March on Rome

The March on Rome (Italian: Marcia su

Roma) was an organized mass
demonstration in October 1922, which
resulted in Benito Mussolini's National
Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista,
or PNF) ascending to power in the
Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia). In late
October 1922, Fascist Party leaders
planned an insurrection, to take place on
28 October. When fascist troops entered
Rome, Prime Minister Luigi Facta wished
to declare a state of siege, but this was
overruled by King Victor Emmanuel III. On
the following day, 29 October 1922, the
King appointed Mussolini as Prime
Minister, thereby transferring political
power to the fascists without armed
conflict.[1][2]
 March on Rome

Benito Mussolini and Fascist "Blackshirts"

during the March

Date 27–29 October 1922

Location Rome, Italy

Action Blackshirts assembled on the

plain of the river Po and took
position at strategic points.
Armed fascist troops gathered
outside Rome before marching
into the city. The march
precipitated the bloodless
transfer of national political
power to the fascists.
Result Fascist coup d'état, Benito
Mussolini formed a new
government

Belligerents
 Italy National Fascist
Party

Blackshirts

Commanders and leaders

Luigi Facta Benito Mussolini
Antonio Salandra Emilio De Bono
Italo Balbo
C. M. De Vecchi
Michele Bianchi

Political support
Liberal and Socialist Military and the
parties business class

Military support
Italian Police and 30,000 Militiamen
Armed Forces

Context
In March 1919, Benito Mussolini founded
the first "Italian Fasces of Combat" (Fasci
Italiani di Combattimento) at the beginning
of the "two red years" (biennio rosso).
Mussolini suffered a defeat in the election
of November 1919 mainly due to his
attempt to "out-socialist the socialists" at
the ballot box.[3] But in the general election
of 1921, Mussolini was elected to
Parliament.

Fascists used militia squads, the

Squadrismo, also known as the
"Blackshirts" due to their uniform. In
August 1920, the militia was used to break
the general strike which had started at the
Alfa Romeo factory in Milan. In November
1920, after the assassination of Giulio
Giordani (a right-wing municipal councillor
in Bologna), the Blackshirts were active in
violent suppression of the socialist
movement (which included a strong
anarcho-syndicalist component),
especially in the Po Valley.
Trade unions were dissolved while left-
wing mayors resigned. The fascists,
included on Giovanni Giolitti's "National
Union" lists at the May 1921 elections,
then won 35 seats. Mussolini withdrew his
support from Giolitti and his Italian Liberal
Party (PLI) and attempted to work out a
temporary truce with the Italian Socialist
Party by signing a "Pact of Pacification" in
summer 1921. This provoked protest with
more radical members of the Fascist
movement, the Blackshirt Squadristi and
their leaders, the Ras ("Dukes", from an
Ethiopian term). In July 1921, Giolitti
attempted without success to dissolve the
squadristi. The contract with the socialists
was nullified during the Third Fascist
Congress on November 7–10, 1921, where
Mussolini negotiated a nationalist
program and renamed his movement
"National Fascist Party", which boasted
"2,200 fasci and 320,000 members" by late
1921.[4] In August, an anti-fascist general
strike was triggered, but failed to rally the
Italian People's Party (Partito Popolare
Italiano) and was repressed by the
fascists. A few days before the march,
Mussolini consulted with the U.S.
Ambassador Richard Washburn Child
about whether the U.S. government would
object to Fascist participation in a future
Italian government. Child encouraged him
to go ahead. When Mussolini learned that
Prime Minister Luigi Facta had given
Gabriele d'Annunzio the mission to
organize a large demonstration on 4
November 1922 to celebrate the national
victory during the war, he decided on the
March to accelerate the process and
sidestep any possible competition..

March

Fascists travelling towards Rome.

Emilio De Bono, Benito Mussolini, Italo Balbo and
Cesare Maria De Vecchi.

The quadrumvirs leading the Fascist Party,

General Emilio De Bono, Italo Balbo (one of
the most famous ras), Michele Bianchi and
Cesare Maria de Vecchi, organized the
March, while the Duce was waiting in
Milan. He did not participate in the march,
though he allowed pictures to be taken of
him marching along with the Fascist
marchers, and he comfortably went to
Rome the next day.[5] Generals Gustavo
Fara and Sante Ceccherini assisted to the
preparations of the March of 18 October.
Other organizers of the march included the
Marquis Dino Perrone Compagni and
Ulisse Igliori.

