Anti-Colonialism and the Crises of Interwar Fascism

Scholars have long debated the extent to which Western imperialisms served as ideological and intellectual precursors to European fascisms. With some exceptions, this scholarship has employed an “inside-out” methodology that explores how imperial discourses pushed fascist regimes outward, into Africa, Asia, and the Americas, but has largely ignored the reverse—the ways in which these places and their inhabitants engaged with European fascisms. Addressing this gap, Anti-Colonialism and the Crises of Interwar Fascism takes an “outside-in” approach to examine fascist expansion from the perspective of Indian anti-colonialists such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Bose and Mohandas K. Gandhi. This unique approach redefines and reconceptualises our understanding of major European events, including the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Spanish Civil War, Second Sino-Japanese War, Munich Agreement and the outbreak of the Second World War. Rather than a clash between the supposedly conflicting socio-political systems fascism and democracy, this book argues that the crises of Interwar fascism were yet another imperial contest similar to the Scramble for Africa and the Treaty of Versailles. Whether fascist, democratic, or imperialist, Europe’s great powers collectively negotiated the fate of smaller nations. Taken together, these global superpowers were a collection of collaborative yet hostile nation-states with one thing in common: the procurement and maintenance of empire. What is fascism? Is it an anomaly in the history of modern Europe? Or its culmination? In Anti-Colonialism and the Crises of Interwar Fascism , Michael Ortiz makes the case that fascism should be understood, in part, as an imperial phenomenon. He contends that the Age of Appeasement (1935-1939) was not a titanic clash between rival socio-political systems (fascism and democracy), but rather an imperial contest between satisfied and unsatisfied empires. Historians have long debated the extent to which Western imperialisms served as ideological and intellectual precursors to European fascisms. To date, this scholarship has largely employed an "inside-out" methodology that examines the imperial discourses that pushed fascist regimes outward, into Africa, Asia, and the Americas. While effective, such approaches tend to ignore the ways in which these places and their inhabitants understood European fascisms. Addressing this imbalance, Anti-Colonialism adopts an "outside-in" approach that analyses fascist expansion from the perspective of Indian anti-colonialists such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Bose, and Mohandas Gandhi. Seen from India, the crises of Interwar fascism-the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Spanish Civil War, Second Sino-Japanese War, Munich Agreement, and the outbreak of the Second World War-were yet another eruption of imperial expansion analogous (although not identical) to the Scramble for Africa and the Treaty of Versailles. Whether fascist, democratic, or imperialist, Europe's great powers collectively negotiated the fate of smaller nations. Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: Fascism and Imperialism Chapter 1: “It Is Us Today. It Will Be You Tomorrow”1: India and the Second Italo-Ethiopian War Chapter 2: “All the Best Matadors Were Fascists”1: India and the Spanish Civil War Chapter 3: “A Tower of Skulls”: India and the Second Sino-Japanese War Chapter 4: “A Triumph of Violence”1: India and the Munich Agreement Chapter 5: “A War for the Future of the World”1: India and the Outbreak of the Second World War Conclusion: “Before They Were Its Victims, They Were Its Accomplices”1 Selected Bibliography Index