Mussolini's Relationship with the Elites and the Church Flashcards
Up until when did Italy remain a constitutional monarchy?
- Until September 1943
- He shared power with the monarchy and was not solely in power
- Original 1919 programme wanted a republic but this was far too radical and was dropped in 1920
What law limited the kings right to nominate a potential PM?
December 1928
- Fascist Grand Council limited kings input on future PM’s and to advise him on any future royal succession
What Law created the First Marshall of the Empire?
March 1938
- Created the highest rank of military hierarchy
- Given to BOTH Mussolini and King
- Previously it was just the king who had been supreme military commander
How did Mussolini deprive the king of his role as supreme military commander?
June 1940
- Italy had entered WW2 and Mussolini took full control of the military and deprived the King
How would the King react to Mussolini taking control and how would Lawyers react to this?
- The King retained power to remove M but did not care as long as he maintained the title of King
- He did not oppose the antisemitism of 1938
- Lawyers wanted a new constitution that revealed the truth of the fascists
How did Mussolini appease the Army?
- He allowed them to run independently
- Allowed under-secretaries made up of generals/admirals to run it
- Despite his Minister of War position
How did Mussolini appease the Judiciary?
- Many retained independence from the party
- Some however did join the party as a precautionary aspect
How did Mussolini reform the civil service?
- Some were removed due to anti-fascist attitudes, but many kept their jobs
- Top administration posts in fascist ministries were held by career civil servants
- Ministry of Corporations senior staff had all been civil servants since 1916
Who were ‘prefects’ and how were they appointed?
- Career civil servants who were chosen by Mussolini to run Italian provinces
- They organised police, censorship in local areas and reporting on fascist branches
How did conservative elites fit into the dictatorship?
- Creation of the Podesta, elected by Prefects
- These positions were held by old elites, e.g aristocrats and former generals, usually from the south
- Gave the traditional elites political power to appease them
What law changed the structure of the Government and what did this mean for Mussolini?
December 1925
- M was now head of Government, only accountable to the king and not Parliament
- Mussolini initiated all Parliamentary discussion and all new legislation
What law changed the people in Parliament?
May 1928
- Parliament to consist of 400 deputies chosen from 1,000 nominated by the Fascist Confederations and public bodies
What law boosted the prestige of the fascist grand council?
December 1928
- Put the grand council as the most important legal body in the state
- All gov + party policy and ministerial positions were to be discussed by the grand council
- Framework for retention of fascism after Mussolini’s death
- M retained power to appoint top PNF leaders and set out laws to be debated by the grand council
Did the grand council actually get much power?
- Did not consult major policies such as accommodation with church in 1929 and entry into the war in 1940
- Through the 1930’s the grand council barely met
Did Mussolini change the senate?
- Left the senate with the senators who were appointed for life by the King
- 148 senators were not PNF members
- Mussolini did however appoint new senators that were fascists from that point onwards
Which extremist was appointed by Mussolini and what did he do?
- 1925, Roberto Farinacci
- Purged PNF members who did not agree with Mussolini
- October 1925, squads murdered 8 liberals in Florence
Who replaced Farinacci and what did he do?
- After purging the Florence Fascio, 6 months later he replaced Farinacci with Augusto Turati
- Made sure PNF was not just serving Mussolini’s personal policies
- 50-60,000 hard line fascists thrown out, by 1929 110,000 left voluntarily
Who replaced Turati and what did he do?
- Giurati purged another 120,000 members
- Replaced by 800,000 members
- Most were clerks, civil servants, white collar workers, public service and local gov workers
- Most joined for employment benefits
- 1933 made compulsory got workers to join for more middle class presence who didn’t challenge Mussolini
What did Luigi Federzoni contribute to the fascist government?
- Appointed Minister of Interior 17th June 1924, placated conservative elites during Matteoti crisis
- ex-ANI members tended to follow Mussolini and accept his policies without much questioning
What did Roberto Cantalupo and Emilio Bodrero contribute to the fascist government?
- Influenced the direction of fascist youth educational policies
- Cantalupo asserted that the goal of education should be to create a new generation of Italians loyal to fascist ideals
What did Constanzo Ciano contribute to the fascist government?
- Minister of Communications from 1924 - 34
- Longest serving minister of fascist regime apart from Mussolini
What did Giotti Dainelli do?
- During ‘reform of customs’ tried to get rid of foreign sounding words, e.g hotel names
What was the Nationalist concern for Italy?