On 24 October 1922, Mussolini declared

before 60,000 people at the Fascist
Congress in Naples: "Our program is
simple: we want to rule Italy."[6] Meanwhile,
the Blackshirts, who had occupied the Po
plain, took all strategic points of the
country. On 26 October, the former prime
minister Antonio Salandra warned current
Prime Minister Luigi Facta that Mussolini
was demanding his resignation and that
he was preparing to march on Rome.
However, Facta did not believe Salandra
and thought that Mussolini would govern
quietly at his side. To meet the threat
posed by the bands of fascist troops now
gathering outside Rome, Luigi Facta (who
had resigned but continued to hold power)
ordered a state of siege for Rome. Having
had previous conversations with the King
about the repression of fascist violence,
he was sure the King would agree.[7]
However, King Victor Emmanuel III refused
to sign the military order.[8] On 29 October,
the King handed power to Mussolini, who
was supported by the military, the
business class, and the right-wing.

The march itself was composed of fewer

than 30,000 men, but the King in part
feared a civil war since the squadristi had
already taken control of the Po plain and
most of the country, while Fascism was no
longer seen as a threat to the
establishment. Mussolini was asked to
form his cabinet on 29 October 1922,
while some 25,000 Blackshirts were
parading in Rome. Mussolini thus legally
reached power, in accordance with the
Statuto Albertino, the Italian Constitution.
The March on Rome was not the seizure of
power which Fascism later celebrated but
rather the precipitating force behind a
transfer of power within the framework of
the constitution. This transition was made
possible by the surrender of public
authorities in the face of fascist
intimidation. Many business and financial
leaders believed it would be possible to
manipulate Mussolini, whose early
speeches and policies emphasized free
market and laissez faire economics.[9] This
proved overly optimistic, as Mussolini's
corporatist view stressed total state power
over businesses as much as over
individuals, via governing industry bodies
("corporations") controlled by the Fascist
party, a model in which businesses
retained the responsibilities of property,
but few if any of the freedoms. By 1934
Mussolini claimed to have nationalized
"three-fourths of the Italian economy,
industrial and agricultural", more than any
other nation except the Soviet Union.[10]

Mussolini pretended to be willing to take a

subalternate ministry in a Giolitti or
Salandra cabinet, but then demanded the
presidency of the Council.[11] Fearing a
conflict with the fascists, the ruling class
thus handed power to Mussolini, who went
on to install the dictatorship after the 10
June 1924 assassination of Giacomo
Matteotti – who had finished writing The
Fascisti Exposed: A Year of Fascist
Domination – executed by Amerigo
Dumini, accused of being the leader of the
"Italian Ceka", however there is no
evidence for such an organization existing.

Other participants
Giacomo Acerbo
Roberto Farinacci
Giovanni Giuriati
Serafino Mazzolini
Ettore Muti
Aurelio Padovani
 Alessandro Pavolini
Carlo Scorza
Achille Starace

See also
Beer Hall Putsch (similar action by the
Nazi Party inspired by the March on
Rome)
Fascist and anti-Fascist violence in Italy
(1919–26)
March of the Iron Will

References
Carsten, Francis Ludwig (1982). The Rise of
Fascism. University of California Press.
 Cassells, Alan. Fascist Italy. Arlington
Heights, IL: H. Davidson, 1985.
Gallo, Max. Mussolini's Italy: Twenty Years of
the Fascist Era. New York: Macmillan, 1973.
Leeds, Christpher. Italy under Mussolini. Hove,
East Sussex: Wayland, 1988 (1972).
Chiapello, Duccio. Marcia e contromarcia su
Roma. Marcello Soleri e la resa dello Stato
liberale. Rome: Aracne, 2012.
Gentile, Emilio. E fu subito regime. Il fascismo
italiano e la marcia su Roma. Rome-Bari:
Laterza, 2012.

Notes
1. Lyttelton, Adrian (2008). The Seizure of
Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919–1929.
 New York: Routledge. pp. 75–77.
ISBN 978-0-415-55394-0.
2. "March on Rome | Italian history" .
Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved
2017-07-25.
3. Denis Mack Smith, Modern Italy: A
Political History, University of
Michigan Press (1997) p. 297
4. Charles F. Delzell, edit., Mediterranean
Fascism 1919–1945, New York, NY,
Walker and Company, 1971, p. 26
5. Morgan, Philip (1995). Italian Fascism
1919-1945. Basingstoke, Hampshire:
Macmillan Press. p. 58. ISBN 0-333-
53779-3.
 . Carsten (1982), p.62
7. Chiapello (2012), p.123
. Carsten (1982), p.64
9. Carsten (1982), p.76
10. T Gianni Toniolo, editor, The Oxford
Handbook of the Italian Economy
Since Unification, Oxford University
Press (2013) p. 59; Mussolini’s speech
to the Chamber of Deputies on May
26, 1934
11. Lyttelton, Adrian (2009). The Seizure of
Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919–1929.
New York: Routledge. pp. 75–77.
ISBN 978-0-415-55394-0.
External links
Mussolini's March on Rome Original
reports from The Times
The March on Rome entry at Tiscali
reference.
Map of Europe and Italian Fascist
seizure of power at omniatlas

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