Mussolini's Italy: Life Under The Fascist Dictatorship

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.

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

Italian Fascism is an authoritarian and nationalistic system of government and social organization, it was the political result of the relationship between socialist and nationalist rhetoric. It is a form of governance which employs intolerant views and practices, advocating traditionalism, interventionism and sameness rather than individualism. In order to promote their totalitarian ideals during the 1930s to 1945 fascist politicians such as Benito Mussolini, who had previously been a socialist newspaper editor, employed propaganda that included virtually all modes of media: the press, posters and film. The widespread dissemination of totalitarian ideals infiltrated into the school system where young Italians born from 1910 to 1935 were taught to “obey and fight.” The purpose of this paper is to analyse the diffusion of the Italian Identity through fascist propaganda from 1922-1943 and the identity that was diffused as a result of the exploitation of Mussolini’s various propaganda mediums. Did fascist propaganda contribute to the diffusion of an Italian identity? If so, what identity was diffused?

After WW II, Fascism, “Instituted in Germany by Hitler” (America a Concise History 695) created an authoritative government. Hitler was controlling the government and making people do what he said and wanted. They believed that they were the superior race. Fascism came about in Italy in the years of 1920, but developed in the countries Germany, Spain, and France (America a Concise History 695). WW I caused the rise of fascism because Italy was destroyed and took an economic downfall so Mussolini decided to take it upon himself along with Adolf Hitler to get their countries back again. As stated in Chapter 24, “fascists leaders worldwide disparaged parliamentary

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

Meanwhile, Italy, who at the time was considered liberal, endorsed the inferior National Fascist Party, led by Benito Mussolini, from a fear of a socialist revolution inspired by the ideas of the Russian Revolution. After struggling several years, in October 1922, there was a fascist coup attempt named “March on Rome”; and even though it was an inferior fascist force, the king ordered the army not to intervene. Italy quickly formed an alliance with Mussolini, convincing the liberal party to endorse what would be a fascist-led

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

The rise of Fascism in Italy contributed to World War II because of it’s militaristic and nationalistic

Benito Mussolini outlines several essential characteristics of his preferred political ideology, Fascism, in what has become known as the Doctrine of Fascism. In this paper, Mussolini outlines his vision of the ideology, and explains the major issues that Fascism will address once it becomes the leading political system in Italy. Mussolini’s major points as outlined in the Doctrine included an extreme emphasis on nationalism, organization and modernization of the state, persistent focus on religion, life as a struggle, and the notion that individuals exist only for the improvement of society as a whole. Wolfgang Schieder, after reviewing the Doctrine of Fascism, explains Mussolini’s success based on it and

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,

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Italy became divided, barely remaining a nation at all, and watched as others, such as Britain and France, grew stronger and stronger by greedily imperializing other areas. The terrorizing display of power by these other nations did not encourage Italy to try and do the same, but virtually forced them to if they wanted to sustain their status as a global power. Thus, Italy united itself completely in 1870, proceeding to build up an army to try and make a grab for land in Africa to establish itself as an imperial power. Unfortunately, when Italy invaded Ethiopia, they were brutally defeated, and the nation truly became a shell of what it used to be. When World War I broke out in the early 20th century, Italy decided to participate in it, which drained the country’s remaining funds and depleted resources. When Italian leaders attended the peace treaty negotiation after the war, they were unable to accomplish the main goal of regaining their land, angering the people and setting the stage for an ambitious young man named Benito Mussolini to rise to power and establish the National Fascist Party, a dictatorship that promoted an intense Italian nationalism. Through a detailed examination of the history of Italy, Mishra reveals how “globalization, while promoting integration among shrewd elites, incites political and cultural sectarianism everywhere else, especially among people forced against their will into universal competition” (Mishra 334). Under Mussolini’s leadership, Italy “sought to avenge their setbacks and humiliations”, fighting on the side of Nazi Germany and Japan in World War II, contributing to the killing and terrorizing of millions upon millions of innocent people

It became the foundation of the fascist movement in Italy following World War I. Mussolini used the newspaper to spread his ideas of fascism. On June 6, 1919, an issue of Il Popolo d’Italia listed and described the goals of fascism. However, fascism did not begin to take off until October of 1922.

The Fascists’ social and economic policies up to 1939 significantly aided their control over Italy yet may not be cited as the sole cause. The Fascist party’s social and economic policies along with other factors attributed to the overall control of Italy. Through such policies it was a certainty that the Fascist party would hold complete power over the population of Italy in each aspect of an individual’s life whether it was their leisure time through the Dopolavoro or at work under the corporate state system which was formally introduced in 1934. This complete domination of the Italian peoples’ lives could be argued to have been the instrumental factor behind the Fascists’ control over Italy up to 1939. Other factors which assisted the

Generalissimo Francisco Franco came into power after his victory in the Civil war in 1939 and ruled over Spain till his death in 1975. In this 40-year period Spain was massive changed that causes much debate as to the political nature of Franco’s regime whether it is fascist or something different, Francoism. To understand if Franco’s regime was fascist, fascism must first be defined. There are many working definitions of a fascist regime, Stanley Payne’s states that the dictator must alien his regime to the idea of anti-isms, them being aintiliberalism, antidemocratic, anticonservatism, anticommunism and antidemocratic. Payne states these are fundamental in the description of a fascist regime. Another useful definition is Robert Griffin, stating that a fascist regime will use symbolism, violence to pursue its political aims, with the importance aimed at expansionism. Finally Griffin also states the need of the dictator to implement an authoritarian and totalitarian government. All these help to create a fascist regime and more importantly a truly fascist dictator. There is little doubt Franco holds to some of these definitions yet in later year the idea of Francosim becomes more viable however to understand if Franco was a truly fascist dictator we must look to the similarities and differences and determine by examining Franco’s rise politically his general style of government and finally his foreign policies it will determined whether Franco was a truly fascist dictator.

The Importance of the Economic Factors in the Rise to Power of the Fascist Party in Italy