The end of the First World War
Although Italy was on the side of the Allies, and therefore of the winners of the First World War, the Italian people see themselves losing the many men who died at the front, as well as the lands which they had been promised and which did not belong to them. still not (in this case Croatia and Dalmatia). The country has fought, but the reward is missing. In 1917, the Italian army was insufficient, and the country lost its territorial conquests. We are far from the Roman Empire...
Part of the population claims these lands, while another part, made up of the most destitute, is agitated by social movements influenced by the Russian revolution of 1917. The military crisis becomes a political crisis. In Italy as in Russia, we could see a revolution coming. However, communism remains a threat in Europe.
Power ceded to Mussolini
Mussolini creates the battle beams in 1919, published in a newspaper. It is a political program, which requires new rules, such as not exceeding eight hours of work, the creation of trade unions, a minimum wage, a lowering of the retirement age, etc. On December 31, 1919, 31 Italian cities officially joined the new power.
As early as 1920, the workers' strikes began, which the Fascists first supported before considering them as an act of opposition. The same is true for agrarian revolts. The combat beams become a political party in 1921. Now it is about regaining the Roman Empire, and the focus is on colonization. The Fascists take advantage of the fact that the State is weakened by the war, and that it cannot fight against the strength used by the nascent party, also marked by the violence of the war. It is an almost liberticidal system, with repression. The party would not fall until 1943.
On October 28, 1922, the march on Rome took place, a huge movement of Fascists. It was on this day that King Victor-Emmanuel III refused confrontation and handed over the government to Mussolini. In 1924, there were officially no more Socialists in Italy. Divided between interventionists and non-interventionists already before the war, the Socialists did not unite and no revolt took place. The left is weakened. Mussolini wins the elections, and the Pope lets it happen.
Blackshirt violence
The term black shirt is attributed to young men who go on a punitive mission. It is a combat group that aims to silence those who oppose combat beams. They are also called squadristes . In the pay of the industrialists, they mainly repressed the Socialists, and especially the Communists. Company bosses seek at all costs to push back this new ideology which threatens the Italian people. The show of force seems to be the only means.
Always operating as a team, the squadrists' way of doing things reflects the violence demanded:they beat their victims to death. One of their favorite tortures is to make them ingest castor oil which has an immediate laxative effect, to push the humiliation even further. Squadrons are convinced that violence will regenerate the nation, and their real goal is to frighten all opponents. The task is made easier for them by the fact that the authorities let them do it. It was in 1921 that many adherents joined the movement and became members, most of whom were middle class or working class.
We are in the middle of a civil war.
The street becomes the site of massacres, and it is especially in socialist neighborhoods that the number of victims is highest. The Socialists are too powerless to react, and even the Pope will give in to fascism.
Fascism versus socialism
If in the initial state, as it was also for Mussolini, fascism was a socialist and patriotic doctrine, it nevertheless became nationalist and totalitarian. When Italy returns to war, socialism separates. There are now interventionists and non-interventionists:Mussolini is an interventionist socialist, he votes for war. During Mussolini's power, fascism definitively detaches itself from leftist positions. Sound Duce now says to defend the fatherland, the state, the bourgeois, quite the opposite of a socialist society. But fascism offers work, talks incessantly about reducing unemployment, and the people are seduced. The Duce is anxious to keep the regime going. He thus set up a totalitarian society.
The working world then lost all means of resistance, because Mussolini took care to suppress the unions, to prohibit strikes, etc. He reintegrates the corporations, the mutual aid between the workers by means of a hierarchy, which displeases the Communists. The blackshirts take care of the Socialists:kidnappings follow one another, the socialist neighborhoods see their streets stained with blood. Many non-fascist men are beaten to death.
The dictatorship is established, censorship begins, and opponents are imprisoned; their only solution is to go into exile, because the repression is increasing.
The Roman Catholic Church facing fascism
Mussolini needs the votes of the people to win the elections, but the Pope takes a dim view of the new doctrine. He fears that the Church will lose its power, and asks all Catholic Italians not to vote in favor of fascism. It was then that Mussolini undertook to charm those who resisted him:he began by recognizing the pope's authority over the Vatican, but not in Italian politics. It grants him the right to appoint his own bishops, and also allows Catholics the protection of the State over their religious associations. This autonomy granted to the pope will last from 1926 to 1929.
The pope immediately becomes favorable to fascism, because of the compromises, but also because fascism provides a barrier against communism, the ideology of atheists .
The question of Bolshevik Russia
There is both the model of the Russian revolution to follow, but also the hatred of communism, which presents itself as a danger because of the Socialist International, now that Lenin has brought the Bolsheviks to power. They are the main enemies of Western Europe, and particularly of the Fascists who, moreover, establish a totalitarian dictatorship while communism aims for absolute equality. The Fascists hesitate to seize power “by the ballot box or by arms. All other political parties are banned in Italy.
Mussolini wants to appear as the savior of the country, the winner of the fight against Bolshevism.
Fascism as a religion
Already in 1922, Hitler admired Mussolini and fascism, and saw them as a model to follow. In Italy, more and more ceremonies are taking place publicly. The young people wear the uniform, they are no longer identified, and they sing the martial songs in unison. We make the cult of the dead for the fatherland, we reinforce the already reigning nationalism, and we encourage the youth to sacrifice themselves as these heroes did, to show solidarity.
"Believe, obey , fight” became Mussolini's three watchwords.
But rather than seeing this party as a religion, it might be more accurate to think of it as a sect, in which the Duce would be the guru in the face of an uncritical crowd , because school teaches her what to think. With his salute similar to the Roman salute, Mussolini became the object of idolatry of the Italians of the interwar period.
Postcards are also a way to make the Duce appear as the savior of the Italian people, and to become as present as Christ himself in homes. We see his portrait everywhere, and the postcards have the advantage of involving the people in the propagation of these portraits, or to be kept as an object of worship. The radio also served as a means of disseminating the ideas of Mussolini, which offered many stations to families in order to be better heard.
Fascism and Nazism
Although the same anti-Jewish measures were found in the fascist regime as in Germany, it was not under Hitler's influence that shopkeepers posted "Jews forbidden" on the doors of their establishments. Hitler took the example of Mussolini to lead Nazism in Germany. In fascist politics, there was that of racism, with the obsession to avoid any "contamination" with a non-Italian.
But Nazism will become stronger and more powerful than Fascism. Germany even takes control of Italy, because Mussolini is not up to the task. The persecution of the Jews allows a point of agreement between the occupied and the occupier. The two countries are not afraid of war:they educate their youth in combat, and make them accept the risks it entails. After school, it's the Hitler Youth in Germany and the gym in Italy. There is here the mark of the “power of the group”. Women have the same role in Italy and Germany:they are sent home because they are competitors if they work, and their function is to make children. Hitler will send them the “three Ks”:Kinder, Küche, Kirche (children, kitchen, church).
Between Mussolini and Hitler, it is almost a game that is established between them, with the bellicose dimensions that delimit the war of 39-45. Regarding their boats, it is to the one who will have the largest and most efficient. Their ships are mostly prestige, more than economic reports.
The end of fascism
The British and the Americans invaded Italy on September 8, 1943. Through bombings and deaths, the country was liberated from the fascist party. Previously, already, Mussolini had dealt with assassination attempts:without trial and the accused directly condemned to death. But the end of the war is approaching, the allies are busy, and the party is weakened. In the north, a part of the fascist will manage to survive; the Italians will not be accused of war crimes.