In the early 1920s, in the wake of economic turmoil, political
disorder, and the general insecurity and fear stemming
from World War I, Mussolini (1883–1945) burst
upon the Italian scene with the first Fascist movement in
Europe. Mussolini began his political career as a socialist
but was expelled from the Socialist Party after supporting
Italy’s entry into World War I, a position contrary to the
socialist principle of ardent neutrality in imperialist wars.
In 1919, Mussolini established a new political group, the
Fascio di Combattimento, or League of Combat. It received
little attention in the parliamentary elections of 1919,
but Italy’s three major political parties were unable to
form an effective governmental coalition. When socialists
began to speak of the need for revolution, provoking
worker strikes and a general climate of class violence,
alarmed conservatives turned to the Fascists, who formed
armed squads to attack socialist offices and newspapers.
By 1922, Mussolini’s nationalist rhetoric and ability to
play to middle-class fears of radicalism, revolution, and
disorder were attracting ever more adherents. On October
29, 1922, after Mussolini and the Fascists threatened
to march on Rome if they were not given power, King
Victor Emmanuel III (1900 –1946) capitulated and made
Mussolini prime minister of Italy.
By 1926, Mussolini had established the institutional
framework for his Fascist dictatorship. Press laws gave the
government the right to suspend any publication that fostered
disrespect for the Catholic church, the monarchy,
or the state. The prime minister was made “head of government”
with the power to legislate by decree. A police
law empowered the police to arrest and confine anybody
for both nonpolitical and political crimes without due
process of law. In 1926, all anti-Fascist parties were outlawed.
By the end of 1926, Mussolini ruled Italy as Il
Duce, the leader.
Mussolini left no doubt of his intentions. Fascism, he
said, “is totalitarian, and the Fascist State, the synthesis
and unity of all values, interprets, develops and gives
strength to the whole life of the people.” 1 His regime
attempted to mold Italians into a single-minded community
by developing Fascist organizations. By 1939,
about two-thirds of the population between eight and
eighteen had been enrolled in some kind of Fascist youth
group. Activities for these groups included Saturday afternoon
marching drills and calisthenics, seaside and
mountain summer camps, and youth contests. Beginning
in the 1930s, all young men were given some kind of premilitary
exercises to develop discipline and provide training
for war.
Mussolini hoped to create a new Italian: hardworking,
physically fit, disciplined, intellectually sharp, and martially
inclined. In practice, the Fascists largely reinforced
traditional social attitudes, as is evident in their policies
toward women. The Fascists portrayed the family as the
pillar of the state and women as the foundation of the
family. “Woman into the home” became the Fascist slogan.
Women were to be homemakers and baby producers,
“their natural and fundamental mission in life,” according
to Mussolini, who viewed population growth as an indicator
of national strength. A practical consideration
also underlay the Fascist attitude toward women: working
women would compete with males for jobs in the depression
economy of the 1930s. Eliminating women from the
market reduced male unemployment.
World History
