Fascism in italy (christmas exam 2025)

Reasons for the rise of Mussolini? // why did people embrace dictatorship in italy

• resentment with the treaty of versailles

• Economic problems

• Failure of democracy

• broad spectrum of support

explain resentment with the treaty of versailles in italy

• in the treaty of london in 1915, italy was promised land (eg yugoslavia)

• in 1919 italy was left dissapointed, as president wilson of america opposed these claims, and they didnt get their land

explain how economic problems led to a rise in power for mussolini

• interwar was very challenging economically

• between 1914 to 1918, prices rose by 250%

• 500,000 steelworkers were on strike in 1920

explain how the failure of democracy was a reason for the rise of mussolini

• new voting system in 1919 fragmented groupings in parliament and slashed chances of an effective government

explain how mussolinis broad spectrum of support was a reasons for his rise to power in italy

• 1919, mussolini founded fascist party, which had a broad spectrum of support

  • nationalists liked the emotional appeal 

    • ex soldiers (170,000) liked him as they were unemployed

  • landowners and industrialists were fed up with strikes, and were scared of communism

1921, membership had risen to 152,000 (62,000 were working class, rest professionals and trademen)

Why did italy/mussolini maintain power in italy 

• ascerbo law 1923

• aventine succession 1924

• propaganda/cult of leader 

• youth propaganda 

• concordat (people respected mussolini, and were v christian)

• abolishing trade usnions as they began a corporate state

• police state 

explain ascerbo law 

• 1923

• Mussolini got the king to bring it in

• under it, party with largest number of votes gained two thirds of seats in parliament 

• gave winner an overall majority 

• (1924, fascist party gained 65% of the vote - a low number, considering they influenced the vote heavily, showed sizeable opposition, gave them majority in parliament)

What happened in the aventine succession

• 1924

• mussolinis leadership threatened by the murder of matteotti, his opponent

• opposition deputities staged a walk out in opposition, as mussolini was blamed for matteotis death

• however mussolini used this to gain more power, as he declared they had forfeited their seats, giving mussolini control of the parliament

explain how mussolini used propaganda (incl youth propaganda) and how he formed a cult of leader

• staracy was his pr manager

• censorship applied to press, films, and radio

• schools - textbook changed to hail mussolini and emphasize italys importance in history

• 1934 olympics were used to show greatness

• mussolini painted as a family man, and exaggerated his role in the military

• had youth movements named the balilla (8 to 14)

• who then graduated into avanti guardisti, who then were recruited into fascist party

• took part in marches/ceremonies in praise of mussolini

how did mussolini use the concordat to maintain power in italy

• concordat was between the church and state in 1920

• gave the fascist regime an air of respectability to the very catholic italian population

• under the terms of the LATERN TREATY 1929, pope recognised the existance of italy after about 80 years

• used agreement for propaganda and claimed the church had effectively given him and his regime a stamp of approval

How did mussolini use turning italy into a corporate state as a way to maintain power

• He abolished trade unions in 1930, all workers were required to join one of the 22 official corporations

• corporations were a forum where the employer, worker and state could sort their problems, avoiding strike action

• reality was that the stystem was strongly manipulated by the fascist part

• on surface, looked good, but it was all propaganda and the system did not work well

How did mussolini use force/ a police state to maintain power in italy 

• while volume of police brutality in italy was small compared to hitler, he still used it heavily to maintain his power

• in 1926, a special force named the OVRA was established to deal with anti fascists 

• mussolinis blackshirts were turned into legal militia

• a special prison camp was opened on the lipari island for political prisoners 

• jury courts were ended 

• over 2000 members of the mafia was jailed during the years 1926 to 1939, many were membors of the sicillian mafia 

main characteristics of mussolinis regime 

• propaganda, cult of leader 

• autarky 

• battle of births 

• religion

• police state 

• aggressive foreign policy

explain autarky in mussolinis regime

• self sufficiency

• he raised import duties to protect home industries

• made farmers grow more wheat, even though italian climate and soil werent suitable for it 

• drained the pontine marshes (less malaria) and reclaimed the land 

• reduced unemployment by starting public work schemes to build autostrades

used autarky as a showpiece to give false perception that italian economy was thriving 

explain the battle of births in italy

• put financial incentives and a tax on bachelors so that family size increase was encouraged

• populations still fell

explain mussolinis aggressive foreign policy, briefly

• 1922 - 1924, focused on foreign policy

• wanted to gain territory and prestige for italy (like hitler)

• examples of how he wanted territoy

• secured rhodes and dodecanese islands in the loussanne conference in 1923

• showed his “prestige” by unnecessariily invading corfu when 3 italian soldiers were killed there

• refused to leave until 50 million lira had been paid

short overview of church state relations under fascism

• relationship between christian churches in germany and italy quite good

• church leaders thought fascism was strong defense against communism

  • relationship would become strained as true nature of fascist state began to unfold

Italy’s relationship with the church, overview

• Beginning = hostile

• then realised he needed to be more christian, 1929 onwards, attempted to woo catholic church

• latern treaty 1929

• catholic action drama

• manifesto della razza 1938

• rocky relations with pope pius XII (pope pius the 12th)

explain mussolinis hostility towards the catholic church, and then how he attempted to woo the church later

• showed hostility at first

• then after disastrous election, realised anti christian message was damaging his parties rep in the heavily catholic italy

• 1920 on, tried to woo the church 

  • when he came to power in 1922, introduced religious instructiion into schools

  • banned swearing in public

  • outlawed the sale of contraceptives

  • baptised his children

Explain the latern treaty, and why it was such a big deal

• 1929, mussolini solved the roman question (1926 to 1929)

• Roman question was a dispute between catholic church and italian state that had been going on since 1870, when italian troops captured rome during the unification of italy

• 60 years

• negotiations between mussolini and gaspari, began in 1926 and continued in secret 

• signed the treaty in 1929

• under treatyt

  • vatican recognized as independent state

  • 750 million lir given to the vatican as compensation for hte loss of the papal states in 1970

  • catholicism the official state religion

  • pope would agree to recogonise the italian state

Explain the catholic action disputei n italy

• tensions emerged in early 1930s between papacy and fascist state

• mussolini refused to allow a catholic youth organisation because it encrouched on his own youth movement, baillilla

  • pope pius the 11th gave way because gaspari told him that a conflict between the church and state at the time could damage the efforts to stop the spread of communism in europe

What was the manifesto della razza

1938

charter of race angered pope, it was an italian version of the nuremburg laws

• marriage between italians and jews were to be forbidden

• jews forbidden to become teachers, lawyers or journalists

However this wasnt strictly enforced, and was more to do with mussolinis desire to please hitler

Explain the tension between pope pius the 12th and mussolini

• may 1940

• clashed with the vatican newspaper (l’osservator romano) as it published messages of sympathy from the pope to the king of belgium and queen of holland as they had been occupied by the nazis 

• mussolini said hed ban the paper if it continued to express anti fascist views.