How Far Do You Agree That Mussolini Rise to Power Was Due to Violence?

During the Second World War, Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was the leader of the Italian Nationalist Fascist government. He was head of the Italian government from 1922 till 1943. The significance of Mussolini is that he played a key role acting as the Italian Prime Minister and established a totalitarian regime, during this time, as the unchallenged supreme leader, known as ‘Il Duce’. Fascism consisted of many contributors of which Mussolini with all his quirks was the key to most of its failures and successes, making him the most significant player that is worthy of being investigated. This topic is worthy of being investigated as Mussolini made a lot of decisions that lead to the death of many, but the question as to

No one took him seriously and people also thought that Benito Mussolini and the fascists were not a threat in Italy either. Fascism was very closely related to communism. In 1922 his followers helped him become the leader of Italy and he became a dictator like Hitler in Germany. Mussolini promised to restore the Roman Empire but started in Africa where there was the least resistance. Another dictator was Adolf Hitler.

Mussolini was a fascist dictator who was a follower of Social Darwinism, the belief of natural selection that is applied to humans. He believed there should only be one power ruling over the people: “They pledged loyalty to an authoritarian leader (dictator) who guided and brought order to the state.” (Hyperdoc Doc. 1) and “Some men are greater than others, and these men should rule. ”(Fascism Hyperdoc Doc. 2).

Fascism admitted strong totalitarian overtones until it became interested in wars of colonial conquest. It had come to power because of the decaying social, economic and political conditions of post-World War I Italy. It had brought order out of chaos. Indeed, order was its strong selling point when, after a series of crippling strikes sponsored by the socialists, it had managed when the liberal democratic state could not manage.

Benito Mussolini’s major problem was that he was twisted in the mind. Mussolini really thought he could change Italy by using violence, which was wrong thinking. I do not personally think it is all Mussolini’s fault because it was the way he grew up. Do not get me wrong he was raised in a household were abuse was going on but his father did not show him any type of affection. I believe that if Benito’s father would have showed him love and told him be a wise person he would have been better off in my opinion. However, since that did not happen Benito had to put this façade on for the public to mask his insecurities, and his darkest thoughts. I think that Benito would have been able to fix this if he would have had good men friends to

As dictator, Mussolini’s top priority was “informing” the Italian people with propaganda. According to the entry “Benito Mussolini” on Newworldencyclopedia.org, “Press, radio, education, films — all were carefully supervised to manufacture the illusion that fascism was the doctrine of the twentieth century, replacing liberalism and democracy.” Not only did Mussolini control what was said, he also controlled who said it. Mussolini took it upon himself to choose all newspaper editors. He inserted himself into all aspects of Italian life, even education. It was required “that all schools, newspapers, etc. had to not write, for example, ‘the 13th of June 1933’ but instead had to write ‘the 13th of June of the 11th year of Mussolini's power’” (“Benito Mussolini”). Mussolini also spent a great deal of money on large, expensive projects to further his reputation. “Those projects earned respect from some countries, but the economy suffered from Mussolini's strenuous efforts to make Italy self-sufficient. A concentration on heavy industry proved problematic, perhaps because Italy lacked the basic resources” (“Benito Mussolini”). Overall, Mussolini’s need for propaganda ultimately did more harm than good for Italy and

Benito Mussolini outlines several essential characteristics of his preferred political ideology, Fascism, in what has become known as the Doctrine of Fascism. In this paper, Mussolini outlines his vision of the ideology, and explains the major issues that Fascism will address once it becomes the leading political system in Italy. Mussolini’s major points as outlined in the Doctrine included an extreme emphasis on nationalism, organization and modernization of the state, persistent focus on religion, life as a struggle, and the notion that individuals exist only for the improvement of society as a whole. Wolfgang Schieder, after reviewing the Doctrine of Fascism, explains Mussolini’s success based on it and

Mussolini, again is similar to Hitler, is popular because he was the one that offered helped when the Italians needed help. People wanted a strong government so that they could restore their former strength. He also succeeds in securing and improving the economy, transportation and job opportunity, which improved a lot of people’s lives.

