Benito Mussolini

From the March on Rome in 1922 until his resignation in 1943, Mussolini presided as Italian prime minister. From the founding of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919 until his execution in 1945, he was known as the "Duce" of Italian fascism. Fascist movements grew across the globe with Mussolini's encouragement. By enlarging Italian colonial possessions and the fascist sphere of influence, Mussolini's foreign policy sought to revive the ancient glory of the Roman Empire. During the Spanish Civil War, he gave the go-ahead for the effective Italian military intervention in Spain to support Francisco Franco.
By allying with Germany and Japan, Italy alienated Britain and France. German paratroopers and Waffen-SS commandos freed him from captivity in September 1943. Partisans ambushed Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci in April 1945, and they were both killed there. In the Romagna region of Forl, in the little village of Predappio, Benito Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883. His middle names, Andrea and Amilcare, honor Italian socialists Andrea and Amilcare, and he was given the name Benito in honor of liberal Mexican President Benito Juárez.
He was involved in the Italian socialist movement and a student of Georges Sorel and Vilfredo Pareto. Mussolini self-taught himself German and French. He translated passages from Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Kant. Mussolini was so knowledgeable about Marxist literature that he would quote from both well-known and less well-known Marxist texts in his own writings. Mussolini regarded himself as a "authoritarian communist" during this time.
Egalitarianism, a central tenet of socialism, was rejected by Mussolini. Nietzsche's anti-Christian views and denial of God's existence had an impact on him. Due to the failings of social democratic reformism and marxist determinism, Mussolini believed that socialism had failed. The working class would benefit from the collapse of the Hohenzollern and Habsburg monarchs, according to Mussolini. Mussolini responded to the conservative nature of Tsarist Russia even if he was in favor of the Entente powers.
Having backed intervention, he was dismissed from the Italian Socialist Party. Due to his support for vigorous Italian involvement in World War One, Benito Mussolini was expelled from the Italian Socialist Party. Mussolini published numerous violent essays in support of Italian involvement in the struggle against the militarism of the Central Empires, the Inspector noted. Mussolini underwent a major metamorphosis after the Italian Socialist Party forced him from power. He founded the Fascio Rivoluzionario d'Azione Internazionalista as well as the interventionist journal Il Popolo d'Italia.
He was able to obtain money from Ansaldo and other businesses because to his nationalist backing for the intervention. Mussolini criticized orthodox socialism on December 5 for failing to acknowledge that the war had elevated national identification and allegiance above class distinction. In a speech in which he embraced the nation as a whole, a concept he had previously denied before the war, he thoroughly illustrated his transition. Mussolini offered to fight in World War I, but his ardent Socialism caused him to be rejected. He participated in the Second Battle of the Isonzo and received a corporal promotion.
Mussolini's ideology of fascism, which supported political violence, was influenced by these early clashes. He had to be taken away from the front after being hurt by a mortar bomb. He believed that socialism as a philosophy had largely failed by 1918. On March 23, 1919, Mussolini reorganized the Milan fascio. Spazio Vitale, an idea from Italian Fascism that was comparable to Lebensraum from German National Socialism, served as the foundation of Mussolini's foreign policy.
It was argued that Italy's right to colonize the nearby Slovene ethnic regions and the Mediterranean region was justified by claims of overpopulation in Italy. Spazio Vitale, or the inherent antagonism between "proletarian" and "plutocratic" nations like Britain, served as the foundation for fascism. Stronger people had a "natural law" to subjugate and rule "lower" people, such as the "barbaric" Slavic peoples of Yugoslavia, according to Mussolini. Mussolini claimed that because he viewed all black people as "inferior" to whites, Italy was justified in pursuing an imperialist policy in Africa. He thought that the United States was doomed because black Americans had a larger birth rate than white Americans, which made it inevitable that black Americans would assume control of the country.
Mussolini and the fascists were able to be both revolutionary and conventional at the same time. To bring peace back to the streets of Italy, they organized blackshirts, or armed squads of veterans of the war. Due in part to the imminent threat and pervasive dread of a communist revolution, the Italian government infrequently interfered with the blackshirts' activities. Mussolini wanted to create a totalitarian regime in which he would be the absolute ruler. He supported the full restoration of state power together with the enlistment of the Italian Fasces of Combat.
During the Corfu incident in 1923, Mussolini dispatched Italian forces to occupy Corfu. In accordance with Mussolini's squadristi rule, parties that won at least 25% of the vote in the elections held on April 6th, 1924 were given a two-thirds majority. 64% of the vote was won by fascists, including the majority of former Liberals. In the Aventine Secession, a large number of socialists, liberals, and moderates abstained from Parliament.
Fascism became a potent force in Europe because to a comprehensive set of political reforms that Benito Mussolini introduced. Mussolini established a police state and virtually all traditional and constitutional checks on his power. Like many tyrants, he frequently threatened his opponents with extrajudicial violence to intimidate them. First-time assassin Violet Gibson, an Irishwoman and the daughter of Lord Ashbourne, narrowly missed killing Mussolini. Anteo Zamboni, just 15 years old, made an attempt to assassinate Mussolini in Bologna on October 31, 1926.
