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Italy's Quest for Great Power Status 1871–1943

The rise of the Fascist movement 1919–22

  • 3 things to know
  • AS Unit 2

Overview

The Biennio Rosso and the fear of socialism, the squads and rural fascism, and the March on Rome.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

What did the Fascist programme of 1919 demand?

Numbers

How did Mussolini change the movement's direction after 1920?

Key term

Which groups supported Fascism, and why?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    When and where was the Fascist movement founded?

    Model answer

    Mussolini founded the Fasci di Combattimento in Milan on 23 March 1919 before an audience of about a hundred people, most of them ex-soldiers and syndicalists.

  2. 2

    What did the Fascist programme of 1919 demand?

    Model answer

    The 1919 programme was radical and left-wing, demanding a republic, votes for women, an eight-hour day, worker participation in industry, the confiscation of war profits, land for the peasants and the abolition of the Senate.

  3. 3

    How did Mussolini change the movement's direction after 1920?

    Model answer

    The Fascists had won no seats and only a few thousand votes in the election of November 1919, so Mussolini turned the movement to the right, dropping republicanism and anticlericalism and presenting Fascism as the defender of property, order and the nation against socialism, which brought money from landowners and industrialists.

  4. 4

    Who were the ras?

    Model answer

    The ras were the provincial Fascist bosses who commanded the local squads, among them Italo Balbo in Ferrara, Roberto Farinacci in Cremona and Dino Grandi in Bologna, and their independent power was a constant check on Mussolini.

  5. 5

    How quickly did Fascist membership grow?

    Model answer

    Membership rose from around twenty thousand at the end of 1920 to some two hundred thousand a year later and about three hundred thousand by late 1922, the growth coming overwhelmingly after the movement turned against socialism.

  6. 6

    Which groups supported Fascism, and why?

    Model answer

    Landowners and industrialists paid for protection against strikes and land seizures, the lower middle classes feared both organised labour and inflation, ex-officers and veterans found purpose and status in the squads, and students were drawn by the promise of national renewal.

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