The National Fascist Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) was a
political party in Italy, created by
Benito Mussolini as the political expression of
Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous
Italian Fasces of Combat
The ''Fasci Italiani di Combattimento'' ( en, Italian Fasces of Combat, link=yes, also translatable as ''"Italian Fighting Bands"'' or ''"Italian Fighting Leagues"'') was an Italian Fascist organization created by Benito Mussolini in 1919. It wa ...
. The party
ruled the
Kingdom of Italy from 1922 when Fascists took power with the
March on Rome until the
fall of the Fascist regime in 1943, when Mussolini was deposed by the
Grand Council of Fascism
The Grand Council of Fascism (, also translated "Fascist Grand Council") was the main body of Mussolini's Fascist government in Italy, that held and applied great power to control the institutions of government. It was created as a body of th ...
. It was succeeded, in the territories under the control of the
Italian Social Republic, by the
Republican Fascist Party
The Republican Fascist Party ( it, Partito Fascista Repubblicano, PFR) was a political party in Italy led by Benito Mussolini during the German occupation of Central and Northern Italy and was the sole legal and ruling party of the Italian Socia ...
, ultimately dissolved at the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
The National Fascist Party was rooted in
Italian nationalism
Italian nationalism is a movement which believes that the Italians are a nation with a single homogeneous identity, and therefrom seeks to promote the cultural unity of Italy as a country. From an Italian nationalist perspective, Italianness is ...
[Stanley G. Payne. A History of Fascism, 1914–1945. p. 106.][Roger Griffin, "Nationalism" in Cyprian Blamires, ed., ''World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia'', vol. 2 (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2006), pp. 451–53.] and the desire to restore and expand
Italian territories, which Italian Fascists deemed necessary for a nation to assert its superiority and strength and to avoid succumbing to decay.
[Grčić, Joseph. ''Ethics and Political Theory'' (Lanham, Maryland: University of America, Inc, 2000) p. 120.
* Griffin, Roger and Matthew Feldman, eds., ''Fascism: Fascism and Culture'' (London and New York: Routledge, 2004) p. 185.
* Jackson J. Spielvogel. ''Western Civilization''. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012. p. 935.] Italian Fascists claimed that modern Italy was the heir to
ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
and its legacy and historically supported the creation of an
Italian Empire
The Italian colonial empire ( it, Impero coloniale italiano), known as the Italian Empire (''Impero Italiano'') between 1936 and 1943, began in Africa in the 19th century and comprised the colonies, protectorates, concessions and dependenci ...
to provide ''
spazio vitale
(, "living space") was the territorial expansionist concept of Italian Fascism. It was defined in universal terms as "that part of the globe over which extends either the vital requirements or expansionary impetus of a state with strong unit ...
'' ("living space") for
colonization by Italian settlers and to establish control over the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
.
[Aristotle A. Kallis. ''Fascist ideology: territory and expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922–1945''. London, England, UK; New York City, USA: Routledge, 2000. Pp. 50.] The party also supported
social conservative
Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social instituti ...
stances.
[Mark Antliff. ''Avant-Garde Fascism: The Mobilization of Myth, Art, and Culture in France, 1909–1939''. Duke University Press, 2007. p. 171.][Maria Sop Quine. ''Population Politics in Twentieth Century Europe: Fascist Dictatorships and Liberal Democracies''. Routledge, 1995. pp. 46–47.]
Fascists promoted a
corporatist economic system
[Cyprian Blamires. ''World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1''. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2006. p. 535.][Robert Millward. Private and public enterprise in Europe: energy, telecommunications and transport, 1830–1990. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, p. 178.] whereby employer and employee
syndicate
A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest.
Etymology
The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndicat ...
s are linked together in associations to collectively represent the nation's economic producers and work alongside the state to set national economic policy.
[Andrew Vincent. ''Modern Political Ideologies''. Third edition. Malden, Massaschussetts, USA; Oxford, England, UK; West Sussex, England, UK: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2010. Pp. 160.] This economic system intended to resolve
class conflict through
collaboration between the classes.
[John Whittam. ''Fascist Italy''. Manchester, England, UK; New York City, USA: Manchester University Press, 1995. Pp. 160.] Moreover, the PNF strongly advocated
autarky
Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency, usually applied to societies, communities, states, and their economic systems.
Autarky as an ideal or method has been embraced by a wide range of political ideologies and movements, especiall ...
.
Italian Fascism opposed
liberalism
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
,
[Eugen Weber. The Western Tradition: From the Renaissance to the present. Heath, 1972. Pp. 791.] but did not seek a
reactionary restoration of the pre-
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
ary world, which it considered to have been flawed, and not in line with a forward-looking direction on policy.
It was opposed to
Marxist socialism because of its typical opposition to nationalism,
[Stanislao G. Pugliese. Fascism, anti-fascism, and the resistance in Italy: 1919 to the present. Oxford, England, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2004. pp. 43–44.] but was also opposed to the
reactionary conservatism developed by
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre (; 1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821) was a Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat who advocated social hierarchy and monarchy in the period immediately following the French Revolution. Despite his clo ...
.
[Stanley G. Payne. ''A History of Fascism, 1914–45''. Madison, Wisconsin, USA: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. Pp. 214.] It believed the success of Italian nationalism required respect for tradition and a clear sense of a shared past among the Italian people alongside a commitment to a modernized Italy, as well as a solid belief that Italy was destined to become the
hegemonic power in Europe.
[Claudia Lazzaro, Roger J. Crum. "Forging a Visible Fascist Nation: Strategies for Fusing the Past and Present" by Claudia Lazzaro, ''Donatello Among The Blackshirts: History And Modernity In The Visual Culture Of Fascist Italy''. Ithaca, New York, USA: Cornell University Press, 2005. Pp. 13.]
The National Fascist Party along with its successor, the
Republican Fascist Party
The Republican Fascist Party ( it, Partito Fascista Repubblicano, PFR) was a political party in Italy led by Benito Mussolini during the German occupation of Central and Northern Italy and was the sole legal and ruling party of the Italian Socia ...
, are the only parties whose re-formation is banned by the
Constitution of Italy
The Constitution of the Italian Republic ( it, Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana) was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended sixteen times, ...
: "It shall be forbidden to reorganize, under any form whatsoever, the dissolved fascist party."
