ABSTRACT
The First World War created one of the most volatile political landscapes in the history of Europe, heralding what Eric Hobsbawm describes as The Age of Extremes'. The devastation of the war, revolution and counter-revolution, extreme nationalism and economic dislocation created an atmosphere ripe for political extremism to flourish. By the end of the 1930s it appeared that liberal democratic government in Europe was the exception rather than the rule with Britain and Holland unusual in having small 'native' fascist movements. The Bolsheviks in eastern Europe consolidated their control after the October 1917 revolution in Russia and, at the other political extreme, fascist or extreme right-wing dictatorships were in power in Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal. Romania, Hungary and Poland all experienced intolerant right-wing regimes in which the legal rights of minorities such as Jews were under threat.
