Rise and Reign of Italian Fascism Under Mussolini
Italian Fascism
Italy in the Postwar Period
The end of World War II left Italy with severe human and economic consequences: 700,000 men died, many industries were destroyed, and high foreign debt increased inflation. For many Italians, the cost of living increased while real wages fell, and the number of workers on strike continued to grow. Moreover, the peace accords followed by great disappointment, as the Allies agreed to surrender to Italy the Trentino, Trieste, and Istria, but not Fiume and Dalmatia, as promised in the Treaty of London (1915). Thus, the idea that Italian participation in the war was a mistake began to spread, and irredentism gained wide acceptance. This situation was coupled with political instability: the governments of the monarchy did not get a sufficient majority, and between 1919 and 1922, five different governments occurred. Furthermore, the economic crisis led to great social tension. In northern Italy, a striking movement developed that sometimes had revolutionary aims. Some peasants occupied the land of the large landowners, and workers seized many factories. All these movements were repressed, but fear of the outbreak of a social revolution began to scare the conservative classes.
The Rise of Fascism
In this crisis emerged the figure of Benito Mussolini, who in 1919 created the Fasci of combat, the so-called Black Shirts. It was one of the paramilitary groups aimed at curbing the rise of the labor movement, based on assaulting the trade unions and their leaders. In 1921, the Fasci became the National Fascist Party, which appeared as the most effective action to stop, based on building a strong state, which would guarantee private property and an expansionist foreign policy.
The new party had the support of the petty bourgeoisie, the financing of large landowners and industrialists, and the tolerance of the Catholic Church and the monarch himself, Victor Emmanuel III. In the elections of 1922, the Fascist Party got only 22 Members of Parliament out of 500. But in the same year, with 300,000 Black Shirts, they crushed the strike of the socialist trade unions and anarchists. Mussolini demanded the king to hand over the government and, to show his strength, organized a March on Rome with his Black Shirts. In October, driven by pressure from conservative forces, the king appointed him head of government.
The Fascist Dictatorship
Between 1922 and 1925, Mussolini developed a process of restriction of freedoms and the persecution of his opponents, but he maintained the fiction of a parliamentary regime. After the elections of 1924, won by Mussolini’s coalition through violence towards his opponents, he announced the establishment of an authoritarian regime. The state and the Fascist Party were totally identified in a regime in which Mussolini was given full power and was called Duce. Political parties were banned, their leaders harassed and taken to prison, and Parliament was replaced by a Chamber of Fasci. Strikes were banned, and unions were replaced by a system of corporations by trades, which included the representatives of workers, employers, and the state. The state exercised strong control over society, addressing all aspects of social life and dominating the media. It also controlled the economy and supported private companies with strong military orders and subsidies.