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Essay (Mussolini)

Probably one of the most famous figures in Italian history is Benito Mussolini, due
to his dictatorship and way of running the nation. The objective of this essay is to
analyze the rise of power of this subject taking into account his skill as well as
luck and more factors.

On the 23 March 1919 after several communist demonstrations, Mussolini

decided to attempt to revive his fascist movement. After a meeting in Milan the
combat group was created. Initially it seemed that the fascists were destined for
failure since in the 1919 elections none of their candidates (including Mussolini)
won a single seat. By the end of 1919, Mussolini possessed more than 2% of the
votes in Milan, less than 5000 votes against 170,000 for the Socialists. By 1921
the membership of this former tiny group was a rival to the size of the Socialists.
Mussolini¶s skill and luck played a vital role as well as the incompetence of he¶s
opposition (similar to Stalin¶s rise to power in the USSR) many forms of
opposition slowed Mussolini¶s path towards the top of Italian government.
However, most of his opposition came from the Government and the rival
Socialist party. After the summer of 1920 the Fascists and their opposition
clashed. The fact that the prime minister at the time faced with million workers
sitting in factories showed that Italy was far from stable country in 1920.
Mussolini did not to gain ground over the Socialist opposition, He was still
recovering from his party's humiliating election defeat. After a spontaneous
revolutionary movement and strikes many opponents of socialism joined the
fascist party. Socialist were the main cause of the strikes so the government at
the time searched for allies against the socialists and eventually stood by the
side of the fascists (the Vatican had turned against Gioletti) The government at
the time saw Mussolini as a figure that could be easy to dominate and once it
had the power again it could easily dispose of the fascists. In the winter of 1920
with more power, Mussolini started his campaign of violence against the socialist
leaving over 200 dead and 800 wounded, the government did not stop this riots
due to it¶s alliance with the fascists but instead saw the campaign as a cheap
way to get rid of socialist opposition. Later in the election of the 15 of May 1921
government and fascists, by beating up opponents they unseated socialist and
catholic deputies. The fascist movement had a strong voice in the parliament
now. Mussolini met little opposition to his actions; the police and prefects
remained neutral or actively aided the Fascists with transport and arms. The
Fascists became an accepted political force with the help of the Prime Minister
Gioletti.

One of the main reasons for Mussolini¶s rise was the dependence Gioletti created
over the Fascists (to take brutal action against the unions and peasant leagues)
His unorthodox methods were self-destructive. It seemed that Gioletti and his
government had lost the will to govern the country and its people. The strikes
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after the war debts and such had raised the spectation of revolution so this
increased the attraction of the Fascists to the middle-class population and those
who feared socialism. It was Mussolini's policies of firm action to prevent
revolution that many Italians saw as the only alternative to Bolshevism. Finally,
on 26 June 1921 Gioletti's incompetence caught up with him; he was forced to
resign due to Fascist opposition in Parliament. A combination of Mussolini's
opportunism and skill, and Gioletti's inadequacy to govern Italy had resulted in
Gioletti's resignation. After the short rule of Ivanoe Bonomi and Luigi Facta,
Mussolini was able to get rid of the strong opposition of Socialism. The other
strong opposition was still present tough, the army, king and of course Facta.
After a series of events the current prime minister resigned and asked the king
for help to stop possible fascist takeover, the king feared a civil war and doubted
the ability of the current government to handle the situation. After the failed tries
of Facta to the king, Mussolini received total support from the army king and
Italian people.

In conclusion, some may describe Mussolini¶s career as a trick or bluff,

nevertheless he used this tricks in a time were this was more suited to success. It
is also appropriate to mention that Mussolini helped the fascist party into power
through his own skill. He brought an identity to the party. As everything in history
the luck of the fascists of having such incompetence leaders helped Mussolini to
get to power.