The Rise of Fascism

Italy after WWI

The war had caused heavy casualties,
incurred huge war debts and brought
destruction, economic recession, serious
unemployment and inflation to Italy
Despite the Prime Minister, Orlando, had
pressed hard for territorial rewards at the
Peace Conference, his demands were not
all entertained
In face of appalling hardships at home and
a successful communist revolution in
Russia, many Italians became restless
There were ‘Red Leagues’ in the
countryside demanded lower rents and
divided the property of the landlords
The middle class were alarmed by the
situation
Italian political parties were numerous and
small
The government was usually a coalition of
several parties and would easily break up
owing to conflicting interests
The government was also corrupt and
inefficient
Many people criticized the government for
failing to secure national interests and
solve the problems of the country after the
war
 The Fiume Incident
In September 1919, an Italian patriot led
1000 volunteers to seize the city Fiume,
later, the Italian government had to expell
them from the city with troops.
The incident made the government more
unpopular
Under the above situation, Italian wanted
a strongman who promised to lead them
out of the difficulty
Mussolini and the Fascists provided them
“an answer”
 The Fascist ideas
Some historians insist that fascism was
not a proper ideology, arguing that it had
no great philosopher and was a hodge-
podge of ideas
However, the fascist usually had these
ideas:
Extreme nationalism
Anti-liberal, no parliamentary rule
To create a more united society
Anti-communist
Had an ambivalent relationship with
socialism
Emphasized military virtues
Importance of leaders
In Italy, although many of the components
of Fascism existed before 1914, the idea
of Fascism were accentuated by the
experiences of the war
Politically, the Fascists in Italy had strong
national feeling: “Nothing above the state,
Nothing outside the state, nothing against
the state”
The believed in Totalitarianism and
Authoritarianism
“One party, the Fascist Party, should
direct and control all activities”
The sovereignty of the atate was absolute.
The citizens had no rights but simply
duties
The state should be governed by an elite
who is more superior than the others
Economically, they had the Corporate State
It was a economic system, and a Fascist to
western-style democracy and to Soviet
proletarian dictatorship
It advocated of classes cooperation
power is given to civic assemblies that represent
economic, social, cultural, and professional
groups. When there was a conflict between
workers and employers, the state had the final
authority to intervene
Since the Fascists believed that any state
which did not expand would eventually
die, they believed in militarism
They also thought that war and territorial
expansion made a state glorious
They believed in Romanticism
Reason, for Fascists, alone could never
solve great national problems
Reason must be supplemented by hero-
worship, admiration of force, mystic faith
and self-sacrifice
 Rise of Mussolini
Early Career of Benito Mussolini:
He was a socialist when he was young,
and had been an editor of a socialist
newspaper
During WWI he joined the army and was
wounded
In 1919, he formed groups of working men
to agitate for social revolutionary changes
and the groups were merged into Fascist
Party in 1919
The party demanded universal suffrage,
abolition of Senate, establishment by law
of an eight-hour day, confiscation of 85%
of war profits and annexation of Fiume
and Dalmatia
The Fascists broke up communist
meeting, demanded full implementation of
Italy’s demands at the Paris Peace
Conference
Although they had only 35 seats in the
parliament, the King appointed him as the
Prime Minister after the March on Rome in
1922
Mussolini’ s Domestic policies
Once Mussolini was appointed the Prime
Minister, he changed the electoral law in
favour of the Fascist Party
In 1924 election, the Fascist use
intimidation and violence to ensure a
Fascist majority in the parliament
Mussolini murdered Matteotti, the socialist
leader and the greatest opposition and
controlled the whole parliament
Many other opposition leaders were killed,
arrested and exiled
In 1928, the new electoral law allowed
only candidates of the Fascist Party stand
for parliament election
In 1939, the Corporations replaced the
parliament
After purging all opposition, Mussolini
established one –party dictatorship in Italy
In order to eliminate opposition, the secret
policy were given power to arrest and
imprison people
All forms of media were made state
controlled and propagandized for the
Fascist
 School children had to join the Fascist
Youth Organizations and were
indoctrinated with Fascist ideas
Personality cult of Mussolini could be
found in everywhere in Italy
Arm forces were reorganized and
strengthened
Reforms were introduced in various fields
to build a stable and prosperous Italy
New farm land were provided and “Battle
of Wheat” was launched to increase
agricultural production
Communication were improved
Hydro-electric schemes were introduced
Mussolini ended the disagreement
between the Pope and Italy in 1929 by the
Lateran Treaty
By the Treaty the Pope recognized Italy
and Italy recognized the Pope as the head
of Vatican City, where the Italian
government recognized it as a sovereign
state
The Pope was compensated for the loss
of powers outside the Vatican
Catholicism was made the state religion of
Italy
Fascist government introduced the
corporate state idea to Italian
Economic groups of similar nature were to
form a corporation, in which
representatives of employers, employees
and the government were to sit together to
improve production and conditions of work
All disputes were settled in the corporation
By 1934, 22 big industrial and professional
corporations were set up
The system planned the whole economy
of the country
 Foreign Policies
Mussolini adopted an aggressive foreign
policy, he strove for
 Domination over the Adriatic Sea
 Hegemony in the Mediterranean Sea
 The extension of Italian colonial
possession in Africa
The Treaty of Lausanne (1923) , the final treaty
with Turkey, assured Italian annexation of the
Dodecanese
The Corfu Incident (1923): making use of the
murder of 4 Italian, Mussolini ordered troops to
occupied Corfu. After Greece accepted most of
the Italian demands, Mussolini returned the
place to Greece
The occupation of Fiume (1924)
Rome Protocols (1934) with Hungary and
Austria
Treaty of Stresa with France and Britain (1935)
Italy was afraid of a strong Germany after the
coming of power of Hitler. Mussolini wanted to

make use of Britain and France to

counterbalance German threat
Abyssinian Incident (1935-36): In 1935 Italians
attacked Abyssinia and annexed it in the next
year. Although the League of Nations declared
Italy as aggressor , Italy ignored the League
Participation in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39)
Rome-Berlin Axis (1936)
Anti-Comintern Pact (1937)
Occupation of Albania (1939)
Pact of Steel (1939)