Mussolini came to power during World War 2 at a time when Italy was facing a lot of problems. He was earlier a revolutionary socialist who wanted change in Italy as she had lost a lot of territory during the war. Mussolini was the leading person in the Fascist party and later in 1922, he was invited by the monarchy to became the Prime Minister of Italy. Mussolini was a right wing and totalitarian leader, acquiring a strict control on every aspect of the public’s life. (History.com , 1996) Fascism is a form of government where the state has sovereign power and a strong person is heading the police and army. It is a system where if you don’t obey, you get punished. Mussolini was the first leader to introduce this system. Mussolini’s rise to power …show more content…
People in Italy were fed up of the prevalent conditions, especially the loss in World war 1 where she incurred territorial loss, loss of weapons and had to pay for destruction. (Daily life of Mussolini) Mussolini’s authoritarian rule was manifested in his slogans “Nothing has ever been won in history without bloodshed” and “Let us have a dagger between our teeth, a bomb in our hands and an infinite scorn in our hearts” (Benito Andrea Mussolini, 1930’s). Mussolini was against equality, and this was reflected in his Fascist policies. It is due to this acceptance of inequality among classes by the Fascist thinking that Sigmund Freud calls Fascism the “return of the repressed” (Finchelstein F , 2008) Mussolini set short term political goals, focusing on practical aspects of his policies rather than the theory, thus not following a set of specific rules or themes. He had firm beliefs in his views and …show more content…
To compensate, Mussolini improved the domestic industry and protected the worker’s rights by providing them with maternity and old age benefits. Moreover, he provided Italy with hydro, roads and train system that reduce the impact. (Fascism) ‘Dopolavour’ was a leisure programme introduced to get the people’s minds off the hardships. Mussolini controlled the two level committee that consisted of Italian Olympic teams and other professional players. When it comes to religion, Mussolini had kept good ties with the Catholic Church. The pope and Mussolini helped each other. The “Latent Pact”, that the secretary of state signed with Mussolini, gave the church 750 million Liras and other privileges, like Catechism and compulsory church hours at every academic institute. As a result of this, the church named Mussolini, ‘defender of peace’ He made Catholicism the official religion of Italy and banned contraceptives and divorce. But towards the end, both the Catholic activists and Mussolini worsened their relations in greed of control. (Daily life under Mussolini). Mussolini setup seven youth organisations known as ‘ONB’. ‘Gioventu Universiti Fascista’ was a university built on Fascist ideas and all students were expected to attend it. He wanted to brainwash the youth in a way that they only followed the Fascist policy, hence serving to ensure his ideology was furthered in future of Italy. Mussolini
Benito Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism and premier of Italy from 1922-43 and ruling as a dictator from about 1925. In 1919
Fascism admitted strong totalitarian overtones until it became interested in wars of colonial conquest. It had come to power because of the decaying social, economic and political conditions of post-World War I Italy. It had brought order out of chaos. Indeed, order was its strong selling point when, after a series of crippling strikes sponsored by the socialists, it had managed when the liberal democratic state could not manage.
In Italy the strong presence of Catholic religion and organizations influenced Mussolini’s policies concerning women. Although the fascist ideology intended to abolish class struggle by establishing a new corporative society, its ideas about the role of women in such a society remained very conservative. Hitler had similar beliefs about the role of women in a Nazi society but he never tried to force them to stay home, indeed, he supported their participation in industrial production.
