Racism and Violence: the question of consensus Flashcards
The fast advance and fast retreat of liberal democracy in the interwar period
Except for Soviet Russia, all regimes emerging from WWI were elected representative parliamentary regimes
66 independent states in the interwar period
The twenty years between Mussolini’s March on Rome of October 1922 and the peak of the Axis success in the 2WW was a dramatic retreat of liberal political institutions
3 kinds of forces overthrowing liberal democratic regimes (Hobsbawm)
1) Old fashioned authoritarian or conservatives (General Franco of Spain)
2) Organic Satism (conservative regimes, recreating its principles)
3) Facism (refers to a type of organization)
Differences between Italian and German Fascisms
Racism and anti-semitism were embraced late by Mussolini
Different dynamics between the party and state
The other October Revolution
The birth of Italian Fascism
Explosions of violence in the late 1910s: 983 deaths by homicide
Mussolini burst onto the Italian political scene in 1912, when at 29, he appointed for a socialist newspaper the later created his own
First brigade of squadrists is founded in Milan in the winter of 1919-10, attracting men who were finding it difficult to resume civilian life
March 23 1919: the create of Mussolini’s anti-party
The two years of Socialism: the Biennio Rosso (1919-21)
Legislative elections of Fall 1919: victory of socialists
Deadly socialist rally in Bologna (November 21,1920) and racist demonstration in Ferrara (December 20, 1920)
Encouraged by the success of the squarest offensive, racism becomes a mass movement, composed for the most part of the members of the middle class
May 21, 1921 racists win seats at the legislative election
The March on Rome, October 1922
In September and October 1922, thousands of armed racist men occy the major cities of Northern and central Italy without meeting any resistance
Victor Emmanuel III appoints Mussolini as Prime Minister
