After the first World War, Mussolini was heavily wounded. Italy as a country was shaking, like every other country. Hundred thousands of people died, national debt was very high and scarcity was a main problem. The socialists wanted revolution and others wanted rebuilt. This was the moment where it begun for Mussolini. On March 23, 1919, Mussolini decided to attempt to revive his Fasci movement. A meeting was held in a hall in Milan and was attended by some fifty malcontents. From this seemingly small and insignificant event the Fascio di Combattimento' (Combat Group) was born. Eventually everyone thought that his Fasci would be a failure. Because of the elections in 1919, none of the applicants won a single seat in the parliament. By the end of 1919, Mussolini received hardly more than 2% of the votes in Milan, less than 5000 votes against 170,000 for the Socialists. How could such a party without a comprehensible program and peoples trust become a dictatorship ten years later ? This was the moment where fascism was created, Italy was a very unstable country in 1920. Fascism supported nationalist sentiments such as a strong unity, regardless of class, in the hopes of raising Italy up to the levels of its great Roman past. Mussolini gained a lot of support with his manifesto, “The Manifesto of the Fascist Struggle“, published in June 1919. The manifesto told the people what the fascist party tries to reach. It was divided in 4 main sections: Political problems, Social Problems, Military problems and Financial problems. Some quotes:
Political
“A minimum age for voting in electorate of 18 years; that for the office holders at 25 years.”
Social
“A minimum wage”
“A modification of the insurance laws to invalidate the minimum retirement age; we propose to lower it from 65 to 55 years of age”
Military
“ Nationalization of all the arms and explosives factories “
Financial
“ A strong progressive tax on capital that will truly expropriate a portion of all wealth
A group of Fascists started to wear blackshirts, as a symbol for Fascism. He also brought back the Roman salute. It was a recognition of Fascism. They did this with the goal of restoring order to the streets of Italy with a strong hand. Later Hitler copied this salute and the black shirts became brown.
The Fascist party grew so fast that they got the recognition as “ National Fascist Party “ In 1921, Mussolini was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time along with 35 other party members.
In August, 1992, the ruling leftist party called in a strike in the nation. Musslini was furious and issued that the had to end the strike, or otherwise the Fascists Party would do. On October 24, 1922 there was a big meeting of fascists in Napels as a demonstration against the government. Bennito Mussolini said that the National Fascists Party was ready to rule the state. The Government didn’t react on this instead they frequently called out a election straight away. The Fascist Party knew it was hard to rule the legal way…
March to Rome
On the same day, 24th of October there was a secret meeting between the most important Fascist leaders. There had been made a very big decision, the March to Rome would be 4 days later on the 28th of October. Meanwhile, the Fascists, who had occupied the Po plain, took all strategic points of the country. On October 26, former prime minister Antonio Salandra warned current Prime Minister Luigi Facta that Mussolini was demanding his resignation and that he was preparing to march on Rome. However, Facta did not believe Salandra and thought that Mussolini would govern quietly at his side. The king was willing to give the power to Mussolini because he was scared and didn’t want a coup. The Vatican, i.e. the Pope, also agreed. It was first the idea to march from Napels to Rome this would helped Mussolini to promote his fasci and show his army. But instead of marching to Rome the most part went by train to a Roman-Suburb and marched a little walk to Roma itself. He inflated the figures from the reality of a few hundred black-shirts to a mythical army of 300,000 fascists led by him in person on horseback. After arrival in Rome, Mussolini told the King that he wanted the power or he would commit a coup otherwise. To prevent this, King Victor Emanuel III gave Mussolini the assignment to form a cabinet. Mussolini fulfilled this task by forming a preponderance cabinet and the King appointed him as prime minister.
Way to dictatorship
After the march to Rome, Bennito Mussolini was appointed to be Prime Minister. But his government contained a mixture of men with different political beliefs. He changed a lot of peoples believe with his great oral speeches and to get support from the Roman Catholic Church religious education was made compulsory in all elementary schools. He made known a Fascist Grand Council which would decide the program for Italy without asking the non-fascists in the government first. In February 1923, Mussolini and the Fascist Grand Council introduced the Acerbo Law. This law changed election results. Now if one party got just 25% (or more) of the votes cast in an election, they would get 66% of the seats in parliament. But how could the members of the Parliament agreed this law, which would eventually made an end of their political career when they were not Fascists? In the Parliament hall there were a lot of Fascists Armed Thugs watching the votings, they could tell exactly who voted for or against the law. The warning was clear, if you voted for the law you was fine. If you did not, you were assuredly in danger.
As the thugs did beat up oppositions it didn’t stop Giacomo Matteotti from publicly carping on Mussolini. When Matteotti was murdered, certainly by fascists, there was a very devastating uproar as Matteotti was the leader of the Socialist Party. A number of non-fascist politicians walked out of Parliament in protest at the murder. This gesture only served to play into Mussolini’s advantage as it got rid of more parliamentary opposition. Any critics of Mussolini were beaten up and newspapers that were not supportive of the Fascists were shut down. In January 1925, Mussolini said the following:
"I declare….in front of the Italian people……that I alone assume the political, moral and historic responsibility for everything that has happened. Italy wants peace and quiet, work and calm. I will give these things with love if possible and with force if necessary."
In November 1926, all non-supporting political parties and opposition newspapers were banned in Italy. Mussolini even changed the constitution, as he had al parliamentary seats available this was possible. He introduced a diarchy. This was a system in were a country was ruled by two political heads. In Italy’s case, Benito Mussolini and the King, Victor Emmanuel. This system led Mussolini actually to be the most powerful man in Italy.
Conclusion
As I mentioned in the beginning of my thesis, I made this thesis about Benito Mussolini bases on a research question. I have tried to explain and tell the story on how Benito Mussolini has raised to power in Italy and briefly explained this with the help of two sub questions.
Mussolini’s mind of thinking was in his youth already very much influenced of the way he was been raised as a child. He got away to Switzerland on a very young age. Mussolini had hardly anybody there to support him, so he looked for help and ended up with some Italian Socialists which also had a lot of influences on him, this is how Benito Mussolini’s character/mind was formed. Mussolini played a very smart game on his way to power in Italy, sometimes with a bit of violence though.
Nowadays Italian people don’t want to remind of Mussolini because he did a lot of harsh stuff to everyone who opposed him.
I have learned a lot about Mussolini due this project, and there for I want to
Thank the best, greatest, most brainy teacher in the universe: Jeroen Rikkerink !
Bibliography
1. Mussolini
Contributors: Laura Fermi
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Place of Publication: Chicago
Publication Year: 1966
Mussolini, Laure Fermi; University of Chicago Press, 1966; p. 11
Wikipedia [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini#Political_journalist_and_soldier ] 14-02-’09
Flunking Fascism 101 [ ] 13-02-’09
Benito Mussolini “ Il Duce “ [ http://www.comandosupremo.com/Mussolini.html ] 15-02-’09
Mussolini, Laure Fermi; University of Chicago Press, 1966; p. 161
BBC News History [ ] 15-02-’09
History learning site [ ] 15-02-’09
Best professors/teachers in the World, Yeming Rouw; Uitgeverij Malmberg, Rotterdam, 2008 p, 1
