Mussolini's rise to power, How and Why?
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 served only to aid Mussolini in his rise to power and the government’s weaknesses provided a platform on which his popularity could grow and as
editor of a socialist newspaper he was able to influence people’s opinions a great deal. What is almost undoubtedly the single most significant factor in the ending of Liberal Italy is the First World War. As Lee described it, it took Italy from ‘instability to crisis.’ Despite the fact that Italy were victorious, the treaty of Versailles treated Italy badly. The Italians gained a little territory around the Adriatic and didn’t get a share of the German colonies in Africa. For this reason Italy’s gain from the war was described as a ‘mutilated victory’ and the liberals were blamed for ...
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editor of a socialist newspaper he was able to influence people’s opinions a great deal. What is almost undoubtedly the single most significant factor in the ending of Liberal Italy is the First World War. As Lee described it, it took Italy from ‘instability to crisis.’ Despite the fact that Italy were victorious, the treaty of Versailles treated Italy badly. The Italians gained a little territory around the Adriatic and didn’t get a share of the German colonies in Africa. For this reason Italy’s gain from the war was described as a ‘mutilated victory’ and the liberals were blamed for their failure to gain more land. Demobilized soldiers felt betrayed by the peace terms and were ready to support the dynamic nationalism of the Fascists. One such nationalist, D’Annunzio took 2,000 men into the city of Fiume and took charge there. His fondness for drama and publicity was not lost on another enemy of liberalism – Mussolini. Mussolini watched D’Annunzio very closely during his period in charge of Fiume (which only lasted a year). He greatly admired D’Annunzio, particularly for his flamboyance and drama. Because of the ex-soldiers’ dislike of the liberal government, Mussolini was able to use them to establish the Fascio di Combattimento. This was a movement, not a party and they sought support from all patriotic Italians. Its popularity also stemmed from the fact that Mussolini was a brilliant orator – possibly the finest in twentieth century European history, and that he appealed to all sections of society, particularly as the population on the whole were weak-minded and uneducated. Furthermore, Mussolini influenced people greatly through the pages of his new newspaper, Il Popolo d’Italia. Mussolini was clever in the way that he attracted people to the movement because of its radical socialist ideas but then soon changed its policy to one of extreme anti-socialism and in April 1919 Fascists burnt the Avanti! Offices (Mussolini’s former newspaper) and engaged in other acts of violence against socialists, such as pouring Castor Oil over them and simply beating them up. This was done not only by the Fascio di Combattimento but by other fascist squadrismo, completely independent of Mussolini’s movement, although their leaders the RAS realized the importance of Mussolini, particularly because of his newspaper. This is a further and very important reason why Mussolini was able to come to power – the fear his opposition held not just for his movement, but for Mussolini himself. By late 1920 Fascism had really taken off, attracting not just the wealthy but the bourgeoisie and also sharecroppers as well, all of whom were hostile towards socialism. The movement was also able to grow due to the support from the rural and industrial elite. These groups also appreciated the weakness of the liberal government and the threat of socialism and so gave money to support the fascist movement – this further persuaded the group to move more to the right of the political spectrum. However, in a modern western society, it is highly unfeasible that a simple movement of anti-socialists could come to power. Mussolini realized this, and so he formed the National Fascist Party in an effort to become more respectable, and to hold more official political weight. Furthermore, in September 1922 he announced his support for the monarchy which meant that he was popular not only with the people of Italy but that he gained political support from the King, particularly as the socialists were against the idea of a hereditary monarchy. An important step in the growth of the Fascist Party, and therefore inevitably in why Mussolini was able to come to power, came from the Italian church. Even today Italy, and the Pope is an extremely significant centre of world religion and Mussolini realized that it would be to his advantage to gain the support of the church. This was achieved easily as the church was highly anti-socialist for the reason that socialism is centered on equality and is therefore against the idea of religion. In fact, such was the scale of anti-socialism within the church that the Pope told Catholics not to vote for the popular catholic party (the PPI), but to support the Fascist party instead in order to keep socialism out of government. Now that Mussolini had such wide scale support he knew that he would be able to seize power. The Fascists planned the take-over of local governments and a March on Rome. However this was not necessary as on October 29th 1922 King Victor Emmanuel invited Mussolini to form a government. It is interesting to note that the lack of unity within the liberal government finally brought about their downfall, as one of the leading men in the government at the time, Solandra asked the King specifically to offer Mussolini the job as Prime Minister simply because he wanted to prevent one of his liberal colleagues, Giolitti, from becoming it. In conclusion, Mussolini was able to come to power in 1922 primarily because of his ability to influence people, and if this failed, to intimidate them. He did this by winning support from key areas, such as the church, the monarchy and the economic elite and using this support to crush socialism. However, it is very difficult to instigate such dramatic change unless there is a dramatic need for it – and there was. The liberal governments inability to solve the major problems it faced, and maybe even its own mutilation of Italy’s victory in the war meant that Fascism via Mussolini was able to grow on the back of the failure of this government and of the hatred of socialism by highly significant groups of people.
