oppressed class lives in a fascist state. \n\nThe came to power because they were the richer, more powerful group. Through dictatorship, the fascists controlled both Italy and Germany. \n\nhttp://faculty.uml.edu/ccarlsmith/teaching/43.106/lecture_outlines/fascism.htm\n\nthat site will really help.
558694
I think a better way to put this is who killed more people in a genocide, the nazis or the russians.  The answer is the russians killed many times the number of people that the nazis did.  We should have destroyed both of these leftest causes while they were still relatively young (nazism is often misidentified as right wing where it was, actually National SOCIALISM).  Probably, it would have been much more wise to allow Hitler to wipe out the Russians, probably expending much of his military power to do so, and then mopped up the floor with him afterward.\n\nThere was nothing good about either regime.  If Hitler didn't force us to stop him militarily by invading all of his neighbors, the government was well on its way to collapse all by itself.\n\nThere is a saying that virtue is its own reward.  But, what is not said is that evil is its own punishment.  Values that are evil lead to destruction and eventual death of those who adhere to them.  This is a repeating pattern in human history.  Unfortunately, evil people rarely give their victims the luxury of waiting around until the bad guys off themselves.
339704
In 1936, General Francisco Franco was among a cabal of military and political leaders who attempted to overthrow the Spanish crown to gain dictatorial powers for themselves and Franco was the commander in Spanish Morocco so he was able to bring a large contingent of African troops for the coup forces. Very shortly, the Fascist powers of Italy and Germany sent huge numbers of troops and equipment to help Franco's forces. To counter this, the Socialist Prime Minister began to receive help from the Soviet Union (unlike Franco who received help from Germany and Italy for free, the government had to pay for Soviet help with gold) and from 'international brigades' of volunteers from all over the world (there was ONE Fascist international brigade, from Ireland, but they decided very early that they didn't like fighting against people who could fight back so they left). As part of their help, the Soviets sent Commissars and eventually murdered more of the government forces than of the Fascists. By 1939, the government began to run out of money, and Stalin began to decide that freedom for Spain really wasn't so important any more so the Russian forces went home (many to be liquidated because they had been exposed to capitalism!). In mid-1939, Franco was installed as the unconditional dictator of Spain, and the Germans were freed just in time to go into Poland.\n\nFranco would remain in uncontested power until about 1980 when he died after a very long illness (hence Saturday Night Live's long-running gag, "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is STILL dead!). Juan Carlos I was mentored by Franco and upon the dictator's death was crowned the King of Spain, and he remains king to this day. The televangelist Jack Van Impe (I just watch because Rexella is a babe, 'Hey, Grandma's pretty hot!') has written several books claiming that Juan Carlos I is in fact the Anti-Christ King.
605188
Adolf Hitler - Nazi dictator of Germany (1933-45), planned and started World War 2, committed suicide at the end of the war. \nGeneral Hideki Tojo - Prime minister of Japan (October 1941 - July 1944). With a long militarist tradition, Japan became extremely militarist and aggressive in the 1930s and was practically governed by military leaders. Tojo, an aggressive army General, became minister of war in July 1941 and prime minister in October 1941. After a short attempt to improve relations with the US failed, he ordered to go to war and attack Pearl Harbor in December 1941. He gradually took more ministerial roles, and in Feb. 1944 also made himself the commander in chief, like Adolf Hitler did. When he realized that Japan was going to lose the war he resigned. The military continued to control Japan until the end of World War 2, which came when the Emperor Hirohito which was until then passive, ordered to surrender in order to prevent further inevitable destruction of Japan. After the war Tojo was executed for his responsibility to Japan's war crimes. \nBenito Mussolini, was the prime minister of Italy (1922-1943). A former journalist, he went to politics and formed the Fascist party, whose ideology, Fascism, called for a one-party state, total obedience, patriotic nationalism, and aggressive militarism. The ideology and its implementation in Mussolini's Italy influenced Adolf Hitler's own ideology, Nazism, which was a combination of Fascism with extreme racism. Initially Mussolini led a right-wing coalition, but later Italy became a one party state. His treatment of unemployment made