The War to End All Wars Leads to Another War: Impact of Versailles Treaty and Rise of Mussolini.

The Definition of Fascism

What does this mean?
Misery Party The twentieth century gave rise to several new forms of government. While in Russia, people turned to Communism during and following World War I; in Italy and Germany, people turned to another form of government known as Fascism. Like the Communists, the Fascists were a misery party. Although the Communists and Fascists were sworn enemies, they do have some similarities when seen in practice.

Fascists had no exact ideology and, unlike Communism, it was not an intellectual movement, in fact, it was anti-intellectual. The Fascists often used the ideas of other people, such as Nietzsche or Sorel's Reflections of Violence, and used them for their own purposes.

The Fascists tended to glorify violence, think of the welfare of the state, and ignore the rights of the individual. Fascists stressed nationalism and militarism, and the end goal of their regimes was to have a dictatorship that embodied the spirit of "the people." Fervent love for the state and not thinking (let propaganda think for you) was encouraged in Fascist regimes as well.

The Rise of Fascism in Italy

After WWI, Italy was in poor shape: unemployment rates were high, inflation rose, and many talked of revolution. Peasants were stealing land, and striking workers and angry industrialists were struggling for control. The upper classes feared a Communist rebellion, as social issues had not been addressed, and the peace treaty had angered many - particularly when it failed to deliver Italy the land that was promised upon joining the Allies in 1915. It was during this time that the first Fascist movement was born. Led by Benito Mussolini, the Fascists denounced liberalism using leftist rhetoric and denounced Marxism because of its lack of nationalistic sentiment. They effectively used propaganda and activists (black shirts) to spread their message.

At first, the Fascists were not very successful. In 1921, during the first elections with universal male suffrage, two new parties - the Catholic Popular, which demanded reforms but was based on peasants and conservatives, and the Socialists, who split off from the Communists - rose to power. The Fascists won 35 seats and were included in prime minister Giolitti's personal coalition.

Photograph of Benito Mussolini But rather than operate by the rules, the Fascists used their black-shirted activists to plant bombs, beat up other parties, disrupt meetings, and scare people. Then, when the left wing unions called a general strike in 1922, the Black Shirts began to take over town councils by force. In October, they staged a march on Rome. Parliamentary leaders called for martial law, but King Victor Emmanuel III refused. Mussolini reached Rome, where he was invited to form a cabinet by the King.

Thus Mussolini became the prime minister, and his party won a huge victory in the elections of 1924 due in large part to his techniques of intimidation and fraud. He quickly began terrorizing the opposition and shooting their leaders. The opposition was unable to respond effectively because they were so divided.

Italy Under Mussolini

By 1925, Mussolini had disposed of all his opponents and gained control of the press. He then moved to make his power official by passing a series of laws that declared the Duce (leader) of Fascism the head of state with the right to govern by decree. Opposition parties were outlawed, opponents arrested and the civil services and judiciary branches were purged of anyone who was thought to be too independent.

During this time, Mussolini's immense propaganda machine created a Cult of Personality. Italians were told to obey the leader and to fight for their country and were filled with nationalistic pride and confidence. The single-party government reached into every aspect of Italian life. Armed with a militant secret police, the Fascist party kept tight control of the country and soon won thousands of new supporters.

Though the Fascists didn't really have a consistent ideology or policy, they did establish the Corporate State in Italy. In the Corporate State, each sector of production was to be organized into one large corporation. Each corporation was headed by a party member appointed by the government and was to establish the policies for the industry and wage scales. By 1926, they were able to outlaw strikes and unions because of the corporate system. They fixed the number of corporations at 22, and Il Duce (Mussolini's title, which means "the leader") was made president of each of them. He also appointed the Council of Delegates who sat in the National Council of Corporations for each corporation. Consequently, the corporations never achieved any real autonomy and had no power.

Italy never became as orderly as Mussolini promised, but freedom and individual rights were destroyed. Although a quiet intellectual opposition was allowed, thousands of people were exiled or killed for opposing the government.

In economics, the Fascists sought autarchy (a self-sufficient national economy) and were into industrialization and technology. The government didn't mind big business but generally favored nationalization. In 1926, they began a campaign to increase agricultural production, which led to a doubling in grain production. The government attempted to keep peasants on the land and increase the birthrate, but neither of these campaigns was effective either. They were, however, able to stop the Mafia in Sicily, drain the marshes near Rome, and build railroads and superhighways. They used these public works programs to combat unemployment, and this (and the benefits of the new things built) gave people a sense of security.

Mussolini's biggest achievement was his agreement with the Vatican, known as the Lateran Accords (1929). In the agreement, Mussolini recognized Vatican City as an independent state, established religious teaching in public schools, guaranteed that marriage laws would conform to Catholic doctrine, promised to restrict the Protestants, and promised to give the Church money to pay for the damage done during Italian unification. The agreement made the Church (and many Italian Catholics) look favorably toward Mussolini.

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In your notes, respond to the following.

It is possible to use either a lower-case f or an upper-case F when referring to fascism/Fascism. Written with a small f, “fascism” denotes generic fascism, i.e., a universal form of radical, right-wing politics. Capitalized, Fascism refers specifically to the Italian movement, which was the first of its kind to come to power and which hence found many emulators (remember: Mussolini was in power for 11 years before Hitler came to power and quickly established Nazi Germany as the dominant right-wing, revisionist power). Come up with a list of characteristics that refer to the generic form of fascism and then come up with a list of characteristics that refer to Italian Fascism. Do you think such a thing as generic fascism exists, or do you think that the individual context supersedes generalizations and makes them useless (remember: Hitler called his party the National Socialist German Workers Party for a reason)?

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