The forced exile of 1,000 "Slav" teachers to Sardinia and Southern Italy totaled 1,000. Mori's investigations turned up proof of a conspiracy between the Mafia and the fascist leadership. When he was fired in 1929 due to length of service, there were only 23 murders as opposed to 200 at the time. To address economic declines or high unemployment rates, Mussolini initiated a number of public construction schemes and government initiatives around Italy. His first was the Battle for Wheat, which resulted in the establishment of 5,000 new farms and the development of five new agricultural communities on land that had been reclaimed from the Pontine Marshes.
Mussolini was eager to claim ownership of important public projects in Italy, especially the railway system. Say whatever you want about Mussolini, he made the trains run on time, according to reports of his revamp of the railway system. Additionally, he tried to establish an independent Italy. Mussolini's first objective was using propaganda to control the Italian people's minds. The Mussolini-centered cult of personality was actively pushed by the regime.
He promoted an impatient Machismo aesthetic by pretending to be the next Nazi Übermensch. Mussolini and philosopher Giovanni Gentile published an article outlining the fundamentals of the fascist worldview. A school for physical bravery and patriotism was advocated for by the revolutionary cultural movement futurism. The Opera Nazionale Balilla was established by a decree issued by Mussolini on April 3, 1926. Roman Catholicism was a significant component of the fascist cultural strategy.
Fascism used the Opera Nazionale Balilla to buck established educational norms and fought the dominant rationalism with its brand of idealism. With his anti-Communist ideologies, Mussolini persuaded many Catholics to actively back him after 1929. Mussolini was pragmatist and opportunistic in his foreign policy. His ambition was centered on the desire to establish a new Roman Empire in Africa and the Balkans. Italy's foreign policy in the 1920s was founded on the conventional notion that it should maintain a "equidistant" position from the major nations.
As a pragmatist politician, Mussolini tried to get some benefits. The joining of "the two coastlines of the Mediterranean and of the Indian Ocean" was his ultimate objective. Mussolini instructed his army's general staff to start preparing for war against France and Yugoslavia in 1929. In 1933, Mussolini suggested the Four Power Pact with Germany, France, and Britain. Following border events during the 1935–1936 Abyssinia Crisis, Italy invaded Ethiopia.
There is disagreement among historians as to why Ethiopia was attacked in 1935. Some claim that Mussolini's expansionist goals were the reason the invasion was started. The Italians killed tens of thousands of Ethiopian people between 1936 and 1941 during operations to "pacify" Ethiopia. In order to prevent his soldiers from killing Ethiopians, Mussolini enacted Degree Law 880, which defined miscegenation a criminal punishable by five years in prison.
During the Gran Sasso raid on September 12, 1943, a special Fallschirmjäger unit and Waffen-SS commandos under the direction of Major Otto-Harald Mors freed Mussolini from his confinement in the Hotel Campo Imperatore. The new Mussolini government suffered significant territory losses. With the exception of the Italian Islands in the Aegean, which continued to be nominally ruled by the RSI, Italy's conquests in Greece and Albania were likewise lost to Germany. Some of the leaders who had betrayed him were put to death in a series of executions that Mussolini helped plan. On April 28, 1945, communist partisans killed Benito Mussolini in Mezzegra, Italy.
Mussolini traveled to Switzerland with his mistress Clara Petacci with the goal of boarding a jet and fleeing to Spain. The Salù Republic was about to fall as Allied forces moved into northern Italy. In April 1944, Mussolini and Petacci were overthrown for being fascists. Mussolini and the most of their 15-man train were killed the following day by partisan militia. Ida Dalser was Mussolini's first wife, whom he wed in Trento in 1914.
Mussolini wed Rachele Guidi, his mistress since 1910, in December 1915. Margherita Sarfatti and Clara Petacci were two of Mussolini's many mistresses. Mussolini launched vicious criticisms against Catholicism and Christianity. In 1929, he ratified a concordat and a pact with the Catholic Church. The Vatican was made a sovereign nation and subject to Church law.
Freemasonry and birth control were outlawed, and clergy were exempt from paying taxes. In 1932, Mussolini and Pope Pius XI made their reconciliation public. He asserted that the Church and the State were in subordination after this reconciliation. He allegedly informed his cabinet that "Islam was maybe a more successful religion than Christianity" and would occasionally refer to himself as a "outright disbeliever." Throughout his career, Mussolini's attitudes against Jews and anti-Semitism frequently varied, contradicted, and drastically changed depending on the circumstance.
When it came to the treatment of Jews, the majority of historians have largely characterized him as a political opportunist rather than adhering to a real belief. Mussolini declared that Fascism would never bring up the "Jewish Question" in the early 1920s. Mussolini denied there was any antisemitism in the Fascist Party up until 1938. Mussolini backed the creation of the Betar Naval Academy in Civitavecchia in 1934. Nothing will ever convince me that physiologically pure races can be demonstrated to exist today, according to Mussolini, who characterized race as an emotion rather than a fact.
Nobody who asserted the "nobility" of the Teutonic people was a Teuton themselves. Mussolini released the Manifesto of Race, which was based on the Nuremberg Laws, in the middle of 1938. Jews lost their Italian citizenship as a result of the Manifesto, along with any rights to employment in the public or private sectors. It said that Italians were regarded to be of the Aryan race and forbade Italians from having relationships with those who were deemed to be of a "inferior race" or getting married to them. Mussolini continued to say contradictory things about race even after the racial laws were passed.
