Italy

 In Italy the parliament was partly bypassed by new forms of popular mobilization which pressured entry into the
war in 1915. Thus, interventionists carried out mass demonstrations in Rome in mid-May by which nationalist
activists took command of the public sphere and pressured the deputies into voting for war.
 The war had given many Italians a new sense of national identity and pride and of achievement. The war
experience had pushed many patriots to the right. As the ordeal became increasingly traumatic, a series of new
leagues and fasci were formed by nationalists to support present governmental policies and keep Italy in the war.
 The years immediately after the war did not produce the triumphant and unified Italy promised by wartime patriots
but a major political and social crisis, compounded by short-term economic depression. Though the Versailles
settlement awarded Italy all the Trentino-Alto Adige district up to the Brenner Pass, as well as the city of Trieste, it
denied all further Italian claims in the east Adriatic, Turkey, and Africa.
 Thus, nationalists denounced the governmental leaders who accepted these terms as renunciatari (renouncers) and
labelled the outcome a ‘mutilated or truncated victory’. Social opinion in much of Italy was even more resentful.
 The war placed considerable strain on the political systems of all participants. Whereas the stable western
European democratic systems were able to respond with various forms of coalition “national union” governments,
the situation deteriorated further in central, southern, and eastern Europe. The old liberals were still the largest
single force in the parliament but could not command a majority and thus could not govern without allies.
In fulfilment of wartime democratic promises, proportional representation, favouring modern parties over
traditional patronage politics, was introduced for the 1919 elections. Thus, they had lost their secure political
base. Italy’s political system faced the sudden advent of an age of mass politics. The two largest parties to emerge
from the contest were the PSI and the Partito Popolare Italiano, a Catholic party founded in 1919. T he new mass
parties would not cooperate in trasformismo as had reformist predecessors, further weakening the
government.
 The big winner in the elections of September 1919 was the Socialists, who gained nearly one-third of all
those in the 508-member parliament. Socialists now declared adherence to Lenin’s new Communist
International proclaimed that it was only a matter of time until a revolution equivalent to Russia’s broke
out in Italy. The autumn of 1920 marked the Socialist high tide in the countryside, placing themselves in a
position to dominate the agrarian economy.
 About two hundred left interventionists and ardent nationalists gathered in Milan on March 23, 1919, to form a
revolutionary new nationalist movement called the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, the principal leader being
Mussolini. What was needed was a new nationalist elite to mobilize the masses for an “Italian revolution.”
 The main radical nationalist initiative in 1919 was taken by Gabriele D’Annunzio, Italy’s most popular poet, who
rallied a small expeditionary force to seize the east Adriatic city of Fiume for Italy in September. D’Annunzio
governed Fiume as a separate citystate for fifteen months. D’Annunzio succeeded in creating a new style of
political liturgy made up of elaborate uniforms, special ceremonies, and chants, with speeches from the balcony of
city hall to massed audiences in the form of a dialogue with the leader. The Fiume episode, however, demonstrated
the weakness of the government and the explosive force of nationalism and also resulted in the creation of what
would later become Fascist style.
 By 1920 the Fasci were organizing a political militia of squadre (squads) in various parts of the north. They
soon launched a series of events against the Socialists especially in the countryside, where they could count
on newfound support among virtually all sectors of the middle and upper classes, and even among some
laborers. For the first time Fasci membership grew rapidly, increasing nearly tenfold during the last seven
months of the year.
 A new “ism”, Fascism was used to indicate the now increasingly violent movement of the Fasci. The use of
organized political violence proved integral to the sudden rise of Fascism. There was increasing talk about
the need for a strong “new state,” even a nationalist dictatorship, one that would follow a more liberal
economic policy to reduce or eliminate many state economic powers and permit an autonomous and
decentralized national syndicalism to free Italy’s productive forces.
 The national elections of May 1921 enabled thirty-eight Fascists, including Mussolini, to gain seats in the
parliament. Mussolini soon grasped that he must organize and discipline the Fasci. He accepted continued
violence in return for agreement on a national congress that would convert the movement into an organized
party. Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF).
 The new party was defined as “a revolutionary militia placed at the service of the nation. The congress called for a
strong Italian state supported by national technical councils and endorsed Italian imperialism. Economically the
party stood for productivism and “economic liberalism”.
 By the end of 1921 Fascist liturgy and style had been fully developed. Elaborate ceremonies were now conducted,
decorated by innumerable flags and special new visual symbols, accompanied by mass chants. Frequent and large-
scale public marches were a common feature. Especially impressive were the opulent funeral services for the
fallen, which had become a centerpiece of Fascist ritual, uniting the living and the dead in a tribute to courage and
the overcoming of mere mortality.

