Italian Fascism
Today’s Objective
- To understand the rise to of the Fascist Party & Benito Mussolini in Italy
6
• In 1919, resentment over Italy’s “mistreatment” at the Paris Peace Conference
…led to the founding of a new political party in Milan
→ the Fasci di Combattimento, or “Bands of Combat”
- Based on the ideals of new political philosophy: fascism
• While its exact practice would vary from country to country, fascism was
rooted in middle-class fears of Bolshevism
→ Seeking to make the world safe for middle-class business and
property owners, fascist gov’ts typically were:
- devoutly nationalistic
- anti-parliamentary
- anti-Marxist
- anti-Semitic
- anti-democratic
- totalitarian
• Between 1919-1922, economic difficulties in Italy caused considerable social
turmoil, as industrial strikes and peasant uprisings
…gave many Italians reason to believe that Italy might be next to fall
to a communist revolution
→ Benito Mussolini, founder of the Fasci di Combattimento promised
to “rescue” Italy from her troubles
…to restore law and order
…to crush the communists
…to bring unemployment and inflation
under control
…and to lead Italy “back to her ways of ancient greatness”
• Local fascist paramilitary groups, the Blackshirts, terrorized Mussolini’s
opponents
…harassing striking industrial workers and rebellious farmers
…disrupting meetings of the Italian Socialist Party
…intimidating, beating, and even murdering socialist leaders
→ Between 1919-1922, the Blackshirts were responsible for nearly
3,000 politically motivated murders
• In October 1922, when Mussolini’s Blackshirts threatened to seize power
in an armed “March on Rome”
…an intimidated King Victor Emmanuel III failed to
authorize the army to
block the march
…instead the intimidated king asked Mussolini to
become his prime minister
→ Within a month, Italy’s Parliament had granted Mussolini dictatorial
authority for one year to bring order to the nation:
- Strikes were outlawed
- Radio and newspaper publications were censored
- Italian socialists, and critics of Mussolini, were jailed
- All political parties, except the Fascists, were outlawed
→ By 1926, Italian democracy had been replaced by the single-party,
dictatorial rule of “Il Duce” – “the boss”
• In 1929, Mussolini made peace with the Roman Catholic Church
→ The Lateran Accord settled the dispute created by the seizure of
the Papal States during the wars of Italian unification
→ In recognizing the independence of the Vatican
…Mussolini gained the support of the Roman Catholic Church,
bringing a sense of respectability to his regime
Guided Reading Question
What factors allowed Benito Mussolini to seize power
in Italy?
New Rule
Answer for GRQ must be done in complete sentences. You must
have one sentence per bullet in your answer. This is the same procedure that you use
in your Summary.