High-ranking government leaders assured Jewish delegations that anti-Semitism in fascist Italy would soon end. Italian Jews were openly opposed by Mussolini and the Italian Army in occupied areas against German efforts to send them to Nazi extermination camps. Fascist Italy imposed various laws based on such ideas throughout its colonial empire on his orders as well as those of lower-ranking Fascist officials, notwithstanding Mussolini's apparent denial of biological racism. These rules were equivalent in breadth and size to those of South Africa during the Apartheid era, and they were far stricter and more widespread than those in other European colonies. Vittorio and Romano Mussolini, together with his wife Rachele Mussolini, were Mussolini's surviving children.
Bruno, the third son, perished in a 1941 flying disaster. Alessandra Mussolini represented the far-right Social Alternative movement in the European Parliament.
== Italian Facism ==
Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile created the initial fascist philosophy in Italy. Italian nationalism, national syndicalism, and revolutionary nationalism served as the foundation for fascism. It supported a corporatist economic structure that aimed to end class conflict through interclass cooperation. Italian fascism is founded on Italian nationalism and aims to include Italia Irredenta into the state of Italy in order to fulfill what it sees as the unfinished project of the Risorgimento. Many fascists harbored racial beliefs that were later codified into legislation despite their initial opposition to Nazism.
Fascism emphasized the need for the Mazzinian Risorgimento heritage to be revived when Italy was united. The goal of fascism was to integrate disputed "unredeemed" lands into Italy. When the agreement between Italy and the Entente Allies to have Dalmatia join Italy was canceled following World War I, the fascists were furious. The fascist government in Italy advocated the annexation of Albania and asserted that Albanians and Italians shared a common ancestry through contact with ancient Italiotes, Illyrian, and Roman populations. Albanian irredentism, particularly at the primarily Albanian-populated regions of Kosovo and Epirus, was supported by the Nazi regime.
Corsica's italianità was documented in literature written during the fascist era as proof. Mussolini first tried to encourage Corsica's annexation through political and diplomatic channels. The fascists used the medieval Italian scholar Petrarch as saying that Nice is a part of Italy because the Var is its boundary. We shall bring our frontier to the Gotthard Pass, Mussolini vowed to the Grand Fascist Council in 1938. The Romansch population of Graubünden, according to the fascist leadership, was being mistreated by the Swiss government.
Because Ticino had been a part of the Duchy of Milan from 1515 till 1515, it was also claimed. Italian irredentists have asserted that areas along the coast of North Africa were considered to be part of Italy. Mussolini propagated the idea that Malta was the birthplace of Latin culture and that the Maltese language was an Italian dialect. It was thought that Italy was "returning" to North Africa with its acquisition of Libya. Salazar's authoritarian conservative nationalist regime's ascent to power had an impact on Italy's relations with Portugal.
Italians were described by Mussolini as belonging to the Mediterranean branch of the Aryan Race. The spiritual and cultural superiority of the Italian people as members of the white race, according to the fascist state, was used to defend colonialism in Africa. The fascist administration held that there was a cultural-racial hierarchy in which various peoples were classified according to their moral standards. The indigenous peoples of Africa were categorized by the racial hierarchy, with the indigenous North Africans being superior to the indigenous people of Italian East Africa. The popular Nordicist view of the Aryan Race, which valued "pure" Aryans as possessing specific physical characteristics that were identified as Nordic, such as blond hair and blue eyes, was rejected by Italian fascists.
Italians have been subjected to discrimination by Nordicist proponents in nations like the U.S., which caused Nordicism to be controversial. This resulted from the establishment of the depigmentation theory, which maintained that darker-skinned individuals had depigmented lighter-skinned individuals. The majority of ancient Romans, in the view of the Nazis, belonged to the Mediterranean race. They believed that the Roman Empire's mingling with the lesser Mediterranean types was the cause of its decline. The Nazis believed that all Italians were a mix of races, including black African races.
Mussolini criticized Nazism's Nordicism, saying it was ludicrous for them to think there was a single Nordic "Germanic race." Hans F. K. Günther, a well-known Nazi racial theorist, did concede that Germans were not exclusively Nordic. In 1936, Cogni's book Il Razzismo was handed to Mussolini. Cogni asserted a racial kinship between the Aryan race's Mediterranean and Nordic variants. Many years later, the official Nazi racial policy adopted his ideas.
The manifesto of racial scientists, La Difesa della Razza, which was printed in Rome in 1904, claimed that the Italians were a "pure race." According to Article 7 of the Manifesto, Jews who identified as Italians were examples of subpar psychological types that were not compatible with Italy. Ugo Rellini was the leader of the PNF's Mediterranean fascist racial policy group. They disregarded the idea that Nordic Aryans invaded Italy on a massive scale during the Eneolithic era. The pro-Nordicist Manifesto of the Racial Scientists was condemned by the Council for its superiority complex against Mediterraneans.
Benito Mussolini held prejudices against Jews in his early years as the head of Fascist Italy, although he did not take a hard position. His official positions were not firm since they fluctuated and changed to satisfy the political needs of the various fascist movement factions. Bolshevism stands up for the global plutocracy. Following the October Revolution, the Russian Civil Conflict, and the war in Hungary, Mussolini issued an antisemitic appraisal of the situation in Europe concerning Bolshevism. In Russia, 80% of Soviet managers are Jewish, while in Budapest, 17 out of 22 persons had a Jewish commissar.
