Mussolini rise to power
post war Italy
Italian Fascist Party
Early successes
March on Rome
- Treaty of London 1915, Italy promised huge swathes of land (that were Italian majority), 650,000 men died in the war
- Treaty of Versailles 1919, Italy only obtained a small amount of territory promised, this was seen as a 'mutilated victory'
- inflation rose by 500% between 1914-1920, lives of ordinary Italians was made much harder
- Innefective democratic government with unstable alliances and was corrupt --> any confidence in the demecratic system was being steadily undermined by these ineffectual and impotent governments
- founded by Mussolini in Milan, March 1919
- Mussolini was originally a left-wing socialist but after WW1, he found himself to be attracted towards more right wing politics
- Fascists adopted a black uniform and used to the Roman salute to greet each other (showed their unity and strength)
- the Fascists embraced monarchism, capitalism, free-trade and anti-socialists as key components of their policy
- general election of 1921, they gained 35 seats in parliament
- used the fear of communism to win support of the upper and middle classes within Italy
- this emboldned Mussolini to seize power with the support of his fascist movement and establish Europe's first fascist governement
- emboldned by recent successes, Mussolini gathers 25,000 blackshirts and marches on Rome, October 27 1922
- democratic Prime Minister, Luigi Facta, asks King Victor Emmanuel III to intervene with the police and the army
- King doesn't support the government and instead appoints Mussolini as Prime Minister of Italy, October 30 1922
- Mussolini had used circumstance, fear, intimidation and prejudice to bring the Fascists to power
- From 1922 onwards, Mussolini slowly dismantled the apparatus of Italian democracy and replaces it with the framework for a totalitarian state