History
Historical background
After
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
(1914–1918), despite the
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946) being a full-partner
Allied Power against the
Central Powers,
Italian nationalism
Italian nationalism is a movement which believes that the Italians are a nation with a single homogeneous identity, and therefrom seeks to promote the cultural unity of Italy as a country. From an Italian nationalist perspective, Italianness is ...
claimed Italy was cheated in the
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919), thus the Allies had impeded Italy's progress to becoming a "Great Power".
Thenceforth, the PNF successfully exploited that perceived slight to Italian nationalism in presenting Fascism as best suited for governing the country by successfully claiming that democracy, socialism and liberalism were failed systems.
In 1919 at the
Paris Peace Conference, the Allies compelled the Kingdom of Italy to yield to Yugoslavia the Croatian seaport of Fiume (
Rijeka), a mostly Italian city of little nationalist significance, until early 1919. Moreover, elsewhere Italy was then excluded from the wartime secret
Treaty of London (1915) it had concorded with the
Triple Entente
The Triple Entente (from French '' entente'' meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as well a ...
, wherein Italy was to leave the
Triple Alliance and join the enemy by
declaring war against the
German Empire and
Austria-Hungary in exchange for territories at war's end, upon which the Kingdom of Italy held claims (see ).
In September 1919, the nationalist response of outraged war hero
Gabriele D'Annunzio was declaring the establishment of the
Italian Regency of Carnaro.
To his independent Italian state, he installed himself as the Regent (Leader) and promulgated the (''
Charter of Carnaro'', 8 September 1920), a politically
syncretic
Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...
constitutional amalgamation of right-wing and left-wing politics –
anarchist, proto-fascist and
democratic republican ideas – which much influenced the politico-philosophic development of early Italian fascism. Consequent to the
Treaty of Rapallo (1920), the metropolitan Italian military deposed the Regency of D'Annunzio on Christmas 1920. In the development of the fascist model of government, D'Annunzio was a nationalist and not a fascist, whose legacy of political–
praxis ("Politics as Theatre") was stylistic (ceremony, uniform, harangue and chanting) and not substantive, which Italian fascism artfully developed as a government model.
Founded in Rome during the Third Fascist Congress on 7–10 November 1921,
[Charles F. Delzell, edit., ''Mediterranean Fascism 1919-1945'', New York, NY, Walker and Company, 1971, p. 26] the National Fascist Party marked the transformation of the
paramilitary into a more coherent political group (the had been founded by Mussolini in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
's Piazza San Sepolcro on 23 March 1919).
The Fascist Party was instrumental in directing and popularizing support for Mussolini's ideology. In the early years, groups within the PNF called
Blackshirts
The Voluntary Militia for National Security ( it, Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, MVSN), commonly called the Blackshirts ( it, Camicie Nere, CCNN, singular: ) or (singular: ), was originally the paramilitary wing of the Nation ...
() built a base of
power
Power most often refers to:
* Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work"
** Engine power, the power put out by an engine
** Electric power
* Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events
** Abusive power
Power may a ...
by violently attacking
socialists and their institutions in the rural
Po Valley, thereby gaining the support of landowners. Compared to its predecessor, the PNF abandoned
republicanism to turn decisively towards the
right-wing of the political spectrum.
March on Rome
On 28 October 1922, Mussolini attempted a ''
coup d'état'', titled the
March on Rome by Fascist propaganda, in which almost 30,000 fascists took part. The ''
quadrumvirs Quadrumvirs ( it, quadrumviri) may refer to:
In ancient Rome, ''quadrumvir'' was an elective post assigned to four citizens having police and jurisdiction power, elected by the Senate. The term is cognate with ''triumvir'' and '' duumvir'', respec ...
'' leading the Fascist Party, General
Emilio De Bono,
Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo (6 June 1896 – 28 June 1940) was an Italian fascist politician and Blackshirts' leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force, Governor-General of Libya and Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa. Due to his young a ...
(one of the most famous ''ras''),
Michele Bianchi
Michele Bianchi (22 July 1882 – 3 February 1930) was an Italian revolutionary syndicalist leader who took a position in the Unione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL) He was among the founding members of the Fascist movement. He was widely seen as the ...
and
Cesare Maria de Vecchi
Cesare Maria De Vecchi, 1st Conte di Val Cismon (14 November 1884 – 23 June 1959) was an Italian soldier, colonial administrator and Fascist politician.
Biography
De Vecchi was born in Casale Monferrato on 14 November 1884. After graduating ...
, organized the March while the stayed behind for most of the march, though he allowed pictures to be taken of him marching along with the Fascist marchers. Generals Gustavo Fara and Sante Ceccherini assisted to the preparations of the March of 18 October. Other organizers of the march included the Marquis
Dino Perrone Compagni and Ulisse Igliori.
On 24 October 1922, Mussolini declared before 60,000 people at the Fascist Congress in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
: "Our program is simple: we want to rule Italy". Meanwhile, the Blackshirts, who had occupied the Po plain, took all strategic points of the country. On 26 October, former prime minister
Antonio Salandra warned current
prime minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Luigi Facta that Mussolini was demanding his resignation and that he was preparing to march on Rome. However, Facta did not believe Salandra and thought that Mussolini would govern quietly at his side. To meet the threat posed by the bands of fascist troops now gathering outside Rome, Facta (who had resigned but continued to hold power) ordered a
state of siege
A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...
for Rome. Having had previous conversations with the king about the repression of fascist violence, he was sure the king would agree. However,
King Victor Emmanuel III
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
refused to sign the military order. On 28 October, the King handed power to Mussolini, who was supported by the military, the business class, the right-wing part of population.
The march itself was composed of fewer than 30,000 men, but the King in part feared a civil war since the had already taken control of the Po plain and most of the country, while fascism was no longer seen as a threat to the establishment. Mussolini was asked to form his cabinet on 29 October 1922, while some 25,000 Blackshirts were parading in Rome. Mussolini thus legally reached power in accordance with the
Statuto Albertino
The Statuto Albertino (English: ''Albertine Statute'') was the constitution granted by King Charles Albert of Sardinia to the Kingdom of Sardinia on 4 March 1848 and written in Italian and French. The Statute later became the constitution of t ...
, the Italian Constitution. The March on Rome was not the conquest of power which
fascism later celebrated, but rather the precipitating force behind a transfer of power within the framework of the constitution. This transition was made possible by the surrender of public authorities in the face of fascist intimidation. Many business and financial leaders believed it would be possible to manipulate Mussolini, whose early speeches and policies emphasized
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...
and ''
laissez-faire
''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups ...
