Italy

Italy situation

Nationalists and Facists blamed weakness on the ruling Liberal-Conservatives.
Gabriele D'Annunzio led troops to seize the town of Fiume in Croatia in 1920.
4 years between end of war and Mussolini, Italy had 6 coalition governments. Dominant party's after 1919 elections were the Socialists and they Catholics people's party.
Italians believed they had been cheated by their Allies at the Paris conferences of 1919.
Communists made no serious attempt to seize power.
Remained a constitutional monarchy with an essentially parliamentary form of government
Victorious power of WW1.

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Italy's 'Red two years' between Nov 1918 to Autumn 1920
1920's Italy suffered from serious economic problems
High levels of unemployment due to demobilization of millions of troops.
Levels of inflation hit middle class worse.
Experienced a upsurge in militancy strikes, bread riots and occupation of land and factories and peasants and workers
Failure to resolve these problems undermined the Italian's people's faith in the political parties and in democracy.

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From autumn 1920-22, 1000's of men joined the movement.
Working class had a lack of confidence in the Government.
Mussolini and Fascists cashed in on these feelings particularly in Northern and Central Italy
Fascist Fighting squads took the side of landowners and middle class in these area and defeated the peasant leagues and trade unions.
Fascism seized power by force at local level.

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24 October 1922.
There was a serious opposition to the fascists.
Mussolini warned the if fascist were not given power they would take it by force
By this time, Socialist/ People's party were badly split
As Fascist Squadristi marched on Rome, Mussolini remained at Fascist HQ in Milan.
King representatives had to plead with Mussolini to journey to Rome for negotiation
Called the 'Sleeping-car revolution' because Mussolini traveled overnight from Milan to Rome, in order to seize power.

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This did not give quite enough time for fascists to build a a proper party machine complete with youth organizations and cadres of specialized officials.
Fascist party depended on Italian establishment ( Lib- conservative, monarchy, armed forces, catholic churches and elites)
Mussolini didn't have enough time to bring the provincial leaders of the Fascist movements firmly under his control ( Farinacci, Scarza and Balbo)
Mussolini didn't have enough time to bring the institutions of the state under fascist domination.
This not give the fascist enough time to fully develop a full-blooded ideology.
Fascist party's lack of a strong parliamentary position meant that they were obliged to rely on other party's.

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Mussolini used militancy groups as a 'police/ military' purpose and authority. most well know group were the black shirt.
Like Matteoti, socialists opposed Mussolini
Those who were opposed to Mussolini were severly punished to the point of fleeing Italy or Death.
Despite terrifying threats from black shirts to dissidents they rarely used the murderous tactics that the ** and Gestapo used on a frequent basis to repress dissidents.

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