Saturday, June 1, 2019

Fascism Essay -- essays research papers

On the 23 March 1919 after a series of Communist demonstrations, the almost forgotten Mussolini decided to attempt torevive his Fasci movement. A meeting was held in a hall in a Milan and was attended by some fifty malcontents. From this countingly 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 party with no clear programme, save a smell in proceeding of some sort, became a ruling dictatorship little more than ten years later? By the end of 1919, Mussolini possessed exactly 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 arranged a mock funeral in Milan stopping outside Mussolinis house to invite him to attend the burial of his party. Incredibly, by 1921 the membership of this previously tiny group was to pertain the size of the Socialists. How was thisachieved? It was certainly by no easy means 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 Government was hindered by many forms of opposition. However, most of his opposition came from the Government and the rival Socialist (PSI) party. curtly after the summer of 1920 the Fascists and their opposition inevitably clashed. The fact that Giolettis government was faced with million workers sitting in in factories showed that Italy was a far from stable inelegant in 1920. Did an opportunity present 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 mortify election defeat. Eventually the union leaders, evidently surpris ed by this sudden, spontaneous revolutionary outburst persuaded the workers to give in in return for higher wages. Although ab initio 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 Socialism joined Mussolinis Fascist party. The Socialist party by... ...ht home the importance of opportunism and action as opposed to inactivity and fixed ideologies. As S. Lee argues, Mussolini was strongly inclined to intuitive behaviour and projected himself as a flexible pragmatist. This allowedhim to learn full use of the chaotic conditions in Italy, and considerably increased the Fascist partys fortunes. However, we must(prenominal) also consider that to a certain extent, the oppositions continued failures and misjudgments almost pushed Mussolini intopower. We must also take account of the fact that Mussolini certainly had his fair share of luck - a prime example is the Kings refusal to declare a state of emergency, which would thrust 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 solely way in which socialism 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 mystify Italy a great power, and a respected force in the world.

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