The fascist movement disagreed with Benito Mussolini's claims that Bolshevism was a Jewish-Bolshevik-plutocratic plot. After saying that "antisemitism is foreign to the Italian people," he cautioned Zionists not to incite antisemitism in the country. Are you a religion or are you a nation? was the question Mussolini publicly put to the Jews of Italy in 1928. The Nazis at the time used Zionism as a political tool rather than being completely against it.
Different fascist parties discussed antisemitism, with some being more supportive of it than others. The official position of the Fascist International was established with the adoption of two last compromises. The Betar Naval Academy at Civitavecchia, Italy, served as a training ground for Zionist cadets from 1934 to 1938. The Second Italo-Ethiopian War caused Italian fascism to change its views on Zionism and Jews. The region seized from invaded Ethiopia, according to Mussolini, would constitute the perfect Jewish nation.
Zionist leaders, however, rejected this idea by claiming that since they were from metropolitan areas in Europe and the United States, they would not have been able to live in East Africa. As a part of its efforts to form a partnership with Nazi Germany, Italian fascists accepted antisemitism. During Italy's war with Ethiopia, Mussolini stated that the Jewish community worldwide had collaborated with Britain against Italy. Between 1937 and 1938, the fascist government propagandized against Jews in support of the Spanish Civil War. A corporatist economic system was supported by Italian fascism.
Such economics, which Mussolini referred to as a "Third Alternative" to capitalism and Marxism, which Italian fascist viewed as "obsolete theories," were introduced. During the fascist era, one-tenth of the Libyan Italian colony's population perished, including victims of gassings, concentration camps, famine, and disease. Giovinezza was the name of the political anthem of the Italian fascists. Almost every business operation, such as a factory expansion or a corporate merger, required state approval. The encouragement of male sexual arousal before puberty was seen in fascist Italy as the root of male adolescent crime.
Mussolini believed that women's principal function was to bear children, whereas men's was to fight. Women were to be celebrated as the "reproducers of the nation," according to Italian fascism. Mussolini stated that a "key component of the tricky problem of unemployment" was the employment of women. The Italian fascist administration chose the fasces as a state emblem. The she-wolf of Rome was among the other classic images of ancient Rome that the fascists adopted.
The question of whether Italy should be a monarchy or a republic underwent various changes as Italian fascism advanced. Fascism gained a sense of historical continuity and legitimacy because to its support of monarchy. At this moment, the fascists dismissed any notion of replacing the monarchy as naive. Envious of Hitler's status in Germany, Mussolini grew irate at the monarchy's prolonged existence. Italian fascism returned to republicanism and criticism of the monarchy in 1943 after being forced out of office and imprisoned by the King.
Since being saved from imprisonment by allied German forces, Mussolini addressed the Italian people in public for the first time. Throughout the House of Savoy's history, the fascists did not criticize it. The Catholic Church and Italian fascism had a complicated connection. Initially, Catholicism and the clergy were strongly opposed by Nazis. The Lateran Treaty was ratified by the Italian government and the Holy See in 1929.
This put a stop to what was thought to be years of church and Italy being at odds. The formal definition of Italian fascism was published in 1933 under Benito Mussolini's name as The Doctrine of Fascism. Hegel, Plato, Benedetto Croce, and Giambattista Vico all had an impact on Gentile. He dismissed the idea of "perpetual peace" as ridiculous and agreed that Man is an incessantly at war species. Fascism promoted itself as both a rival to socialism and its inheritor.
Mussolini praised Georges Sorel's concepts in considerable detail. Although the PNF received 65% of the vote in 1924, the United Socialist Party refused to concede defeat. Italian nationalism felt that the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye had been unfair to Italy after World War I. That "slight" opportunity was skillfully taken advantage of by the PNF to promote fascism as the ideal form of government. It was convincingly argued that liberalism, socialism, and democracy were all flawed ideologies.
According to Benito Mussolini, only fascism was suitable for the "proletarian nations of the twentieth century." Enrico Corradini promoted proletarian nationalism in 1910, declaring that we are the proletarian people in comparison to the rest of the world. Our socialism is nationalism. Fascism was significantly influenced by Mussolini's employment of elite shock troops, known as the Arditi, beginning in 1917. The Church was the target of violent attacks by fascist squads, during which "a number of priests were murdered and churches were set on fire by the fascists."
The Pact of Pacification was ratified by Mussolini and the Italian Socialist Party in August 1921. On November 7–10, 1921, the Third Fascist Congress rejected the peace accord. There were about 250,000 people who actively supported the fascist movement's war against Bolshevism. Prime Minister Luigi Facta was overthrown by the PNF March on Rome coup d'état, which was led by Deputy Mussolini. The success of the fascists was seen as both revolutionary and traditionalist.
Pro-business policies did not conflict with the State's funding of banks and industry throughout Italy's coalition government era. Mussolini's funding of Gio was one of his first deeds. Ansaldo & C., one of the most significant engineering firms in the nation. Unione Radiofonica Italiana was founded in 1924 by a private corporate organization as a division of the Marconi corporation. It was called RAI — Radiotelevisione Italiana when fascism was defeated in 1944 and changed its name from Radio Audizioni Italiane.
