The use of violence by the Fascists against the Socialists was another extremely effective policy used by Mussolini, which was used to amplify the strength of the Fascist party and in doing so helped to gain support and ultimately bring Mussolini to power. It has already been established that those who were not supporters of Socialism were opposed to it, and this gave Mussolini a very large amount of people that he could attempt to bring around to his way of thinking. By forcefully opposing the Socialists, he was potentially appealing to around 60% of the population, and Mussolini believed that he would be able to turn a large proportion of these people towards Fascism. He felt that the fear and respect that the violence brought, accompanied with people’s desire for a strong leader, could lead to him gaining power, and it certainly proved to be a factor. Following the events of Fiume, which will be discussed later, Mussolini was fairly confident in the knowledge that violence towards his opposition would gain respect and support from the masses. D’Annunzio had confirmed this, and with a similar ideology, Mussolini believed that he could gain success on an even larger scale. Finally, this violence was also able to exploit the weaknesses in the Liberal government and remove them as a serious contender for long term power within Italy. The Liberal government had proved in Fiume that they were weak and could not stand up to violence, and this again proved to be the case. They could not stand up to Mussolini’s overly-exaggerated strength, and this turned many influential figures, such as King and his family, away from the party as they too looked for strong and decisive leaders who would be able to further Italy’s status. With so much support being taken away from the other contending parties through the use of violence, it enabled the Fascists to take full advantage, and so is therefore an extremely important reason why Mussolini was able to come to power.
Another important aspect of Mussolini’s rise to power is the effects of the 1919 and 1921 elections. After only gaining 5,000 votes in the 1921 elections, which was approximately one vote for every thirty-four gained by the Socialists, Mussolini and the Fascist party realised that they would need to change their ideology if they were to gain power at any stage in the near future. Therefore, Mussolini decided that it would be necessary to change his party’s policies to turn them away from the perception that they were still a Left Wing party. The Fascists believed that instead of fighting the PSI for the Left Wing votes, they would be better off moving toward more Right Wing polices to take advantage of the large amount of people who were opposed to Socialism. By taking advantage of this hostility, and by using many of the other actions that have and will be discussed, he believed that he would be able to gain power within Italy, and this certainly proved to be the case. This is also an extremely important point when analysing how strongly Mussolini felt about his party’s ideologies. It is widely argued that he was purely interested in gaining power by using whatever means he had available to him, and the ease at which he shifted his ideology appears to back up this theory. Following the 1919 elections, the elections of 1921 also played a vital role in Mussolini’s rise to power. For the first time, Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti placed the Fascist party on his electoral role. Giolitti enjoyed the support of the Fascists, and tolerated the violence used against their opposition and to gain control of local governments. His belief that the Fascists would prove to be a more moderate and responsible party upon taking power is an excellent example of how Mussolini was able to manipulate important people to achieve his ambitions throughout his rise to power. Within the election itself, the Socialists (approximately 30%) and the Catholic party gained the most votes, but with such conflicting ideas they in effect cancelled each other out. This meant that a coalition Liberal government became the dominant party, which played right into Mussolini’s hands. With such an easily exploitable party in control, the Fascists would be able to prove how important they were to Italy’s stability by proving how weak and ineffective their opposition were. Again, this is another important factor as to how Mussolini was able to come to power in 1922, and as we have seen, has a large deal to do with the Socialist’s inadequacies and failures.
On the contrary, there are also a number of aspects that are very important in understanding how Mussolini and the Fascist party were able to come to power in such a short period of time but that are not related to the Socialist party’s failures. The first of these are the events that occurred in Fiume through the actions of Gabrielle D’Annunzio. Angry at the so-called “mutilated victory”, many Nationalist’s believed that action had to be taken so that Italy could prove itself as a great nation, and to do this some believed it was necessary to forcibly take control of areas that the people believed to be rightfully theirs. This led to Gabrielle D’Annunzio, the writer and war-hero, to take matters into his own hands. With 2,000 other Nationalists, D’Annunzio marched on Fiume and took control from the inter-Allied occupying forces. These events were extremely important in aiding Mussolini’s rise to power, as he was able to see the weaknesses that he could exploit within Italy, and used a large amount of D’Annunzio’s ideas for how to make his party appear more powerful. Features such as the wearing of military uniforms and black shirts, using the Roman salute, giving grand speeches to his followers at rallies (which included the use of rhetoric), using castor oil to humiliate opponents, and his method of government were all copied from D’Annunzio, as Mussolini could see how successful they had been when previously used. Also, the events illustrated how force could be used to gain and retain power, and therefore the weaknesses of the current government. It became clear to Mussolini that if he used violence to achieve his aims, it was highly likely that the government would be incapable of stopping him, especially if he played up his party’s strength to make them appear unstoppable. This proved to be greatly important for Mussolini in 1922 as the time of his appointment approached, as if the King and government had stood up to him he would have been defeated, but he had played up his strength so much that nobody was willing to challenge them.
