Mussolini – Brief Biographypage 38 Global Forces, The World This Century

• Son of a socialist blacksmith; violent and bullying child

• Early years wrote for various socialist or conservative papers depending on what he had most to gain or the mood of the times

• Rebellious egotist; ambitious, unscrupulous

• Served in the army; became a nationalist

• Said WW1 was Italy’s ‘baptism as a great power’

• Eloquent spokesperson who hated Italy’s parliamentary politicians & its democratic government

• Formed the Fascist party and organized the Black Shirts (military group)

• 1945 executed by Italian Resistance as he was escaping to Switzerland

From elephantjournal.com

Totalitarian Government1. One leader, absolute power2. One ideology3. Use of secret police4. Use of terror to control5. No respect for human rights6. No dissent allowed7. Use of censorship & propaganda8. Perversion of education9. Use of purges to ‘cleanse’ the party &

population

How did Mussolini Gain Power?

• Anger over Paris peace treaties

• Economic depression

• Class division & labour strife

• Unstable governments

• Between 1919 & 1922, Italy had 5 different coalition governments, none of which were able to make firm decisions

• Mussolini made his move and in 1919 set up the Fascist party promising to control factory workers with discipline & order. He promised to stabilize the economy & unemployment & to restore Italy’s national prestige

• He crushed the workers with the ‘Combat Squads’ (Blackshirts) and was rewarded with $ from big business

Black Shirts

http://www.custermen.com/ItalyWW2/History/FascistDaggerSalute.jpg

Blackshirts & the March on Rome

• Blackshirts were Mussolini’s terrorist gang of 50,000 or more thugs

• The King was worried about a civil war and refused to let Rome’s regular army to go against the Blackshirts

• King Victor Emmanuel asked Mussolini to become Italy’s new Prime Minister on 29 October 1922

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/March_on_rome_1.png

OVRA

• Secret police set up to harass political opponents

• Newspapers were shut down or destroyed or told what to write by Mussolini

Acerbo Act1923

• Law that allowed the party with the most votes (provided it was more than 25%) to take 66% of the seats in Parliament

• Mussolini’s idea to take control but in the end he got enough votes and didn’t have to use the Acerbo Act

Matteotti Murder

• Matteotti was the Socialist leader and Mussolini’s greatest opponent

• Was kidnapped and murdered in June, 1924

• There was an outburst of outrage against the murder

• Mussolini wavered on what to do• 31 Dec 1924, 50 Blackshirts burst into

Mussolini’s office and told him to act• He was told to set up a dictatorship or they

would remove him from power• 3 January 1925 told parliament that if

Fascism was an association of thugs, he was its head

• The Fascist state was created

Mussolini: “I Sometimes wish my‘All Blacks’ were onlyFootballers!”

Demarco, 72

Corporate State• Each industry was run by a corporation• Each corporation was made up of both

owners and workers• In theory, they were to work cooperatively to

make the industry run efficiently• Delegates would meet at the General Assembly

of Corporations to make decisions about the country’s economic policies.

• Mussolini wanted to eliminate classes and turn each citizen into a willing servant of the state.

• Real aim was that the rights of the workers would be taken away so they would not join trade unions (fear of communism)

• 22 corporations were formed in 1934

• The REAL power was in the hands of bosses and Fascists

Ultimately, Mussolini was the one who made the final decisions on

economic policies for Italy.

Lateran Treaty 1929

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://rationalrevolution.net/images/lateran-ratified.jpg&imgrefurl=http://rationa

• 1870 Italian forces seized Rome (from the Catholic Church) and made it the capital of Italy; Pope forbade Catholics to take part in politics

• 1929 Pope agreed to recognize the (Fascist) Kingdom of Italy and give up his claim to lost territory

• Mussolini compensated the church by making Catholicism the state religion of Italy

• Vatican City became an independent state

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Timeline – Mussolini’s path to dictatorship

1919Mussolini forms Fascist Party

1922March on Rome

Mussolini- Leader of Italy

1923 Acerbo Act

1924Murder of

Matteotti

1925Freedom of

Press Removed

1926 All Opposition

Parties Outlawed

1927OVRA established

1928Friendship Pact

with Ethiopia – but Italy is preparing

for war

1929Lateran

Agreement