After 1929, the fascist government launched extensive public works initiatives to combat the Great Depression. As part of his "battles" for land, the lira, and grain, Mussolini fervently supported agrarianism and autarchy. Mussolini compared his economic principles to "state capitalism" and "state socialism" during this time. With the establishment of the Vatican City-State in 1929, the Roman Question was finally settled. As the fascist government fought against organized crime and the Sicilian Mafia, Winston Churchill, Sigmund Freud, George Bernard Shaw, and Thomas Edison praised Mussolini for establishing law and order.
The Nazi Party, the Russian Fascist Organization, and the Romanian National Fascist Movement all adopted elements of Italian fascism. An early fascist regime was created in San Marino by the Sammarinese Fascist Party. Milan Stojadinovi founded his Yugoslav Radical Union in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
== Rise to Facism ==
Mussolini established the first fascist regime, followed soon after by others, including Nazi Germany. Fascists believe in taming capitalism by controlling labor and factory owners. They strengthen and unify the dominant group in a nation while stifling dissent and persecuting minority groups. After World War I, Mussolini returned home to Italy looking for a way to unify the Italian people. He argued that only a strong leader could unite the people to overcome their problems.
His "Blackshirts" beat up socialists and communists and threw them out of local governments. Mussolini called new elections for the Italian parliament in 1924. Mussolini's Fascist Party together with a smaller allied party won 66 percent of the vote. Gentile stated that war has another function in the fascist state: It unites the people and proves their superiority as a nation. Mussolini wanted to create an economic system that provided a "third way" between capitalism and socialism.
The Fascist Party organized youth organizations for all boys and girls aged 8–18. Mussolini signed a treaty with the church that made Catholicism the state religion. Before World War II, popular support for Mussolini's fascist state was high. Mussolini agreed to anti-Semitic decrees such as banning Jews from certain occupations. In 1941, he sent 200,000 of his soldiers to aid Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.
Mussolini's assassination inspired others to develop their own versions of fascism. Other fascist or fascist-like regimes rose and fell in Japan, Argentina, South Africa, Greece, Iraq among other countries. Neofascist groups preach ultranationalism and spew hatred of racial or ethnic minorities. Each group should discuss and decide each of the hypothetical cases below whether each is an example of a totally, mostly,  somewhat, or non fascist state. Each group should report and give reasons for its conclusions. Case #1: The government of Surs is ruled by one party, whose council of 100 selects the supreme leader.The Rise of Fascism Under Mussolini
Following World War I, when many people aspired for a united country and strong leadership, fascism developed in Europe. Benito Mussolini utilized his magnetism to create a strong fascist regime in Italy.
The word "fascist" was first used to describe Benito Mussolini's political movement in 1919. He chose the fasces of ancient Rome as his emblem. This was a collection of rods bound around an ax that stood for the might of Rome.
The first fascist government was founded by Mussolini, and others, notably Nazi Germany, quickly followed. But fascism varied a little from country to country. As a result, academics frequently differ on the exact meaning of fascist. However, they frequently concur on its traits, such as:
Absolute State Power: Fascist governments are highly centralized and have a powerful national government. The fascist regime wants complete dominance over all significant facets of society. To serve the demands of the entire society, as embodied by the state, individuals must renounce their private desires and rights.
A single dictator controls the fascist state and is responsible for all major decisions. The charismatic personality of this leader is frequently used to win over the populace.
Corporatism: Fascists think that managing the workforce and manufacturing owners will tame capitalism. Strikes, unionization, and other labor actions are prohibited. The state still maintains private property, but it also manages the economy.
Extreme nationalism: The fascist regime creates a new society based on the "common will" of the people by exploiting national pride and a fear of external threats. Fascists reject science and reason as "barren intellectualism," preferring instead to take action and draw inspiration from national mythologies.
Nation's People Are Better Than Other Nationalities: Fascists extol the virtues of their country's citizens. They often suppress dissent and persecute minority groups while strengthening and uniting the dominant group in a country.
Imperialism and militarism: Fascists contend that superior nations demonstrate their superiority by enslaving and governing inferior nations. According to fascists, the state can only endure if it effectively demonstrates its armed dominance in conflict.
=== Mussolini's Ascendancy ===
Mussolini went home after serving in the Italian army during World War I in search of a means of bringing the Italian people together. He started giving stirring speeches in 1918, pleading for a dictator to rule the nation. He maintained that Italy's postwar widespread unemployment, tumultuous political party rivalries, and socialist and communist strikes could only be solved by a strong leader who could unite the populace.
Milan, a city in northern Italy, was where Mussolini organized his fascist movement in 1919. He organized groups of black-shirted street combatants. His "Blackshirts" attacked socialists and communists, removing them from local governments, and then beat them up.
Only two years prior, Russia underwent a communist revolution. Anti-communist businessmen, property owners, and middle-class professionals like teachers and doctors swiftly joined Mussolini's fascist organization.
Mussolini founded the National Fascist Party in 1921. He still lacked a definite fascist platform, though. He was certain of one thing only: he desired to dominate Italy.
Mussolini said, "Either the government will be given to us, or we will seize it by marching on Rome," in a speech before thousands of his supporters in October 1922. A few days later, he led his supporters on a large march on Italy's capital city. Government officials were so alarmed as tens of thousands poured into Rome that they quit.
