Summary 6: The Rise of Mussolini

This summary episode revisits the rise of Italian fascism and Benito Mussolini's path to power during the tumultuous early 1920s. Born from Italy's sense of betrayal after World War I—when promised territorial gains in the Mediterranean never materialized—the fascist movement gained momentum as a bulwark against the growing Communist threat. Led by military veterans discharged into a war-ravaged economy, fascist squads found support among industrialists and political elites who saw them as the only force capable of matching Communist passion and violence. Mussolini's dramatic March on Rome in October 1922 proved to be a strategic masterstroke that, despite being poorly organized, succeeded when King Victor Emmanuel III chose not to declare martial law, instead appointing Mussolini as Prime Minister of Europe's first fascist government. What followed was a gradual consolidation of power, marked by the rigged 1924 elections under the Acerbo Law and the pivotal Matteotti murder, after whi...