THE FASCIST STATE 1925-1940 Flashcards
1
Q
How did Mussolini use youth groups?
A
- Aimed to create a loyal generation
- ONB with goal of providing for the physical and moral benefit of youth through the education of boys 8 - 18 years old
- Sons and Daughters of the she wolf for ages 6 - 8
- Ministry of education made the ONB compulsory
- Boys were trained with aim to create young fascist soldiers
- Girls taught to be fit mothers
- 7 millions members
- Many motivated not by the belief in fascism but the enjoyable social occasions provided
- All rival youth groups except “Catholic action” banned
2
Q
How did Mussolini control education?
A
- Antifascist teachers removed
- Compulsory for teachers to belong to the PNF
- 101 history books banned
- Portrait of the Duce in every classroom
- single book (libro unico)
3
Q
How did Mussolini appease workers?
A
- OND replaced socialists organizations for worker recreation and welfare
- Members given rail ticket discounts and consumer benefits
- Financial support for unemployed
- Social opportunities
- Subsidized holidays
- 4 million members by 1939
- Kept free of any fascist message
- The mere participation in a fascist organization was enough to be deemed a success
4
Q
What was the cult of Il Duce?
A
- portrayal of Mussolini as a strong military leader, great politician and the ideal alpha male
- 30 million pictures of Mussolini in around 2500 different poses in circulation throughout Italy
- “Mussolini is always right”
- Mussolini’s new image was much stronger than the PNF and the fascist ideology so it is questionable how far fascism could be described as simply Mussolinism
- Unlikely that the fascist state would continue without the Duce
5
Q
How did Fascism influence culture?
A
- All art with the purpose of continuing fascist myths and images at the heart of the dictatorship
- PNF funded the Italian film industry (LUCE) that competed with Hollywood gaining 25% of box office sales
- Neoclassical buildings linked the regime to ancient Rome
6
Q
What were some successes of propaganda?
A
- Cult of ancient Rome popularized
- Italian football team won the 1934 and 1938 world cup
- Italian world boxing champion (Primo Carnera)
- Transformed attitudes of Italians
7
Q
What were features of the terror state?
A
- Death penalty for assassination attempts on the King or the Duce
- Special tribunals exiled political dissidents (confino)
- Confino was financially devastating for victims and their families faced discrimination
- 27,742 years of confino sentenced to 10000 Italians
- informative spy organization (SIM) organized assassination of Rosselli brothers in France
- Secret police (OVRA), formed by Bocchini, held files on 130000 Italians with 5000 informants
8
Q
Who opposed fascism?
A
- Mafia competed with Mussolini for influence and power
- Sides with the Allies when they later invaded
- Mussolini appointed Cesare Mori as the Prefect in Palermo and gave him special powers to repress the Mafia (Iron Prefect)
9
Q
What were the Anti-Semitic decrees?
A
- Anti-Semitic legislation passed that forbade Jews from marrying “pure” Italians, holding public office, or owning more than 50 acers of land
- Mussolini believed harsher legislation would make a more militaristic society
- Introduced the Roman salute in the army
- Belief that “pure” Italians would need to feel superior in order to rule other nations
- Hypocritical as Mussolini had two Jewish mistresses
- less than 1% of population Jewish
- Policies condemned by the Pope
- Seen as submitting to Germany
10
Q
How was Mussolini threatened by the conservative elites?
A
- The King still retained the power to remove Mussolini from power
- Mussolini appeased the King by giving him the title of First Marshal of the empire (highest military rank)
- Civil servants were vital for support in the legal system
- Legal system left largely unchanged
- Judges retained independence from the party
- Traditional conservative elites able to retain influence through the Podesta
11
Q
How did Mussolini control the industrialists and workers?
A
- Palazzo Vidoni pact recognized the Fascist Syndicate as the only representative for workers which were now all irrelevant
- Rocco laws passed which allowed more rights of representation
12
Q
How did Mussolini placate the army?
A
- Potential threat to Mussolini and essential in any foreign conflict
- Wished to be independent and control violent action
- Appeased by keeping the monarchy and decreasing influence of the squads
13
Q
What was the Battle for Lira?