The next administration would be formed by the new prime minister, who would be chosen by King Victor Emmanuel in accordance with the constitution. Mussolini requested that the king name him prime minister, with his Blackshirts and other followers filling the streets of Rome. On October 29, 1922, the king relented, and Mussolini, at 39 years old, was appointed prime minister of Italy.
=== The State of Fascism ===
Mussolini appointed renowned philosopher Giovanni Gentile as his minister of education. Gentile overhauled the educational system in Italy. He clarified the fundamental principles of fascism in a number of books and articles as well.
Gentile maintained that the "common will" of the people comes before the personal preferences and interests of the individual. He claimed that the fascist government carried out the people's wishes.
Gentile maintained that rights do not belong to the person but to the people as a whole and that self-sacrifice and obedience to the state enable the individual to reach unification with the "common will."
Gentile said that the "common will" of the populace served as the state's legal code. Therefore, in order to be truly free, people must surrender to the fascist state. Mussolini later stated, "The fascist state multiplies the individual's energies, just as a soldier is in a regiment. Far from crushing the individual. . . by the quantity of his military comrades.
Gentile asserted that the world's inhabitants are participating in a survival of the fittest, building on the theories of earlier European philosophers such Friedrich Nietzsche. He declared that the stronger had an inherent right to subjugate and govern the weaker. According to Gentile, war also serves to unite the populace and demonstrate their dominance as a nation under fascist states.
Gentile, who was known as the "philosopher of Italian fascism," thought he could unite philosophy with brute force. Mussolini was reportedly commended by this man for his commitment to Italy's "honor, glory, stability, and prosperity, and, consequently, in its might and its significance in the history of the world."
=== Il Duce and the State of Fascism ===
In 1924, Mussolini requested fresh elections for the Italian legislative body. The election was tainted by fraud and intimidation. The Fascist Party of Mussolini and a lesser ally received 66 percent of the vote.
Mussolini shut down opposition publications and outlawed public protest gatherings after the election. All political parties—aside from his own Fascist Party—were deemed illegal by him. He made strikes and labor unions illegal. He also founded the Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Antifascism, a political police squad. Mussolini's regulations were approved by a fascist Grand Council, which rendered the parliament useless.
Mussolini obtained the moniker "Il Duce" in 1925. (the Leader). He gave moving remarks in front of crowds while swaying back and forth, puffing out his chest, and placing his hands on his hips. The masses responded with fascist chants like "Il Duce is always right!" Believe, obey, and fight! ”
To describe Mussolini's attempt to dominate not only the political system but also the economy, schools, police, courts, military, and more, his detractors invented the word "totalitarianism." Ironically, Mussolini liked the phrase and started employing it himself to convince Italians to band together under his direction for a social rebirth.
Mussolini likened the "new man" of Italy to the battle-hardened Roman troops. Il Duce believed that a woman's place in society was to give birth to and raise a new generation of warriors. All boys and girls aged 8 to 18 could join the youth organizations that the fascist party set up. These organizations supported military drills (for boys), physical conditioning, and fascist state goals.
Mussolini was not particularly religious. But Italy was a fervently catholic nation. Gentile continued to teach Catholic doctrine in the primary schools while serving as minister of education. But he substituted secondary philosophy instead. This reform was opposed by the Catholic Church.
Mussolini advocated pro-Catholic measures against abortion and divorce in an effort to prevent the church from opposing his fascist government. He later agreed to a pact with the church in 1929 that established Catholicism as the official religion. Additionally, the teaching of Catholic doctrine in secondary schools was reinstated under this accord. The church, on the other hand, gave in to Mussolini's fascist regime and stopped meddling in Italian politics.
Between capitalism and socialism, Mussolini sought to establish a "third way" economic system. Private property, employer-owned rival businesses, and the pursuit of profit are essential components of capitalism. Socialism imagines a society in which the people who produce things (workers) collectively own the factories, farms, and other economic facilities as well as the power to run the country. A type of socialism known as communism demands a revolution to overthrow capitalism, install a workers' dictatorship, and distribute economic output "to each according to his needs."
Government officials picked the leaders of each union and employer company during the 1930s when Mussolini integrated industry, agriculture, and economic services into state-controlled labor unions and business groups known as "corporations." They bargained about salaries and working conditions.
By requiring both employees and employers to put aside their personal interests in favor of the fascist state's best interests, this "third way" corporatism sought to bring both groups together. However, in reality, employers typically gained more than employees did.
Compared to fascism in Hitler's Germany, police crackdowns on dissidents were minimal. However, a special court tried anti-fascists who opposed Mussolini's government.
Italy had a limited Jewish population, and neither Mussolini nor the majority of Italians were particularly anti-Semites (anti-Jewish). Jews had taken part in Mussolini's march on Rome and had fought for Italy in World War I.
Il Duce was nevertheless increasingly influenced by Hitler in the late 1930s. In the end, Mussolini consented to anti-Semitic laws that forbade Jews from working in some occupations. 20% of the Italian Jews were sent to Nazi detention camps when the Germans seized areas of Italy during World War II. Mussolini did nothing to stop the Nazi deportations as Italians sheltered numerous Jews.
Popular support for Mussolini's fascist government peaked before World War II. Many people were persuaded by his charismatic leadership style that Italy was headed for greatness. After 1929, when the Great Depression struck Italy, Mussolini responded quickly and bravely with a massive program of public construction projects, which helped many unemployed Italians find work again.
