• 1922 Benito Mussolini - Italian leade
• Fascis
• Italians = Fed up with the Treaty of Versaille
• Italy = gained Trentino, the south Tyrol, Istria and Triest
• The allies refused to give Italy = parts of Dalmatia, Adalia, Fiume, some of the Aegan Islands =>> ignored
and given to Yugoslavia
• DEBTS AFTER WW1 => in ation
• massive increase in living cost, high unemployment, reduced industry production, return of more than 2
million soldiers - no job
• Italy's government = proportional representation--> ill equipped and unable to manage the situation
• 9 weak parties => no strong party
• Very weak government => unable to resolve Italy's problems after WW
• Disorder => strikes, riots
=> workers occupying factories, peasants seizing land from farmers.. => establishing their own cooperatives
• factories councils (similar to Russian soviet)... Italian Communist party = January 1921 ====> everybody
expected a communist revolution
• THE THREAT OF COMMUNISM - Mussolini gains everybody who is anti-communist
• 23 March 1919 Fascio di combattimento ( ghting group) in Milan formed = Origins of his fascist party
• Mussolini's party was unpopular in the beginning => he realised he needs to attract wealthy businessmen
and landowners => anti communists
• = The fascist party = the defender of private enterprise and property
• Mussolini wanted to revive the glory of the Roman Empire --> fasces = symbol of power in ancient Rome
• violent methods but earned support of Italian society that feared communism - industrialists, landowners,
middle-class property owners, the Roman Catholic Church, king Victor Emmanuel III.
• the fascist party grew rapidl
• 1922: communists wanted a general strike => Mussolini announced that if the government did not put a
stop to this then his own men would =
• October 1922, 50,000 fascist => MARCH ON ROME
• Italian PM Luigi Facta wanted to use the army and police to disperse the fascist columns, but the king
refused and instead invited Mussolini to form a new government
• Mussolini's propaganda = 'great battle
• March on Rome = enormous blu -> the fascists could have been held back by the army
• Mussolini remained in Milan - rather than leading his men into a 'battle
Mussolini's style of government - Ruling from 1922 - 1943
• Lack of democracy - one party state => members of the party = elite of the nation, cult on Mussolini - il
duce
• Totalitarianism- the interests of the state > more important than the interests of the individual =>
control of people's live
• Autarky - Italy should become economically self-su cient => the government wanted to control all parts
of Italy's econom
• Extreme nationalism- restore Italy to its formal glor
• The use of violence - threats of violence = gaining power + maintenance of control + successful and
glorious foreign policy (expansion)
• "Peace is absurd, fascism does not believe in it."
r
m
• Fascis
• Italians = Fed up with the Treaty of Versaille
• Italy = gained Trentino, the south Tyrol, Istria and Triest
• The allies refused to give Italy = parts of Dalmatia, Adalia, Fiume, some of the Aegan Islands =>> ignored
and given to Yugoslavia
• DEBTS AFTER WW1 => in ation
• massive increase in living cost, high unemployment, reduced industry production, return of more than 2
million soldiers - no job
• Italy's government = proportional representation--> ill equipped and unable to manage the situation
• 9 weak parties => no strong party
• Very weak government => unable to resolve Italy's problems after WW
• Disorder => strikes, riots
=> workers occupying factories, peasants seizing land from farmers.. => establishing their own cooperatives
• factories councils (similar to Russian soviet)... Italian Communist party = January 1921 ====> everybody
expected a communist revolution
• THE THREAT OF COMMUNISM - Mussolini gains everybody who is anti-communist
• 23 March 1919 Fascio di combattimento ( ghting group) in Milan formed = Origins of his fascist party
• Mussolini's party was unpopular in the beginning => he realised he needs to attract wealthy businessmen
and landowners => anti communists
• = The fascist party = the defender of private enterprise and property
• Mussolini wanted to revive the glory of the Roman Empire --> fasces = symbol of power in ancient Rome
• violent methods but earned support of Italian society that feared communism - industrialists, landowners,
middle-class property owners, the Roman Catholic Church, king Victor Emmanuel III.
• the fascist party grew rapidl
• 1922: communists wanted a general strike => Mussolini announced that if the government did not put a
stop to this then his own men would =
• October 1922, 50,000 fascist => MARCH ON ROME
• Italian PM Luigi Facta wanted to use the army and police to disperse the fascist columns, but the king
refused and instead invited Mussolini to form a new government
• Mussolini's propaganda = 'great battle
• March on Rome = enormous blu -> the fascists could have been held back by the army
• Mussolini remained in Milan - rather than leading his men into a 'battle
Mussolini's style of government - Ruling from 1922 - 1943
• Lack of democracy - one party state => members of the party = elite of the nation, cult on Mussolini - il
duce
• Totalitarianism- the interests of the state > more important than the interests of the individual =>
control of people's live
• Autarky - Italy should become economically self-su cient => the government wanted to control all parts
of Italy's econom
• Extreme nationalism- restore Italy to its formal glor
• The use of violence - threats of violence = gaining power + maintenance of control + successful and
glorious foreign policy (expansion)
• "Peace is absurd, fascism does not believe in it."
r
m
