The Metaxas Dictatorship

In the field of politics, the interwar years were times of instability, unrest and major changes. The period was hallmarked by bitter conflict between the two major political blocs, the Venzelists and the Anti-Venizelists. Army intervention in politics was also frequent, as in the case of the putsch led by Plastiras, Gonatas and Fokas immediately after the Asia Minor disaster, and the failed putsches headed by officers loyal to Venizelos in 1933 and 1935.

These developments culminated in the personal dictatorship imposed by Ioannis Metaxas on 4^th August 1936, under the vague, pompous title of the "4th August Regime". In any event, the interwar years witnessed the flourishing of dictatorial regimes across the European continent, particularly in the wake of the 1929 global crash - e.g. Fascism under Mussolini in Italy from 1922 onwards, the Nazi regime in Germany from 1933 and the Civil War and Franco dictatorship in Spain.