=== Il Duce in Battle ===
Mussolini concurred with Gentile that it was only natural for the powerful nations of the globe to conquer and govern the helpless. Military virtues including physical prowess, discipline, obedience, and bravery were exalted by Mussolini. He proclaimed, "A minute on the battlefield is worth a lifetime of peace."
Mussolini gave the order to invade Ethiopia in 1935; Ethiopia was an impoverished African nation that had once defeated Italy and humiliated it militarily. Mussolini attacked tribesmen with outdated muskets with artillery, planes, and poison gas in an effort to get retribution. To jubilant throngs, Mussolini declared the return of the Roman Empire.
The so-called "Pact of Steel," agreed by Mussolini and Hitler in 1939, obligated each nation to support the other in times of war. Hitler started World War II with the invasion of Poland a few months later, but Mussolini didn't join him until June 1940, when the Nazis were on the verge of defeating France.
Then, Mussolini decided to attack Greece. However, his army suffered a terrible defeat and needed German forces to rescue it. He dispatched 200,000 of his forces in 1941 to assist Hitler in invading the Soviet Union. Numerous German and Italian soldiers were slain by the brutal winter and Soviet guerilla fighters.
By 1943, Mussolini's army had been routed in North Africa, Sicily had been seized, and Rome had been destroyed. The Italian people gave up on Il Duce because they had had enough.
After Mussolini's own Grand Council decided to call for his resignation, King Victor Emmanuel issued an order for his arrest and incarceration. However, German commandos assisted him in making his way to Germany.
Mussolini returned to Italy and established a new fascist regime in the north near Milan, an area that the Germans had occupied. But he was merely a puppet of the Nazis.
When the Allies neared Milan, Mussolini tried to escape. But anti-fascist Italian fighters captured and shot him on April 28, 1943. The next day, crowds cheered as they hung Mussolini’s body by its heels in Milan where he had started the fascist movement 25 years earlier.
More Fascist Regimes and Movements
Mussolini inspired others to develop their own versions of fascism. When Hitler gained power in Germany in 1933, he added the idea of an Aryan “master race” to his fascist state. In 1939, Francisco Franco established the Spanish state with some fascist elements. Other fascist or fascist-like regimes rose and fell in Japan, Argentina, South Africa, Greece, and Iraq among other countries.
Fascist movements took root even in democracies. The British Union of Fascists thrived for a while during the Great Depression. In the United States, the German-American Bund supported Hitler’s Nazi regime until the U.S. entered World War II.
Today, variations of fascism live on in a number of military dictatorships around the world. “Neofascist” groups still exist in Western democracies. These groups typically preach ultranationalism and spew hatred of racial or ethnic minorities. While the idea of a unified nation under a fascist state probably died with Mussolini, the extreme racist forms of fascism, empowered by the Internet, are alive and well throughout the world.
=== Is It Fascism? ===
Because of their connection to Hitler and the horrors of World War II, the terms “fascist” and “fascism” are often hurled as insults at political opponents. The terms have lost much meaning, other than as insults. Even scholars have difficulty in agreeing on a definition of fascism. But as the article notes, scholars do agree on several common characteristics of fascism. In this activity, you are going to use these characteristics to judge whether particular governments are fascist.
1. Form small groups and review the characteristics of fascism at the beginning of the article.
2. Each group should discuss and decide each of the hypothetical cases below whether each is an example of a totally, mostly, somewhat, or non fascist state.
3. Each group should report and give reasons for its conclusions.
Case #1: The government of Surs is ruled by one party, whose council of 100 selects the supreme leader. The people vote in other elections, but only one person is on the ballot for each office, as the party nominates all those running. The supreme leader has complete control of the society. The government owns all the major businesses and runs them in the name of the people. Religious worship is discouraged: No party member belongs to a religious organization. The prisons are filled with political prisoners. The party is trying to create a “new human,” free of race, ethnic, religious, and gender prejudice and free from the greed of capitalism.
Case #2: The supreme leader of Railkine makes most political decisions and heads the armed forces. The Assembly of Religious Leaders elects him from the clergy and may remove him. It also approves all candidates running for parliament. The assembly may also veto laws passed by parliament if they go against religious law. The supreme leader has outlawed political parties, closed newspapers, imprisoned dissenters, banned other religions, suppressed minorities, put requirements on how women should dress, and even outlawed dancing. The supreme leader is building up the military and neighboring countries fear that Railkine will invade and impose its form of government.
Case #3: New Sed is a country with a parliament and a strong tradition of political and religious freedom. In the last 40 years, the Accolade Party has won election after election. This party has built good schools and a strong social safety net for all its people. The safety net includes a government-run health system, a high minimum wage, generous unemployment insurance, retirement pensions for all, and other benefits. It has enacted strict regulations on businesses. The government has a small military. Taxes are very high.
== Sicilian Mafia during the Fascist regime ==
Mussolini launched an offensive against the Sicilian Mafia in 1924, undermining Fascist rule over Sicily. A successful campaign would bolster his authority and legitimize his power. Mussolini and the National Fascist Party would benefit from a battle against the Mafia because many Sicilian politicians had connections to the organization, but it would also provide him the chance to repress his political rivals.
