1922 mass demonstration and coup d'etat by the National Fascist Party in Rome, Italy
The
March on Rome
(
Italian
:
Marcia su Roma
) was an organized
mass demonstration
in October 1922 which resulted in
Benito Mussolini
's
National Fascist Party
(
Partito Nazionale Fascista
, PNF) ascending to power in the
Kingdom of Italy
. In late October 1922, Fascist Party leaders planned a march on the capital. On 28 October, the fascist demonstrators and
Blackshirt
paramilitaries approached
Rome
; Prime Minister
Luigi Facta
wished to declare a
state of siege
, but this was overruled by
King Victor Emmanuel III
, who, fearing bloodshed, persuaded Facta to resign by threatening to abdicate. On 30 October 1922, the King appointed Mussolini as Prime Minister, thereby transferring political power to the fascists without armed conflict. On 31 October the fascist Blackshirts paraded in Rome, while Mussolini formed his coalition government.
[1]
[2]
Background
[
edit
]
In March 1919, Benito Mussolini founded the first
Italian Fasces of Combat
(FIC) at the beginning of the so-called
Red Biennium
, a two-year long social conflict between the
Italian Socialist Party
(PSI) and the liberal and conservative ruling class. Mussolini suffered a defeat in
the election of November 1919
.
[3]
[
further explanation needed
]
During the "two red years", there were numerous
strikes
, protests against rises in the cost of living, occupations of factories and land by industrial workers or agricultural laborers, and other types of clashes between socialists on one side and landowners and business owners on the other side.
[4]
The government tried to play the role of neutral mediator, which dissatisfied both sides.
[5]
Local elites felt themselves vulnerable and began to establish an alliance with the small Fascist movement, which contained many veterans of
World War I
and had a reputation for violence, in the hope of using Fascist paramilitary squads to destroy socialist organizations.
[6]
Since 1919, Fascist militias, known as
squadristi
or "
Blackshirts
" due to their uniforms, had been attacking socialist politicians and militants. In August 1920, the Blackshirt militia was used to break the
general strike
which started at the
Alfa Romeo
factory in
Milan
, while in November 1920, after the assassination of Giulio Giordani (a right-wing municipal councillor in
Bologna
), the Blackshirts were active in the suppression of the socialist movement, which included a strong
anarcho-syndicalist
component, especially in the
Po Valley
.
Local elections in 1920 were won by the socialists in many towns, cities and villages across Italy, and in response Fascist militias attacked
union
organizers and municipal administrators, making it difficult for local governments to function.
[7]
A local deputy from the town of
Budrio
sent a telegram to the prime minister in October 1921 to report that the Fascists had effectively taken over, that "unions and socialist clubs [were] ordered to dissolve themselves within 48 hours or face physical destruction" and that the "life of the town is paralysed, authorities impotent".
[8]
Similar situations also occurred in other towns across Northern and Central Italy from 1920 to 1922.
[9]
The police repeatedly failed to intervene against Fascist violence, and in some cases police officers openly supported the Fascists and supplied them with weapons.
[10]
In the
1921 general election
the Fascists ran within the
National Blocs
of
Giovanni Giolitti
, an
anti-socialist
coalition of liberals, conservatives and fascists. The Fascists won 35 seats and Mussolini was elected in the Parliament for the first time.
After a few weeks, Mussolini withdrew his support for Giolitti and his
Italian Liberal Party
(
Partito Liberale Italiano
, PLI) and attempted to work out a temporary truce with the Socialists by signing the so-called "
Pact of Pacification
" in the summer of 1921. The Pact led to many protests by the radical members of the Fascist movement, led by local leaders like
Roberto Farinacci
, who were known as
Ras
. In July 1921, Giolitti attempted to dissolve the Blackshirts, but he failed; while the Pact with the Socialists was nullified during the Third Fascist Congress on 7?10 November 1921, during which Mussolini promoted a
nationalist
program and renamed his movement
National Fascist Party
(PNF), which enrolled 320,000 members by late 1921.
[11]
In August 1922, an
anti-fascist general strike
was organized throughout the country by the socialists. Mussolini declared that the Fascists would suppress the strike themselves if the government did not immediately intervene to stop it, which enabled him to position the Fascist Party as a defender of law and order.
[12]
On 2 August, in
Ancona
, Fascist squads moved in from the countryside and razed all buildings occupied by socialists.
[12]
This was then repeated in
Genoa
and other cities.
[12]
In
Milan
, on 3 and 4 August, there was street fighting between socialists and fascists; the fascists destroyed the printing presses of the socialist newspaper
Avanti!
and burned its buildings.
