totalitarianism of the right?: interwar europe, 1918-1939
TRANSCRIPT
Rise of Fascism in Italy
• WWI spoils disappointed many Italians
• Russian Revolution inspired many workers and socialists
• Pope allowed Catholics to go into politics
• “Two Red Years,” 1919-1920 Great instability Workers took over some factories
Benito Mussolini, 1883-1945
Il Duce (The Leader)Black ShirtsFascism: • extreme militaristic
nationalism• contempt for electoral
democracy and liberalism
• natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites
• individual interests subordinated to the good of the nation
Mussolini’s rise to power
• Two Red Years• Mussolini portrayed himself as
the ‘man of order’• March on Rome (October 1922)• King Victor Emmanuel III (r.
1900-46) forced to make Mussolini Prime Minister
Consolidation of Power
• Giacomo Matteotti (socialist leader killed in 1924)
• Mussolini used killing to crack down: changed election law curbed Parliament’s
powers censored press and
academic publications assumed dual role as
PM and ‘Il Duce’
Mussolini’s policies
• Lateran Agreement (1929):• Gave Vatican City independence• Financial support• Roman Catholicism as official religion• Pope agreed to urge Italians to support
Mussolini and fascists
• Corporatism between socialism and capitalism
• Sexism: women as mothers and sexual objects