'' economics. This proved overly optimistic, as Mussolini's corporatist view stressed total state power over businesses as much as over individuals, via governing industry bodies ("corporations") controlled by the Fascist party, a model in which businesses retained the responsibilities of property, but few if any of the freedoms.
Even though the coup failed in giving power directly to the Fascist Party, it nonetheless resulted in a parallel agreement between Mussolini and King Victor Emmanuel III that made Mussolini the head of the Italian government. On 15 December, the
Grand Council of Fascism
The Grand Council of Fascism (, also translated "Fascist Grand Council") was the main body of Mussolini's Fascist government in Italy, that held and applied great power to control the institutions of government. It was created as a body of th ...
was founded and it was the supreme organ of the PNF.
Fascist government
After a drastic modification of electoral legislation (the
Acerbo Law
The Acerbo Law was an Italian electoral law proposed by Baron Giacomo Acerbo and passed by the Italian Parliament in November 1923. The purpose of it was to give Mussolini's fascist party a majority of deputies. The law was used only in the 19 ...
), the Fascist Party clearly won the
highly controversial elections of April 1924. In early 1925, Mussolini dropped all pretense of democracy and set up a total dictatorship. From that point onward, the PNF was effectively the only legally permitted party in the country. This status was formalized by a law passed in 1928 and Italy remained a
one-party state until the end of the Fascist regime in 1943. The new laws were strongly criticized by the leader of the
Socialist Party Giacomo Matteotti
Giacomo Matteotti (; 22 May 1885 – 10 June 1924) was an Italian socialist politician. On 30 May 1924, he openly spoke in the Italian Parliament alleging the Fascists committed fraud in the recently held elections, and denounced the violence ...
during his speech in Parliament and a few days later Matteotti was kidnapped and killed by fascist blackshirts.
After taking sole power, the Fascist regime began to impose the Fascist ideology and its symbolism throughout the country. Party membership in the PNF became necessary to seek employment or gain government assistance. The
fasces adorned public buildings, Fascist mottos and symbols were displayed in art and a
personality cult
A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create an id ...
was created around Mussolini as the nation's saviour called "''Il Duce''", "The Leader". The Italian parliament was replaced in duties by the
Chamber of Fasces and Corporations, solely filled with Fascist Party members. The PNF promoted Italian imperialism in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and staunchly promoted racial segregation and white supremacy of Italian settlers in the colonies.
In 1930 came the Youth Fasces of Combat. The 1930s were characterized by the secretary
Achille Starace, "faithful" to Mussolini and one of the few fascist secretaries from
Southern Italy, who launched a campaign of Fascism in the country made up of a wave of ceremonies and rallies and the creation of organizations which aimed to frame the country and the citizen in all its manifestations (both public and private). In order to regiment youth movements, Starace brought the
Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB) under the direct control of the PNF and the Youth Fasces that were dissolved and merged into the new
Gioventù Italiana del Littorio
The ''Gioventù Italiana del Littorio'' (GIL) (English: Italian Youth of the Lictor) was the consolidated youth movement of the National Fascist Party of Italy that was established in 1937, to replace the ''Opera Nazionale Balilla'' (ONB). It was ...
(GIL).
On 27 May 1933, party membership was declared a basic requirement for public office. On 9 March 1937, it became mandatory if one wanted access to any
public office and from 3 June 1938 those who did not join the party could not work. In 1939,
Ettore Muti replaced Starace at the helm of the party, a fact that testifies to the increasing influence of
Galeazzo Ciano
Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari ( , ; 18 March 1903 – 11 January 1944) was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini, from 1936 until 1 ...
, the
Minister of Foreign Affairs
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...
and son-in-law of Mussolini.
On 10 June 1940, from the balcony of
Palazzo Venezia Mussolini announced the entry of Italy into
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
on the side of
Hitler's
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
The Fall of Mussolini
On 25 July 1943, following a request from
Dino Grandi due to the failure of the war the
Grand Council of Fascism
The Grand Council of Fascism (, also translated "Fascist Grand Council") was the main body of Mussolini's Fascist government in Italy, that held and applied great power to control the institutions of government. It was created as a body of th ...
overthrew Mussolini by asking the King to resume his full authority in officially removing Mussolini as
prime minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
, which he did. Mussolini was imprisoned, but the Fascists immediately collapsed and the party was officially banned by
Pietro Badoglio's government on 27 July.
After the
Nazi-engineered
Gran Sasso raid
During World War II, the Gran Sasso raid (codenamed ''Unternehmen Eiche'', , literally "Operation Oak", by the German military) on 12 September 1943 was a successful operation by German paratroopers and ''Waffen-SS'' commandos to rescue the dep ...
liberated Mussolini in September, the PNF was revived as the
Republican Fascist Party
The Republican Fascist Party ( it, Partito Fascista Repubblicano, PFR) was a political party in Italy led by Benito Mussolini during the German occupation of Central and Northern Italy and was the sole legal and ruling party of the Italian Socia ...
(''Partito Fascista Repubblicano'' – PFR; September 13), as the single party of the Northern and Nazi-protected
Italian Social Republic (the
Salò Republic). Its secretary was
Alessandro Pavolini
Alessandro Pavolini (27 September 1903 – 28 April 1945) was an Italian politician, journalist, and essayist, notable for his involvement in the Fascist government, during World War II, and also for his cruelty against the opponents of fascis ...
. The PRF did not outlast
Mussolini's execution and the disappearance of the Salò state in April 1945.
Ideology
Italian Fascism was rooted in
Italian nationalism
Italian nationalism is a movement which believes that the Italians are a nation with a single homogeneous identity, and therefrom seeks to promote the cultural unity of Italy as a country. From an Italian nationalist perspective, Italianness is ...
and
Georges Sorel’s
revolutionary syndicalism that eventually evolved into
national syndicalism in Italy. Most Italian revolutionary syndicalist leaders were not only “founders of the Fascist movement”, but later held key positions in Mussolini's administration. They sought to restore and expand
Italian territories, which Italian Fascists deemed necessary for a nation to assert its superiority and strength and to avoid succumbing to decay.
