the dramatic rise of fascism in the wake of the first world war was one of the most far-reaching
and consequential events of the century and perhaps all of history while it first showed
up with the rise of benito mussolini in italy the ideology and its various implementations by
other regimes in the decades to come particularly nazism have since shaped the modern world in more
ways than we can count well nowadays we tend to call every authoritarian form of government
fascists academics maintain that it has a specific meaning and characteristics that
may not be in line with other forms of dictatorships it's characterized by a strong focus
on nationalism militarism totalitarianism radical anti-communism a surprisingly common thread among
all fascist movements a singular strong leader that promises to restore things to an old glorious
state of nation and authoritarianism however it may also include other distinct features like
anti-semitism which was embraced by the nazis but rejected by mussolini's italy in 1934 though they
later adopted it to fall in line with hitler's objectives it might also include a rejection
of the state and its organized military as the prime authority as seen in the decentralized
neo-fascist movements of the more recent decades and its peculiar relationship with religion as
not all fascist movements have been traditionally supported by the prevailing religious authority
in their home nations even if all fascist movements share common characteristics it's
impossible to define fascism as a singular all-encompassing ideology regardless there
have been many times in history that fascism in one of its many unmistakable forms has managed
to overtake or manipulate the democratic process to gain power in the spirit of reminding everyone
of the cost of repeating our past mistakes let's count down the most influential ones of them all
number 10. gila gombos gila gombos was one of the many nationalist far eye leaders to
take power in europe during the interwar period though his impact on the continent's politics
would be limited first gaining relevance for his ability to organize paramilitary anti-communist
groups in the immediate aftermath of world war one as they played a major role in the fall
of the short-lived communist government of 1919. it was the stock market crash of 1929
and the ensuing great depression the brought his extreme right-wing nationalist and pro-corporate
politics the forefront gombos was elected as the prime minister of hungary in 1932 and immediately
sought to align the country on the lines of other totalitarian powers of the time like italy and
austria to get hungry out of the economic crisis he was known for his racist anti-semitic views
and could be blamed for the popular turn towards fascism in hungary at the time though the liberal
opposition within the country to his policies proved too strong moreover by 1934 the worst of
the economic crisis had also come to an end in the country and his authoritarian radical style
of politics was no longer as popular as it had been when he was first elected he died in 1936 of
kidney failure while in office without enacting any of his long-envisioned policies 9. iron
antonescu during the second world war we forget the role of the axis powers other than germany
japan and italy even if there were quite a few other countries that lent them support that
they needed to wage war of that scale romania under the dictatorship of martial arnondescu
was one of them an officer in the romanian army who rose through the ranks in the interwar period
antonescu gained ultimate power over romania in 1941. the country had already allied itself with
the axis powers well before the beginning of world war ii though his rise to power and his alignment
with the iron guard one of the largest fascist organizations in europe at the time made romania
one of hitler's most trusted allies throughout the war antonescu's dictatorship would send tens
of thousands of romanian jews to their deaths and concentration camps across romania as he saw them
as pro-soviet anti-nationalist and sympathetic to communism all common beliefs among most european
fascists at the time he was also immensely admired by hitler almost throughout the war second
only to perhaps mussolini the dictatorship came to an end with the coup organized by king michael the
last king of romania in august 1944 which also hastened the soviet advance into the country
antonescu was tried for his crimes and executed as a war criminal by the post-war communist
government of romania in 1946 number eight engelbert dolphus whenever dolphus first became
chancellor of austria in may 1932 it wasn't strictly an authoritarian takeover even if
some of his allies like heim there a paramilitary far-right nationalist group would definitely fall
on the fascist side of the spectrum that however would last roughly one year when
in 1933 he forcefully dissolved parliament and established an authoritarian corporatist regime
along the lines of portugal's estado novo dolphus occupies a peculiar place in this video is
even despite his anti-communist nationalist pro-corporate and extreme right-wing stance
the usual fascist stuff he was still vehemently anti-nazi it was a period of uniquely austrian
style of fascism backed by mussolini's italy with all the features of other fascist states at the
time though it resisted austria's entry into nazi germany's sphere of influence his regime was also
way less brutal than most other entries in this video though that may just be because
it didn't last very long as he was assassinated in an attempted coup by members of the austrian
nazi party in july 1934 7. augusto pinochet while september the 11th may mean something completely
different for the rest of us for chileans the day would always be remembered for general augusto
pinochet's violent u.s backed military takeover of chilean democracy in 1973. elected as the
commander-in-chief by the democratically elected socialist government of salvador allende barely 19
days before the coup pinochet's regime would go on to become a benchmark for dictatorial neo-fascist
cia-backed regimes in latin america throughout the cold war era during his stint as the
president from 1974 to 1990 even if he stayed on as the chief commander until as late as 1998 the
regime would be remembered for its torture and assassination of tens of thousands of political
opponents which included trade unionists leaders of socialist organizations at home and abroad
student organizations and really just anyone who publicly opposed his authoritarian militaristic
style of governance pinochet's legacy endures in the form of the aggressively
free market neo-liberal policies that are still enshrined in the chilean constitution however
thanks to the widespread protests of 2009 and a subsequent popular referendum in
2020 the government agreed to rewrite it a decision that was unanimously celebrated
across the country 5. the regime of the colonels while the 1967 coup in greece was different from
other fascist movements on this list due to its lack of classic fascist features like imperialism
and one-man leadership academic sources from the time squarely place it as a fascist regime due to
its general nature organized by a bunch of yeah you guessed it colonels from the greek military
that wanted to subvert the democratic process in the upcoming general elections it was the focal
point of the years-long political battle between the right and left that had been brewing in greece
at the time the takeover was swift carried out with military installations set up at strategic
locations across athens and a swift arrest of all political opponents mostly anarchists communists
