Fascism in Italy

2.1 Italy After WWI — The "Mutilated Victory"

Italy had entered WWI in 1915 on the Allied side under the Treaty of London (1915), promised significant territorial gains — South Tyrol, Dalmatia, parts of the Ottoman Empire, and African colonies. At the Paris Peace Conference (1919), Italy received South Tyrol and Trieste but NOT Dalmatia, Fiume, or overseas colonies.

Italian nationalists called it a "mutilated victory" (vittoria mutilata). They had lost 650,000 dead and incurred enormous debt, only to be betrayed by Britain and France.

Internal Problems:

• Economic chaos: inflation, unemployment, returning soldiers finding no work
• "Red Two Years" (Biennio Rosso, 1919–20): Factory occupations by workers inspired by the Russian Revolution; landless peasants seizing estates; fear of communist revolution among the propertied classes
• The parliamentary system was gridlocked — coalition governments formed and fell repeatedly

2.2 Mussolini's Rise

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945):

• Born in Predappio, Romagna; schoolteacher's son; former socialist newspaper editor (Avanti!)
• Expelled from Socialist Party in 1914 for supporting Italian WWI entry
• Founded Fasci di Combattimento in Milan on 23 March 1919 — a mix of veterans, nationalists, and former socialists

Fascist Squads (Squadrismo):

The squadrismo — black-shirted Fascist paramilitary units — systematically attacked left-wing organisations, trade unions, and cooperatives. They operated with the tacit approval of authorities and industrialists who feared socialism. By 1921, they had attacked 726 labour exchanges, 120 cooperative farms, and killed hundreds.

Electoral Politics:

In 1921, Mussolini transformed the Fascist movement into the National Fascist Party (PNF). In November 1921 elections, the PNF won only 35 seats out of 535 — far from a majority. Power would come through other means.

The March on Rome (28 October 1922):

Mussolini organised a show of force — approximately 30,000 Blackshirts marched on Rome from four directions on 27–28 October 1922. Prime Minister Facta requested the King to declare martial law. King Victor Emmanuel III refused, fearing civil war and uncertain of army loyalty, and instead invited Mussolini to form a government. Mussolini himself arrived from Milan by sleeping car.

Consolidation (1922–26):

• Initially governed in coalition; posed as a conservative restorer of order
• Acerbo Law (1923): Electoral reform giving two-thirds of parliament to the party with 25%+ of the vote — effectively rigging the next election
• Matteotti Crisis (June 1924): Socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti was murdered by Fascists after exposing electoral fraud; Mussolini brazenly accepted responsibility in Parliament (January 1925); opposition withdrew (Aventine Secession) — this gave Mussolini the excuse to ban all opposition parties
• By 1926 — single-party dictatorship established; press censored; all parties except PNF dissolved; OVRA (secret police) created

2.3 Fascist Ideology

Core Principles:

1. Totalitarianism: "Everything within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State" (Mussolini's own formulation)

2. Nationalism: Extreme national pride; glorification of Roman imperial heritage; Italia Irredenta (unredeemed Italy — a call for territorial expansion)

3. Anti-liberalism: Rejected parliamentary democracy, individualism, and human rights as weak and decadent

4. Anti-communism: Fascism defined itself partly against Marxism, though it also rejected capitalism's class conflict in favour of national unity

5. Violence as virtue: Action, struggle, and war were glorified as regenerative forces; pacifism was condemned

6. The Leader (Il Duce): Mussolini as embodiment of the national will; cult of personality central to the movement

7. Corporatism: The "Third Way" between capitalism and socialism — capital and labour organised in state-controlled corporations; class conflict replaced by "national solidarity"

Mussolini's Foreign Policy:

• Invaded and colonised Ethiopia (October 1935 – May 1936) — used mustard gas; League of Nations imposed sanctions but did nothing effective
• Intervened in Spanish Civil War (1936–39) on Franco's Nationalist side with 70,000+ troops
• Formed Rome-Berlin Axis (October 1936)
• Occupied Albania (April 1939)
• Declared war on France and Britain (June 1940) when France was already collapsing under German assault
• Mussolini executed by Italian partisans and hung upside down at a Milan petrol station on 28 April 1945 — two days before Hitler's suicide

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