[Aristotle A. Kallis. ''Fascist ideology: territory and expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922–1945''. London, England, UK; New York City, USA: Routledge, 2000. Pp. 41.] Italian Fascists claimed that modern Italy is the heir to
ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
and its legacy and historically supported the creation of an
Italian Empire
The Italian colonial empire ( it, Impero coloniale italiano), known as the Italian Empire (''Impero Italiano'') between 1936 and 1943, began in Africa in the 19th century and comprised the colonies, protectorates, concessions and dependenci ...
to provide ''
spazio vitale
(, "living space") was the territorial expansionist concept of Italian Fascism. It was defined in universal terms as "that part of the globe over which extends either the vital requirements or expansionary impetus of a state with strong unit ...
'' ("living space") for
colonization by Italian settlers and to establish control over the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
.
Italian Fascism promoted a
corporatist economic system whereby employer and employee
syndicate
A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest.
Etymology
The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndicat ...
s are linked together in associations to collectively represent the nation's economic producers and work alongside the state to set national economic policy.
This economic system intended to resolve
class conflict through
collaboration between the classes.
Italian Fascism opposed
liberalism
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
, but rather than seeking a
reactionary restoration of the pre-
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
ary world, which it considered to have been flawed as it had a forward-looking direction.
It was opposed to
Marxist socialism because of its typical opposition to nationalism,
but was also opposed to the
reactionary conservatism developed by
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre (; 1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821) was a Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat who advocated social hierarchy and monarchy in the period immediately following the French Revolution. Despite his clo ...
.
It believed the success of Italian nationalism required respect for
tradition
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
and a clear sense of a shared past among the
Italian people
, flag =
, flag_caption = The national flag of Italy
, population =
, regions = Italy 55,551,000
, region1 = Brazil
, pop1 = 25–33 million
, ref1 =
, region2 ...
, alongside a commitment to a modernized Italy.
Nationalism
Italian Fascism is based upon Italian nationalism and in particular seeks to complete what it considers as the incomplete project of ''
Risorgimento
The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...
'' by incorporating ''Italia Irredenta'' ("unredeemed Italy") into the state of Italy.
[Terence Ball, Richard Bellamy. The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought. Pp. 133] The National Fascist Party founded in 1921 declared that the party was to serve as "a revolutionary militia placed at the service of the nation. It follows a policy based on three principles: order, discipline, hierarchy".
It identifies modern Italy as the heir to the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
and Italy during the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
and promotes the cultural identity of ''
Romanitas'' ("Roman-ness").
Italian Fascism historically sought to forge a strong
Italian Empire
The Italian colonial empire ( it, Impero coloniale italiano), known as the Italian Empire (''Impero Italiano'') between 1936 and 1943, began in Africa in the 19th century and comprised the colonies, protectorates, concessions and dependenci ...
as a "
Third Rome
The continuation, succession and revival of the Roman Empire is a running theme of the history of Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. It reflects the lasting memories of power and prestige associated with the Roman Empire itself.
Several polit ...
", identifying ancient Rome as the "First Rome" and Renaissance-era Italy as the "Second Rome".
Italian Fascism has emulated ancient Rome and Mussolini in particular emulated ancient Roman leaders, such as
Julius Cæsar as a model for the Fascists' rise to power and
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...
as a model for empire-building. Italian Fascism has directly promoted
imperialism, such as within the ''
Doctrine of Fascism'' (1932)
ghostwritten by Giovanni Gentile on behalf of Mussolini, declared:
Fascism emphasized the need for the restoration of the
Mazzinian ''Risorgimento'' tradition that pursued the unification of Italy, that the Fascists claimed had been left incomplete and abandoned in the
Giolittian-era Italy. Fascism sought the incorporation of claimed "unredeemed" territories to Italy.
To the east of Italy, the Fascists claimed that
Dalmatia was a land of Italian culture whose Italians, including those of Italianized
South Slavic descent, had been driven out of Dalmatia and into exile in Italy and supported the return of Italians of Dalmatian heritage. Mussolini identified Dalmatia as having strong Italian cultural roots for centuries via the Roman Empire and the
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...
.
[Larry Wolff. Venice And the Slavs: The Discovery of Dalmatia in the Age of Enlightenment. Stanford, California, USA: Stanford University Press, P. 355.] The Fascists especially focused their claims based on the Venetian cultural heritage of Dalmatia, claiming that Venetian rule had been beneficial for all Dalmatians and had been accepted by the Dalmatian population.
The Fascists were outraged after World War I, when the agreement between Italy and the Entente Allies in the
Treaty of London of 1915 to have Dalmatia join Italy was revoked in 1919.
The Fascist regime supported annexation of Yugoslavia's region of
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
into Italy that already held a portion of the
Slovene population, whereby Slovenia would become an Italian province, resulting in a quarter of Slovene ethnic territory and approximately 327,000 out of total population of 1.3
[Lipušček, U. (2012) ''Sacro egoismo: Slovenci v krempljih tajnega londonskega pakta 1915'', Cankarjeva založba, Ljubljana. ] million Slovenes being subjected to forced
Italianization.
[Cresciani, Gianfranco (2004]
Clash of civilisations
, Italian Historical Society Journal, Vol.12, No.2, p.4
The Fascist regime supported annexation of
Albania, claimed that
Albanians were ethnically linked to Italians through links with the prehistoric
Italiotes
The Italiotes ( grc-gre, Ἰταλιῶται, ') were the pre-Roman Greek-speaking inhabitants of the Italian Peninsula, between Naples and Sicily.
Greek colonization of the coastal areas of southern Italy and Sicily started in the 8th ...
,
Illyrian and
Roman populations and that the major influence exerted by the Roman and Venetian empires over Albania justified Italy's right to possess it.
The Fascist regime also justified the annexation of Albania on the basis that''—''because several hundred thousand people of Albanian descent had been absorbed into society in Southern Italy already''—''the incorporation of Albania was a reasonable measure that would unite people of Albanian descent into one state. The Fascist regime endorsed Albanian irredentism, directed against the predominantly Albanian-populated
Kosovo and
Epirus
sq, Epiri rup, Epiru
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = Historical region
, image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinri ...
– particularly in
Chameria
Chameria ( sq, Çamëria; el, Τσαμουριά, ''Tsamouriá''; tr, Çamlık) is a term used today mostly by Albanians to refer to parts of the coastal region of Epirus in southern Albania and Greece, traditionally associated with the Alban ...
inhabited by a substantial number of Albanians. After Italy annexed Albania in 1939, the Fascist regime endorsed assimilating Albanians into Italians and colonizing Albania with Italian settlers from the
Italian Peninsula to gradually transform it into an Italian land. The Fascist regime claimed the
Ionian Islands as Italian territory on the basis that the islands had
belonged to the Venetian Republic from the mid-14th until the 18th century.
