Fascism succeeds in Britain, not Germany

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What if Oswald Mosley’s Fascists succeeded in Britain, in the early 1930s, whilst Hitler’s Nazis attempt at government failed & the German Nazis faded into the background. Meanwhile Mussolini’s fascists are just as successful as the OTL.

What effects would a British Fascist government, with Mosley as PM, have on the history of Britain & Europe, whilst Germany’s Weimar Republic, not only survived Hitler’s attempts at control, but strengthen to become a strong democracy by the late 1930s?

Discuss
 
It would be a National Socialist Worker's Party of Britain with more emphasis on Socialist and less on Nationalist given Moseley's dalliances with Labour in the 1920s.

I don't think there'd be the racial overtones or general murmurings of "master race" but there would be militarism in the Empire which would enable Britain best able to withstand the Wall Street Crash and post economic slump.

Weimar Germany might look to France as an economic ally to pick up the pieces and not coincidentally get parts of the Versailles settlement cancelled. Best case scenario - there's another "Congress of Vienna" which redraws the European boundaries with the aim of keeping Soviet Russia firmly east of the Polish border.

Britain will look to the Empire rather than the continent and would look to recapture lost Asian and American markets etc. I could see government programmes advocating migration to the Dominions and the Colonies on the scale of 1914 when 400,000 people were annually leaving the country for a new life in Africa, Asia or Australasia, increasing the white settlement of these areas and a "battle for births" programme.
 
I think Moseley would begin re-armament from the moment he got into office, so that Great Britain would, (for once) actually be prepared to fight a world war. Also, Moseley had some interesting plans about reorganising the Empires economy to make it profitable to Britain (since WW1 the Empire had become a burden on Britain rather than a source of income).
So we can assume that Moseley would strive to make Britain economically and militarily strong enough to fight off imperial rivals like Japan.
Also, Moseley's version of Fascism was not anti-semetic or racist (in the context of the 1930's). It was simply aiming at rying to create a strong central government which would take tight control of the economy in order to regain some of Britain's lost power and influence.
 

bard32

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Well, we'd need a POD that's slightly different from OTL. The British Union of
Fascists would need the right conditions. Like what? A bad economy. Got in spades in the 1930s. A weak government. What would be a good example of that? There are two analogues for that: The Weimar Republic, and Italy, IOTL.
The Weimar Republic was so weak that merest demonstration would bring down the government and the German public was really very apathetic toward
it. They wanted a strong leader and Hitler was that strong leader in Germany.
In Italy, Italian democracy was so corrupt that the Fascists seized power by marching on Rome. Plus, King Vittorio Emmanuel II was forced to name Mussolini his prime minister. Now let's transfer both scenarios to Britain.
Better yet, let's add Austria to mix. In Austria, the Austrian Nazis, assassinated Engelbert Dollfuss, the Austrian chancellor at the time. Let's
suppose Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists ran, stood, as the British say, for election in 1934. Mosley says that if he doesn't win, he'll lead a march on London. Meanwhile, his bully boys rough up their opponents, the Tories, Labour, and the Liberals, and the Communists, and blame it on the Communists. Now Mosley knows he can't win the election outright. So he
instigates riots against the Jews, the Catholics, and other minorities. The
King is reluctant to name him as Prime Minister. However, a conniving politician reassures the King that he can control Mosley. The King agrees and
names Mosley Prime Minister. Mosley's first act as Prime Minister is to name
his own Grand Fascist Council, his second act is to round up all his opponents, including Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill, and throws them into concentration camps.
 
Hmmm the New Party might provide a POD in Britain - IIRC Mosley was ill during the election campaign and without him all of his MPs lost their seats.

In addition, if there had been longer between the formation of the new party and the election it might have had time to bed down

The latter would probably need Labour to remain with MacDonald rather than break with him. Admittedly, that would probably destroy Labour, but then thats what the scenario probably needs

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
I'm digging up this old thread b/c I was about to create a new one on this same subject. So please converse about this subject further. How might Britian's government be different with Fasciasts and Oswald Mosley in charge?
 
They might change the upper house to eliminate the control of the hereditary lords and political old guard and instead have a fascist oversight commitee or grand council.
 

CalBear

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