Mussolini’s+Takeover+of+Italy

World War I left Italy in dire straits. Though it managed to side with the victors in the first war, the country found itself exhausted and in shambles. There was no doubt that reconstruction would be expensive, far beyond what Italy could pay. Europe as a whole found itself in a similar situation and was unwilling to help the struggling countries around them as they were unable to help themselves. Through the people’s economic troubles and political disillusionment, Mussolini was able to appeal to their distress and become Prime Minister and then dictator.

The Treaty of London promised Italy compensation at the end of the war, but these were revealed as empty promises. Italy had been promised part of Austria-Hungary and several other pieces of land.1 But during the Paris Peace Conference, Italy was offered not even half of what they were promised. There was little in the way of monetary support or war protection. What this ultimately led to was a deep wound in Italian pride and an unpayable dept.2

Post-war Italy’s economy tottered, lacking money in many areas. Austria and Germany had been high on the list of countries Italy traded with and, as Austria and Germany were in dire straits, the countries were not importing nearly as much.3 And the State’s spending remained unhelpfully high throughout the crisis.4  War debt and the cost of reconstruction severally damaged the lire—which devaluated and would continue to for the next several years5—and prices, which rose fifty percent.6  Inflation was on the rise and for a time there was some talk of declaring Italy bankrupt.7  Soldiers were returning home and expected the government to give them jobs, which the government was unable to do because of the collapsing industries, thus unemployment increased.8  And strikes increased as those that did have jobs were not paid well.9

The failing economy caused the people to look to their government, which they were quickly becoming disillusioned with. Originally, liberal parties had maintained a fairly stable government, but by 1919, eight—and eleven in 1921—warring parties attempted to claim power. What government there was tended to be short.10 Orlando was Prime Minister for about only two years, Nitti, Giolitti and Bonomi for about one and Facta for less. Unfortunately, the two largest parties, the Socialists and Christian Populari, were too different to work together and stabilize the government.11 Neither were they able to support themselves and claim support of the laymen before Fascism took its place.

As landowners feared Socialists uprisings and those who sided with the Church leaned more towards Fascism than Populari,12 Fascism quickly became the only option. For many years Socialism was able to do well, but when Fascism began to rise, they were unable to fend it off. The fascists, organized and well-equipped with weapons, used a violent campaign, which the untrained and mostly unarmed Socialist squads were entirely unable to defend against.13 As Socialists were murdered in the streets, the government14 and the Church15 turned its head and ignored it. Disliking Socialism and its rise to power, they saw the Fascist violence as the perfect way to suppress the party. Adding to the Socialists failure, the Socialists were confident that, as the government collapsed, the country would naturally resort to Socialism.16 This turned out to be untrue. The rise in Socialism caused a rise in strikes, which terrified the landowners, who quickly turned their backs on Socialism and cried for Fascism to take its place.17 Eventually, as the violence increased, the Socialists broke into a reformist and revolutionary wing and faded into the background.18  The Populari were in a similar position. From the beginning the different wings of Populari were unable to agree ideologically and they never truly united.19 And despite being a Catholic party, the Church did not side with it. Once Mussolini became Prime Minister he promised to return the Church to its place in Rome, recognize Catholicism as the official religion in Italy, mandate the teaching of religion in schools, and pay the Church $50 million as compensation.20 The Church could not refuse. In return the Fascists promised to stay well away from political activity in Italy and, in 1923, the Pope ordered the successful Don Sturzo to leave the head of the Populari, which fell into shambles.21 In the end, there were very few options to Fascism.

Once elected Mussolini quickly set about glorifying himself in the eyes of the public. Giacomo Matteotti, who spoke out against Mussolini and his party, was murdered.22 An uproar ensued, but when Mussolini eventually imprisoned the murderers and claimed a restoration of “law and order” 23 the public happily settled down and foreign diplomats praised him. As press was censored soon after his election, 24 little was known about his true activities. Along with this, other political parties, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly were suppressed.25 The Fascist party was given legitimacy when former Prime Ministers Orlando and Salandra joined26 and Mussolini appealed to the common people by publicizing his affairs and illegitimate children. While on the other hand, anyone to mention his syphilis or ulcer, conditions which made him look weak, were expelled.27 Along with suppressing his weaknesses, Mussolini made many attempts to better the country.

Though in reality Mussolini had little effect on the economy, at the time he looked successful. For agriculture, his “Battle for Grain,’ which increased wheat production by 50 percent from 1922 to 1930, seemed at the time to be a major success.28 The same was true for imports and the land given to farmers, which they were glad for despite the fact that it would have been better suited to other purposes.29  Along with this, extremely important to Italians after the losses in WWI, was Mussolini’s expansionism campaign. He sought to restore Italian pride through a return to greatness. He signed the Pact of Rome with Yugoslavia in 1924, giving Italy the town of Fiume, and he signed a treaty with Albania in 1926. He also hoped to gain British and French favor in 1925 by signing the Kellogg-Briand Pact with them,30 hopeful that in the future Italy would be able to gain what Italy hadn’t been able to take from the Paris Peace Conference. What this added up to was the support of landowners, who were pleased by the repression of strikes,31 peasants who generally supported him, and everyone else who didn’t take him seriously enough to attempt to oppose him.32

Through the failings of the economic system and the failure of the government to deal with these situations or provide a satisfactory answer to Fascism, Mussolini was able to come to power. As the people either believed he was ruling the country in a suitable way or never believed he would last and thus did nothing, he was allowed to stay until he was a dictator and could no longer be pulled off his throne so easily.33