[12]
Then, with the support of local business owners, they took over local government and expelled the elected socialist administration from the town hall.
[12]
The Italian national government in Rome did nothing to react to these developments, and its inaction prompted Mussolini to begin planning a march on Rome.
[12]
From their new power base in Milan, the Fascists gathered the financial support of large companies who were determined to fight against "strikes,
bolshevism
and nationalization".
[13]
A delegation from the
General Confederation of Italian Industry
met with Mussolini two days before the March on Rome.
[14]
Also a few days before the march, Mussolini consulted with the U.S. Ambassador
Richard Washburn Child
about whether the U.S. government would object to Fascist participation in a future Italian government and Child gave him American support. When Mussolini learned that Prime Minister
Luigi Facta
had given
Gabriele D'Annunzio
the mission to organize a large demonstration on 4 November 1922 to
celebrate the national victory during the war
, he decided to immediately implement the March.
[15]
March
[
edit
]
On 24 October 1922, Mussolini declared in front of 60,000 militants at a Fascist rally in
Naples
: "Our program is simple: we want to rule Italy."
[16]
On the following day, the
Quadrumvirs
,
Emilio De Bono
,
Italo Balbo
,
Michele Bianchi
and
Cesare Maria de Vecchi
, were appointed by Mussolini at the head of the march, while he went to
Milan
. He did not participate in the march, though he allowed pictures to be taken of him marching along with the Fascist marchers, and he went to Rome the next day.
[17]
Generals Gustavo Fara and Sante Ceccherini assisted with the preparations of the March of 18 October. Other organizers of the march included the Marquis
Dino Perrone Compagni
and Ulisse Igliori.
On 26 October, the former Prime Minister
Antonio Salandra
warned the then Prime Minister,
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 only become a minister of his government. To meet the threat posed by the bands of fascist troops now gathering outside Rome, Luigi Facta (who had resigned but continued to hold power) ordered a
state of siege
for Rome. Having had previous conversations with the King about the repression of fascist violence, he was sure the King would agree.
[18]
However,
King Victor Emmanuel III
refused to sign the military order.
[19]
On the morning of 28 October, in Milan, Mussolini received a delegation of supportive industrialists at the
Il Popolo d'Italia
headquarters who urgently requested him to find a compromise with Antonio Salandra. Mussolini was then proposed to rule alongside Salandra, however he refused.
[20]
[21]
Following an analysis of the footage of the time with the
facial recognition
technique, the presence alongside Mussolini of Raoul Vittorio Palermi, Grand Master of the
Gran Loggia d'Italia
, was also ascertained.
[22]
[23]
On 30 October, the King handed power to Mussolini, who was supported by the military, the business class, and the right wing.
[24]
The march itself was composed of fewer than 30,000 men, but the King in part feared a
civil war
since the
squadristi
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.
[25]
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 Italian Constitution. The March on Rome was not the seizure 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
and
laissez faire
economics.
[26]
This proved overly optimistic, as the
Great Depression
struck Italy along with the rest of the world in 1929, and Mussolini responded to it by increasing the role of the state in the economy to avoid a
banking crisis
.
[27]
By 1934, the
Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale
(Institute for Industrial Reconstruction) had been created to rescue, restructure and finance banks and private companies that went bankrupt during the Great Depression, and by 1937 this Institute had become a major
shareholder
in Italian industry, controlling all the capital of the military steel sector, 40% of nonmilitary steel, and 30% of the electrical industry.
[28]
Back in 1922, in the aftermath of the March on Rome, Mussolini pretended to be willing to take a junior ministry in a Giolitti or
Salandra
cabinet, but then demanded the presidency of the Council of Ministers.
[29]
Fearing a conflict with the fascists, the ruling class thus handed power to Mussolini, who went on to install the dictatorship after the 10 June 1924 assassination of
Giacomo Matteotti
? who had finished writing
The Fascisti Exposed: A Year of Fascist Domination
? executed by
Amerigo Dumini
, accused of being the leader of the "Italian Ceka", though there is no evidence for such an organization existing.
Other participants
[
edit
]
Commemorative medal
[
edit
]
At the end of 1923, participants in the march received authorization to wear the
Commemorative Medal of the March on Rome
(
Italian
:
Medaglia commemorativa della Marcia su Roma
). In a series of royal decrees between 1926 and 1938, the Kingdom of Italy expanded eligibility for the medal until by mid-1938 all members of the
Blackshirts
and the
Italian Armed Forces
were authorized to wear it.
[30]
[31]
[32]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- Carsten, Francis Ludwig (1982).
The Rise of Fascism
.
