Mussolini’s long road to his rise of Power began in the years of the First World War with the involvement of Italy on behalf of its Allies. His road to Dictatorship took longer than of Hitler’s.
There were, in all, seven different groups of which Mussolini had to gain support of in order for him to carry out a successful dictatorship. And these are Catholic Church, Industrialists, the Working Class population, his own Fascist Party, the King and his Nobles, Other political parties and trade unions.
He used several methods to control them:
• Mussolini gave members of the National Fascist Party titles, of which made them feel like they were high profile and different to the rest of the population. He managed gain support of the Squadristi by giving them a wage for all their work.
• In 1919-1922 Mussolini used methods of violence to bring other minor groups on board and appeasing to them in order to show he agreed with them and was on their side. He also suprressed minor parties to join Fascist party by intimidating them using the Squadristi.
• He managed to gain the support of the Catholic Church by mainly changing his personal behaviour and portraying himself as a good Catholic. In 1926 Mussolini renewed his vows in a Catholic Church to his wife and christened his children in 1923.
• In order to gain the support of the Italian Industrialists (whom amongst them caused several problems and unrest amongst), he used violence and force, known as 'strike busting', to suppress them in the years of 1919-1922. However, there after till 1925, Mussolini had imposed tax exemptions to bribe industrialists to follow the Fascist party and suggesting that he was siding with the Industrialists.
• Mussolini gain the support of the Working Class population after he used the method of suppression to break up the strikes and riots formed by the Working Class population using members of the Squadristi – a gang made up of ex-army legionaries.
• Mussolini had dealt with Trade Unions in a similar way in which he dealt with the Working Class population – Appeasement and suppression.
• By 1929, Mussolini’s support was at its highest. To finish off, it was exceptionally important that Mussolini had the support of the King in order to gain his rise to power and form a dictatorship. The entire six year period Mussolini spent gaining support of all these different groups, he had managed to gain the support of the King Victor Emmanuel III.
Mussolini’s use of the Squadristi was the main reason which helped increase Mussolini’s support by 1925. He used the squadristi as his main tool to suppress people into joining the Fascist party by injecting fear into them.
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