Mussolini

Civil war had undermined Italian democracy

October 1922 – Mussolini presented his ultimatum in Naples and left his raging supporters there, already having given orders to stage a violent insurrection on the 27th of October.

Political approach:

1922 – Mussolini becomes Prime Minister

1923 – The Acerbo Law: the biggest party automatically gains 2/3 of the seats in Parliament

1924 – Violence and intimidation used to rig elections to ensure fascist victory: i.e. murder of opposition politician Matteotti.

1925 – Laws on the Head of Government shifted power from the Parliament directly to Mussolini.

1926 – OVRA (Operazione Vigilante Repressione Antifacismo), Mussolini’s secret police, is founded.

Economic policies:

Aimed at creating autarky (agricultural self-sufficiency). Sought to subject market and labour to political control.

1925 – Battle for Grain: aimed at forcing farmers to grow more wheat so as not to rely on foreign imports for food. It succeeded in doubling cereal/wheat production by 1939, but reduced fruit, wine, and olive oil production.

1926 – Battle for the Lira: aimed at boosting the value of the lira, but failed.

1927 – Battle for Births: aimed at having Italian women have more babies to boost the population.

1928 – Battle for Land: aimed to drain swamps and marshes to create more agricultural land- Successful only in the Pontine Marshes.

Foreign defense policies:

1923: Invasion of Corfu

1924: Takeover of Port Fiume

1925: Signing of the Locarno Treaty

1926: Albania protectorate of Italy

1928: Treaty of Friendship w. Abyssinia

1928: Signing of the Kellogg-Briand Treaty

1928: Pacification campaign in Libya

1935 invasion of Abyssinia

The Road to War - Documentary

  • Making the nation great should be the first objective of government

  • Italians felt cheated by the aftermath of WWI because:

    • Nearly half a million Italians died in battle

    • They had been promised certain colonies in exchange for participation

    • The war crippled the economy and created high sociopolitical tensions

  • Italy was on the brink of a communist revolution

  • Castor oil used as a form of punishment

  • Mussolini created a single-party state

  • Turned Italy into a state that loved law and order: provided law and order at the cost of freedom (freedom of press, gathering, election etc)

  • Communist newspapers were burned in the streets

  • Remaining communists and anti-fascists were exiled or arrested

  • “Everything inside the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”

  • Other influences in Italy at the time: the monarchy and the church

  • Taxed bachelors to raise birth rates - The Battle for Births

  • Air Force General Balbo broke records by flying 24 flying boats across the Atlantic, gained Italy prestige and national pride

  • “To remain healthy, a nation should make war every 25 years”

  • Aggresive Italy to gain the respect of the world

  • Independent Austria was very important for Italy

    • Austrian leader Dolfuss murdered by the Nazis in an attempted coup

  • Italian naval power was dominated/overshadowed by that of Britain and France

  • Mussolini’s daughter Edda was assured that England would not make war against Italy in the case of an occupation of Ethiopia

  • Italy attempted to cover up the use of chemical weapons in Abyssinia, using cases of leprosy as an excuse

  • Colonisation of Ethiopia = peak of facism. Severed important international relations, started the decline of Mussolini’s Italy

  • Mussolini and Hitler needed one another: mutual dependency led to Mussolini implementing the anti-Semitic laws and condoning Hitlers various invasions

  • Mussolini presented settlements agreed upon by the British and the Germans, posing as a saviour of world peace at the Munich Conference (1938) These agreements were really made between Chamberlain and Hitler

  • Mussolini’s proposed settlement with Britain (1935): Standing with Europe against Germany in exchange for a share in Africa and the Middle East. Britain did not agree to this.

  • Italy therefore signed a full military alliance with Germany, stressing that they wouldn’t be ready for war until 1943, which was brushed aside by the Germans.

  • Hitler released Mussolini from military obligations following an exaggerated list of Italy’s military needs

  • Mussolini declared “non-belligerence,” to monitor the progression of the war and bargain with the Allies despite the Pact of Steel with Hitler

  • Mussolini’s tendency to fight smaller battles of conquest for glory left Italy grossly underprepared for large-scale global war, ultimately leading to Mussolini’s defeat