and others from the left of the spectrum but also democratic socialists and centrists the regime of
the colonels as it colloquially called in greece and elsewhere ruled until 1974 with an iron fist
with widespread reports of torture and political assassinations against those who opposed it
one of the many worrying features of the regime was its antagonism towards student movements as
it regularly suppressed elections and other democratic movements in colleges across the
country one particularly gruesome example was the uprising at the athens polytechnic college
resulting in the military entering the campus with a tank and other military-grade weapons and
killing at least 34 students and protesters even though unofficial casualty numbers are far higher
number 4. antepavelets when hillary's forces successfully invaded the kingdom of yugoslavia
in 1941 a large part of it was partitioned among major axis powers like germany italy romania
hungary etc croatia however was turned into a puppet state directly under german control owing
to the recent resurgence of the ustashe within its borders a far-right pro-nazi movement founded by
anti-pavlets from 1941 to the end of the war in 1945 the independent state of croatia included
the present state of croatia almost all of bosnia had to governor and some parts of serbia there was
a crucial ally in the axis war effort as it not only militarily supported them on almost every
front in the western theatre but the ushtache were also instrumental in countering perhaps
one of the most successful anti-fascist rebellion movements in history the yugoslav partisans the
public state injured until the ending phases of the war in 1945. during that time pavlets was
directly responsible for the genocide of anywhere between three hundred thousand to seven hundred
thousand serbs romans jews partisans prisoners of war and other political opponents in croatia's own
parallel version of the holocaust though we'll never know the true extent of the tragedy pavlet
never stood official trial for his crimes though as he escaped to argentina by channels used by
many other fascists and nazi war criminals in the post-war era number three francisco franco when
we talk about the second world war spain's role in it is conspicuously absent from the record even if
most of us know for a fact that it involved almost all of europe say for a handful of countries that
could manage to stay neutral like switzerland it's not because it didn't want to take his
side but because it was just recovering from a sort of microcosm of the war at least in terms
of the ideological bent of the belligerence and its brutality if not its scale that recently
concluded within its own borders the spanish civil war lasted from 1936 to 1939 and was fought
between the ruling republicans loose alliance of anarchists communists social democrats another
left and other left-leaning groups supported by the soviet union and aristocratic nationalistic
and other conservative sections of the country that were backed by nazi germany and fascist
italy it was a brutal armed conflict and while the precise extent of the destruction is hard
to quantify records put the casualty numbers to be anywhere between 500 000 and a million
people the result was an overwhelming victory for the right-wing rebels providing grounds for italy
and germany to test many military maneuvers that they'd end up deploying often to great
success during world war ii it paved the way for the regime of francisco franco perhaps the
longest-lasting fascist leader on the list who was responsible for the deaths of anywhere between 200
000 and 400 000 of his political opponents in more than 190 concentration camps of his own while he
kept spain officially out of world war ii he did send around 50 000 volunteers to aid the germans
on the soviet front in the almost four decades that his regime lasted franco would rule spain
with his unique style of fascism that promoted militarism anti-communism trade protectionism and
suppression of women's rights 2. benito mussolini while fascism has shown up in a ridiculously wide
variety of forms across the world since the early 1920s its origins could be unambiguously traced
back to benito mussolini in his black shirts a loosely organized armed and mostly voluntary
squad under his direct command that attacked and repressed the bolshevik inspired left movements
cropping up across italy in the aftermath of world war one much like the rest of the powers
aligned with germany post-world war one italy went through years of economic hardship along
with an unfavorable peace treaty these conditions were ripe for the rise of a style of governance
advocated by mussolini from 1919 to 1922 mussolini and the black shirts were responsible for the
violent often public suppression of socialist and communist groups throughout italy with a
worryingly high degree of public support he gained ultimate power over italy following his infamous
march on rome which toppled the government of luigi factor and made him the prime minister until
his death at the end of world war ii the rest as they say his history benito mussolini would
go on to align italy with his extreme nationalist authoritarian and militaristic style of rule that
we've since come to associate with fascism his eventual alliance with hitler who spoiler will
get to in a moment would end up plunging the world into the second world war the largest
most destructive conflict in all of history 1. adolf hitler while mussolini's fascism and
hitler's nazism were almost identical in their stated goals restoring old glory of ancient
empires reorganizing society along militaristic virtues arbitrarily picking a group of people and
blaming them for every problem ever and all that usual stuff historians have always maintained that
there are some key differences between the two even if they don't mean much in the larger scheme
of things as opposed to the skewed racial theory of the nazis italian fascists weren't too keen
on the biologically superior aspect of the nazi ideology as mussolini had quite a few
jewish aids up until a bit before the war many jews even participated in the march on rome
they also differed on religion while the nazis were best at odds with the church as they
considered religion to be a weakening force for the aryan instincts of native germans even if
many germans and nazi officials were staunchly religious mussolini at least in the early years
of his rule actively formed an alliance with the church with often public shows of support to the
institution and the reintroduction of religious symbols in public spaces after years of secularism
being state policy regardless as we said before those differences wouldn't mean much for the
victims of both of these ideologies and their eventual impact on the world unlike many other
fascists on this list didn't strictly grab power in an insurrection or a violent takeover instead
he was handed the role of chancellor by president paul von hindenburg in 1933 which he used to turn
germany into the authoritarian one-party state of nazi germany and he himself into fuhrer in
1934. without repeating everything most of us already know adolf hitler along with other axis
powers aligned with him during world war ii would end up being responsible for close to 75 million
deaths around the world that included around 12 million jews roma slavs polls prisoners of war
and other political opponents that died in the holocaust so i'm not going to ask whether you
enjoyed this video but i do hope you found it interesting and illuminating if you did
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