Imperial legacy casts a shadow over Europe

The resurgence of Europe's far-right movements has been highlighted in recent weeks by events in France, the Netherlands and, to a lesser extent, Britain.

Jean-Marie Le Pen's unexpected success in the French presidential elections marked the high point in the 30-year history of the National Front (FN) in France and sent shockwaves through Europe. In Britain, three British National party candidates won council seats at local elections in Burnley. This week the Netherlands was stunned by the assassination of the far-right politician Pim Fortuyn, whose anti-immigration party got the largest vote in Rotterdam in the local elections held in March.

Much as these are disturbing examples, a consideration of the history of the far right in Europe and developments in the history of Europe can be used both to trace why they exist and to demonstrate why hopefully they will not succeed in coming to power in the present day.

In contrast to the ideologies of liberalism, conservatism and socialism, fascism was a relative latecomer on the political scene. Proto-fascist and extreme or radical right nationalist groups existed in many European countries, including France, Germany and Italy, from the very end of the 19th century and notably sprang up in the period before the first world war. But it was in the aftermath of this conflict that the two most successful movements of this type gained political power.

Under Benito Mussolini, the Fascist party came to power in Italy in 1922 and, under Adolf Hitler, the National Socialist (or Nazi) party attained power in Germany in 1933. Clearly a large part of the reason for the success of these two parties was the circumstances in which these two countries found themselves.

In the case of Italy, thwarted nationalist aspirations and a fear of communist revolution provided a powerful combination to be exploited by the Fascist party. In Germany, the loss of the first world war, a punitive peace treaty and devastating economic crises, both in 1923 and after the Wall Street Crash in 1929, created circumstances on which the Nazi party could and did capitalize.

Economic, political and social tensions helped to bring a fringe radical right, ultra-nationalist and racist party to power. In this sense, the interwar fascist movements were a product of their time (let us not forget the significance of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists in this country) and the rise to power of these two regimes partly a result of historical circumstance.

Other fascist and far-right movements across Europe developed in the interwar period, inspired by these models, splicing Fascist and/or Nazi ideology with their own peculiar or particular brands of extreme nationalism.

An analysis of far-right movements in the period after the second world war demonstrates much less success. To begin with, the ideology was largely discredited. Although there have been extreme rightwing movements in many European countries - including the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) in Italy and the FN in France - the very different circumstances of the postwar era are much less conducive to their taking power.

The history of European integration and the development of the European Union (EU) have meant that the whole political landscape of Europe has changed. Supra-nationalism is eclipsing nationalism and much of the raison d' être and the ethos of the EU is to discourage fanatical nationalism and to prevent the possibility of wars being waged among member states. The sudden prominence and equally sudden fall from grace of Jörg Haider in Austria in 1999 exemplified this stance. Europe today is much more stable and prosperous than it was in the 1920s and 1930s.

But to understand why the BNP and FN exist and have an audience today in Britain and France respectively we have to look back to an even earlier era of history - the great age of imperialism at the end of the 19th century. The key issues of concern to these parties are immigration and race. These issues have emerged and become very significant in both British and French society since the main period of decolonisation in the 1960s and 1970s.

In Britain, the National Front and subsequently the BNP have targeted Asian communities, whilst in France the immigrants from former North African colonies take the brunt of nationalist resentment. Hence much of the content of the agenda of the far right in Britain and France today is a corollary of the imperial pasts of these two nations, the legacy of their empires.

It may have been considered by the imperialists all well and good to divide up and rule the world over a century ago but, generations later, whether we are black or white, we are living with the consequences and ramifications.

· Dr Lisa Pine is Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary European History at South Bank University. She is author of Nazi Family Policy, 1933-1945 (Berg, 1997).