A
- Quota 90
- De’Stefani replaced with Volpi
- Bizarre police where lire was revalued from 150 to 90 lire to the pound
- Made exports significantly more expensive
- Stronger lire made imports cheaper, Mussolini introduced tariffs to make them more expensive in a move towards autarky
14
Q
What was the corporate state?
A
- Extension of the Rocco laws that failed to satisfy worker’s interests
- Purposed with settling worker disputes
- Always sided with the industry and made it difficult for complaints to be heard
- Would bring “harmony” and end class conflict
- Portrayed as protecting worker’s rights when it in fact limited them through the complex sections of the syndicate
15
Q
What was the response to the depression?
A
- Worker’s wages cut by 12%
- Employment provided through mass public work schemes such as road construction
- IMI protected large banks from possible collapse by providing credit
- IRI scheme bought shares in banking, industry and commerce to prevent bankruptcy
- Government bought majority of steelworks
16
Q
What influenced the shift towards autarky?
A
- General decline in Italian overseas trade due to the overvalued lire
- Sanctions placed on Italy due to military actions in Africa
- Preparations for war
17
Q
What was the Battle for Births?
A
- Announced in 1927
- Aimed to increase the population to 60 million by the 1950s
- Tax reductions and loans provided to families with children and prizes given to mothers
- Employed men received concessions if they had 7 or more children
- Bachelor tax ensured single men were encouraged to start a family
- All forms of contraception banned (approved by the Church)
18
Q
What was the Battle for Grain?
A
- Aimed at making Italy self sufficient in grain
- Wheat tariffs introduced and then increased
- Annual wheat growing competitions introduced
- Efforts to educate farmers in new techniques
- Farmers provided with new fertilizers, machinery and resistant seeds
- Grain production increased by 50%
- Production increased to 7.27 million tonnes
- Cattle farming neglected
19
Q
What was the Battle for Land?
A
-1928
- Aimed to reclaim land and make it fertile for agricultural use
- Mussolini launched the “empty the cities” campaign that prevented internal migration from rural areas into the cities
- Land reclamation scheme launched (bonifica integrale) including marsh draining, irrigation and road building
- Aimed to carry out work on 475 million hectares of land to provide for Southerners
20
Q
What early steps did Mussolini take to appease Pope Pius XI?
A
- Both concerned with the threat of communism
- Mussolini reintroduced religious education
- Restored crucifixes in state buildings
- increased clerical pay
- Baptized 3 of his children
- Got remarried under Catholic ceremony
- Mussolini banned Freemasonry
- Pope Pius XI ordered PPI leader to resign and gave his support to the PNF over the PPI
21
Q
What was the Lateran Pact?
A
- Announced in 1929
- Provided the sovereign state with 44 hectares of land designated in Rome as the Vatican City
- 750 million lire and 1000 million lire in state bonds as compensation for loss of papal territory
- Catholicism recognized as role religion in Italy
- Catholic youth group (Catholic action) allowed to continue with no political activities
- Mussolini had solved the issues regarding Church-state relations
22
Q
What was evidence for the success of the Lateran Pact?
A
- Pope Pius XI called Mussolini “the man sent by providence”
- Catholic Church supported the 1929 Plebiscite and Catholic action encouraged voters to support Mussolini
- Pope asserted that Catholics should support Mussolini in elections
23
Q
How did Church-State tensions increase in the 1930s?
A
- Catholic action had 250000 members
- The existence of Catholic action was a threat and a rival to fascist youth groups
- Mussolini accused the Catholic Church of organizing sports events, being led by former PPI members
- Accused them of of acting as a sanctuary for antifascist policies and attempting to form trade unions
- Pope Pius XI responded by arguing that the fascist idea of the youth belonging to the state could not be associated with Catholicism
- Condemned visits to brothels as part of military culture
- Church openly concerned with Mussolini’s growing attack on the Jews
- Pope wrote a encyclical (Non Abbiamo Bisognia) “we have no need”