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  The goal now was political power, and the tactic was concerted direct action. By Summer 1922, the eastern Po
Valley was almost completely occupied politically. Action began on October 27 with direct Fascist takeovers of
many police headquarters, community centers, and even arsenals. The plan was to concentrate about twenty-five
thousand squadristi in Rome as a display of force, without any intention of attempting a coup. The king then
sought to resolve the crisis by asking the conservative pro-Fascist liberal Antonio Salandra to form a coalition that
would include Mussolini and a few other Fascist ministers. Mussolini, remaining in the north near Milan, was
intransigent on the issue of becoming prime minister himself and in the night of October 29 Victor Emmanuel
invited Mussolini to come to Rome to lead a new parliamentary coalition. The Blackshirts did not seize Rome;
Mussolini came to power legally, heading a normal multiparty parliamentary coalition.

Mussolini hesitated many times between October 1922 and January 1925. Finally, the need to overcome the Matteotti crisis,
combined with the apparent impotence of a weak and divided opposition, brought him to decisive action. He announced that
he would assume full executive responsibility for government and dismissed the parliament. The police were given orders
for the first time to break up subversive opposition organizations, and 111 people were arrested in the next forty hours. Other
parties were not at first outlawed, but the deputies of the opposition were not allowed to return to the chamber. Censorship
was introduced, and the Masonic lodges were closed.

National Syndicalism

In September the first pillar of the corporate state was introduced, when a structure of national syndicalism was created for
the economy. Twelve national syndicates were set up for the various branches of economic production. Employers and
workers would be organized in separate branches of each national syndicate. These were not yet integrated corporations, but
a ministry of corporations was created to develop them. Eventually, in 1934, the national syndicates were replaced by
twenty-two national corporations, structured much the same way. In 1927 an official Labor Charter was created,
theoretically guaranteeing rights of Italian labour.

Opposition

Late in 1926, all other political parties were officially banned. A further step in creating the corporate state took place in
1928, when the directly elected parliament was replaced by a corporative chamber in which four hundred nominal
representatives would be indirectly selected by various public and private groups, agencies, and professions.

Party and Government

In September 1928 the Fascist Party Grand Council was officially made “the supreme organ that coordinates all activities of
the regime,”. The new system was a personal political dictatorship under Mussolini, yet legally still under the monarchy.
One of the most striking features of the regime was that the political dictatorship also became a dictatorship over the party
rather than of the party. After an unusually lethal outburst by Blackshirts in Florence in October 1925, in which eight liberals
and Masons were publicly murdered, Mussolini intervened personally to conduct a purge of the Florence fascio. A new
decree officially stated that henceforth all positions in the party would be appointed from the top down. Mussolini now
ordered the final demobilization of the squadre. The function of the party was thus to mobilize political support and help
indoctrinate the young, but not to administer the state. The regime’s official position was that Fascist Party members would
not take over governmental and bureaucratic positions but that the spirit and policy of the government, and its existing
bureaucrats, would simply be fascistizzato (Fascistized) in accord with the doctrines of the party.

Church

For Mussolini, the final achievement in the creation of a political structure was to sign a concordat with the Church, which
would in effect bring the blessing of Italy’s most influential institution. Signature of the three Lateran Pacts in 1929 ended
the Vatican’s long period as a territorial “prisoner” of the Italian state, laid down terms of financial compensation for the
seizure of Church lands by the liberal state in the nineteenth century and created a concordat in which the Italian state
granted official status to the Catholic religion, promised freedom for all nonpolitical activities of the large laymen’s
association, Catholic Action, and other Catholic groups, and provided for Catholicism to be taught in all state primary and
secondary schools. For the Church it was an agreement that restored the status of religion and would promote the re-
Christianization of Italy; for Mussolini it was a useful compromise that raised his government to a plateau of acceptance it
had never enjoyed before.