To the west of Italy, the Fascists claimed that the territories of
Corsica, Nice and
Savoy held by France were Italian lands. During the period of Italian unification in 1860 to 1861, Prime Minister of
Piedmont-Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...
,
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri (, 10 August 1810 – 6 June 1861), generally known as Cavour ( , ), was an Italian politician, businessman, economist and noble, and a leading figure in the movement tow ...
, who was leading the unification effort, faced opposition from
French Emperor Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
who indicated that France would oppose Italian unification unless France was given Nice and Savoy that were held by Piedmont Sardinia, as France did not want a powerful state having control of all the passages of the Alps. As a result, Piedmont-Sardinia was pressured to concede Nice and Savoy to France in exchange for France accepting the unification of Italy. The Fascist regime produced literature on Corsica that presented evidence of the ''italianità'' of the island.
[Davide Rodogno. Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation during the Second World War. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. P. 88.] The Fascist regime produced literature on Nice that justified that Nice was an Italian land based on historic, ethnic and linguistic grounds.
The Fascists quoted Medieval Italian scholar
Petrarch who said: "The border of Italy is the Var; consequently Nice is a part of Italy".
The Fascists quoted Italian national hero
Giuseppe Garibaldi who said: "Corsica and Nice must not belong to France; there will come the day when an Italy mindful of its true worth will reclaim its provinces now so shamefully languishing under foreign domination".
Mussolini initially pursued promoting annexation of Corsica through political and diplomatic means, believing that Corsica could be annexed to Italy through first encouraging the existing autonomist tendencies in Corsica and then independence of Corsica from France, that would be followed by annexation of Corsica into Italy.
To the north of Italy, the Fascist regime in the 1930s had designs on the largely Italian-populated region of
Ticino and the
Romansch-populated region of
Graubünden in Switzerland (the Romansch are a people with a Latin-based language).
[John F. L. Ross. Neutrality and International Sanctions: Sweden, Switzerland, and Collective Security. ABC-CLIO, 1989. P. 91.] In November 1938, Mussolini declared to the Grand Fascist Council: "We shall bring our border to the
Gotthard Pass
german: Gotthardpass
, photo = File:Gotthardpass 2008.jpg
, photo_caption = The area of the Gotthard Pass from the west
, elevation_m = 2106
, elevation_ref =
, traversed = National Road 2 Old paved road ( Tremola) Gotthard Rail Tunnel Go ...
". The Fascist regime accused the Swiss government of oppressing the Romansch people in Graubünden.
Mussolini argued that Romansch was an Italian dialect and thus Graubünden should be incorporated into Italy. Ticino was also claimed because the region had belonged to the
Duchy of Milan from the mid-fourteenth century until 1515. Claim was also raised on the basis that areas now part of Graubünden in the
Mesolcina valley and
Hinterrhein were held by the Milanese
Trivulzio
The House of Trivulzio is the name of an old Italian noble family, most closely associated with Milan, whose members were prominent politicians, military men and various clergymen.
History
The noble and ancient Trivulzio family was one of the g ...
family, who ruled from the
Mesocco Castle in the late 15th century. Also during the summer of 1940,
Galeazzo Ciano
Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari ( , ; 18 March 1903 – 11 January 1944) was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini, from 1936 until 1 ...
met with
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
and
Joachim von Ribbentrop and proposed to them the dissection of Switzerland along the central chain of the
Western Alps
The Western Alps are the western part of the Alpine Range including the southeastern part of France (e.g. Savoie), the whole of Monaco, the northwestern part of Italy (i.e. Piedmont and the Aosta Valley) and the southwestern part of Switzerland ( ...
, which would have left Italy also with the canton of
Valais in addition to the claims raised earlier.
[McGregor Knox, ]
Mussolini Unleashed, 1939–1941: Politics and Strategy in Fascist Italy's Last War
' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
Cambridge University Pre ...
, 1982), 138.
To the south, the regime claimed the archipelago of
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, which had been held by the British since 1800.
[Juliet Rix. ''Malta''. Bradt Travel Guides. 2010. p. 16-17] Mussolini claimed that the
Maltese language
Maltese ( mt, Malti, links=no, also ''L-Ilsien Malti'' or '), is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata spoken by the Maltese people. It is the national language of Malta and the only offic ...
was a dialect of Italian, and theories about Malta being the cradle of the Latin civilization were promoted.
Italian had been widely used in Malta in the literary, scientific and legal fields and it was one of Malta's official languages until 1937, when its status was abolished by the British as a response to Italy's invasion of Ethiopia.
Italian irredentists had claimed that territories on the coast of
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
were Italy's
Fourth Shore and used the historical Roman rule in North Africa as a precedent to justify the incorporation of such territories to Italian jurisdiction as being a "return" of Italy to North Africa. In January 1939, Italy annexed territories in
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
that it considered within Italy's Fourth Shore, with Libya's four coastal provinces of Tripoli, Misurata, Benghazi and Derna becoming an integral part of metropolitan Italy.
[Jon Wright. History of Libya. P. 165.] At the same time, indigenous Libyans were given the ability to apply for "Special Italian Citizenship" which required such people to be literate in the Italian language and confined this type of citizenship to be valid in Libya only.
Tunisia, a French protectorate since 1881, had the highest concentration of Italians in North Africa and its seizure by France had been viewed as an injury to national honour in Italy at what they perceived as a "loss" of Tunisia from Italian plans to incorporate it. Upon entering World War II, Italy declared its intention to seize Tunisia as well as the province of
Constantine of
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
from France.
To the south, the Fascist regime held interest in expanding Italy's African colonial possessions. In the 1920s, Italy regarded Portugal as a weak country that was unbecoming of a colonial power due to its weak hold on its colonies and mismanagement of them and as such Italy desired to annex Portugal's colonies.
[Lucas F. Bruyning, Joseph Theodoor Leerssen. Italy - Europe. Rodopi, 1990. P. 113.] Italy's relations with Portugal were influenced by the rise to power of the authoritarian conservative nationalist regime of
António de Oliveira Salazar, which borrowed fascist methods, though Salazar upheld
Portugal's traditional alliance with Britain.
Totalitarianism
In 1925, the PNF declared that Italy's Fascist state was to be
totalitarian.
