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Postwar Italian Resentment
In 1915, the French, British, and Russians had promised territory to Italy in exchange for joining the Allied cause. However, when the war ended, the principle of national self-determination stood in the way of Italian efforts to collect on this promise. Under this widely accepted philosophy, the Allies could not grant Italy the territory it had been promised since most was populated by non-Italians. Italy left the Paris Peace Conference embarrassed and empty-handed, with nothing to show for the sacrifices of its war effort. Both veterans and the government were widely despised as a result, with veterans often physically and verbally abused if they appeared publicly in uniform, adding to the misery of returning home to widespread unemployment and poverty.
The Rise of Fascism
Like the other warring nations, Italy had borrowed extensively to finance its war effort. In 1919, the Italian national debt was six times its pre-war level, and the lira had depreciated to one-third its pre-war value. To make matters worse, the democratically elected Chamber of Deputies, Italy's primary governing body, was unpaid, and thus prone to corruption and bribery. Amid the chaos of the early inter-war years, Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist Party in March 1919. Composed largely of war veterans, it was vehemently anti-communist and advocated the glorification of war, which they claimed displayed the nobility of the Italian soul.
In the elections of May 1921, 35 fascists, including Mussolini, were elected to the Chamber of Deputies, representing about 250,000 official party members drawn mostly from the lower middle class. Political tensions between the Fascists and the Communists mounted in Italy almost to the point of civil war, with Fascist “black shirts” and communist “red shirts” often brawling in the streets. In an effort to avoid open violence between the two factions, King Victor Emmanuel named Mussolini premier on October 30, 1922. Mussolini used his private army, now turned into a militia, to purge local governments of any opposition to fascism. He ruled Italy with a tight fist during the interwar years, instituting economic and social reforms, some successful, others unsuccessful, and would prove to be Hitler's most important ally.
Fascist Appeal in Interwar Italy
Democracy as an institution was unstable and novel to the Italians, with universal male suffrage only having been granted in 1912. This made it easier for Mussolini to capitalize on the chaos and bring his party, representing rigid order, to power. Before the Fascists, the liberal left controlled the Chamber of Deputies early in the interwar years. Under their rule, conditions only worsened, and in many instances it seemed like they were doing nothing as Italy collapsed. Mussolini's strength lay in his ability to harness the anger and disillusionment of the returning soldiers and the conservative lower middle class. Rather than preaching liberalism, the Fascists offered a return to traditional politics and traditional values, promising to undo the changes made by the liberals and lift poor, crippled Italy to a position of glory once more. Most importantly, they offered the masses a type of government in which the leaders could and would do something about deteriorating conditions. To many, it did not matter what exactly the Fascists did, but only that they acted, and acted within the framework of a stable and strong government.
Mussolini’s rule as dictator fell nicely into the established totalitarian mold of an omnipotent state that controlled thought, suppressed dissent, and demanded obedience and uniformity. Mussolini’s ascent to power is also a perfect example of how dictators during the interwar years commonly rose to power—by literally beating the government down through brutality and intimidation until it had no choice but to legally accept the imposed dictatorship. Though Mussolini’s means of ascension to power were by no means legal, in the end, he was granted control of the government by the king himself. This legitimization of totalitarian government was seen commonly throughout the 20th century.