Nature of State

In 1925, with the imposition of the dictatorship, Mussolini and his education minister, the philosopher Giovanni Gentile,
began to use the term totalitario to refer to the structure and goals of the new state. Aspiring to an organic unity of
government, economic activity, and society, the new state was to achieve total representation of the nation and exercise total
guidance of national goals. Serious analysts of totalitarian government now recognize that Fascist Italy never became

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structurally totalitarian. In practice, Fascist “totalitarianism” referred to the preeminent authority of the state in areas of
conflict. Big business, industry, and finance retained extensive autonomy, particularly in the early years. The armed forces
also enjoyed considerable autonomy and to a considerable degree—though never entirely— were left to their own devices.
The Fascist militia was placed under military control. The judicial system was left largely intact and relatively autonomous
as well. The police continued to be directed by state officials and were not taken over by party leaders.

Mussolini came to power on the basis of a tacit compromise with established institutions, and he was never able fully to
escape the constraints of that compromise.

Propaganda

With each year, increasing attention was paid to what historians have called il culto del littorio (the cult of the lictors), the
elaborate public and ceremonial process which sought to convert Fascism into a civic cult, a kind of civil religion. “Faith”
was announced as the basis of the Fascist epistemology, and this was to be enhanced by public cult and ceremony and the
elaboration of Fascist art, architecture, and symbols. The regime openly sought a sacralization of politics and the state.

Central to the Fascist “religion of Italy” was the cult of Romanità— “eternal Rome,” Fascism was declared the revolutionary
continuation of the original “Roman revolution. The ultimate Fascist cult was that of the Duce himself. The 1930s found
Mussolini at the pinnacle of his prestige and now a figure much larger than life. The cult of the Duce introduced slogans
such as The Duce is always right. Mussolini was seen as the universal genius leading Italy into a new era of unity,
development, and expansion.

Economic Policies

The regime’s response to the depression was not to allow the national syndicates to take charge but to increase the direct role
of the state. Public works were considerably expanded, while rationalization, reorganization, and cartelization were
encouraged in industry. The first major instrument of state intervention was the creation of the Italian Assets Institute, IMI in
1931 as a state corporation to buy up shares of failing banks, beginning a process by which the state would directly or
indirectly control most Italian banking assets. This gained control of a number of the major sectors of industry, and gave the
Italian government ownership of a greater portion of the national economy than in any other nation-state west of the Soviet
Union. The Bank of Italy was nationalized in 1936. A new commercial code paralleled the new civil and penal codes, and all
survived long into postwar Italy.

Foreign Policy

In 1932, Mussolini dismissed his most able ministers and personally took over the Foreign Ministry. The more activist
policy was also a response to domestic frustrations of a political, institutional, and cultural character, but not simply to the
economic problems of the depression, as has been alleged. This was accompanied by an effort to expand the ideological and
political influence of Fascism within Europe, an initiative dating initially from 1930.

After the rise of Hitler, Stalin hoped to use Italy as a lever against Germany. A new economic accord was signed in May
1933, followed four months later by an Italo-Soviet Pact of Friendship, Neutrality, and Nonaggression.

Hitler’s attitude toward Mussolini was completely positive and unambiguous, for ever since the writing of Mein Kampf he
had looked upon the Fascist regime as his natural ally. Though he offered to Mussolini an alliance “to impose Fascism on the
world,” as the German emissary put it, the Duce was much more cool. Their first meeting, during Hitler’s visit to Italy in the
spring of 1934, did not go well.