Within Italy, The Great War caused many problems and a great amount of distress. As a result of this, hundreds of new fascist groups started to emerge. In October 1922, Benito Mussolini became the Prime Minister of Italy and contributed a lot to the nation. He developed his power by forming the Fascist National Party in 1923 and eliminating political opposition. Mussolini and his followers ruled Italy through an authoritarian dictatorship. He made it clear that the war was a turning point for Italy and the returning of combat soldiers would form a new elite and bring about a new type of state to transform Italian politics and society. Mussolini set many
• In 1922 Mussolini became prime minister of Italy. He outlawed all political parties and established a secret police that could arrest anyone for political or nonpolitical
During the Second World War, Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was the leader of the Italian Nationalist Fascist government. He was head of the Italian government from 1922 till 1943. The significance of Mussolini is that he played a key role acting as the Italian Prime Minister and established a totalitarian regime, during this time, as the unchallenged supreme leader, known as ‘Il Duce’. Fascism consisted of many contributors of which Mussolini with all his quirks was the key to most of its failures and successes, making him the most significant player that is worthy of being investigated. This topic is worthy of being investigated as Mussolini made a lot of decisions that lead to the death of many, but the question as to
In Italy the strong presence of Catholic religion and organizations influenced Mussolini's policies concerning women. Although the fascist ideology intended to abolish class struggle by
Millions of people were extremely frustrated with the fallout of World War I, they wanted change and a strong leader to guide them through their times of trouble. The answer to the people's’ prayers had been given to them with the new political idea of fascism. Not only did fascism rise, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler also rose to power during these times of crisis. Fascism, Mussolini, and Hitler were all able to rise to power because the people had called for change, and they found themselves gravitating towards the ideas of these two intelligent men. Both men were able to persuade many people over to their side. Millions of people quickly adopted the new ideas of fascism, Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler, the people saw them as the light at the end of their long dark tunnels they seemed to be lost
Mussolini consolidation of fascist power in Italy in the years 1922-1929 could have been mainly due to the use of force and intimidation. However this was not a straightforward process, since fascism was a new thing. In the years 1922 to January 1925 marked the transition from the liberal parliamentary system to the fascist state. Like many political transitions, it was an untidy and complicated process. Although from the start Mussolini’s intentions were quite difficult to establish, however it could be that Mussolini wanted to set up from the beginning a totalitarian one party state.
Benito Mussolini and his creation of Fascism was the glue that held Italy together. Fascism promised national unity and condemned the Socialist party. To understand how Fascism became powerful within Italy, it is imperative to acknowledge the driving force behind this regime. To put it bluntly, violence played an essential role in the development of the Fascist party. Mussolini’s practice of fierceness was able to create a formidable system of government that did not tolerate weakness. In 1919, Benito Mussolini give an Afternoon speech, where he stressed the difference between Socialism and Fascism. Here, he states, “We declare war, against socialism, not because it is socialism, but because it opposes nationalism” (Stone 2013, 38).
War is inevitable, as it is simply the manifestation of the strength and vigour of the Italian people that wishes to expand itself, never looking back. Peace was considered as merely a “mask to surrender and cowardice.” Mussolini stressed that Italians required “forces, duty, and sacrifice” in order to rise again to their former greatness, that of the Roman Empire. This is also Mussolini’s rationale for harsh and severe actions against any who would resist or try and undermine fascism.
The state of Mussolini’s Fascist Italy and Hitler’s Nazi Germany, can be highly comparable in their policies and ideologies. Fascism is a political ideology, in which the country is to be racially and culturally pure. Mussolini said himself that “Fascism desires the state to be strong and organic and to always be prepared for conflict”. Fascism includes things such as nationalism, hostility to democracy, racism, the love of symbols such as uniforms, parades and army discipline. It is a totalitarian philosophy which worships the state and nation. Fascism is an extreme right-wing that celebrates the nation or race as a pure community which exceeds all other loyalties and expectations (Downing, 2001). Most of the time it celebrates masculinity and male supremacy, rarely it will promote female solidarity (De Grand, 1995). Fascist aims are to prepare for conflict and violence and to prepare and educate the youth. Both were able to gain support from military associations,
The economic instability of Europe developed totalitarian goverments that began rising during the depression in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Germany, Italy, and Japan all became countries subjected to the rule of dictated military rule leaving no room for opposition. Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922 (Calvocoressi, Wint, p 777, 1999). Mussolini had his own philosophy that his destiny was to rule over Italy as Caesar in a more modern version while re-creating the Roman Empire. In his attempts in
Mussolini was appointed Prime Minister in 1922 due to the depriving affects that world war one had on Italian society. The war destroyed Italy economically leading to a rise in socialism. This in turn lead to highlighting the weaknesses of the liberals as the country was torn apart in the red years. This strengthened the appeal of fascism as it was the cure that Italy needed to get rid of the socialists. The fascists needed only to organise their party and take advantage of the open opportunity to seize power in Rome.
As a result of how Italy was created but not fully unified, the new Italian state suffered from a variety of weaknesses which the new liberal state was unable to tackle these. This made Italy susceptible to the appeal of fascism, and therefore aided Mussolini’s rise to power.