A well-known story that emerged following the end of World War II claims that Mussolini visited Sicily in May 1924 while serving as prime minister of the Kingdom of Italy. He stopped in Piana dei Greci, where he was welcomed by the mayor and Mafia lord Francesco Cuccia. Cuccia is said to have whispered in Mussolini's ear, "You are with me, you are under my protection. What do you need all these cops for?" when Mussolini initially expressed surprise at the police escort. After Mussolini rejected Cuccia's offer of protection, Cuccia, feeling betrayed, gave the townspeople the order not to attend Mussolini's speech. Mussolini was indignant. According to academic Christopher Duggan, the motivation was less personal and more political because the Mafia posed a threat to his control in Sicily and a successful campaign would help him establish himself as the new leader, so legitimizing and reinforcing his rule.
Through their engagement in the Sicilian administration after Italy's unification, the Mafia damaged Mussolini. The Italian state struggled to administer protection and enforce the law, leaving a power vacuum that the Mafia eventually filled. Political involvement in construction projects, agriculture, and private protection gave them access to each of these economic sectors, and their systematic use of the organization allowed for their progressive integration into the island's political and social system. The Mafia started expanding into more rural areas in the 1890s, departing from the urban areas where they had previously been active regularly, in order to use their coercive abilities at the behest of landlords to defeat the socialist peasant fasci.
Despite the Mafia's dominance in the agriculture industry, which the Sicilian population viewed as a "social scourge," they were difficult to oppose politically. They were inextricably linked to the local political and law enforcement establishments. In exchange for political favors, they frequently provided funding to politicians who were under their protection. Mafia leaders had the power to rig elections in their favor and repress any dissent. The Mafia also engaged in physical or frightening verbal attacks against voters to intimidate them. Additionally, the Mafia had a detrimental impact on the economy of Sicily; as a result, Mussolini implemented Mezzogiorno policies in an effort to lessen those effects. The Mafia's involvement in politics and the economy made it challenging to control their corruption. Mussolini and his dictatorship would gain from the battle to eradicate the Mafia since they posed a challenge to his authority and control.
Luigi Federzoni, Mussolini's minister of the interior, named Mori as prefect of Trapani and called him back to active duty. Mori arrived in Trapani in June 1924 and remained there until Mussolini appointed him prefect of Palermo on October 20, 1925. Mori received specific authority from Mussolini to destroy the Mafia using whatever means necessary. In a telegram to Mori, Mussolini stated:
"Your Excellency has carte bianche, the authority of the State must definitely, I repeat totally, be re-established in Sicily. If the laws still in effect prevent you from doing so, that won't be a problem because we will enact new laws," he said.
Mori organized a small force of police, carabinieri, and militiamen that patrolled the countryside in search of criminal suspects. They would kidnap the suspects' families, seize their possessions, and publicly butcher their cattle in order to get them to turn themselves up. Torture and beatings were sometimes used to coerce confessions. To obtain protection and exact retribution, some Mafia members who had lost feuds voluntarily cooperated with authorities. Poor peasants and gabellotti were frequently accused of having ties to the Mafia, but wealthier landowners were rarely implicated in such accusations. More than 11,000 suspects had been detained by 1928. There were mass trials of many. Many others were internally deported without being given a chance to defend themselves, while more than 1,200 were found guilty and sentenced to prison.
Mori believed it was imperative to "forge a direct bond between the population and the state, to annul the system of intermediation under which citizens could not approach the authorities except through middlemen..., receiving as a favour that is due to them as their right," and his tactics were occasionally reminiscent of the Mafia: He did not just apprehend the bandits, but also sought to humiliate them. Mori sought to persuade the populace of Sicily that the Mafia was no longer able to defend them and that the Fascist government was a force to be reckoned with.
The results of Mori's investigations revealed proof of cooperation between the Mafia and powerful figures in the Italian government and the Fascist Party. His fragile position grew worse. There were 11,000 arrests attributed to Mori's leadership in Palermo, which resulted in a ton of paperwork and may have contributed huge his ouster in 1929.
When Mussolini called Mori back to Rome in June 1929, his campaign came to an end. Despite not completely eliminating the Mafia, Mori's campaign was successful in putting it under control. "The music changed. Mafiosi had a rough existence. After the war the mafia hardly existed anymore. The Sicilian Families had all been broken up," said Mafia informant Antonino Calderone.
The homicide rate fell significantly in Sicily. Landowners have the ability to increase the legal rents on their properties, sometimes by a factor of 10,000. The Mafia has been vanquished, the Fascist Party propaganda machine bragged.
Many Mafia members emigrated to America. Among them were Joseph Bonanno and Carlo Gambino, who rose to prominence as Mafia leaders in New York City. Almost 500,000 Allied soldiers invaded Sicily in 1943. In the confusion and unrest, crime increased. Numerous prisoners broke out of their facilities, banditry resurfaced, and the black market grew. Sicily was forbidden from engaging in party politics during the first six months of Allied occupation. With the exception of the police and carabinieri, most institutions were destroyed, forcing the American conquerors to create a new system from scratch. The Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories simply nominated replacements once Fascist mayors were ousted. Many of them turned out to be former Mafia members, including Giuseppe Genco Russo and Calogero Vizzini. Their candidacy for political positions was aided by their ability to pass themselves off as fascist rebels. Mafia leaders reorganized their clans, taking on some of the roving bandits as members.