When Austrian Nazis tried to take over the Austrian government in July he responded immediately, sending six divisions to
the Brenner Pass and taking a firm stand on behalf of Austrian independence. Mussolini had for several years sought to
cultivate Austria as a client state and deemed it an important buffer against Germany. There had always been some criticism
of Nazism in Fascist publications, and after July 1934 this became much stronger. Italian publicists stressed Fascism’s
respect for individual rights, in sharp contrast to National Socialism. However, what Hitler did offer Mussolini was the
beginning of profound destabilization of the European balance of power and the opportunity for a more militant policy.
Though he still preferred to work with rather than against that European balance, Mussolini was determined to expand Italy’s
empire. Mussolini’s ambitions were directed toward expansion in Africa. Italy, France and Britain briefly formed the “Stresa
Front” of May 1935, at a conference which announced their general agreement on maintaining the status quo in Europe. For
Mussolini it was a statement of European concord that left the door open for expansion in East Africa. Britain then went
ahead to negotiate its own separate naval agreement with Hitler. Convinced that the time had come to strike, probably with
impunity, the Duce refused all mediation, invading Ethiopia on October 3, 1935.

Mussolini had defied the League of Nations and the great powers, in the process gaining new status. A second turning point
occurred at the time of Mussolini’s first visit to Germany, in November 1937. Impressed by the new German Wehrmacht,
the Italian government signed an Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany. One month later, in December, he followed Hitler’s
lead in withdrawing from the League of Nations. Mussolini had reached the conclusion that Germany was about to become
the dominant power in Europe and hence that it was better for Italy to be aligned with it than opposed to it.

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The Duce was outraged by Hitler’s abrupt dismemberment and seizure of Czechoslovakia without consultation or
compensation for Italy. To renounce an aggressive policy now, along lines parallel with Hitler’s, would be equivalent to
turning his back on the whole revolutionary project of Fascism and the totalitarian state. Thus when he and Hitler met in
May 1939, Mussolini insisted on a complete military alliance called the Pact of Steel.

Anti - Semitism

Thus, he became convinced by the beginning of 1938 that an Italian racial policy would make Italy the equal of Germany
and would form an important part of a totalitarian and more revolutionary policy against the bourgeoisie, fundamental to the
creation of the Italian “new man.” In July 1938 the new Ministry of Popular Culture published a Manifesto of Italian
Racism, and Jewish teachers and students were removed from the school system, Jews were expelled from the party the
following month and mixed marriages were outlawed for party members. Since Mussolini’s regime never approached the
incredible extremes of Hitler’s anti-Jewish policies, it has sometimes been supposed that its own anti-Jewish legislation was
largely a half-hearted self-defensive measure to protect Fascists from Nazis and to win a higher place in the European new
order.

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1. The Fascist Counter-Revolution in Italy: Benito Mussolini and Fascism (1918-1945)

i) Rise of Mussolini to power;

a) War Disillusionment-Italy had limited gains with Treaty of Versailles (1919) despite being promised Tyrol,
Istria, Dalmatia, Albania from Austrian control when invited by Allies to WWI; Italians felt cheated despite losing over
700000 men and conquering Balkan regions from like Fiume which went to Yugoslavia.

b) Parliamentary Issues-With universal manhood suffrage 1919 onwards, 1921 elections and later saw diverse
parties like Catholics, liberals, socialists leading to negative coalition Govts. with no consistent policy and shaky majorities
leading to impatience.

c) Post-War Economic Crisis-Decline in Italian standards of living, heavy borrowing from USA, decline in value
of lira, massive unemployment, cut-down of wartime industrial production.

d) Socialist Strikes-Poor economic conditions led to mass wave workers’ strikes, riots, loots, factory
occupations by socialists, factory councils and trade unions, even seizure of farms and industries along with formation of
Italian Communist Party in 1921 led to fears of Leftist revolution; but forces of Left were split.

