Mussolini wanted to use the Catholic Church to legitimize his Fascist movement. Consequently, Mussolini tried to appear in a favorable light to the Catholics, which was difficult because Mussolini was not a Catholic and hated them. This included baptizing his wife and children, marrying his wife by a priest, and figuratively stopping the roving fascist bands that assaulted priests. The Pope saw these actions, ordered for some of them to be implemented multiple times, and believed that Mussolini could change the way the Popes were treated. Pius XI sought to end the seclusion on the Church in the Vatican and retake some of the surrounding lands.
In addition, both Mussolini and Hitler favored the wealthy, believed that an individual was meaningless and must submit to the decisions of their leaders, and aimed at self-sufficiency so that each could survive entirely without international trade. Furthermore, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy “had aimed for prestige and power for their countries, and brought instead humiliation and destruction” (Tarr, R.,
To a large extent, I disagree with this statement. Authoritarian and single-party leaders unsuccesfully attempted to use force as a means of rising to power and, once this proved to be unsuccesful, reverted to democratic methods in order establish power. This is evident when looking at how Mussolini established his role as Prime Minister in Italy. Mussolini initially used the “Blackshirts”, members of the paramilitary wing of the Fascist movement, as a means of intimidating people into supporting the Fascist Party. This intimidation and violence, however, was unsuccesful in the initial period of the Fascist movement, as shown by the November 1919 election results, when the Fascists did not win a single seat in the Chamber.
The next dictator, Benito Mussolini, was a socialist from Italy, and wholeheartedly believed that Great War was the turning point his country needed. Italy needed a turning point seeing that they were left out of the Treaty of
Mussolini was somewhat like a test run for this new form of government in the sense that he fulfilled the true meaning of fascism. He was able to gain dictatorship of Italy and implement his form of government onto the people in the way he sees fit. Mussolini was able to dictate even if the people were allowed to protest against the movement which shows how much power he help. Also this illustrates how the Italian people were reduced to being smaller than Mussolini due to the extermination of the democratic
Mussolini once stated that “The Socialists ask what is our program? Our program is to smash the skulls of the Socialists.” With the particular declaration, Benito Mussolini made it clear that his regime was mainly built upon violence and terror of people and classes that were inferior (Laqueur, 1996). The term of Italian Fascism is generally difficult to determine as there is the problem concerning the differentiation between the two different stages both of the movement and of the regime. (Payne, 1980). As Payne stated in his book “Fascism: Comparison and Definition” (1980), Fascism in general may be considered the most doubtful contemporary term in politics.
Vito Andolini made his journey to America in 1901, which would mean that he would have been one of the millions of people coming to the United States. In the early 1900s, many immigrants were in desperate need to leave Italy due to poverty, violence and social disorder.
He also wrote many articles and books, clarifying the basic ideas of fascism.”“Benito Mussolini coined the term “fascism” in 1919 to describe his political movement.” There was also a symbol for fascism. “ He adopted the ancient Roman fasces as his symbol. This was a bundle of rods tied around an ax, which represented the power of Rome.”“Mussolini inspired others to develop their own versions of fascism. When Hitler gained power in Germany in 1933, he added the idea of an Aryan “master race” to his fascist state.” In 1939, Francisco Franco established the Spanish state with some fascist elements.” Other fascist or fascist-like regimes rose and fell in Japan, Argentina, South Africa, Greece, and Iraq among other countries.” As a result, many people know Mussolini for created the fascist
(Shuter& Kelly, 2007) The Fascist believed that western values dominated the world and their ways were morally wrong. They saw the policy of keeping peace with the west as weak and did not want Japan to be dependent in the west for raw materials. As they believed in nationalism, they wanted Japan self sufficient by trading and be a strong nation and using propaganda they try and convinced the Japanese people that western ways were wrong. This help them to a certain extent as some people truly believe and were convince by them but one other way Fascism became more powerful in Japan is in the education system. In the 1850s, half the men and a seventh of the women in Japan were literate and by 1920s, farmers could read and write.
The false promises (made by dictators) gave weakened countries hope that one day, they will be powerful again. The economic problems--after World War I--left the European countries extremely weak. Italy, for example, had industrial and agricultural workers staged strikes. The middle class started to support Mussolini’s fascist movement, in fear of the strikes from the lower class. Moreover, the middle-class did not like socialism and communism, making Fascism very compelling.