The Rise of Fascism in the Inter-war Period Would Have Been Impossible Without the Rise of Communism.Evaluate.

The early part of the 20th Century witnessed the rise of two new political philosophies: Communism and Fascism. Both rose from the ashes of World War I and were firmly established in Europe by 1933. Though they exposed different goals and relied on different motivations to gain support, both ultimately resulted in totalitarian dictatorships.

The writings of Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels in 1848 gave birth to modern communism. Motivated largely by the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution on poor factory workers, the pair wrote The Communist Manifesto, which outlined their philosophy. Marx argued that the ‘Proletariat’ should, and one day would, rise up and overthrow the ‘Bourgeoisie’ ruling class. Once the revolution has successfully occurred, complete control would be given to the communist Party, and a “dictatorship of the Proletariat” would be established. The new government led by the Communist Party would seize controls of all means of production such as la...