BENITO MUSSOLINI’S PRACTICES OF FASCISM AND DICTATORSHIPS

Benito Mussolini’s Practices of Fascism and Dictatorships

Maxine Philitas

Chamberlain College of Nursing

HIST410N-10356: Contemporary History

01/2020

Running head: BENITO MUSSOLINI’S PRACTICES OF FACISM AND DICTATORSHIPS 1

BENITO MUSSOLINI’S PRACTICES OF FACISM AND DICTATORSHIPS 3

Benito Mussolini’s Practices of Fascism and Dictatorships

Benito Mussolini created the fascist party in 1919 and was killed 26 years later in 1945 during his downfall. Mussolini was born in 1883 and was inspired by his father who was a socialist. Mussolini was a talented writer and began practicing socialist beliefs by publishing his writing is a newspaper in Italy called Avanti. This allowed him to spread his ideas and beliefs to influence the civilians of Italy until the commencement of World War I. After cutting ties with the socialist party, Mussolini saw World War I as an opportunity for his country to gain power and control, causing him to enter the war in 1915.” Mussolini began his political career as a socialist but was expelled from the Socialist Party after supporting Italy’s entry into World War I, a position contrary to the socialist principle of ardent neutrality in imperialist wars.” (Duiker, W. J., 2015) After being wounded in the war Mussolini began a group called the fascist party in 1919.

Mussolini’s birth of fascism

Mussolini primarily used violence to enforce his power and spread the ideology of fascism. “In Milan, and then throughout the north, he gathers a group true believer. They call themselves Black shirts.” (Stevenson, M. (Director), & Cameron, P. (Producer). (2018)). This group of fascist practiced violence against socialist to persuade the civilians of Italy that fascism is the better ideology to practice and that socialists couldn’t offer the restoration of the economy the way fascists could. Foreign policy can be described as “the goals that a state’s officials seek to attain abroad, the values that give rise to those objectives, and the means or instruments used to pursue them.”( Eugene R. Wittkopf, Christopher M. Jones, and Charles W. Kegley, Jr., 2007.) Black shirts lead by Mussolini terrorized socialist leaders and the streets of Italy in 1921, people lost their rights by having their homes burned intimidated at polling booths to vote for fascism. Fascist ideology was promoted by violence causing them to become a political party and enforced through government.

Invasion of Ethiopia

Benito Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935, forty years after their previous attempt that failed in 1835, upon a disagreement regarding Ethiopia becoming Italian territory. Interestingly, Mussolini was successful at making Ethiopia apart of the Italian empire using their advanced weaponry. This raised red flags in other parts of the world and Foreign Policy as Mussolini is successfully spreading his power and dictatorships through war and violence using chemical weapons that poisoned innocent people. Use of chemical weaponry was banned after World War I. Personal liberties of the natives of Ethiopia are lost as they now must conform to Mussolini’s ruling and Italians felt inferior to the natives of their land.

“Mussolini’s Ten Commandments”

Mussolini’s ten commandments came as an interesting surprise. It was shocking that he would cultivate children to promote violence to spread the ideas and beliefs of his dictatorship. He even used propaganda through the media to show he is doing a good thing by not allowing any negative new to be published. One of his ten commandments was “Mussolini’s always right.” (Stevenson, M. (Director), & Cameron, P. (Producer). (2018)). He targeted the minds of children “By 1939, about two-thirds of the population between the ages of eight and eighteen had been enrolled in some kind of Fascist youth group.” (Duiker, W. J., 2015.) While most children today enjoy their Saturday afternoons relaxing and playing with friends these children under fascists ruling were practicing marching drills and being prepared for war.

Conclusion

Thus, the birth of fascism, the invasion of Ethiopia and Mussolini’s ten commandments were interesting aspects that affected foreign policy, Governmental authority/loss of personal liberties and Violent and non-violent movements for social, economic, and political change. Fascism introduced by Benito Mussolini required total control over Italian government leading to him becoming the prime minister and discarded any aspect of democracy left in Italian government. He suppressed the opposition with torture, intimidation, and violence allowing him to have total control. Adolf Hitler admired his dictatorship and eleven years later began similar practices in Germany. Mussolini was a sort of mentor for Hitler therefore, when Mussolini needed savior during his downfall.

References

Duiker, W. J. (2015). Contemporary world history (6th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

Eugene R. Wittkopf, Christopher M. Jones, and Charles W. Kegley, Jr. 2007. American Foreign Policy: Pattern and Process, 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. ↵

Stevenson, M. (Director), & Cameron, P. (Producer). (2018). Benito Mussolini [Video file]. Public Broadcasting Service. Retrieved from Academic Video Online: Premium database.