The next reason that led to Mussolini’s appointment, that did not regard Socialism, was the fact that there was a genuine liking for Mussolini’s own individual qualities and the Fascist ideology as a whole. As we have already seen, Mussolini acquired many of the ideas that D’Annunzio employed and used his own qualities to make them effective tools for the Fascist party. Mussolini was able to give grand speeches to his supporters, which showed others that he had confidence in what he was doing and this was enough to turn some people to the Fascist way of thinking. The fear that had been generated in recent years following events like the Biennio Rosso diminished in Mussolini’s presence, this being comforting for many people following years of turmoil. Many people purely craved a decisive and powerful leader, not necessarily sticking with their traditional parties, but following anybody that they believed would get something done and improve the state of their country. Mussolini offered this, and this is therefore one of the many possible solutions for why he was able to gain power in such a short time period.
It has already been made clear that the prolonged weakness shown by the Liberal government greatly helped Mussolini’s rise to power, and this can be examined further. With Mussolini already gaining the support of those opposed to Socialism, he was also able to not only turn people away from the Liberal government, but to use them to make his own party appear more powerful and more effective. The Liberals were failing with both internal and foreign issues, and so any successes made by the Fascists were amplified by these demonstrations of weaknesses by the Liberals, therefore gaining support for the Fascists and aiding Mussolini in his quest to gain power. Next, the Liberal government were not able to deal with the violence used by the Fascists towards the Socialists, and this made it appear both acceptable and a necessary step to gaining a secure Italy. The events of July 1921, when only a dozen officers were able to defeat nearly five hundred Fascists through force, shows that the thuggish actions of the Fascists could have been comfortably dealt with, yet the Liberals and the Monarchy still did not conclusively act. With Giolitti also adding the Fascist party to his electoral role and therefore assuring their position as a genuine political force to be reckoned with, people no longer saw the Fascists as a radical party attempting to cause chaos, but as a party who really knew how to get things done. In comparison to the Liberals, Mussolini and the Fascist party appeared to be a lot more competent and effective alternative, and only boosted Mussolini on his route towards power.
Finally, it is impossible to ignore the role that the King throughout Mussolini’s rise played, King Victor Emmanuel III. Described as a man who was “cowardly, pessimistic and lacking in confidence”, it was clear that it would not take much for Mussolini to gain power when the opportunity arose, and it is widely argued that if a stronger man had been King then Mussolini would have never achieved his position of power. With the threat of the March on Rome rising, he made his decision regarding the Prime Minister’s call for Martial Law before quickly changing it, this proving the last straw and emphasising the King’s weakness and incompetence. If he had stood by his original decision and taken forceful action against Mussolini and his proposed March on Rome, then it is highly probable that Mussolini and his party would have been crushed there and then. Historians argue that Mussolini was sure that if the King and government had used force against him his plans would have failed, backed up by the evidence that he had an escape plan to Switzerland prepared. However, the weak King did no such thing and the hype that Mussolini had created about the strength of his party and men was just too much for him to handle. Even with the debate that Mussolini was not entirely in control of the Fascists and was therefore pressurised into the sudden push for power, the facade that had been created was large enough to see the Fascists through, and so can therefore be regarded as insignificant. The King’s actions were just the final deeds that enabled Mussolini to come to power, yet even at such a late stage it is clear that, with just a small bit of courage, Mussolini could have been stopped, and so therefore the King’s role can be deemed a vital aspect of Mussolini coming to power.
On balance, although not the only reason that culminated in Mussolini’s rise to power, it is clear that the failure of Socialism was the most important factor that led to his appointment. As well as the direct failures of the Socialists that Mussolini was able to use to his advantage, many other important issues can be linked closely to the weaknesses of the Socialists which were therefore exploited my Mussolini. Historians such as Behan also acknowledge how the capacity was there for the Socialists to succeed, but unlike the Fascists were unable to capitalise on this. This accumulates to give the impression that although the other ideas are very important, Socialism and it’s links with other problems was the most important of all of these, and it is can unquestionably be argued that if there had been no Socialist party present between 1919 and 1922, then Mussolini may never have got to his position of power.
