The cartoon displayed the nationalist ideology of Germany and their desire to pin the blame on the people they deemed inferior or outsiders such as Jewish people. Document A, Benito Mussolini’s The Definition of Fascism written in 1932 described Fascism from the eyes of a Fascist leader. The document laid out the positives of Fascism explained that Fascism was the best government for the people. Mussolini wanted to make the Mediterranean an Italian lake and unite all Italian people. These nationalist sentiments garnered him significant support and gave rise to his fascist regime.
He believed that only a strong leader like himself could defeat conflicts caused by other political parties (especially communists/socialists) and post-war problems (World War I). Mussolini’s first call to action was creating a group called the “Blackshirts” that would carry out beatings against communist leaders and throwing them out of office. People of all different backgrounds joined including teachers, business people, and store owners (Document 5). Mussolini constantly told his people that he was going to restore Italy back to its glorious Roman Empire era. He backed up his sayings by invading Ethiopia.
Benito Mussolini made many changes in Italy’s government, and economy. “In February 1923, Mussolini and the Fascist Grand Council introduced the Acerbo Law. This law changed election results. Now if one party got just 25% (or more) of the votes cast in an election, they would get 66%of the seats in parliament. ”(history learning site)
To begin with, Fascism is a term that describes a political party who wants to gain power, usually through dictatorship or totalitarianism, they tend to serve economic and social regimentation usually by using force. Benito Mussolini was a socialist, he also was a fascist leader of the National Fascist party in the year of 1922 to 1943. Mussolini use fascism to gain power and built a first totalitarian state with the Fascist party and he gained his supporters by combining the into combat squads that wore black shirts, they rejected the democratic process and used violence instead. It seemed like Mussolini was desperate for power in any way and used violence to gain control. In the beginning Italians allowed these Fascist strategies to take control because the believed that it could restore power for the country and gain a strong and stable government.
On March 23, 1919 Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist party in Italy (History.com Staff). Mussolini was a World War I veteran and a publisher of Socialist newspapers in Italy. (History.com Staff). Mussolini decided to break off from Italian Socialists and he established the nationalist Fasci di Combattimento, which is commonly known as the Fascist Party (History.com Staff). Some of the main characteristics of fascism are a government led by a dictator, who has complete control, the government forcibly suppresses all opposition and criticism, the government controls all industry, commerce, and other economic factors, and aggressive nationalism and sometimes racism are promoted by the government ("Fascism").
In 1919, Mussolini and his followers formed a group called the Fasci, an army of black shirted war veterans. Mussolini was the leader of the Fasci, and he supplied them with weapons and inspiration. When he was thirty-nine years old, he became the youngest prime minister of Italy, and soon he would oversee the whole of Italy. When Mussolini obtained power over Italy, he founded a form of government called Fascism. He believed he was always right, and he refused to take advice or criticism from anyone else (“Benito Mussolini”).
As prime minister, he stifled the free press, swayed the government in his favor, and controlled the military’s actions. It was not until 1925 Mussolini officially declared himself the dictator of Italy (Greenspan). During this period, Italy’s economy faced an enormous war debt. Inflation and shortages of goods and supplies played a major issue in the downturned economy and the unrest of the public. Troops from World War I raised the number of the unemployed and this was the atmosphere that hatched Mussolini’s fascist movement (Keefe).
Communism believed in a classless society, while Fascism followed a dictatorship, but maintaining a dictatorship required the suppression of the people. Fascist ideology believed that “war alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to meet it,” which requires constant violence to prove power (Lualdi 236). By 1924, Mussolini was able to gain 65% of the vote for fascism, but in 1933, the Nazi party only gained 44% of the vote, and even with a minority ruling party was able to gain control of the government. Both Mussolini and Hitler came into power through legal means, but Mussolini was named Prime Minister in the hopes of avoiding war but after gaining control. Yet after their legal rise into power, they used coercion and violence to further their fascist rulings.
One of Mussolini’s domestic policies were having good relations with the Catholic Church. Mussolini and other Fascist leaders were anti-clerical; a totalitarian state does not support any other establishments with powerful beliefs and therefore the Catholic Church was a threat. Throughout the 1920s, the relations between the Church and Fascism were very complex. However, Mussolini apprehended that if he would win the Church’s support, he would win further support of the Italian public. Although, both Fascist and the Church were divided over the subjects of education and indoctrination of youth, they shared a lot of common ground.
The impactful empires of Germany and Italy were built on a similar use of legal methods by their leaders and government. These included the introduction and transformation of both nations into terror states, as well as certain laws that were made to target a specific race or religion. Through legislation, the Nazi Party were able to legally enforce acts such as the 1933 ‘Enabling Act’, which ensured that there “would be no more elections nor a constitution to keep Hitler in check”[1]. Mussolini took similar measures, in that the Italian Government passed the 1922 ‘March on Rome’. This act gave power to Mussolini’s Fascist Party through establishing it as an official political party.
Benito Mussolini became their fascist leader who doesn’t only reject liberalism but also socialism. In the doctrine “Born of a Need for Action”, Mussolini emphasizes elimination of liberal individualism. He states that Fascism is not a doctrine and not just a regime. “Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace.”, as written by Mussolini. (Mussolini, 28.5)
In 1922, the Italian Benito Mussolini set a Dictatorship as a form of government. The Fascist Party was born as a response to the general fear of communism after the attempt to free market economics that followed the First World War had failed. Fascism political ideology was based on a strong nationalism and a powerful army, since Mussolini believed that the only effective way for social improvement was through conflict. By 1935 Italy was a police state. Mussolini’s regime lasted 21 years, till the end of WWII.
Benito Mussolini became the-Prime Minister of Italy in 1922. He founded the Fasci Italiani de Combattimento, which later be known as the Fascists. His rise to power was due to many factors, the main-one-being the public discontent in the existing government after the first world war. Although Italy had won in the-war, many-Italians felt they were cheated-out-of the territorial settlements they thought they were promised to receive. This resulted in a growing distrust and resentment-against the government as many Italians found themselves dispossessed of their land and properties.
Freedom was wiped out of Italy as soon as Mussolini assumed power, the political, economical and social activities were all controlled by the fascists. Mussolini stated that “Everything within the state, nothing against the state, nothing outside the state.” At this time Mussolini was not yet a dictator, and was unsatisfied with the current coalition government that he was in. He wanted even more power than he had and so appointed fascists in important government positions. However, he did not stop there, he demanded that parliament give him complete control.
Furthermore, labor strikes in the country helped redistribute labor and wealth (Duggan, 2013). Despite those successes, the Socialists were unable to seize power in Italy. As a result, the Socialist Party split into factions, including the Communist Party. The Fascists, led by Mussolini, used the threat of communist revolution to take over Italian politics. Mussolini had socialist political origins and had a history as a journalist, editor, and socialist agitator (Duggan, 2013).