The term "totalitarian" had initially been used as a pejorative accusation by Italy's liberal opposition that denounced the Fascist movement for seeking to create a total dictatorship.
However, the Fascists responded by accepting that they were totalitarian, but presented totalitarianism from a positive viewpoint.
Mussolini described totalitarianism as seeking to forge an authoritarian national state that would be capable of completing ''Risorgimento'' of the ''Italia Irredenta'', forge a powerful modern Italy and create a new kind of citizen – politically active Fascist Italians.
The ''Doctrine of Fascism'' (1932) described the nature of Italian Fascism's totalitarianism, stating the following:
American journalist
H. R. Knickerbocker wrote in 1941: "Mussolini's Fascist state is the least terroristic of the three totalitarian states. The terror is so mild in comparison with the Soviet or Nazi varieties, that it almost fails to qualify as terroristic at all." As example he described an Italian journalist friend who refused to become a Fascist. He was fired from his newspaper and put under 24-hour surveillance, but otherwise not harassed; his employment contract was settled for a lump sum and he was allowed to work for the foreign press. Knickerbocker contrasted his treatment with the inevitable torture and execution under Stalin or Hitler, and stated "you have a fair idea of the comparative mildness of the Italian kind of totalitarianism".
However, since World War II historians have noted that in Italy's colonies Italian Fascism displayed extreme levels of violence. One-tenth of the population of the Italian colony of Libya died during the Fascist era, including from the use of gassings,
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
s, starvation and disease; in Ethiopia during and after the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War, a quarter of a million Ethiopians died.
Corporatist economics
Italian Fascism promotes a
corporatist economic system. The economy involves employer and employee
syndicate
A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest.
Etymology
The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndicat ...
s being linked together in corporative associations to collectively represent the nation's economic producers and work alongside the state to set national economic policy.
It supports criminalization of strikes by employees and
lockouts by employers, as it deems these acts prejudicial to the national community as a whole.
Age and gender roles
The Italian Fascists' political anthem was called ''
Giovinezza
"Giovinezza" ( – ) is the official hymn of the Italian National Fascist Party, regime, and army, and was an unofficial national anthem of the Kingdom of Italy between 1924 and 1943.Farrell, Nicholas. 2005. ''Mussolini: a New Life''. Sterling Pub ...
'' ("The Youth").
[Mark Antliff. ''Avant-Garde Fascism: The Mobilization of Myth, Art, and Culture in France, 1909–1939''. Duke University Press, 2007. Pp. 171.] Fascism identifies the physical age period of youth as a critical time for the moral development of people that will affect society.
Italian Fascism pursued what it called "moral hygiene" of youth, particularly regarding
sexuality.
[Maria Sop Quine. ''Population Politics in Twentieth Century Europe: Fascist Dictatorships and Liberal Democracies''. Routledge, 1995. Pp. 46–47.] Fascist Italy promoted what it considered normal sexual behaviour in youth while denouncing what it considered abnormal sexual behaviour.
It deemed homosexuality as deviant sexual conduct.
The Fascist State also criminalized the dispersion of birth control as well as abortion and created laws that taxed bachelors.
[Maynes, Mary Jo., and Ann Beth. Waltner. "Powers of Life and Death: Families in the Era of State Population Management." The Family: A World History. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. 101. Print.] Fascist Italy regarded the promotion of male sexual excitation before
puberty as the cause of criminality amongst male youth.
Fascist Italy reflected the belief of most Italians that homosexuality was wrong and even went as far as to create punitive laws against homosexuals.
Instead of the traditional Catholic teaching that it was a sin, a new approach was taken based on then-modern psychoanalysis that it was a social disease.
Fascist Italy pursued an aggressive campaign to reduce prostitution of young women.
Mussolini perceived women's primary role to be childbearers while men were warriors, once saying that "war is to man what maternity is to the woman".
[Bollas, Christopher, ''Being a Character: Psychoanalysis and Self-Experience'' (Routledge, 1993) , p. 205.] In an effort to increase birthrates, the Italian Fascist government gave financial incentives to women who raised large families and initiated policies designed to reduce the number of women employed.
[McDonald, Harmish, ''Mussolini and Italian Fascism'' (Nelson Thornes, 1999) p. 27.] Italian Fascism called for women to be honoured as "reproducers of the nation" and the Italian Fascist government held ritual ceremonies to honour women's role within the Italian nation.
[Mann, Michæl. ''Fascists'' (Cambridge University Press, 2004) p. 101.] In 1934, Mussolini declared that employment of women was a "major aspect of the thorny problem of unemployment" and that for women working was "incompatible with childbearing". Mussolini went on to say that the solution to unemployment for men was the "exodus of women from the work force".
[Durham, Martin, ''Women and Fascism'' (Routledge, 1998) p. 15.]
Tradition
Italian Fascism believed that the success of Italian nationalism required a clear sense of a shared past amongst the Italian people, along with a commitment to a modernized Italy. In a famous speech in 1926, Mussolini called for Fascist art that was "traditionalist and at the same time modern, that looks to the past and at the same time to the future".
Traditional symbols of Roman civilization were utilized by the Fascists, particularly the
fasces that symbolized unity, authority and the exercise of power.
[Claudia Lazzaro, Roger J. Crum. "Forging a Visible Fascist Nation: Strategies for Fusing the Past and Present" by Claudia Lazzaro, ''Donatello Among The Blackshirts: History And Modernity In The Visual Culture Of Fascist Italy''. Ithaca, New York, USA: Cornell University Press, 2005. Pp. 16.] Other traditional symbols of ancient Rome used by the Fascists included the
she-wolf of Rome.
The fasces and the she-wolf symbolized the shared Roman heritage of all the regions that constituted the Italian nation.
In 1926, the fasces was adopted by the Fascist government of Italy as a symbol of the state.
[Denis Mack Smith. ''Italy and its Monarchy''. Yale University Press, 1989. Pp. 265.] In that year, the Fascist government attempted to have the Italian national flag redesigned to incorporate the fasces on it.
However, this attempt to incorporate the fasces on the flag was stopped by strong opposition to the proposal by Italian monarchists.
Afterwards, the Fascist government in public ceremonies rose the national tricolour flag along with a Fascist black flag. However, years later and after Mussolini was forced from power by the King in 1943 only to be rescued by German forces, the
Italian Social Republic founded by Mussolini and the Fascists did incorporate the fasces on the state's war flag, which was a variant of the Italian tricolour national flag.
