The rise of fascism 1919-21

Question 1

What was the one upside of the 1919 elections for M?

Answer 1

They caused difficulties for the liberal government

Question 2

How was the 1919 election bad for the liberals?

Answer 2

The liberals and their allies could only muster 180 of the 508 seats and they still lacked cohesion and party discipline. The chamber now contained a revolutionary socialist party holding 156 seats and the Catholic Popular Party (PPI) had 100. Nitti’s liberal government relied on support from catholic deputies to maintain a fragile majority

Question 3

Why was it so bad that the liberals could no longer maintain a strong majority in the chamber?

Answer 3

Because it had been designed to protect and promote liberalism

Question 4

What was the PPI most commonly known as?

Answer 4

The popolari

Question 5

When was it founded?

Answer 5

Jan 1919

Question 6

Why was it allowed to form?

Answer 6

Because the pope lifted his ban on the formation of a catholic party

Question 7

Who was the party led by?

Answer 7

The Sicilian Priest Don Sturzo

Question 8

Why was the party mixed?

Answer 8

Because it contained conservative catholics and catholic determined to improve the life of the peasantry

Question 9

What was the consequence of the party being this uneasy coalition?

Answer 9

They found it easier to agree upon the things they opposed than the things they agreed on

Question 10

What role did it play due to the fact that it was reluctant to play a major role in government?

Answer 10

They were prepared to give their support to the liberal governments in return for policy concessions

Question 11

Why did they remain suspicious towards the liberals despite this?

Answer 11

Because they did not forget their disputes with the pope during the unification process

Question 12

Which fascist action discredited Nitti’s liberal government?

Answer 12

The seizure of Fiume

Question 13

Why was Nitti disliked by both the left and the right?

Answer 13

Because he would not grant major reform or crush protest

Question 14

Why did Nitti have to resign in June 1920?

Answer 14

Popolari support waned and he was unable to maintain control of his weak majority

Question 15

Who was he replaced by?

Answer 15

Giolitti

Question 16

How did he try and learn form where Nitti had failed?

Answer 16

He attempted to appeal to both the left and right

Question 17

How did he appeal to the left?

Answer 17

He spoke of workers’ entitlement

Question 18

How did he appeal to the right?

Answer 18

He planned to reduce food subsidies that benefitted the poor

Question 19

Who joined his coalition?

Answer 19

Liberals, popolari and even a few socialists

Question 20

Why should we not be misled by the fact that some socialists joined his coalition?

Answer 20

The majority of them were incredibly hostile

Question 21

Why was it slightly awkward that he was anti clerical?

Answer 21

Because he had to rely on catholic support in the chamber to prop up his government

Question 22

What weakened the Giolitti government further?

Answer 22

Events outside parliament

Question 23

What happened in Sep 1920?

Answer 23

Engineering workers, engaged in a dispute over wages, occupied the factories to prevent employers locking them out

Question 24

Give a statistic to show the extent of the unrest here?

Answer 24

Within days, 400,000 workers from the northern cities were involved

Question 25

What did employers demand the government do?

Answer 25

Intervene to crush the occupation

Question 26

What did Giolitti do?

Answer 26

Adopted his pre-war policy of neutrality and stood aloof

Question 27

Why did he do this?

Answer 27

He thought that the use of force would lead to a bloodbath, and believed that the occupation would soon collapse of its own accord

Question 28

Why did Giolitti enrage industrialsits even more with his response?

Answer 28

Because he even urged them to make concessions to the strikers

Question 29

What made conservatives fear that revolution was at hand here?

Answer 29

A number of factories were being used to produce weapons for the strikers

Question 30

Why was Giolitti's reputation damaged even though his prediction came true and the disorganised occupation collapsed after 1 month?

Answer 30

They saw the government as having failed to do its duty and employers and conservatives did not forgive him for what they saw as complacency and cowardice

Question 31

What were landowners complaining about in the countryside?

Answer 31

The socialist threat

Question 32

What had led to this idea?

Answer 32

Agricultural strikes and land occupations were continuing to increase

Question 33

What was happening in Emilia Romagna, the Po Valley, Umbria and Tuscany?

Answer 33

Socialist TUs were expanding and , with close to one million members, were beginning to establish a stranglehold over agricultural employment

Question 34

What was happening in Emilia?

Answer 34

The unions demanded higher wages for agricultural workers and guarantees that they would not be laid off during quiet times in the year

Question 35

Describe how much of a stranglehold the socialists had in Ferrara and Bologna

Answer 35

The only way an agricultural labourer could gain employment was by going through a job centre run by the Socialist Labourers' Union

Question 36

What would happen if landowners resisted TU demands?

Answer 36

Their estates would face disruption and farm managers might be subject to physical attack

Question 37

In what political forum did the socialists show their power?

Answer 37

Local elections in 1920

Question 38

How many of the county's provinces were they in control of?

Answer 38

29/69

Question 39

Where were these mainly located?

Answer 39

Northern and central Italy

Question 40

Why was the party particularly strong in Emilia?

Answer 40

It controlled 80% of the local councils

Question 41

Why did the urban middle classes fear the socialists?

Answer 41

Because they thought that they would raise taxes on the better off

Question 42

Why were shopkeepers concerned?

Answer 42

They were scared about potential competition from socialists sponsored cooperative shops

Question 43

What were these cooperative shops designed to do?

Answer 43

Offer cheaper prices to customers and allow the shopkeepers a say in the running of the business and a share of the profits

Question 44

What did landowners and conservatives see themselves as?

