Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922 after many years of hardship and bad leadership within Italy after world war I. A combination of the weakness of the Liberals, who were in control at this time and the strength of the Fascist regime quickly catapulted Mussolini to great power. When Mussolini marched on Rome the Italian king failed to use military force to stop him, as a result of this the Liberals quit their position as the leading government and the Fascist stepped in. Once in parliament the liberals supported Mussolini , this in turn allowed Mussolini to manipulate laws and very quickly become a dictator of Italy. Once in control Mussolini had to act fast to try to gain and keep complete control of Italy.
Mussolini’s position as prime minister in October 1922 was by no means secure, the king was still able to at any time dismiss him if any opposition to the fascist party was high and people wanted an alternative government. From the start Mussolini intimidated his opponents and rivals. In 1922 November the 16th he held his first speech as prime minister, he claimed he could with 300,00 black shirts behind him create a fascist government if he wanted to, the parliament responded to his disguised threat by giving the government new votes of confidence. Ex prime ministers Giolitti and facta voted in favour, and he was granted emergency powers. He also had to strengthen his position in the party he created a fascist
Growth of support for facism was a reason for Mussolinis appointment as Prime Minister,however there were many other reasons for Mussolinis appointment as PM, but growth of support was very important for him. The war and the mutilated victory, had an affect on Mussolinis appointment as PM. The main reason wad that the nationalists were bitterly disappointed that italy didn’t make any gains during the war. The nationalists claimed that Italy had been betrayed by the Liberal government, this shows that the nationalists might have wanted to overthrow the Liberal government and therefore supported Mussolini before he was appointed. This links into the title point that Mussolini had a wide support base and that it was growing.
Mazzini created the Young Italy society after the 1831 revolutions. Young Italy helped spread opposition to the autocratic nature of the Italian rulers. It was established to create a republican nation-state. Although ‘Young Italy’ was still a small-scale, secret nationalist society, its effect on Italian attitudes was large, speaking in the long-term. Similar to the Carbonari groups, it was planned as a youth movement for the whole peninsula so had the potential to gain widespread and active support.
He may not have had huge popular support, but by 1922 significant numbers of the most influential Italians were prepared to tolerate him as the only acceptable alternative to the status quo. There was a very significant rise in support for the fascists from 1919-22 and this certainly helped Mussolini’s cause. From around 1000 members in 1919, the party could claim half a million members and 250,000 blackshirts by 1922. This mass support was significant because it enabled the fascists to gain a foothold in parliament, which was the first step towards Mussolini being offered the post of prime minster. Indeed, without the knowledge that this growing movement would win him votes, Giolitti would not have included fascists on the government list for the 1921 elections in the first place.
Finally, the SA’s activity is also to put fear on the street to get votes for the next elections. Hitler attempted the Munich Putsch because he thought it would benefit them. Firstly, Hitler was very confident about his huge SA army and thought he was powerful. Not only that, but he thought that the army would join him because of the influence of Ludendorff and the SA which are technically ex-Freikoprs. Hitler also thought that since the government was just developing it would have been a good time to seize power and take over the government.
Hitler and Mussolini were both responsible for the outbreak of war in 1939, though mainly due to both Nazi and fascist ideologies; two ideologies that both dictators allied together to spread the fascist ideologies internationally. Hitler is more responsible for the outbreak of war in 1939 as he demonstrates his aggressive behaviour and intelligence in the belief of building a Lebensraum (fixing the economic problem from WW1 and expanding to attain more land with a growing population), revising the Treaty of Versailles and creating an Aryan race in which he believed Jews and Slav’s were an inferior race; in which were considered as mere slaves. Throughout the 1930s, from Hitler’s first moment of being appointed chancellor the League of Nations is foreshadowed as very weak as it will not possess potential power to appease peace or intervention upon the actions of both dictators. The League of Nations had one purpose; to preserve world peace. But throughout the 1930s towards WW2, the League of Nations is shown to be very weak; hence it couldn’t prevent the Abyssinia Crisis.
I know from my background knowledge that once Hitler was named Chancellor big bankers and industrialists, including Krupp and I. G. Farben, had lobbied Hindenburg and schemed behind the scenes on behalf of Hitler because they were convinced he would be good for business. Hitler promised to be for free enterprise and keep down Communism and the trade union movements. Being appointed as Chancellor also was a starting point to his dictatorship as without it he would have been able to continue his consolidation and wouldn’t have been able to pass such laws as the Enabling Act. Another way Hitler established a dictatorship was through the passing of the Enabling Act 1933. This established a dictatorship because it allowed Hitler to arguably do whatever he pleased.
Both Count Camillo Cavour of Italy and Prussian Prime Minister Otto Von Bismarck brought their respective nations to unify in their own respective ways. In 1852 Cavour, the Prime Minister on Piedmont, he looked onto other liberal Italian principalities. His greatest contribution was his establishment of diplomacy; the negotiations between states. Meanwhile Prime Minister Otto Von Bismarck had a different view on the unification on his country; he was against diplomacy and remained scornful towards liberals. “The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood” (Bismarck).
Julio Serrano EN-102 Prof. Ignacio Arana 4-22-09 Fascism: Unity through Power In our modern times, the word “Fascism” makes allusion to a specific period of time, in the last century, when the world was submerged in struggles and war. Although, this term is surrounded by controversy, the theoretical government created by the Fascist ideology could be a model to follow in different conditions. The Fascist movement rose at the beginning of the 20th century, and created a nationalist system using unity through strength. Fascism is often confused with racism, because radical fascist ideas suggest that strength is a quality of superior races. For a better analysis of the topic it is necessary to understand the theory of Fascism, its roots, the people, and how it has influenced the 20th century.