Mussolini and The Rise of Fascism

The term Fascism was used for the first time in 1919 by Mussolini to describe his political
movement. Mussolini established first fascist regime who, later was followed by other
countries as well such as Nazi Germany.

Common features of Fascism

● Absolute power of the state - Fascism state try to focus on establishing a strong
centralized state or national government. Fascist state try to consolidate his control
over all part of society. Additionally, individuals are expected to forget their private
needs and rights and only focus on serving the state.
● Rule by a dictator - Fascist states are run by a single dictator. He has the right to take
all important decisions. This dictator gains support of people by means of charisma
and personality.
● Corporatism - Fascists believe in controlling labour and factory owners to team
corporation. Union , strikes and other labour actions are declared illegal in a fascist
state. Economy is controlled by state.
● Extreme Nationalism - Facists use nationalist glory and outside threat to build a new
society. Fascist state relies on national myths rather than scientific reasons.
● Superiority of the Nation's People - Nationalist consider the their people superior from
other nationalities. They often strengthen and unify the dominant group of their
nation. They believe in unifying the dominant group in a country while persecuting the
minority groups .
● Militarism and Imperialism - According to Fascists, Great nations show their nations
by winning over weak nations and rule them. They believed that the state can only
survive when it prove its military superiority in war.

Mussolini's Rise to Power

Mussolini served for Italian army during the first world war. After his return he started to give
emotional speeches and emphasized upon the need for a dictator to lead the country in
1918. Mussolini says that only a strong leader can lead out the people from mass
unemployment, political conflicts and strikes of socialist and communist after war. In 1919,
Mussolini organised his fascist movement in Milan, Italy. He prepared squads of street
fighters who used to wear black shirts. They used to beat up socialists and communists. And
dismiss them from local government. Two years ago, a communist revolution occured in
Russia thus, Mussolini's fascist movement was supported by anti-communist business
people, property owners and other middle class professionals. In 1921, The National Fascist
Party was formed by him in 1921. But he was not clear about any fascist programme. He
was only clear about one thing that he wanted to rule Italy. In Oct 1922, in his speech given
in front of thousands of his supporters Mussolini says that either surrender or we will take
control of the government. After a while, he ordered his supporters to march on Rome and
as thousands of people of the crowd marched towards Rome, the government leader
became nervous and resigned. It was Victor Immanuel's duty to appoint a new Prime
Minister who would form the next government. Mussolini demands to become the next Prime
Minister of Italy. The king surrendered in front of him and Mussolini become the youngest
prime minister of Italy on Oct 29, 1922, at the age of 39.
The Fascist State
In 1924, Mussolini held election of the new Parliament. Fascist party got 66% of the total
votes in the elections of the Italian parliament in 1924 which were rigged(fraud).
After election, Mussolini closed the opposition newspaper and ban public protest meetings.
Mussolini declared all the political parties illegal after the election except his fascist party.
Labour unions and strikes were also declared illegal. Political police forces named
Organisation of Vigilance and Repression of Anti- Fascism were established.
Fascist Grand Council was formed which made parliament an irrelevant body. In 1925,
Mussolini adopted the title of Il(il) Duce (the leader). He sought to control the economy,
schools, courts, military, police and other systems apart from the political system. His
opposition coined the term Totalitarian for this effort. Ironically, Mussolini like this term so
much that he used this term to persuade Italians. He says that all Italians should come
together to form a new society under his leadership. Mussolini compared Italy's “new man”
with Rome's hardened soldiers. His believed that women's only role was to give birth and
care for new generation of warriors.
Fascist party established a youth organisation for all the boy and girls of the age 8 to 18
which taught physical training, military drills, training of fascist state ideology. Mussolini
wasn't interested much in religion. Italy used to be a strong catholic country. Mussolini didn't
want church to oppose his fascist regime thus, Mussolini adopted pre-Catholic policies
against abortion and divorce.
In 1929, he signed a treaty with Church according to which Catholism was adopted as the
state religion. In exchange, Church expect the fascist state of Mussolini and stop its
involvement in Italy's political affairs.
Mussolini tried to built an economic system which can provide a ‘third wave’ between
capitalism and socialism.