e) Mussolini’s Populism-Foundation of Fascist Party in 1919 by Mussolini, schoolteacher who started ‘Il
Popolo d’Italia’ newspaper earlier which had views of syndicalist A.D. Ambris and Futurist F.T. Marinetti who issued
Fascist Manifesto (1919) for authoritarian nationalism, inspired by Paul Delourede’s League of Patriots, Boulangist
Movement of 1880s and 1899 neo-authoritarian group Action Francaise in France, German National Socialist Workers Party
(DNSAP) of Walter Riel and Rudolff Jung in Germany, Maurica Barres’ Czech National Socialist Party in 1904 and Italian
National Association (ANI) of 1910 in Italy; socialist and nationalist programme with local party branches called fasci
di combattimento (fighting groups) with unity-oriented symbol of fasces (bundle of rods and axe) that represented
authority of Consuls in Roman times; with anti-monarchy, anti-Church and anti-capitalist stance, won no seats in 1919
elections; caused Mussolini’s ideological shift from extreme Left to extreme Right characteristic of 20th century’s Age

of Extremes vide E.J. HOBSBAWM, in 1921 to support for private enterprise, started Black Shirts squads to attack
socialist rivals, won popular support to promise of stable and decisive Govt.; Mussolini even made overtures to
Roman Catholic Church with common counter to Communist atheism, even made agreement with Pope Pius XI in
1929 to win Italy’s devout masses; after attempted general strike of 1922 by socialists, Mussolini in 1922 posed as savior of
people from Communism and went on March to Rome (1922), displaced PM Luigi Facta and won approval of King
Victor Emmanuel III who didn’t use army against Fascist Black Shirts and made Mussolini first and last Fascist PM
of Italy due to lack of confidence in Facta, doubts about army loyalty, personal sympathies and fears of civil war; fusion of
Fascist Party with major nationalist groups like ANI by 1923.

f) Lack of Effective Opposition-Failed coordination of anti-Fascist groups with Communists or socialists,

worsened by PM Giovanni Giolitti holding elections in 1921 to elect some popular Fascists to support his weak coalition,
overlooking their violence; Giolitti’s nationalists later go no cooperation from socialists, had to resign.

ii) Ideas of Italian Fascism;

a) Stable Authoritarianism-Reaction to unstable coalitions of Post-War Italy, need for strong central Govt. to
control people’s lives, with state’s complete control over all under Public Safety Law (1926), enforcement of laws through
OVRA secret police.

b) Corporate Statism-Related to authoritarian polity, creation of corporate state with promotion of

efficiency through setting up of separate organizations of workers and employers for each branch of economy,
attachment of Govt. officials to each corporation and extreme control over workforce with Syndical Law (1926);
peaked with ban on all strikes and lock-outs, creation of Ministry of Corporations that divided Italian economy into
22 corporations, issued Charter of Labour (1927) to establish worker rights and duties enforced through tribunals,
with most sectoral corporations controlled by Fascist Party members by 1934 vide M. BLINKHORN.

c) Ultra-Nationalism-Emphasis on rebirth of nation after decline through building up of greatness with internal
reconstruction and foreign creation of New Roman Empire with seizure of all territories, all subordinated to nation.

d) One-Party State-End of democratic debates or alternatives by 1926, with control of only Fascist Party and
cult of personality for its charismatic leader Mussolini given title Il Duce (The Leader) like Hitler’s similar title Der

5
Führer (The Leader), with extreme hostility to Communism, socialists and other groups, so favoured by big business and
the wealthy.

e) Economic Autarky-Attempt to achieve complete economic self-sufficiency and greatness through extension of
industries and agriculture, though without Marxist notion of nationalized control.

f) Mass Propaganda-Uniforms, marches, songs, posters, documentaries to mobilize mass support for ideology
and heroic leader.

g) Militarism-Emphasis on strength and violence through aggressive foreign policy, myths of seizure of power
by force, unchallenged superiority, inspiration from Vilfredo Pareto and Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas of war as a
necessary churning to strengthen mankind.

iii) Consolidation of Mussolini’s Fascist Italy;

a) Political-Black Shirt fighters legalized as National State Voluntary Militia (MVSN); change in general election
rules with Accerbo Law (1923) of shift from PR to FPTP voting system that won Fascist Party around 2/3 rd seats in
Parliament in 1924 elections; then one-party state was created after murders of political rivals and socialists; further
changes in Constitution that made PM responsible only to King and not parliament in 1925, allowed PM to rule by
decree in 1926 and electorate reduced to 1/3rd population covering the wealthiest, making Duce Mussolini a dictator ruling
through Fascist Grand Council; local government replaced by local Fascist party bosses called ras; further expounding of
ideals in Mussolini’s 1932 essay ‘The Doctrine of Fascism’ written along with Giovanni Gentile.