The issue of the rule of monarchy or republic in Italy was an issue that changed several times through the development of Italian Fascism. Initially Italian Fascism was
republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
and denounced the Savoy monarchy.
[John Francis Pollard. The Fascist Experience in Italy. P. 72.] However, Mussolini tactically abandoned republicanism in 1922 and recognized that the acceptance of the monarchy was a necessary compromise to gain the support of the establishment to challenge the liberal constitutional order that also supported the monarchy.
King Victor Emmanuel III had become a popular ruler in the aftermath of Italy's gains after World War I and the army held close loyalty to the King, thus any idea of overthrowing the monarchy was discarded as foolhardy by the Fascists at this point.
Importantly, Fascism's recognition of monarchy provided Fascism with a sense of historical continuity and legitimacy.
The Fascists publicly identified King
Victor Emmanuel II – the first
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
of a reunited Italy who had initiated the ''Risorgimento'' – along with other historic Italian figures, such as
Gaius Marius, Julius Cæsar, Giuseppe Mazzini,
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri (, 10 August 1810 – 6 June 1861), generally known as Cavour ( , ), was an Italian politician, businessman, economist and noble, and a leading figure in the movement tow ...
, Giuseppe Garibaldi and others, for being within a tradition of dictatorship in Italy that the Fascists declared that they emulated. However, this compromise with the monarchy did not yield a cordial relationship between the King and Mussolini.
Although Mussolini had formally accepted the monarchy, he pursued and largely achieved reducing the power of the King to that of a
figurehead
In politics, a figurehead is a person who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet ''de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that they ...
. The King initially held complete nominal legal authority over the military through the ''
Statuto Albertino
The Statuto Albertino (English: ''Albertine Statute'') was the constitution granted by King Charles Albert of Sardinia to the Kingdom of Sardinia on 4 March 1848 and written in Italian and French. The Statute later became the constitution of t ...
'', but this was ended during the Fascist regime when Mussolini created the position of
First Marshal of the Empire in 1938, a two-person position of control over the military held by both the King and the head of government, that had the effect of eliminating the King's previously exclusive legal authority over the military by giving Mussolini equal legal authority to the King over the military. In the 1930s, Mussolini became aggravated by the monarchy's continued existence due to envy of the fact that his counterpart in Germany
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
was both head of state and head of government of a republic; and Mussolini in private denounced the monarchy and indicated that he had plans to dismantle the monarchy and create a republic with himself as head of state of Italy upon an Italian success in the then-anticipated major war about to erupt in Europe.
After being removed from office and placed under arrest by the King in 1943 and the Kingdom of Italy's new non-fascist government switching sides from the Axis to the Allies, Italian Fascism returned to republicanism and condemnation of the monarchy.
On 18 September 1943, Mussolini made his first public address to the Italian people since his rescue from arrest by allied German forces, in which he commended the loyalty of Hitler as an ally while condemning King Victor Emmanuel III of the Kingdom of Italy for betraying Italian Fascism.
On the topic of the monarchy removing him from power and dismantling the Fascist regime, Mussolini stated that "
is not the regime that has betrayed the monarchy, it is the monarchy that has betrayed the regime" and that "
en a monarchy fails in its duties, it loses every reason for being...The state we want to establish will be national and social in the highest sense of the word; that is, it will be Fascist, thus returning to our origins".
The Fascists at this point did not denounce the
House of Savoy in the entirety of its history and credited Victor Emmanuel II for his rejection of "scornfully dishonourable pacts" and denounced Victor Emmanuel III for betraying Victor Emmanuel II by entering a dishonourable pact with the Allies.
The relationship between Italian Fascism and the Catholic Church was mixed, as originally it was highly anti-clerical and hostile to Catholicism, but from the mid to late 1920s anti-clericalism lost ground in the movement as Mussolini in power sought to seek accord with the Church as the Church held major influence in Italian society with most Italians being Catholic. In 1929, the Italian government signed the
Lateran Treaty with the
Holy See
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...
, a
concordat
A concordat is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both,René Metz, ''What is Canon Law?'' (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1960 st Edi ...
between Italy and the Catholic Church that allowed for the creation of a small enclave known as
Vatican City as a sovereign state representing the
papacy. This ended years of perceived alienation between the Church and the Italian government after Italy annexed the
Papal States in 1870. Italian Fascism justified its adoption of antisemitic laws in 1938 by claiming that Italy was fulfilling the Christian religious mandate of the Catholic Church that had been initiated by
Pope Innocent III in the
Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, whereby the Pope issued strict regulation of the life of Jews in Christian lands which reduced their status to essentially perpetual slaves, Jews were prohibited from holding any public office that would give them power over Christians and Jews were required to wear distinctive clothing to distinguish them from Christians.
Influence outside Italy
The National Fascist Party model was very influential beyond Italy. In the twenty-one-year
interbellum
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relative ...
period, many
political scientists
This is a list of notable political scientists. See the list of political theorists for those who study political theory. See also political science.
A
* Robert Abelson - Yale University psychologist and political scientist with special int ...
and philosophers sought
ideological
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied prim ...
inspiration from Italy. Mussolini's establishment of law and order to Italy and its society was praised by
Winston Churchill,
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
,
George Bernard Shaw and
Thomas Edison,
as the Fascist Government combated
organised crime and
the Mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
with violence and
vendetta (honour).
Italian Fascism was copied by
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
, the
Russian Fascist Organization,
Brit HaBirionim, the
British Union of Fascists, the Romanian
National Fascist Movement
The National Fascist Movement ( ro, Mișcarea Națională Fascistă, MNF) was a Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeast ...
(the
National Romanian Fascia and
National Italo-Romanian Cultural and Economic Movement), whereas the Dutch fascists were based upon the ''Verbond van Actualisten'' journal of
H. A. Sinclair de Rochemont and
Alfred Haighton. The
Sammarinese Fascist Party established a government in
San Marino with a politico-philosophic basis that was essentially Italian Fascism. In the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia,
Milan Stojadinović established his
Yugoslav Radical Union, which was based on Fascism. Party members wore green shirts,
Šajkača caps and used the Roman salute. Stojadinović also took to calling himself ''Vodja''. In Switzerland, pro-Nazi Colonel
Arthur Fonjallaz of the
National Front became an ardent Mussolini admirer after visiting Italy in 1932 and advocated the Italian annexation of Switzerland, whilst receiving Fascist foreign aid. The country was host for two Italian politico-cultural activities: the International Centre for Fascist Studies (CINEF — ''Centre International d’ Études Fascistes''), and the 1934 congress of the Action Committee for the Universality of Rome (CAUR — ''Comitato d’ Azione della Università de Roma''). In Spain, the writer
Ernesto Giménez Caballero
Ernesto Giménez Caballero (2 August 1899 in Madrid – 14 May 1988 in Madrid), also known as Gecé, was a Spanish writer, diplomat, and pioneer of Fascism in Spain. His work has been categorized as being part of the Surrealist movement, while Stan ...