Answer 44

An embattled class

Question 45

Why did they think this?

Answer 45

Their political enemies and social inferiors seemed to be in the ascendency and they thought they had been abandoned by the government

Question 46

What intensified this feeling of abandonment?

Answer 46

The government's decision to allow agricultural labourers to keep land they had unjustly seized

Question 47

What had the properties classes in northern and central Italy begun to do by the end of 1920?

Answer 47

Fight back

Question 48

Why did they see violence as justifiable in this fight?

Answer 48

Because they thought they were facing potential revolution

Question 49

Why did frightened landowners and middle class townsfolk begin to turn to the fascists?

Answer 49

Because the fascists shared their hatred for socialism and needed no encouragement to attack them

Question 50

Where did landowners and the middle classes begin turning to fascism in particular?

Answer 50

Emilia and Tuscany

Question 51

Describe how Nov 1920 saw one of the first proper instances of fascist violence

Answer 51

The inauguration of the new socialist council in Bologna turned into riot

Question 52

Describe the main limitation of the fascist squads at this time?

Answer 52

They were small and lacked any coherent ideology

Question 53

What did this not prevent them from doing?

Answer 53

Burning down socialist offices and beating up trade unionists

Question 54

What punishment became a trademark for these fascist thugs?

Answer 54

Forcing their enemies to drink litres of potentially lethal castor oil

Question 55

Describe the scale of fascist violence between the winter of 1920 and the spring of 1921?

Answer 55

They destroyed over 80 TU offices killing 200 and wounding 800

Question 56

What had Emilia and Tuscany become by the spring?

Answer 56

Strongholds of the fascist squads

Question 57

What did this mean the squads could do?

Answer 57

Order the police to look the other way while they attacked the socialists

Question 58

What is the official name for these fascist squads?

Answer 58

Squadrismo

Question 59

Who comprised the squads in the early days?

Answer 59

Mainly middle class students and demobilised soldiers, usually ex army officers and more junior ranks, like sargeants and corporals

Question 60

What happened to these groups as they proved their ability to intimidate the socialists?

Answer 60

They began to attract new followers

Question 61

Who made up these new recruits?

Answer 61

Small farmers, farm managers and sharecroppers, who, although far from rich, were far better off than the peasantry

Question 62

What were they likely to be ambitious and anxious to do?

Answer 62

Buy their own land

Question 63

What kind of socialist talk angered them?

Answer 63

Higher wages and collectivisation

Question 64

How many active supporters did the fascist party have by the end of 1921?

Answer 64

Probably a little over 200,000

Question 65

How many of these were ex servicemen?

Answer 65

Around half

Question 66

Who made up the other half?

Answer 66

Landowners, shopkeepers, clerical workers and even teachers

Question 68

How was their a distinction between the working class squad members and the leadership?

Answer 68

Because the leadership was overwhelmingly middle class

Question 69

Give a statistic to show that fascism appealed to the young

Answer 69

Almost 10% of members were students and 25% were below voting age

Question 70

Why did the older generation begin to support fascism?

Answer 70

After previously supporting the conservative wing of liberalism they now despaired of the seemingly ineffectual parliamentary system and saw fascism as a way of securing the disciplined state they longed for

Question 71

Why would it be wrong to say that the movement was hijacked by conservatives

Answer 71

The fascist leaders in the provinces still saw themselves as leading a revolutionary movement that would overthrow the state by coup d'etat

Question 72

List some of the key figures who remained committed to violent squadrismo

Answer 72

Roberto Farinacci, Italo Balbo and Dino Grandi

Question 73

What did local ras like Balbo and Grandi do?

Answer 73

Built up their own power base

Question 74

Why is it unfair to attribute the rise of fascism to Mussolini?

Answer 74

Because he did not guide the fascist violence of the squadrismo but pragmatically jumped on the back of it

Question 75

How did he strive to put himself at the forefront of the squadrismo?

Answer 75

He wanted to reassert his claim as the sole and undisputed leader of the movement

Question 76

Why was M successful in doing this even though the ras were reluctant to give up their independence?

Answer 76

Because he convinced even the most ambitious of them that their success depended upon his leadership

Question 77

How did M justify this claim?

Answer 77

- Dominant personality in the movement - He could use his newspaper to publicise fascism and depict fascism as a necessary measure to save Italy from socialism, rather than simple thuggery - Fascism needed his leadership to be a coherent movement as otherwise the various factions would fall out with each other - With him as central leader, fascism could be presented as a national movement with a vision for a new Italy

Question 78

What would M present the squadrismo as?

Answer 78

An anti socialist crusade

Question 79

Who did the fascists cooperate with in the 1921 GE?

Answer 79

The Giolittian liberals

Question 80

What did the squads continue to do despite this air of respectability?

Answer 80

They continued their work, killing about 100 socialist sympathisers during the election campaign

Question 81

Why did the police turn a blind eye?

Answer 81

They didn't like socialists

Question 82

What did the election results show about fascist violence?

Answer 82

That it did not deter voters

Question 83

How did the socialists do?

Answer 83

They won 123 seats, remaining the largest party in the chamber

Question 84

How did the PPI do?

Answer 84

They won 107 seats

Question 85

Why was Giolitti disappointed?

Answer 85

Because the socialist vote had held up

Question 86

Why was M pleased?

Answer 86

Because of the progress his party had made

Question 87

Describe this progress

Answer 87

They had won 7% of the total votes, 35 seats and M was a deputy