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Portraying Fascism As a Colonial Understanding of Europe

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Portraying Fascism As a Colonial Understanding of Europe Háskóli Íslands School of Humanities History Portraying Fascism as a Colonial Understanding of Europe How Continuities of Imperial Expansion Shaped Fascist Ideology and Practices MA-thesis in History Pontus Järvstad Kt.: 180487-3879 Supervisor: Valur Ingimundarson May 2017 1 Abstract Within the context of the scholarly debates over fascism, this thesis explores continuities between the colonial and fascist periods in European history. There is much confusion among scholars about how to define fascism: whether it should be considered a comprehensive ideology or merely a system of rule. What most agree on, however, is fascism’s animosity towards democracy and plurality. This is often conceptualized as a rejection of the pillars of Western civilization built on the ideas stemming from the Enlightenment and liberalism. Yet, such a view obscures the fact that these “pillars” are embedded in European colonialism. Thus, as a European ideology, fascism cannot be easily divorced from other ideological traditions, such as liberalism, which were important for the perpetuation of colonialism and imperialism. While historical fascism is often seen as being alien because of its indescribable crimes against humanity, it was not only novel also but familiar to its contemporaries. It acted on a continuity of a colonial understanding, not only of the world but of Europe as well. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first introduces the theoretical framework by exploring the concepts of continuity and periodization and their use in historical representations and narratives. The second analyzes the diverse scholarly interpretations of fascism and shows how reevaluations of historical periodizations have influenced new critical understandings of fascism. The third develops the argument about the structural relationship between colonialism and fascism with references to recent historical scholarship. From a broader perspective, the aim here is to do two things: first, to demonstrate how changes in historical narratives and interpretations coincide with social change, challenging master narratives; second, to argue that a critical reevaluation of periodization leads not only to an opening of the historical narrative but also to an alternative understanding of fascism. 1 2 Acknowledgements I am very grateful for the guidance of my supervisor Professor Valur Ingimundarson in writing this thesis. I would not have been able to undertake such a big subject matter without his support, in-depth knowledge of the subject, and stimulating comments. His belief in me made me challenge myself and aspire to greater heights. Last but not least I would like to thank Anna Kristín B. Jóhannesdóttir, the love of my life. Her support and encouragement has been invaluable. This thesis is dedicated to her. 2 3 Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 2 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 4 Chapter 1 – Time, Periodization and Continuity ................................................................ 13 Chapter 2 – Historiographical Interpretations of Fascism ................................................ 20 Theorizing Fascism in the Interwar Period .......................................................................... 21 Post-war Recriminations and Apologetics: Western Recrimination and German Guilt...... 24 Arendt´s Forgotten Continuity Thesis ................................................................................. 32 Breaking with Historical Idealism and Totalitarianism: The Sonderweg Thesis ................ 35 Carving out a Special German Historical Trajectory ........................................................... 38 The Historikerstreit Controversy ......................................................................................... 40 Generic Fascism: The New Consensus and its Critics ......................................................... 43 Fascism as Right-Wing or Left-Wing? ................................................................................ 53 Concluding Remarks on the Historiography of Fascism ..................................................... 55 Chapter 3 – Situating Colonialism in Relation to Fascism ................................................ 57 German and Italian “Latecomers”: Colonialism, Expansionism, and Nationalism ............. 58 Italian Colonialism under Liberal and Fascist Regimes ...................................................... 62 Italian Fascist Imperialism: Unique or Western?................................................................. 65 German Colonialism: Practices, Supporters and Critics ...................................................... 68 The Question of Continuities: From German Colonialism to Nazi Expansionism and Extermination ....................................................................................................................... 77 Fascism’s Relation to Liberalism......................................................................................... 94 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 103 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 110 3 4 Introduction Yes, it would be worthwhile to study clinically, in detail, the steps taken by Hitler and Hitlerism and to reveal to the very distinguished, very humanistic, very Christian bourgeois of the twentieth century that without his being aware of it, he has a Hitler inside him, that Hitler inhabits him, that Hitler is his demon, that if he rails against him, he is being inconsistent and that, at bottom, what he cannot forgive Hitler for is not crime in itself, the crime against man, it is not the humiliation of man as such, it is the crime against the white man, the humiliation of the white man, and the fact that he applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until then had been reserved exclusively for the Arabs of Algeria, the coolies of India, and the blacks of Africa. (Aimé Césaire)1 It should be possible for us to control this region to the East with two hundred and fifty thousand men plus a cadre of good administrators. Let's learn from the English, who, with two hundred and fifty thousand men in all, including fifty thousand soldiers, govern four hundred million Indians. This space in Russia must always be dominated by Germans. Nothing would be a worse mistake on our part than to seek to educate the masses there. It is to our interest that the people should know just enough to recognize the signs on the roads. At present they can't read, and they ought to stay like that. But they must be allowed to live decently, of course, and that's also to our interest. We'll take the southern part of the Ukraine, especially the Crimea, and make it an exclusively German colony. There'll be no harm in pushing out the population that's there now. (Adolf Hitler)2 In 1952, the Martiniquan anti-colonialist intellectual and politician, Aimé Césaire was the first to argue that fascism was a form of colonialism brought home to Europe to roost. At the same time, the European political climate was characterized by “forgetting.” There was no interest in dwelling on a problematic past that would contradict the founding myths of the new political regimes. Questions about the complicity of traditional elites in bringing fascists to power, about popular support for fascist regimes, or about extensive collaboration in occupied territories, were dutifully ignored. It was considered more important to prevent segments of political elites from being seen as the abettors to fascist crimes. Instances of resistance against Nazi occupation in Western Europe were exaggerated to create the image of unified nations fighting 1 Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, Translated by Joan Pinkham (New York 1972), p.3. 2 Hitler´s Table Talk, 1941-1944: His Private Conversations, Transcribed and published by Heinrich Heims and Werner Jochmann, Translated by Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens (New York 2000), pp. 15–16. Parts of Cameron’s and Stevens’s English translation has been disputed in its accuracy. Therefore, I double checked each quote from the original German found in: Adolf Hitler: Monologe im Führerhauptquartier, 1941-1944, http://answers.org/atheism/Adolf-Hitler- Monologe-im-Fuehrerhauptquartier-1941-1944.pdf (Downloaded 24. April 2017). 4 5 fascist tyranny and standing up to European values. Two of the remaining colonial powers, Britain and France, used the defeat of fascism to embark on violent campaigns against anti- colonial movements in a desperate attempt to hold on to their last colonial possessions. Aimé Césaire’s argument that fascism was something very European in its brutality and connections to colonialism rhymed badly with those Europeans who wanted to “unremember” and to move on. Indeed, Adolf Hitler’s own wish to learn from the British colonial empire was in direct contradiction to the postwar interpretation of fascism in Western Europe. It would seem that something larger was at play here, that a European history of colonialism had shaped the imagination of the biggest evil the continent
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