b) Economic-Implementation of corporate state to promote cooperation of employers and workers without class
conflict through Fascist-controlled unions, disallowance of strikes, with Mussolini as Minister of Corporations to control
workers and direct production economy, with limited benefits for workers like free Sundays, annual holidays with pay,
social security.

c) Socio-Cultural-Fascist education system introduced with conformity motto ‘Believe, Obey, Fight!’ with formation of
Gioventu Italian del Littorio (GIL) youth wing and Sons of the Wolf boy child group indoctrinated as loyal servants
of Mussolini, with membership of such organizations made compulsory by 1937; through Lateran Treaty (1929)
Mussolini and Pope Pius XI came to agreement making Fascist Party all-popular with Catholic Church’s backing
with Catholicism as official state religion, with final recognition by Papacy of Italian state for first time; Ministry of
Popular Culture set up in 1937 controlled all radio, TV, theatre, press, cinema to spread Fascist values, Mussolini’s cult of
personality, military glories of ancient Rome; despite initial liberal racial views of Mussolini, with growing closeness to Nazi
Germany with Rome-Berlin Axis (1936), Anti-Comintern Pact (1936) and Pact of Steel (1939) and Italian imperialism in
Africa, shift to stronger raical policy with Charter of Race (1938) that declared Arabs, Africans and Jews as inferior
to Aryan race of Italians, then isolation of Jews in jobs, press, deportations of many to Germany for death.

iv) Internal reconstruction;

a) Merits-Boost to industry with Govt. subsidies, creation of IRI (Institute for Industrial Reconstruction),
doubling of iron, steel, artificial silk and hydroelectric production by 1930s; strong land reclamation programme of 1928
drained many regions like Pontine Marshes near capital; impressive public works programme that designed motorways,
bridges, apartments, railways, stadiums, towns; creation of Dopalovoro After-Work Organization to arrange leisure,
cheap holidays, tours, cruises, entertainment, sports and benefits for workers; many successes in Battle for the Lira
with higher values making raw materials cheaper though demand for expensive Italian goods decreased overall; Battle for
Wheat led to cut-down of wheat imports by 75% till 1935, encouraged wealthy cereal-growing farmers of North for autarky
plans; Battle for Births of 1927 started as pro-natal policy to build up state military with high taxes for unmarried men and
best promotions for workers with families as large as 12 children, but young couples weren’t incentivized by package much..

b) Demerits-Italy’s shortage of raw materials coal and oil unaddressed despite autarky efforts, with even
boosts in iron, steel, hydroelectric not matching small industrial states like Belgium, complete economic dependence on
Germany by 1940; Battle for Wheat’s success came at cost of dairy and arable farming with fall in overall outputs,
further isolation of poor Southern Italy with farm labourers as poorest in country leading to continuation of Italy’s dualist
North-South divide in economy; Great Depression (1929) that started with Wall Street Crash in USA made matters worse,
with Duce’s refusal to devalue lira, wage cuts, sanctions on Italy by League of Nations after Abyssinian invasion; failure of
social services with no major healthcare or insurance schemes till 1943; inefficiency and corruption of regime became

6
infamous with slow process of land reform programme, considered failure of Mussolini’s authoritarianism in a
divisive, backward, under-competitive Italian nation that fell short unlike Germany due to Mussolini’s ideological
compromises and over-centralizing tendencies vide DENNIS MACK SMITH.

