As WWI drew to a close, Italy erupted into chaos. The ‘biennio rosso’ or ‘two red years’ (1919-1920) were a period of strikes, protests, and occupations by socialist groups. The chaotic situation, loss of business, and presence of communist agitators frightened many Italians. This fear united them, as did a pervasive feeling that Italy had been poorly treated in the settlements that ended the war.

The Italians had been promised land in the secret sections of the 1915 Treaty of London, and they did not receive the majority of the land. The land, known as “terra irredenta” was connected to Italy by the culture and language of the people living there. Benito Mussolini used this disappointment and fear as a springboard to power. Creating the first fascist groups in Milan in 1919 and encouraging them to attack the socialists, Mussolini gained the approval of the middle and upper classes and many ex-soldiers.

Mussolini’s nationalist message and promises of an empire abroad also found widespread support. The PNF, the National Fascist Party, was founded in 1921. The threat of the March on Rome in 1922 was enough to gain Mussolini the position of Prime Minister and by 1925, Italy was a single-party state and, as ‘il Duce’, Mussolini had the ability to rule by decree. Mussolini pursued an aggressive foreign policy, attacking Abyssinia and joining the Spanish Civil War on the side of Franco. He was soon tied closely to Hitler, and in 1939, he signed a formal military and political alliance with Hitler, the Pact of Steel.

Mussolini’s economic policy focused on autarchia or autarky. Mussolini promoted a series of campaigns to improve Italy; the Battle for Grain, the Battle for Land, and the Battle for the Lira were three of these endeavors. None met with great success. While the Battle for Grain increased the amount of wheat grown in Italy, it did so at the expense of other agricultural products such as olive oil and grapes. The Battle for Land resulted in a single area of land being drained and a town constructed. The Battle for the Lira revalued the lira and led to a drop in Italian exports.

Mussolini described his fascist economic goal as the “Third Way” — a type of economy that was neither communist nor capitalist but had elements of each. In Italy, there was less anti-Semitism than in other parts of Europe, and Mussolini himself had expressed positive sentiments about Jewish people. Moreover, some early fascist converts were Jewish. However, in 1938 Mussolini issued the Charter of Race, identifying the Italians as Aryans. The Charter banned marriages between Italians and Jews and banned Jews from holding jobs in government, education, or banking.

These laws were widely ignored, however. Mussolini’s attitude toward women was that their place was in the home. His Battle for Births was aimed at raising the Italian population to increase the size of Italy’s army. This, too, failed, and the Italian birth rate actually fell. Mussolini intervened actively in education, replacing history textbooks with fascist versions of Italian history. However, the impact of this was diminished as, on average, children received only about 3 years of education. Both boys and girls were also encouraged to participate in Italian youth groups, but many avoided joining.

Mussolini’s government intervened in art, but chose no single artistic style to promote. Architecture was the fascists’ favorite form of art, since it provided a setting for fascist speeches and demonstrations. There was little organized opposition to Mussolini, particularly after the murder of the socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in 1924. However, there were several assassination attempts against Mussolini, including one in which his nose was grazed by a bullet. In 1943, with the Allies moving toward Rome, the King was persuaded to remove Mussolini from power.

Mussolini was imprisoned, but rescued by German paratroopers. The Germans made Mussolini a puppet ruler of the Salo Republic in Northern Italy. During this time, the racist anti-Semitic laws were harshly enforced, and Italian Jews were sent to the concentration camps. In April, 1945, Mussolini was captured and shot as he tried to flee to Switzerland. The authoritarian state founded by Mussolini was an incomplete one. Although Mussolini did use censorship and propaganda and attempted to fascistize the youth, and although he used secret police (the OVRA), Mussolini in fact did not have deep or complete control over any aspect of Italian society.