Fascism Essay -- essays research papers

On the 23 work on 1919 after a series of Communist demonstrations, the almost forgot ten dollar bill Mussolini unflinching to attempt torevive his Fasci movement. A meeting was held in a star sign in a Milan and was attended by some fifty malcontents. From this appearingly small and insignificant event the Fascio di Combattimento (Combat Group) was born. Initially, it would seem that the Fasci were destined for failure with none of their candidates (including Mussolini) winning a single seat in the 1919 elections. How was it that a caller with no clear programme, save a belief in swear out of some sort, became a ruling dictatorship little to a gravider extent than ten years later? By the end of 1919, Mussolini possessed hardly more than 2% of the vote in Milan, less than 5000 votes against 170,000 for the Socialists. Was this a complete disaster? At the time it seemed so the Socialists were so confident of their success that they staged a mock funeral in Milan s authorisepi ng outside Mussolinis house to suck him to attend the burial of his party. Incredibly, by 1921 the membership of this previously tiny assort was to rival the size of the Socialists. How was thisachieved? It was sure as shooting by no easy f spotor Mussolinis skill and luck played a vital role, but he was also helped by the seemingly blind incompetence of his opponents. Mussolinis path towards the top of Italian organisation was hindered by many forms of opposition. However, most of his opposition came from the Government and the rival Socialist (PSI) party. Soon after the summer of 1920 the Fascists and their opposition unavoidably clashed. The fact that Giolettis government was faced with million workers sitting in in factories showed that Italy was a far from stable country in 1920. Did an opportunity array itself for Mussolini to gain ground over the Socialist opposition? If it did, Mussolini certainly did not take it. He was still recovering from his partys humiliating e lection defeat. finally the union attractors, evidently surprised by this sudden, spontaneous revolutionary flush persuaded the workers to give in in return for higher wages. Although initially it would seem that theworkers had won, the strikes had sown the seeds of fear amongst Italys Socialist opposition. The overall effect of this was thatmany of the opponents of collectivism joined Mussolinis Fascist party. The Socialist party by... ...ht home the importance of opportunism and military action as opposed to inactivity and fixed ideologies. As S. Lee argues, Mussolini was strongly inclined to intuitive behaviour and projected himself as a bendable pragmatist. This allowedhim to make full use of the chaotic conditions in Italy, and considerably change magnitude the Fascist partys fortunes. However, wemust also consider that to a certain extent, the oppositions move failures and misjudgments almost pushed Mussolini intopower. We must also take account of the fact that Muss olini certainly had his fair share of luck - a prime example is the Kings refusal to affirm a state of emergency, which would have allowed the army to attack the Fascists. However, it was his ability to act out the role of the Italian peoples dream leader that gave him the most success. He played upon the post-war crisis, and made it appear that Fascism was the only way in which socialist economy would be smashed, and Italys society and status would be rebuilt. To the Italian people, Mussolini was the great leader they had been desperately searching for - the leader who was going to make Italy a great power, and a respected force in the world.