Fascism is defined as a totalitarian philosophy that glorifies the state and assigns it control over all aspects of national life. Fascists believe the state is absolute and individuals exist to serve it. Fascism in Italy began after World War 1, led by Benito Mussolini. Mussolini used his Fascist squads, known as Squadristi, to gain power through violence and intimidation. By 1922, Mussolini had become Prime Minister through threats of chaos. He established a totalitarian fascist state ruled by his Fascist Party, though it was ineffective and compromised with the Catholic Church.

1. Fascist Italy

2. A Definition of Fascism
FFaasscciissmm is the totalitarian philosophy of
government that glorifies the state and nation
and assigns to the state control over every aspect
of national life.
The State not only is authority which governs and
molds individual will with laws and values of spiritual
life, but it is also power which makes its will prevail
abroad….For the Fascist, everything is within the
State and…neither individuals nor groups are outside
the State...For Fascism, the State is an absolute,
before which individuals or groups are only
relative….Liberalism denied the State in the name of
the individual; Fascism reasserts the rights of the
State as expressing the real essence of the individual.
-- Enciclopedia Italiana, 1932

3. The Birth of Fascism
Introduction
Background
WWI
Social Cost of War

6. Mercury Dimes Discontinued 1945

7. Benito Mussolini
(1883-1945)
Early Life
Socialist Activities
Political Activates
after 1919
Fascio de
Combattimento
Unclear Ideology-difficulties
Nationalist
Rhetoric
Fascist Find their
Niche

8. Squadristi

9. Squadristi
Bands of Fascists
Mussolini gains respectability
Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti
Gaines a hold of parliament

11. Violence and Fascism
Blackshirts number 200,000
Gains Middle Class support through fear
Brute force vs Elections
Victory through Chaos
March on Rome
Abdication of Emmanuel III Oct. 1922

13. Mussolini and the Fascist State
Mousillini as Prime Minister
Abreco Law
Elections of 1924
Fraud and Coercion
Fascist Dictatorship
Head of Government
OVRA

14. The fascists were taught:
Credere! [to believe]
Obbedire! [to obey]
Combattere! [to fight]

15. Mussolini's Totalitarian Regime
State Run
Ineffective
“Mussolini is always right”
New Fascist Man
Young Fascists
Women
Ideas
Law

16. Education
The first sentence
pronounced by children
at school was Let us
salute the flag in the
Roman fashion; hail to
Italy; hail to Mussolini.
Textbooks emphasized:
The glorious pat of the
ancient Romans.
The limitations imposed
upon the present
inhabitants by geography
and the West.
The imperial destiny that
awaited Italy’s future
development.

17. Rampant Sexism
Almost exclusively
male-dominated.
Traditional gender
roles are made more
rigid.
Divorce, abortion
homosexuality are
suppressed.
The state is
represented as the
ultimate guardian of
the family institution.

20. Conclusions
Lacked effectiveness of Nazi State or Stalinists Russia
Never Eradicated Old Regime
Compromised With Church
Lateran Accords
Showed Mussolini's Desire/Need for Legitimization
Dichotomy of Fascism
Promised Much, Delivered Little