He won over the people of Italy using the same techniques and imagery that Hitler used in his homeland. The fascist ideas, and idea of an ultimate Italian empire, appealed to Mussolini, and he would stop at nothing to gain power.

Within Italy, The Great War caused many problems and a great amount of distress. As a result of this, hundreds of new fascist groups started to emerge. In October 1922, Benito Mussolini became the Prime Minister of Italy and contributed a lot to the nation. He developed his power by forming the Fascist National Party in 1923 and eliminating political opposition. Mussolini and his followers ruled Italy through an authoritarian dictatorship. He made it clear that the war was a turning point for Italy and the returning of combat soldiers would form a new elite and bring about a new type of state to transform Italian politics and society. Mussolini set many

Resulting in the policy of controlling workers having limited success, more so than his policies of controlling media and his transport policies. Mussolini aimed to control workers outside of work to create loyal Italians in all aspects of society. His method of doing this was the creation of the Dopolavoro in 1925. This did have success as by the 1930s he controlled all soccer clubs, 1350 theatres, 2000 drama societies and more. Every town and village had a Dopolavoro clubhouse and by 1939 he had 4 million members. However although there was success in that Italians were going to the Dopolavoro after work which Mussolini controlled, the success was limited as it did not increase loyalty to Mussolini. This is because members only paid lip service to fascist ideas and there was an emphasis on having a good time, not on propaganda. Therefore this limited success meant that his aim of creating loyal Italians was not achieved by this policy. In addition to this Mussolini's social policies of the 'the salute', his aim to stop women wearing trousers and the changing of voi to lei were failures, supports the statement that Mussolini's social policies had limited success. People did not participate in these new social policies as they saw them as petty and interfering. Therefore, by implementing them ordinary people lost support for the regime and Mussolini which highlights the lack of success this policy had in creating loyal fascists.

Fascism was first detected after World War I in Italy. After the war, the people of Italy were ready for a new political aspect. Benito Mussolini was the man who brought this fascist ideology to Italy. Mussolini has been looking for the perfect opportunity to take complete control of a country and now was the time to do so. “In 1919 Mussolini and his followers, mostly war veterans, were organized along paramilitary lines and wore black shirts and uniforms.”(Halsall pg.2) After defeats at the polls Mussolini used his new financial backing to clothe a gang of thugs who

The fascists had support anywhere that either feared socialism or was nationalistic. The original support came from war veterans and the Italian army which was in general sympathetic to the cause. However as Mussolini changed the party agenda making it less extreme and right wing the backbone of fascist support arrived in the form of the petty bourgeoisie. Fascism also gained the support of the elite in Italy meaning that the party now had funding from big industrialists which it could use to secure its power. Fascism now had a strong appeal throughout Italy as it was now a respectable party not a political movement which had the support of powerful people that would enable it to crush the threat of socialism and restore the nation to its former (roman) glory. The actions of the fascists up to 1922 were the reason why Mussolini came to power or was able to seize it.

Mussolini and the fascists managed to rise to power and take control of Italy in 1922. Mussolini’s rise to power took place mainly due to a combination of conditions that characterized the liberal Italian state, which existed before his take over. The main factors that led to Mussolini’s rise to power were the impact of the First World War, the weaknesses of the Risorgimento, the Biennio Rosso , the elite’s support for the Fascist Party, and the March on Rome. All of these factors contributed to Mussolini and the fascist’s rise to power.

The state of Mussolini’s Fascist Italy and Hitler’s Nazi Germany, can be highly comparable in their policies and ideologies. Fascism is a political ideology, in which the country is to be racially and culturally pure. Mussolini said himself that “Fascism desires the state to be strong and organic and to always be prepared for conflict”. Fascism includes things such as nationalism, hostility to democracy, racism, the love of symbols such as uniforms, parades and army discipline. It is a totalitarian philosophy which worships the state and nation. Fascism is an extreme right-wing that celebrates the nation or race as a pure community which exceeds all other loyalties and expectations (Downing, 2001). Most of the time it celebrates masculinity and male supremacy, rarely it will promote female solidarity (De Grand, 1995). Fascist aims are to prepare for conflict and violence and to prepare and educate the youth. Both were able to gain support from military associations,