Mussolini

Totalitarian Regime

One leader, total control

SINGLE RULER

state control of the economy

censorship

propaganda

rule with fear, brutality, secret police

What are some examples of totalitarian regimes?

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Cult of Personality

What is a cult of personality?

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Verses Communism

HOW DID THE IMPLEMENTATION OF FASCISM RESHAPE ITALY?

• Used force to establish a dictatorship

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• Brown Shirts

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PNF shield: Fascism protects Italy.

HOW DID THE IMPLEMENTATION OF FASCISM RESHAPE ITALY?

• Killed political opponents
• Abolished opposition parties

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• *** By seeking military conquests, Mussolini hoped to regain the old glory of ancient Rome***

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The March on Rome coup d’ État: Mussolini and the PNF paramilitary Blackshirts, October 1922

Rise of Mussolini: Policies

• Economic:
• Encouraged economic growth by ending conflicts between owners and workers

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• Disbanded labor unions (strikes became illegal)

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Rise of Mussolini: Policies

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• Social
• Rights of women were restricted

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• Encouraged growth of Italian families

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Rise of Mussolini: Policies

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• Political:
• One party rule
• End of Freedom of the Press
• Expand the Italian Empire – Africa (invade Ethiopia)

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1930: The Great Depression

Directions: Read the excerpt below. Respond to the questions.

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One major cause of the global Great Depression was the American Wall Street Crash of October 1929. America had given the Weimar Republic huge loans in 1924 to help with reparation payments. However, now America needed those loans back to assist its troubled economy. Because Germany lost its loans from America, it was unable to make reparation payments. Germany’s failure to make reparation payments meant that France and Britain were unable to make their loan payments. Throughout the world, trade began to slow down and production decreased. The Wall Street Crash had a ripple effect throughout the world that resulted in high unemployment throughout Europe. Unemployment forced many Europeans, especially in Germany, to rely on soup kitchens and other government support.

European governments seemed unable to handle the crisis. The traditional approaches to handling economic crises seemed to only cause more problems. With the current governments unable to ease the pain and suffering of unemployment and inflation, Europeans began to be drawn to totalitarian leaders who made promises about economic recovery. Totalitarianism is a political system in which all authority is in the hands of the state. In a totalitarian society, all control of public and private life are government run. In Stalin’s totalitarian communist government there was no ownership of private property. In totalitarian fascist there is private property and free enterprise with often severe restrictions. Although fascist governments differed, they had many characteristics in common such as extreme militaristic nationalism, a rejection of democracy, a belief in natural social hierarchy, and the limitation of individual rights. Fascist governments used violence, propaganda and intimidation to promote their ideas and to justify their control of every aspect of life. In a fascist government Europe’s first fascist leader was Benito Mussolini of Italy.

WHY DID ITALY SUPPORT MUSSOLINI?

WOULD YOU HAVE?

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