Fascism in North America

Fascism during the interwar period in North America wasn't uncommon. Some fascist groups in North America supported it based on political reasons while others supported it for racial reasons.

One of the more radical fascist movements in the US was the Business Plot of 1933. While only being a conspiracy, a group of fascist veterans, lead by retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, planned to overthrow President Roosevelt in a Coup. No one was prosecuted however, and the New York Times dismissed this as a "gigantic hoax"

Another attempt at establishing fascism in North America was during the 1930s, when a man named Virgil Effinger led a paramilitary group called the Black Legion. This group stemmed from the Ku Klux Klan and wanted to start a revolution to establish fascism in the US. They were also extremely radical and strict in terms of a white Anglo Saxon Protestant American society. Although responsible for a number of attacks, the Black Legion was not as big of an issue as they seemed. Another group called the Silver Legion of America was founded in 1933 by William Dudley Pelley. Many groups like these, such as the Friends of New Germany and the Free Society of Teutonia were inspired by Nazi ideals. Though there were many of these kinds of groups in America, when the US joined WWII, much of these groups lost popularity and died out.



Fascism was also largely popular in Central America. In 1937, the National Synarchist Union was founded by José Antonio Urquiza in México. This group of fascists focused on the idea of Palingenetic Ultranationalism, which is the idea that through certain steps, there can be a national rebirth with the "perfect" society. In this case, this perfect society would oppose  anarchism, communism, socialism, liberalism, Freemasonry, secularism and Americanism, which at the time was dominating Mexico.