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Italy; 1911-46 > Consent and Control 2 > Flashcards

Consent and Control 2 Flashcards

1
Q

How was the ‘Cult of Il Duce’ propagated?

(6)

A
  • fascist slogan “Mussolini is always right”
  • 30 million pictures of Mussolini circulated; frequently shirtless to portray his physical strength
  • appealed to everyone; attractive to women and a family man, a respected statesman and a talented sportsman
  • the lone leader; without human emotions or friends to distract him from his work
  • heavily linked his image to that of Julius Caesar and Augustus
  • Mussolini’s age and pictures of him wearing glasses never appeared in the media
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2
Q

How successful was the ‘Cult of Il Duce’?

(6)

A
  • garnered support for the regime
  • Mussolini was more popular than fascist ideology itself; he stood above the party and was a leader Italians could believe in
  • did not create an ideology that could sustain itself after Mussolini’s death
  • did not make the Italian people more militaristic
  • as Mussolini aged the image of a dynamic, youthful, active leader was more difficult to sustain
  • Mussolini possibly began to buy into his own propaganda/ image? –> explaining his more aggressive, radical ideology of 1935 onwards
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3
Q

How was political opposition repressed?

(4)

A
  • Nov 1926, Public Security Decrees; banned all other political parties and gave provincial prefects the power to place anyone considered a threat under police supervision
  • death penalty was introduced for anyone who tried to asssassinate Mussolini or the King or threatened national security
  • Special Tribunals could send political dissidents into confino (exile in southern Italy)
  • prisons for political opponents in Lipari and Lampedusa
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4
Q

How was terror used?

(3)

A
  • 1926, a political police division was formed under Arturo Bocchini; infiltrated and broke up antifascist organisations
    –> had spy networks in Italy and amongst Italian communities abroad
  • 1927, OVRA formed by Bocchini; to spy on Italians and stop any antifascist activity –> 5,000 informers
  • the Special Reserve Service examined mail and listened to phone calls
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5
Q

Example of the use of terror

A

June 1937, the political police worked with the SIM (military spying organisation) to organise the assassination of the Rosselli brothers in Paris (prominent antifascist exiles)

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6
Q

Terror and repression statistics

(6)

A
  • Bocchini had files on over 130,000 Italians
  • special tribunals prosecuted 13,547 cases and imposed 27,742 years of jail time
  • 10,000 Italians sent to confino
  • hundreds arrested every week for ‘antifascist’ activity
  • only 9 death sentences were given before WW2
  • around 2,000 people were killed by the fascist regime/its sympathisers
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7
Q

How successful was terror and repression?

A
  • success in ensuring little serious opposition to the regime
  • biggest worry = Slovenes living in Italy, not antifascist threat
  • number of people arrested/sent to confino make it hard to judge the extent of antifascist feeling in Italy
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8
Q

What were Mussolini’s anti-clerical beginnings?

A
  • took after his anti-clerical father
  • published several articles constrasting the life of jesus and the corruption of the Catholic church
  • published novel ‘The Cardinal’s Mistress’ mocking the hypocricy, violence, and sex of the church
  • 1919, Fasci Combattimento’s first programme called for the confiscation of all church property
  • he did not baptise himself or his children until he needed the RCC’s support
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9
Q

How did Mussolini’s attitude towards the church change?

A
  • May 1920, Mussolini declared that Catholicism could be used as a force to drive Italian unity and nationalism at the Fascist Congress
  • May 1921, in his maiden speech to Parliament Mussolini announced that “fascism neither preaches nor pracises anticlericalism”
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10
Q

Who was the Pope?

A
  • 1903-1914, Pope Pius X
  • 1914-1922, Pope Benedict XV
  • 1922-1939, Pope Pius XI
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11
Q

How did Mussolini appease the RCC before 1929?

(6)

A
  • religious education was reintroduced in state secondary schools
  • crucifixes were restored in public buildings
  • increased the pay of priests
  • banned freemasonry and anticlerical journals
  • bailed out the Bank of Rome
  • dropped proposed liberal policies on taxing church property
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12
Q

What were the Lateran Pacts?

