Mussolini's rise to power, How and Why?

The first 200 words of this essay...

Mussolini's rise to power, How and Why?

After the unification of Italy in 1870 the country was run by a series of liberal governments. Why then, in 1922 was a country still in the early stages of its political development, subject to such a radical political swing, and how was any one man able to instigate it?

The period between 1870 and 1922 was an era that faced major problems- poverty, unemployment, a lack of national identity and perhaps most significantly of all, the First World War. The Liberal government was extremely ineffective in solving these problems, which caused unrest within the population. There was also a severe lack of unity within the government and a lot of internal political conflict.

However, the Liberal government was not only ineffective, they were unpopular. For example, the government attempted to solve the problem of the lack of natural resources and military strength by forming a triple alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, who were traditionally Italy's greatest enemy, and the people resented this. This gave rise to unrest among the people, leading to the development of socialism, despite attempts to ban it.

All the above points