Mussolini's Increased Support and Rise to Power.

by clemmann (student)

ITALY 1918-1943 (a Section A topic)

(a)

Foundation of the Fascist Party; the abolition of parliament; the March on Rome; passing of the Acerbo Law; death of Mussolini.

(b)

Effect on Italy of the March on Rome.

On October 26, 1922, Mussolini decided to exploit the chaotic situation to seize power. He threatened a 'March on Rome' if he was not accepted into the cabinet. Bands of armed Fascists marched to Rome from various parts of the country. This threat caused genuine alarm to the politicians in Rome, who failed to deal with the emergency. The Liberal Premier resigned almost at once. King Victor Emmanuel refused to call out the army to resist the Fascists partly because he was anxious to avoid civil war, and partly because he wanted a strong government to restore law and order. The King asked Mussolini to form a new government. On October 31, Mussolini became Prime Minister in a coalition government of Fascists, Nationalists, Catholics, and right-wing Liberals. Power was thus put into Mussolini's hands.

(c)

Why was there an increased support for Mussolini and the Fascist Party in the 1920s?

There was an increased support for Mussolini and the Fascist Party in the 1920s for many reasons.

There was a general atmosphere of disillusionment and frustration in Italy by the summer of 1919 caused by disappointment at her gains from the peace settlement, the disastrous effect of the war on the economy and the standard of living and growing contempt for the liberal parliamentary system.

There was a wave of strikes in 1919 and 1920, accompanied by violence, looting of shops and ...

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(c)

Why was there an increased support for Mussolini and the Fascist Party in the 1920s?

There was an increased support for Mussolini and the Fascist Party in the 1920s for many reasons.

There was a wave of strikes in 1919 and 1920, accompanied by violence, looting of shops and occupation of factories by workers. In Turin, factory councils reminiscent of the Russian soviets were appearing. In the south socialists leagues of farms workers seized land from owners and set-up co-operatives. The government�s prestige sank even lower because of its failure to protect property, and many property-owners were convinced that the revolution was at hand. In fact, the chances of revolution were receding as the strikes and factory occupations fizzled out (although workers in some factories tried to maintain production, claiming union control of the factories, this proved impossible without engineers and managers). But the fear of a communist revolution remained strong.

Mussolini and the fascist party were attractive to many sections of society because, as he said himself, he aimed to rescue Italy from feeble government. Politically, Mussolini was a socialist and began to make a name for himself as a journalist, becoming editor of the socialist newspaper Avanti. He fell out with the socialists because they were against Italian intervention in the war, and started his own paper Il Populo d�Italia. In 1919, he founded the Fascist Party with a socialist and republican programme and showed sympathy with the factory occupations of 1919-1920. As the factory occupation began to fail; Mussolini altered course and came out as the defender of private enterprise and property, thus attracting much-needed financial support from wealthy business interests. Beginning in late 1920, black-shirted squads of fascists regularly attacked and burned down local socialist headquarters and newspaper offices and beat up socialist councillors. By the end of 1921, even though his political programme was vague in the extreme, he had gained the support of property owners in general, because they saw him as a guarantee of law and order (especially after the formation of the communist party in January 1921).

Having won over big business, Mussolini began to make conciliatory speeches about the Roman Catholic Church so that Pope Pius XI swung the Church into line behind Mussolini announced that he had dropped his republican ambitions in September 1922 even the king became well-disposed towards him.

(d)

Explain how Mussolini established a Fascist dictatorship in Italy.

The turning point for the growth of the Fascist movement came by the end of 1920. Three important events were chiefly responsible for bringing new strength to the Fascist movement. The first event was that after D'Annunzio and his followers were driven from Fiume by the end of 1920, many Italian nationalists took Mussolini as their leader for he had always advocated a strong foreign policy and the annexation of Fiume and Dalmatia. The second event was that during 1919-1920, governments in Italy changed rapidly and yet all of them failed to find effective solutions to the most urgent problems of the day—the problems of economic inflation and social unrest. The third event was that after the General Strike in 1920, as stated earlier, the property class became haunted by the specter of a Communist revolution and wanted a strong government to restore law and order in the country.

With some support from the property class, Mussolini formed the National Fascist Party in 1921. In the elections of May 1921, Fascists were able to gain 35 seats out of 355 - a tremendous gain in contrast to their total failure only 18 months ago.