(9)

A

1929, agreements that settled the Roman Question (included a treaty, a concordat, and a financial convention);
- Vatican City created; a sovereign state with 44 hectares of land in Rome with full diplomatic rights controlled by the Pope
- compensation of the loss of territories in 1870; Pope given 750 million lire and 100 million in state bonds
- Catholicism recognised as the sole religion of Italy
- religious education in primary + secondary schools
- church marriages given legal validity
- Catholic youth groups allowed to continue (as long as no political or sporting activity carried out)
- the RCC could rule in matters of spirituality
- RCC would mobilise the Catholic vote for the fascists

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13
Q

What successful were the Lateran Pacts?

(3)

A
  • Mussolini was now the man that solved the Roman Question after 50 years = international prestige and admiration
  • RCC extended its control over Italian life; re-entered education and experienced a revivial in the 1930s
  • Mussolini had to share his power; challenged his place as the ultimate ruler of Italy
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14
Q

What two plebiscites were held?

A
  • 1928, Mussolini inreoduced a new electoral law that established that a plebiscite would be held by April 1929
  • March 1929; Italians asked whether they supported the Lateran Pacts and the list of fascist deputies put forward by the Grand Council of Fascism
    –> Catholic Action and the Pope himslef endorsed voting ‘yes’
    –> 90% of the electorate voted, and of those 98% approved
  • 1934; plebiscite asked whether people supported the new list of deputies put forward by the Grand Council of Fascism
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15
Q

How did the relationship between Catholic Action and the PNF change?

A
  • 1930, Giovanni Giurati became the Party Secretary and Carlo Scorza became responsible for fascist youth organisations; took a hardline stance against Catholic Action
  • –> accused it of organising sporting activities, using former PPI members as leader, acting as a sancturary for antifascist politics, and attempting to form trade unions
  • = police raids, violence, Catholic youth organisations shut down
  • Pope attacked fascism’s indoctrination of the youth in an encyclical titled ‘we have no need’; could not be reconciled with Catholicism
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16
Q

How was the tension between the RCC and the PNF resolved?

… in the early 1930s

A

1931, Catholic youth groups were reinstated but they were not allowed to;
- organise sporting activites
- have PPI members as youth leaders
- confined to recreational and religious aspects

17
Q

Why did more tension arise between the RCC and PNF in 1938?

A

- 1938, fascist antisemitic policies conflicted with the concordat; Jews were able to convert to Catholicism through marriage, yet inter-religious marriage now prohibited
- –> Pope Pius XI commissioned a letter against racism which was not published before his death (10th Feb 1939)
- also church worried that girls’ involvement in physical activities in the fascist youth groups did not prepare them for motherhood
- also the RCC condemned the lax fascist attitude towards brothels; seen as natural amongst young men

18
Q

What antisemitic policy was introduced?

(5)

A

1937;
- ‘pure’ Italians could not marry Jews
- Jews could not have public office jobs (eg. teaching)
- Jews could not own over 50 hectares of land
- Jews could not run businesses with over 100 employees
- Jews could not employ ‘pure’ Italians as servants

18
Q

Why was the introduction of antisemitic policy in Italy strange?

(5)

A
  • until then Italian fascism had no antisemitic or racist rhetoric
  • there were only 45,000 Jews in Italy = less than 1% of the population
  • many Jews were fascist
  • Mussolini had had a longterm Jewish mistress
  • 1932, Mussolini had appointed a Jewish finance minister
19
Q

What possible reasons were there for adopting an antisemitic policy?

A
  • the influence of Nazi Germany/Hitler’s right-wing, anti-Jewish policy, also of Romanian and Austrian leaders
  • to prepare for war; hoped that antisemitic policy would create a more militaristic, radicalised society, united by its hatred for the enemy and its sense of superiority
  • increased focus on race because of Italian imperialism in Africa
20
Q

How was antisemitic legislation recieved?