University of California Press
.
- Cassells, Alan.
Fascist Italy
. Arlington Heights, IL: H. Davidson, 1985.
- Gallo, Max.
Mussolini's Italy: Twenty Years of the Fascist Era
. New York:
Macmillan
, 1973.
- Leeds, Christpher.
Italy under Mussolini
. Hove, East Sussex: Wayland, 1988 (1972).
- Chiapello, Duccio.
Marcia e contromarcia su Roma.
Marcello Soleri
e la resa dello Stato liberale
. Rome: Aracne, 2012.
- Gentile, Emilio.
E fu subito regime. Il fascismo italiano e la marcia su Roma
. Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2012.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Lyttelton, Adrian (2008).
The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919?1919
. New York: Routledge. pp. 75?77.
ISBN
978-0-415-55394-0
.
- ^
"March on Rome | Italian history"
.
Encyclopedia Britannica
. Retrieved
2017-07-25
.
- ^
Denis Mack Smith,
Modern Italy: A Political History
, University of Michigan Press (1997) p. 297
- ^
John Pollard,
The Fascist Experience in Italy
, London and New York: Routledge, 1998, p. 29
- ^
John Pollard,
The Fascist Experience in Italy
, London and New York: Routledge, 1998, p. 30
- ^
John Pollard,
The Fascist Experience in Italy
, London and New York: Routledge, 1998, p. 31
- ^
John Pollard,
The Fascist Experience in Italy
, London and New York: Routledge, 1998, pp. 31?33
- ^
John Pollard,
The Fascist Experience in Italy
, London and New York: Routledge, 1998, p. 33
- ^
John Pollard,
The Fascist Experience in Italy
, London and New York: Routledge, 1998, pp. 33?34
- ^
John Pollard,
The Fascist Experience in Italy
, London and New York: Routledge, 1998, pp. 41?42
- ^
Charles F. Delzell, edit.,
Mediterranean Fascism 1919?1945
, New York: Walker and Company, 1971, p. 26
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Denis Mack Smith,
Modern Italy: A Political History
, University of Michigan Press (1997) p. 308
- ^
Denis Mack Smith,
Modern Italy: A Political History
, University of Michigan Press (1997) p. 313
- ^
Denis Mack Smith,
Modern Italy: A Political History
, University of Michigan Press (1997) p. 314
- ^
"I "duci rivali": Mussolini e D'Annunzio a confronto"
(in Italian). 30 June 2019
. Retrieved
23 November
2021
.
- ^
Carsten (1982), p.62
- ^
Morgan, Philip (1995).
Italian Fascism 1919-1945
. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Press. p. 58.
ISBN
0-333-53779-3
.
- ^
Chiapello (2012), p.123
- ^
Carsten (1982), p.64
- ^
"La Marcia su Roma e l'avvio del Regime"
.
- ^
Melograni, Piero (1972).
Gli industriali e Mussolini : rapporti tra Confindustria e fascismo dal 1919 al 1929
.
OCLC
469368426
.
- ^
"The direction of Freemasonry behind the march on Rome and the rise of fascism"
(in Italian).
Agenzia Giornalistica Italia
. October 28, 2022.
- ^
"The direction of Freemasonry behind the march on Rome and the rise of fascism. Thanks to a facial recognition"
.
Wired
. October 28, 2022.
- ^
Rossi, Ernesto (1966).
Padroni del vapore e fascismo
. Ed. Laterza.
OCLC
254666529
.
- ^
"28 ottobre 1922: e marcia su Roma"
(in Italian). 25 October 2013
. Retrieved
23 November
2021
.
- ^
Carsten (1982), p.76
- ^
T Gianni Toniolo, editor,
The Oxford Handbook of the Italian Economy Since Unification
, Oxford University Press (2013) p. 58.
- ^
T Gianni Toniolo, editor,
The Oxford Handbook of the Italian Economy Since Unification
, Oxford University Press (2013) p. 59.
- ^
Lyttelton, Adrian (2009).
The Seizure of Power: Fascism in Italy, 1919?1929
. New York: Routledge. pp. 75?77.
ISBN
978-0-415-55394-0
.
- ^
Royal Decree Number 273 of 31 January 1926,
Uso delle decorazioni per il personale militare
("Use of decorations for military personnel"), published in the
Gazzetta Ufficiale
del Regno d'Italia ("Official Gazette of the Kingdom of Italy") Number 49 of 1 March 1926 (in Italian).
- ^
Royal Decree Number 2485 of 1 November 1928 (in Italian).
- ^
Royal Decree No. 1179 of 15 July 1938 (in Italian).
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