- Italy was viewed as having a great history
- Any real ally of Italy should focus on its present military, not Rome or the Renaissance
- Mussolini’s aggressive foreign policy in the 30’s could be down to the ex-Nationalists as much as the PNF
What were Mussolini’s old view of the church?
- Thought they were corrupt, he published anti-Jesus articles and ‘the cardinals mistress’
- Opposed Pope Benedict XV’s attempt to end WW1 through peace note, M saw it as pacifism and defeatism
- Original Fasci di Combattimento called for confiscation of Church property
When did Mussolini drop his anticlerical views?
- May 1920, fascist congress of new programme he asserted that Catholicism would be used as a political force for unity and nationalism
- This angered futurists
- May 1921, maiden speech in parliament he publicly asserted a positive view of the Catholic Church
When did Pope Benedict XV die and who replaced him, how did this benefit the fascists?
January 1922
- Replaced by Cardinal Achille Ratti (Pope Pius XI)
- Pius XI was more concerned about the communist left than the fascists and wanted a gov of ‘National Concentration’ including the fascists
How did Mussolini try to get on side of Pope Pius XI?
- Religious education in state schools and crucifixes in buildings
- The Vatican were bailed out the Bank of Rome in Jan 1923 upon fear of collapse
- Banned freemasonry, anticlerical journals and liberal policies on taxing church properties
- Had 3 children baptised and married Dona Rachele in a church despite the original civil ceremony in 1915
When was the Lateran Pacts signed and what were the 3 main sections?
- 11th February 1929
- A treaty, financial convention and a Concordat
What were the main aspects of the Lateran Pacts?
- Providing a sovereign state of 44 hectares of land with full diplomatic rights in Rome as the state of Vatican City under the Pope’s control
- Pope to receive 750 million lire and 1,000 million State Bonds to make up for losses in 1870
- Catholicism as religion of Italy, education in primary and secondary along with legal validity for Catholic marriage
- Catholic youth groups (Catholic Action) allowed to continue without political activities, had over 1 million members and only non-fascist organisation
What were the successes of the Lateran Pacts?
- Mussolini gained great prestige overseas for being the one to solve the Roman Question, though he did slightly limit his dictatorship
- Lots of success for the Catholics as they saw religious revival and had re-entry into education and marriage etc
- Both parties gained
When had Mussolini introduced a new electoral law and what was it?
1928
- A plebiscite to be held no later than April 1929, Italians would approve or reject a list of candidates from the PNF
- The Pope called M ‘the man sent by providence’ and was supportive of the plebiscite due to Lateran Pacts
When was the plebiscite held and what were the results?
12th March 1929
- Church wanted to gain support to strengthen the pacts
- Pope asserted a ‘yes’ would help affirm the concordat
- 8.63 million voted and approved by 98%
- Church would continue to support in the 1934 plebiscite
What was a main area of tension between Church and State?
- The Youth Groups due to its 250,000 members
- Giovanni Giuratti was PNF secretary and Carlo Scorza was responsible for youth organisations (Oct 1930), both men were hardline against Catholics
- Accused catholics of organising sport, led by former members of PPI, acting as a sanctuary for antifascism and attempting to create Trade Unions
- Police raids and violence shut down the youth organisations?
How did the Pope react to the attacks on youth organisations?
- Anti-fascist encyclical ‘Non abbiamo bisogno’ (we have no need)
- Argued fascisms ideal youth of being reconciled with a state did not line up with being Catholic, he condemned stealing children from Christ for worship of the state
How did Mussolini ease tensions about youth groups?
- Summer 1931 deal, youth groups to not organise sports, only recreational and education stuff that is purely religious + no former PPI members to be youth leaders
- Feb 1932 M and Pope confirmed mutual views on gender values, foreign police and hate for SU and communism
- 388,000 members by 1939 for Catholic Youth Groups after tensions eased
What were some minor disagreements between church and state?
- Girls involvement in physical activities of the fascist youth organisations
- Worried that this did not prepare girls for maternity
- Fascist attitude to prostitution was brothels were a natural part of male culture
What was a more serious tension that arose in 1938?
- Concerns about Mussolini’s attack on Jews
- This conflicted with the Concordant and the authority that Jews could convert to Catholicism through marriage
- Pope wrote a letter against racism
- Unable to be published due to death on 10th Feb 1939
- He was replaced by Pius XII