(5)

A
  • resented by most Italians who had little to no history of antisemitism
  • taken by some as a sign of the regime’s weakness and subordination to Nazi Germany
  • forced some Italians to question the direction of the regime
  • Pope condemned the antisemitic policies as an un-Italian attempt to copy Nazi Germany
  • Mussolini lost the support of the Catholic conservative elites
    = not successful
21
Q

How was the King’s power eroded?

A
  • Dec 1928, Fascist Grand Council granted the constitutional right to limit the King’s power to nominate the PM and advise him on future royal succession
  • March 1938, the King was no longer the Supreme Military Commander, intead parliament created the First Marshal of the Empire which was given to both the King + Mussolini
  • June 1940, Italy entered WWII and Mussolini took full control of the military
22
Q

How did Mussolini treat the army?

A

military allowed to run independently; despite being Minister of War Mussolini left the running of the armed forces to the under-secretaries (generals or admirals)

23
Q

How did Mussolini treat the judiciary?

A

legal system remained largely unchanged; judges retained their independence from the party (but many joined the PNF as a precaution)

24
Q

How did Mussolini treat the civil service?

A
  • most of the conservative elites maintained their influential positions in the political system, BUT some were removed because of antifascist political ties (small minority)
  • the majority of the top administrative posts in fascist ministries were held by career civil servants
  • new position created; ‘podesta’ = powerful municipal post mostly held by elderly conservatives
25
Q

Which laws secured Mussolini + the party’s power?

A
  • Dec 1925, Mussolini became accountable only to the King, NOT parliament
  • May 1928, parliament to be made up of 400 deputies chosen by the Grand Council of Fascism from a list of 1,000 nominees put forward by fascist confederations and public bodies
  • Dec 1928, the Fascist Grand Council’s role as the most important legal body in the state was added to the constitution; all major matters of gov., party policy, ministerial positions to be approved by the Grand Council = constitutional framework for for the PNF to retain power after Mussolini’s death
26
Q

How did Mussolini treat the senate?

A

Mussolini left the senate alone;
- members appointed by the King for life
- 1932, 148 senators were not members of the PNF
- Mussolini accomodated the existing political elite but ensured that all new senators were fascist

27
Q

What were ‘prefects’?

A
  • the highest state authority in each province
  • organised the police, ensured censorhsip of local press, supressed antifascist activity, reported on local PNF branches
  • appointed by Mussolini (elections abolished)
28
Q

What were ‘podestas’?

A
  • (new) powerful municipal posts appointed by the prefect
  • usually given to existing elderly conservative elites (especially in the south)
  • = local government was largely in the control of the conservative elites and career civil servants
29
Q

What did Farinacci do?

A
  • 1925, appointed by Mussolini as PNF party secretary
  • continued to encourage squad violence against communists and catholics in the provinces; Oct 19258 liberals in Florence murdered by fascist squads
  • became rather unpopular after the Matteotti murder and therefore stunted Mussolini’s popularity
  • 6 months later, Mussolini purged the Florentine fascio and dismissed Farinacci

(extremist)

30
Q

What did Turati do?

A
  • 1926, replaced Farinacci as PNF party secretary
  • ensured that the PNF became little more than a means for Mussolini to fulfil his personal policies
  • 1929, expelled 60,000 older, hard-line fascists from the party –> 11,000 then left voluntarily in protest
31
Q

Other important nationalists/fascist party members

A
  • Federzoni; appointed Minister of the Interior in 1924 to placate old conservatives during the Matteotti crisis
  • Cantalupo; asserted that fascism’s primary goal should be the creation of a new generation of loyal fascists, important in forming fascist education policy
  • Ciano; 1924-1934 Minister of Communications, longest serving fascist minister excluding Mussolini
  • Dainelli; eradicated foreign words in the Italian language for the ‘Reform of Customs’ in the late 1930s

Italy; 1911-46 (13 decks)

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