The support from the catholic church and the traditional elites was a very important reason that Mussolini was able to consolidate his power in 1922-1924 because both of these groups of people had a very large influence on the people of Italy at the time. However, I think that the actions of the current king; Victor Emmanuel III, was a far greater reason for Mussolini’s success because he was the only one who could’ve thrown Mussolini out of power but he didn’t. Unless he did something, Mussolini’s opponent’s options were very limited. The Catholic Church and the Elites were very important for Mussolini to establish a dictatorship. To gain power, Mussolini had to gain support from as many people as he could, he realised that people listened, and followed the church.
Stalin was more popular because of Trotsky’s “political paralysis” he couldn’t be a good public speaker. This links to my next point because they both result in Stalin’s getting more power. Stalin made an alliance with Zinoviev and Kamenev to form the triumvirate. The triumvirate’s main aim was to defeat Trotsky. Trotsky advocated a permanent revolution with Stalin didn’t want.
He also wanted a strong central government and believed this could be achieved through a series of revolutions. Although he wanted a democratic unified government, many of his ideas were very radical such as that he wanted the people of Italy to rise up from their high-powered oppressors and stressed that they
After 1920 there was the Bienno Rosso or red years of strikes and industrial unrest in the countryside. There was fear of a general communist revolution as in Russia. The Fascist Squadristi were prominent in strike breaking. The liberal coalition governments were unable to deal with violence of the left or the right. Some of the northern
Stalin was, by opportunism able to gain control of the party machine and use it to his own advantage, and use his own political skills to out maneuver his opponents, while they often displayed lackluster tactics in a vain attempt to win support of a party loyal to Stalin. After the 1917 revolution, Vladimir Lenin was the leader of the Bolshevik political faction and the Russian Nation. Whenever possible, Stalin would present himself as Lenin’s right hand man, and following Lenin’s death in 1924, he defended Lenin’s legacy. Ironically, shortly after Lenin died, he told the colleagues that it would be disastrous if Stalin inherited the reins of the government. During the 1920s, Stalin appointed key people to Communist Party posts.
This highlighted the weakness of the government and showed the Fascists offered a no nonsense attitude that the government did not, many saw the fascist violence as necessary to fight off Socialism, with many agents of the government co-operating with the violence due to their disgust of the weak government. Moreover, the change in stance of the fascist movement and party into more nationalistic ideals and the new more respectable face of fascism Mussolini presented, meant that they were not seen as so extreme and Mussolini’s decision to not make a detailed political programme made it easier to unite the varied support of the Fascists. The appeal of the idea of National greatness, unification of Italians, strong leadership and anti-socialism was great in Italy and Fascism offered it all, this can be seen by the
How far do you agree that the main reason that Mussolini was able to gain dictatorial powers was the actions of the elites and the Catholics? I believe that the actions of the elites and the Catholic Church were an important factor in the process of Mussolini gaining dictatorial powers in Italy, yet it wasn’t the main reason. The elites contributed to Mussolini gaining power as they were influential as did the Catholic Church, who put their faith in the wrong man. I believe that the main reason Mussolini was able to gain dictatorial powers was the Matteoti crisis. The Matteoti crisis put Mussolini in a very powerful position with a great excuse to keep the opposition out of parliament.
In a political sense, it ‘got his foot in the door’, so to speak. It came about largely due to problems with Weimar democracy and weak decisions; there were serious miscalculations in the appointment of Hitler. Many of the elite, particularly Papen, became intrigued and willing to co-operate with Hitler (even settle for a Hitler government), as they wanted his huge support base to further their own power ambitions and counter the rise of communism. He had the support required to solve Germany’s parliamentary crisis, and crucially he had the reluctant backing of Hindenburg, a nationalistic president who also feared a Bolshevik revolution and believed the Nazis could protect Germany from this. Despite the efforts of many to encourage Hitler’s appointment, there was no intention of forming a permanent leadership with him; the elite groups around Hindenburg planned to use Hitler to gain his support base, then abandon him when he was no longer needed.
Hitler could not achieve the solid control over the masses which he had, if he did not have the help of the so called powerful propaganda machine. Propaganda had been vital in winning the Nazis support that helped them come into power. As Goebbels stated in 1934 “Propaganda was [their] sharpest weapon in conquering the state, and remains [their] sharpest weapon in maintaining and building up the state”. The reason why Nazis relied on propaganda was first to keep the population contented and second win support for particular policies. Another rather ambitious aim of theirs was to indoctrinate the people with their Weltanschauung or in other words they were aiming to turn the population into committed members of their Volksgemeinschaft (a community whose members would be Aryan, genetically healthy, socially useful and politically committed to the regime).
Revolutions between 1820-1821, 1831-1832 and 1948-1949 were all ultimately overthrown to some extent by Austrian force. Prince Clement Metternich, the Austrian chancellor, was a passionate opponent of Italian Nationalism. A main catalyst for this was the issue of Austrian pride. The Liberals, Radicals and Nationalists ideas within Italy (that the people has a right to some say in government, fairer distribution of wealth and greater independence) would completely undermine Austrian control over Italy. In the interest of Austria’s security, Metternich was keen to suppress liberal and nationalists movements, and was determined to maintain dominance so that Austria would not appear weak.