Il DuceMussolini Rise to Power

Italy during the 1920s & 1930s

What was Italy like during the 1920s & 1930s?

o Democracies had been weakened by WWI and Great Depression

o Many workers are crippled by WWI or unemployed

o Italy feels cheated by Versailles Treaty

o Many businessmen are worried about the communists seizing power

o Led by a King-Victor Emmanuel III

Who was Benito Mussolini?o Son of a Communist

blacksmith and a school teacher

o Named after Mexican Revolutionary

Continued…o Communist Newspaper editor

o WWI veteran (wounded himself with a hand grenade)

o(against war 1911, then pro-Allies in WWI)

How does he become Il Duce (“the Leader”)?

o Politician who founded the Fascist Party in 1919

o What is Fascism?

What is Fascism?oFascism:

oPolitical PartyoAdvocates totalitarianismoExtreme Nationalism

oThe State is more important than the individual like Communism

-but doesn’t call for state ownership of property

Slogans:

o “Believe, Obey, Fight”

o “The Country Is Nothing Without Conquest”

What changes did Mussolini promise?:He promised :

1. To revive the economy and rebuild the Armed Forces

2. Anti-communist

3. Anti-democracy

o Industrialist picked him as the lesser of two evils

o Monarch or Fascist?

o Created the “Black Shirts” (Fascist Thugs) o Mussolini’s private army (thousands)

o beat & sometimes killed communists and political rivals.

How does he seize power?o 1922-

o 30,000 to 40,000 Fascists march from Milan to Rome and demanded that Mussolini be named Prime Minister of Italy.

o The King of Italy was worried that the Fascist would start a civil war so he agreedo Mussolini therefore took power

“legally.”

FascistsFa

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What did Mussolini do while in power?o Wanted to rebuild Italy into the Roman Empire

o Outlawed strikes

o Censored the press

o Allied with industrialists and large land owners

o Built a strong military

o Started public works project to help during the Depression

o Secret police jailed opposition leaders

(Summarize 2 or 3 of these facts in your notes)

Il Duce (1922 to 1945)

o 1st of the three great dictators of Europe to come to power

oBut Mussolini never had absolute and total control over his nation like Stalin or Hitler.