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.
While many historical figures have aspired to be as powerful and as influential as Augustus was, almost none have gone quite as far as Mussolini did when he held power as dictator over fascist Italy. Mussolini and his supporters favored a strong Italian identity and directly sought to connect the ideas of “a Roman past and a Fascist present.” In order to do this, he directly imitated Augustus’ manner of exercising power and displaying his greatness. He instituted many changes and public works, and touted his greatness around Italy. He even went as far as to use the same rhetoric found in Augustus’ Res Gestae in the inscription adorning the fountains of the Piazza Augusto Imperatore, which lay across from where the Res Gestae would have originally
The planned march of thousands of Fascist supporters to take control of Rome. In response to this, Mussolini was given the legal right to control Italy. Totalitarian State A government in which a one-party dictatorship regulates every aspect of citizens’ lives.
By subduing Libya (1922-1932), pacifying Somalia (1923-1927), conquering Ethiopia (1935-1936), helping the Nationalists win the Spanish civil war (1936-1939), and seizing Albania (April 1939), Mussolini made Italy predominant in the Mediterranean-Red Sea region.” (history) The quotation shows that Mussolini believed he could build his own empire, and his Fascist movement won a lot of wars as well. “Rome comrades! Through you I want to speak to the Italian people, to the authentic, real, great Italian people, who fight with the courage of lions on land, sea and air fronts…
HIS-111 The Great Empires Precious Jackson Although they were on completely opposite ends of Afroeurasia, The Roman Empire, consisting of the Mediterranean and the Han empire, almost the entirety of China, rose to great power around the same time. Despite the minute contact the two legendary empires shared many similarities, yet their contrasting differences led them in completely opposite directions regarding their government, economy, religion, culture, and military. Both Empires stressed the values of respect, honor, and duty, while powerful patriarchs led families.
Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany were similar in that both were dictatorships. Both Mussolini and Hitler came to power through legal means and believed that people were divided into either inferior or superior races. For example, Hitler was obsessed with the Aryan race and called for the genocide of Jews during WWII. In addition, both Mussolini and Hitler favored the wealthy, believed that an individual was meaningless and must submit to the decisions of their leaders, and aimed at self-sufficiency so that each could survive entirely without international trade. Furthermore, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy “had aimed for prestige and power for their countries, and brought instead humiliation and destruction” (Tarr, R.,
After World World I, Italy was in a chaotic state of cultural, political, and economic change. The outcome of the Treaty of Versailles left the Italian people with many problems, which cause even more turmoil. An Italian born military leader named Benito Mussolini felt he needed to do something for his country, so in the year 1919 he introduced Fascism. Webster's dictionary defines fascism as “a political movement, or regime that stands for a centralized autocratic government lead by a dictatorial leader” (Webster,2017). While some people believe Mussolini’s “Fascist Movement” to be deficient”, I believe that through Mussolini’s rise to power and creation of the Fascist regime helped strengthen his desire to unify the Italian population.
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.
Mussolini made a group paramilitary unit called the “Black Shirts,” they would terrorise political opponents. Mussolini was successful and by 1922 Italy slipped into political chaos. Mussolini saw this as a chance to gain authority of Italy. Soon after this happened Mussolini declared that on he could restore order and he was given authority. By 1925 Mussolini had dismantled all democratic institution.
“I affirm that the fundamental, if not the absolutely essential datum for the political, and therefore the economical and moral power of nations is their ability to increase their population. Let us speak quite clearly. What are 40,000,000 Italians compared to 90,000,000 Germans and 200,000,000 Slavs? Let us town toward the West. What are 40,000,000 Italians compared to 40,000,000 Frenchmen plus 90,000,000 inhabitants of France’s colonies, or compared to 46,000,000 Englishmen plus 450,000,000 who live in England’s colonies?
In 1919, Benito Mussolini described fascism as “A movement that would strike against the backwardness of the right and the destructiveness of the left.” That “Fascism sitting on the right, could also have sat on the mountain of the center… These words in any case do not have a fixed and unchanged: they do have a variable subject to location, time and spirit. We don’t give a damn about these empty terminologies and we despise those who are terrorized by these words.” Fascism came into prominence in the early 20th-century Europe. It originated in Italy during World War I.
In a movement that inspired Hitler's ascent to power in Germany, the Fascist Party changed many aspects of life while also changing the prior government. The Catholic Church and the Monarchy continued to exist and do their duties despite being under the control of fascist rule. The dictatorship of Mussolini had a large effect on Italian society, and the fascist legacy stayed in Italian culture for many years after the end of the fascist regime. The country is still struggling to deal with the legacy of its fascist era. However, Mussolini's influence is felt not just in Italy but also in other parts of the world.
Have you ever heard the saying that Fascism and Communism are two sides of the same coin? These ideologies flourished during the first half of the 20th century and influenced several European states which followed the two ideologies. Fascism was imposed in order to promote powerful and permanent nationalism within a totalitarian state led by a dictator which is ready to engage in conflict internally and with its neighbors. The doctrine of Fascism was drafted in 1919 by Giovanni Gentile and adopted by Mussolini (Mussolini is considered the founder of fascism). Gentile stated, “Everything for the state; nothing against the state” (Heywood, Politics 48).
376) This description of Fascism indicates a government that is involved in the lives of its citizens to an extreme degree. By illustrating the government as a “powerful form of personality”, Mussolini alludes to the Fascist characteristic of organicism, where the state is seen as an organic whole being. Mussolini continues his
In fact, when Mussolini founded the Milan facio in March 1919, it had no clear-cut goals, except for a belief in action and a stated goal of strong foreign policy (Duggan, 2013). However, when Italy was driven from Fiume at the end of 1920, many Italians began to believe that Italy would have to develop strong foreign policy. In 1921, Mussolini formed the National Fascist Party and began to quickly amass power in the Italian government. One of the methods he did so was to tout