Mussolini popular, but the military aggression of Fascism led to its failure. Mussolini was eager to demonstrate the "strength" of his regime by invading weaker neighbors. In 1935 he invaded and occupied the peaceful Ethiopia from Italy's nearby colony in East Africa. In 1936, the two Fascist dictators, Hitler and Mussolini, signed an alliance. In 1939 he invaded and occupied his small neighbor Albania, and Mussolini then enhanced his alliance with Hitler to a full military alliance. Mussolini knew that his military was not very effective, but when the Germans defeated the French and British forces in mid 1940 he thought it was safe enough for him to attack Britain and the collapsing France too and declared war, and in October 1940 he also invaded Greece, and was repelled. Mussolini had a million soldiers in Libya, and he sent them to attack the small British force in Egypt. The Italian Navy and Air Force attacked British ports and shipping in the Mediterranean, from Gibraltar in the West to Haifa (Israel) in the East. Despite its numerical strength and the fact that British forces in the Mediterranean were greatly outnumbered and very stretched, the Italian military could not defeat them anywhere, and was severely beaten by the British, and simply had to call for the help of the much more capable Germans. Even with German help, the British forces only lost their positions in Greece and kept fighting fiercely from their island bases in Malta, Gibraltar, and in North Africa. Mussolini's Italy became a German puppet, and even sent troops to participate in Germany's invasion of Russia. Eventually, British and American forces eliminated the Italian and German forces in North Africa and followed in July 1943 with an invasion of Sicily in South Italy. It was clear that Italy was losing the war, so several days after the invasion Mussolini was replaced and arrested in a remote mountain castle. Hitler sent commandos to rescue his friend from captivity. In April 1945, when German defence in North Italy collapsed, Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans and executed . \nThe defenders\nWinston Churchill kept warning of the Nazi danger in pre-war years. He was elected prime minister of Great Britain after the total collapse of the appeasement policy of his predecessor Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain failed to understa
137767
Germany was a major ally of Great Britain and the US after the war.  We extended huge credits to the Reichsbank for them to build up their industries and infrastructure so they could pay the massive war compensations (reparations) that we demanded of them.  The German economy flourished but it took a major hit along with the US in the 1929 stock market crash.  When Hitler came to power in 1933, he used the revived German economy to make arms and build up the armed forces, again using credit from the west, negotiated by his finance minister, Schacht.  By this point, we were appeasing the Germans, keeping them happy to avoid another war.  By the mid 1930's, the new German military was ready.  The air force was tested in the Spanish civil war and then Hitler started taking back German lands.  Poland was last and we all know what happened after that...
88664
You need to understand the origin of their purpose, meaning why Hitler convinced the citizens of Germany that his ideas were right. In 1935, he was about to be put in jail, he argued the government was wrong and got followers to back him. To some, these ideas are still followed today.
721424
after world war I, germany had to pay a lot of money in reparations to other countries.  they were already low on funds because of war costs - and to add insult to injury, they had to take all the blame for the war.  the german people were feeling very down on themselves, and the nazi party gave them not only a scapegoat for all their problems (the jews), but also the idea that the german people were part of a master race.  the nazis made the germans feel good about themselves again, and promised to end their problems.
318942
Militarism, Adolf Hitler want to re-arm Germany, Italy looking outward for conquest, Japan with recent naval victory against Russia in Vladivostok believes it can take the world as it had humiliate the Russian giant.\n\nAgression, believing that after WW1, no one wants another war, it can agress and bully neigbors, Germany start annexing Austro-Hungary, Japan use Manchuria as an excuse to be in China, Italy due to lack of any natural resource start venturing into Africa.\n\nNationalism, German leader lead the people believe that the suffering they have was a result of their defeat and was able to raise the nationalism spirit of the people, Japan with its emperor regard as the son of heaven, ralied the people to believe that they are no longer a small nation, they can anyone as they had shown in defeating the Russian navy. The Italian was ralied together to avoid a civil war.