EIT Week 13- Mussolini and Italian Fascism
Italy- deeply divided nation- Catholic and Socialist non-participation in government
WW1 as a catalyst
Italy enters on side of Entente- deep division between neutrals and interventionists- deepens existing division- military failure lead to "the blame game"
Post-War- Red Years- unreliable army- D'Annuzio enters Fiume in 1919- Socialists aim to launch a revolution- unrest and strikes and pay rise demands- inflation and ineffective economic policy- government relies on paramilitary groups- divided parliament= rule by decree= further discredit of democracy
Potential entry into the war- Socialists neutrality in all cases- Mussolini pro-entente- government believe intervention will help repress unrest and restore prestige
"A Mutilated Victory"
Victorious but vanquished- demands Italian-speaking Austrian territories- Wilson and need for US/UK financial support- settle without territorial compensation
Myth of the mutilated victory- government and Bolsheviks to blame- 600,000 dead for what- democracy discredited- WW1= imperial war according to Nationalists and Leninists
Mussolini
His own newspaper became centre of 'revolutionary interventionism
Opportunistic, hypocritical, contradictory
Had an exceptional ability to assimilate ideas and techniques
Editor of Avanti!
Struggled to establish himself as leader
long-term member of Italian Socialist Party
Fascism in Italy- an anti-party- movement before doctrine- believed in 'revolutionary war'- democracy was a foreign import- class struggle among nations as a justification of Italian imperialism- 1919 electoral defeat- no minimum wage or 8-hour day- no collectivisation- anti-party above class- capitalism- imperialism- non-binding program- a party in 1921
The Fascists were mainly veterans, syndicalists, intellectuals and members of the petty bourgeoisie
1919-20 agricultural strikes- led by Socialist and Catholic leagues- landowners turn to the Fasci
1921- Parliament dissolved- state collusion- stronger anti-democratic right
16 October, 1922- March on Rome- force government's to accept fascism
The Plan- occupy public buildings throughout north and central Italy- 3 columns to advance on Rome- if government resisted, occupy Ministries by force
Psychological warfare in March creates impression of state collapse
King's initial reaction was resistance- frustrated by government's efficiency- unsure of army loyalty- some loyal generals- fear- appoints Mussolini as Prime Minister
Cleanse Italy- achieve rebirth of nation- aggressive towards Opposition- corporatism
Initially- Opposition parties legal- strong opposition press- talks of return to normalcy
The Acerbo Bill (1923)- gives 2/3 seats in Parliament to party with most votes- discouraged Opposition and King's mediation- Mussolini criminalised the deeply divided Opposition
The Matteotti Crisis- Opposition walks out of Parliament- Matteotti disappears on 10 June- Mussolini takes responsibility- parties and unions suppressed- elections abolished
Became inconceivable that a government could be formed without Mussolini (D.G. Williamson, ‘The Age of the Dictators: A Study of the European Dictatorships, 1918-53’ (2007) pp. 88-104)