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FASCISM AND ITALY Unit 7: Interwar Period

FASCISM

Demagogue: a leader who gains popularity in a democracy by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among the common people, whipping up the passions of the crowd, and shutting down reasoned discussion; often overturns established norms of political conduct

ORIGIN AND DEFINITION

“Fascism” comes from the Roman “fasces”

Symbol for power and authority

Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group, a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach

WHAT IS FASCISM AGAINST?

Communism

Class struggle

Internationalism

Multi-party system

Liberal democracy

Pacifism

Authoritarianism Militarism

Social Darwinism

Social Unity

Nationalism

Fascism

NATIONALISM

Using the nation-state’s culture and history as a unifying force

Desire to remove foreign influences

Belief in superiority over other nation-states

MILITARISM

Political violence and war to as a means to renew society

Violence necessary for progress

Paramilitary organizations

SOCIAL DARWINISM

Belief that races and nations have evolved as superior to others

“Survival of the fittest”

SOCIAL UNITY

Opposes class-based divisions in society

Promotes collective national society

AUTHORITARIANISM

Fascist Italy’s government was an extreme form of authoritarian called totalitarian

Totalitarianism

•All aspects of individual lives are controlled by the state

•No division of powers

•Persecution of the opposition

POLITICAL SPECTRUM

American

Democrats

American

Republicans

MonarchismNazism

Fascism

American

socialism

True

socialism

Soviet communism

Left Wing Right WingC

ente

r

ITALY

IMPACT OF WWI

Italy joined the Allies after being promised land and funding

Italy suffered terrible losses against Austria

~600,000 dead

~1,000,000 wounded

Italian people accused its gov’t of mismanaging the war

BENITO MUSSOLINI

Mussolini served as a soldier in WWI until injured

Founded the National Fascist Party (PNF) Led the Blackshirts, the paramilitary arm of PNF

Mussolini was a nationalist demagoguePreyed on Italian pride, fear of communism

BENITO MUSSOLINI –IN HIS OWN WORDS

“It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.”

“Democracy is talking itself to death. The people do not know what they want; they do not know what is the best for them. There is too much foolishness, too much lost motion. I have stopped the talk and the nonsense. I am a man of action. Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy.”

“All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”

“Blood alone moves the wheels of history.”

“Obedience, not discussion.”

GOVERNMENT WEAKENS

Italian gov’t weakened by:

“Mutilated victory” in WW1

Prime Minister failed to gain promised territory in Treaty of Versailles

Hugely embarrassing; public disgusted; PM resigns

Gov’t failing strengthened PNF

PNF had wide appeal (no clear doctrine)

Demanded strict law and order

Appeared more respectable than the current party

INCREASED SUPPORT OF FASCISM

Mussolini seen as a defender against rising threat of communism Communists, socialists painted by PNF as violent radicals threatening the very fabric of society

Blackshirts violently attacked PNF opponents

PNF gained support of Catholics

The pope and Mussolini made a deal:

Church gains its own country (Vatican City) in return for official support of the PNF

MARCH ON ROME

1922, Mussolini and Blackshirts march on Rome

Demanded king give up power to Mussolini

King Victory Emmanuel peacefully transfers power to Mussolini

Mussolini rules as totalitarian leader through WWII

…Mussolini’s style and methods were quite different from those of his predecessors. Ignoring Italy’s economic and military weaknesses, he was impulsive, inconsistent and erratic. He valued prestige more than anything else and was never satisfied unless he was in the limelight playing a leading role. He was to become increasingly fond of making grandiloquent statements such as “better to live one day as a lion than a thousand years as a lamb,” and declaring that war was not only inevitable but also desirable, adding “the character of the Italian people must be molded by fighting.” With a “tendency to view European diplomacy through the eyes of a newspaper editor,” he aimed at spectacular gestures without much thought for consequences, resulting in a foreign policy that has been described as “by turn ambivalent, futile and malignant.”

Patricia Knight, 2003, Mussolini and Fascism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zizi3rS85f8