v) Mussolini’s aggressive foreign policy;

a) Antecedents-Mussolini attended Locarno Conference (1925) for post-war normalization but disappointed by
lack of guarantee for Italian frontier with Austria; friendly towards Greece, Hungary, Albania with complete economic
control over Albania for dominance of Adriatic Sea; good relations with Britain on issue of Turkish territory
distributions, given small part of Somaliland in return; instilling of national pride among Italians through victory of two
consecutive FIFA Football World Cups in 1920s; Italy was first state after Britain to recognize USSR, with non-
aggression pact signed in 1933; initially opposed Germany on Austria issue, sent army to prevent German invasion in
1934 after assassination of Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria by Nazis; formed Stresa Front (1935) with Britain and France
to oppose Hitler’s violation of Versailles Settlement through German rearmament, reintroduction of conscription and
ambitions over Austria, but front collapsed due to appeasement politics and Anglo-German Naval Agreement (1935)
drove Mussolini away from cynical British foreign policy of appeasement driven by PMs Stanley Baldwin and Neville
Chamberlain.

b) Invasion of Abyssinia (1935)-Colonial invasion led by Italians from Somaliland to annex Abyssinia to
bring ill-equipped, defiant Emperor Haile Selassie and his Ethiopian economy under control, divert attention from
economic crisis and please nationalists; showed clear failure of collective security and League of Nations, leading
economic sanctions on Italy but ineffective due continued coal and oil trade along with information of British compromise
with Italian allies to allow invasion, with Anglo-French powers economically unprepared for war, but failed policy of
limited appeasement to Mussolini drove him towards alliance with Hitler who remilitarized Rhineland and restarted
claims on Austria, both allies even aided Franco’s Right-wing Nationalists in Spanish Civil War to form third Fascist
state.

c) Rome-Berlin Axis (1936)-Strong German and Italian alliance solidarity and peace in Europe.

d) Anti-Comintern Pact (1936)-Tripartite pledge of Germany-Italy-Japan against Bolshevism to isolated

growing USSR, precursor to Tripartite Pact of Berlin-Tokyo-Rome Axis (1940) in WWII vide A.J.P. TAYLOR.

e) Annexation of Albania (1939)-Sudden occupation of Albania by Italian troops, Mussolini’s imitation of

Hitler’s Czechoslovakia annexation.

f) Pact of Steel (1939)-Full military alliance with Nazi Germany,

vi) Revivalist attempt at creation of Mussolini’s New Roman Empire inspired by Augustus Caesar’s Imperium Romanum;

a) Similarities-Italy-based major Mediterranean power; run as monarchy with autocratic hierarchy, grand titles like
Imperator Caesar or Duce Mussolini, focus on militaristic expansion and racial treatment of Italians as superior to other
subjects like Jews, Arabs, Africans.

b) Differences-Fascist Italy far more modernized, authoritarian, inefficient and weaker than Roman Empire of
antiquity, with Mussolini ruling only as PM under nominal monarch rather than sole head.

vii) Opposition and downfall;

a) World War II (1939-1945)-Support for Nazi Germany in WWII, unwise declarations of war against USA and
USSR in 1941 that angered capitalists, socialists, others all led to public hardships of war with defeats and delays in Balkans,
heavy taxation, British bombing raids on cities since Italy’s backward economy and obsolete military was unprepared
for war, leading to mass damage to nation and surrender of all Italian troops in North Africa by 1943 with decline in
popularity and hanging of Mussolini of masses, led to Germans defending Italian Peninsula later against Allied
invaders with landing in Sicily in Operation Husky (1943).

b) Overthrow of Mussolini (1943)-With losses in war, ideological compromises, growing unpopularity, economic
crisis, Mussolini abandoned by King Victor and his own Fascist Grand Council, mobbed and hanged by masses;
replaced by Italian Socialist Republic or Salo Republic that became German satellite 1943-1945, isolated Right-wing allies,
initiated industrial nationalization and empowerment of workers’ councils until Kingdom of Italy resumed after WWII until
Italian Republic created in 1946.

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 c) Verdict-Italian Fascism was primarily emerging middle-class radical movement driven by Mussolini’s
struggle for power vide RENZO DE FELICE; seen as short but brutal episode of authoritarianism in Italian history
vide MARTIN BLINKHORN; even viewed as disastrous end but successful internal reconstruction and progress of
struggling Italian economy and end to decades old state-Papacy conflict under Mussolini vide NICHOLAS
FARRELL.