, in ''Genio de España'' (''The Genius of Spain'', 1932) called for the Italian annexation of Spain, led by Mussolini presiding an international Latin Roman Catholic empire. He then progressed to be closely associated with
Falangism
Falangism ( es, falangismo) was the political ideology of two political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS) and afterwards the Fal ...
, leading to discarding the Spanish annexation to Italy. In India, Italian Fascism and particularly the
Opera Nazionale Balilla, influenced
B.S. Moonje and the
Hindu Mahasabha. In Brazil, Italian Fascism played a role in inspiring and financing
Plínio Salgado's
Brazilian Integralist Action.
Legacy
Although the National Fascist Party was outlawed by the postwar
Constitution of Italy
The Constitution of the Italian Republic ( it, Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana) was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended sixteen times, ...
, a number of successor neo-fascist parties emerged to carry on its legacy. Historically, the largest neo-fascist party was the
Italian Social Movement (''Movimento Sociale Italiano''), whose best result was 8.7% of votes gained in the
1972 general election. The MSI was disbanded in 1995 and was replaced by
National Alliance, a conservative party that distanced itself from Fascism (its founder, former foreign minister
Gianfranco Fini, declared during an official visit to
State of Israel that Fascism was "an absolute evil"). National Alliance and a number of neo-fascist parties were merged in 2009 to create the short-lived
People of Freedom party led by then Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi, which eventually disbanded after the defeat in the
2013 general election. By now, many former members of MSI and AN joined
Brothers of Italy party led by
Giorgia Meloni.
Secretaries of the PNF
*
Michele Bianchi
Michele Bianchi (22 July 1882 – 3 February 1930) was an Italian revolutionary syndicalist leader who took a position in the Unione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL) He was among the founding members of the Fascist movement. He was widely seen as the ...
(November 1921 – January 1923)
*multiple presidency (January 1923 – October 1923)
:''
Triumvirate
A triumvirate ( la, triumvirātus) or a triarchy is a political institution ruled or dominated by three individuals, known as triumvirs ( la, triumviri). The arrangement can be formal or informal. Though the three leaders in a triumvirate are ...
'': Michele Bianchi, Nicola Sansanelli,
Giuseppe Bastianini
*
Francesco Giunta (15 October 1923 – 22 April 1924)
*multiple presidency (23 April 1924 – 15 February 1925)
:''
Quadrumvirate'':
Roberto Forges Davanzati,
Cesare Rossi,
Giovanni Marinelli, Alessandro Melchiorri
*
Roberto Farinacci
Roberto Farinacci (; 16 October 1892 – 28 April 1945) was a leading Italian Fascist politician and important member of the National Fascist Party before and during World War II as well as one of its ardent antisemitic proponents. English histo ...
(15 February 1925 – 30 March 1926)
*
Augusto Turati (30 March 1926 – 7 October 1930)
*
Giovanni Giuriati (October 1930 – December 1931)
*
Achille Starace (December 1931 – 31 October 1939)
*
Ettore Muti (31 October 1939 – 30 October 1940)
*Adelchi Serena (30 October 1940 – 26 December 1941)
*
Aldo Vidussoni (26 December 1941 – 19 April 1943)
*
Carlo Scorza (19 April 1943 – 27 July 1943)
Election results
Italian Parliament
Party symbols
File:National Fascist Party logo.svg, Party emblem of the National Fascist Party
File:Fascist Eagle.svg, Eagle clutching a fasces, a common symbol of Italian Fascism, regularly used on uniforms and caps
File:Flag of the National Fascist Party (PNF).svg, Flag of the National Fascist Party
Slogans
*''Viva il Duce!'' ("Long live the Leader!")
*''Saluto al Duce!'' ("Hail the Leader!")
*''Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato'' ("Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State") – Benito Mussolini (October 1925)
*''La guerra è per l'uomo, come la maternità è per la donna'' ("War is to man, as motherhood is to woman")
[Sarti, Roland. 1974. ''The Ax Within: Italian Fascism in Action.'' New York: New Viewpoints. p187.]
*''Viva la morte'' ("Long live death
acrifice
*''Credere, obbedire, combattere'' ("Believe, obey, fight")
*''Vincere e vinceremo!'' ("Win and we will win!")
*''Libro e moschetto - fascista perfetto'' ("Book and rifle - perfect Fascist")
*''Se avanzo, seguitemi. Se indietreggio, uccidetemi. Se muoio, vendicatemi'' ("If I advance, follow me. If I retreat, kill me. If I die, avenge me")
*''La libertà non è diritto è un dovere'' ("Liberty is not a right it is a duty")
*''Noi tireremo diritto'' (literally "We will go straight" or "We shall go forward")
See also
*
Glossary of Fascist Italy
This is a list of words, terms, concepts, and slogans in the Italian language and Latin language which were specifically used in Fascist Italian monarchy and Italian Social Republic.
Some words were coined by Benito Mussolini and other Italian ...
*
Fascism
*
Fascism and ideology
*
Italian fascism
*
Revolutionary nationalism
Revolutionary nationalism is a term that can refer to:
• Different ideologies and doctrines which differ strongly from traditional nationalism, in the sense that it is more involved in the social question, involved geopolitically whose polit ...
*
Squadrismo
References
External links
THE DOCTRINE OF FASCISM / BENITO MUSSOLINI (1932)Fascist Italy and the Jews: Myth versus Reality an online lecture by Dr. Iæl Nidam-Orvieto of
Yad Vashem
{{Authority control
1921 establishments in Italy
1943 disestablishments in Italy
Defunct nationalist parties in Italy
Defunct political parties in Italy
Fascist parties
Italian Fascism
Parties of one-party systems
Political parties established in 1921
Political parties disestablished in 1943
Right-wing populism in Italy
National conservative parties
Social conservative parties
Far-right political parties
Banned far-right parties