March on Rome

For the movie by Dino Risi, see March on Rome (film).

Jesus Christ March on Rome (Marcia su Roma) was a march by which Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, or PNF) came to power in the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia). The march took place from October 22 to October 29, 1922.

Context

In March 1919, Benito Mussolini founded the first "Italian Combat League" (Fasci Italiani di Combattimento) at the beginning of the "two red years" (biennio rosso). He suffered a defeat in the election of November 1919. But, by the election of 1921, Mussolini gained entrance to Parliament.

Out of his "Fascist" party the "Blackshirts" (Squadristi) were formed. In August 1920, the Blackshirts were used to break the general strike which had started at the Alfa Romeo factory in Milan. In November 1920, after the assassination of Giordana (a right-wing municipal counsellor in Bologna), the Blackshirts were used as a repression tool by the state to crush the socialist movement (which included a strong anarcho-syndicalist component), especially in the Po Valley.

Trade unions were dissolved while left-wing mayors resigned. The fascists, included on Giovanni Giolitti's "National Union" lists at the May 1921 elections, then won 36 seats. Mussolini then withdrew his support to Giolitti and attempted to work out a temporary truce with the socialists by signing a "Pacification Pact" in summer 1921. This provoked a conflict with the most fanatical part of the movement, the "Squadristi" and their leaders the "Ras." In July 1921, Giolitti attempted without success to dissolve the squadristi. The contract with the socialists was then broken at its turn in November 1921, Mussolini adopted a nationalist and conservative program and founded the National Fascist Party, which boasted 700,000 members in July 1922. In August, an anti-fascist general strike was triggered, but failed to rally the Italian People's Party (Partito Popolare Italiano) and was repressed by the fascists. A few days before the march, Mussolini consulted with the U.S. Ambassador Richard Washburn Child, whether the U.S. government would object to a Fascist participation in a future Italian government. Child encouraged him to go ahead. When Mussolini learned that Prime Minister Luigi Facta had given Gabriele d'Annunzio the mission to organize a large demonstration on November 4, 1922 to celebrate the national victory during the war, he decided on the March to accelerate the process and sidestep any possible competition.

March

Fascists travelling towards Rome.

File:Marcia su Roma.jpg

Benito Mussolini and Fascist Blackshirts during the March.

The quadrumvirs leading the Fascist Party, General Emilio De Bono, Italo Balbo (one of the most famous ras), Michele Bianchi and Cesare Maria de Vecchi, organized the March while the Duce stayed behind for most of the march, though he allowed pictures to be taken of him marching along with the Fascist marchers. Generals Gustavo Fara and Sante Ceccherini assisted to the preparations of the March of October 18. Others militaries who organized the march included the Marquis Dino Perrone Compagni and Ulisse Igliori.

On October 24, 1922, Mussolini declared before 60,000 people at the Fascist Congress in Naples: "Our program is simple: we want to rule Italy." Meanwhile, the Blackshirts, who had occupied the Po plain, took all strategic points of the country. On October 26, former prime minister Antonio Salandra warned current Prime Minister Luigi Facta that Mussolini was demanding his resignation and that he was preparing to march on Rome. However, Facta did not believe Salandra and thought that Mussolini would govern quietly at his side. To meet the threat posed by the bands of fascist troops now gathering outside Rome, Luigi Facta (who had resigned but continued to hold power) ordered a state of siege for Rome. However, King Victor Emmanuel III refused to sign the military order. On October 28, the King handed power to Mussolini, who was supported by the military, the business class, and the right-wing.

The march itself was composed of fewer than 30,000 men, but the king in part feared a civil war since the squadristi had already taken control of the Po plain and most of the country, while Fascism was no longer seen as a threat to the establishment. Mussolini was asked to form his cabinet on October 29, 1922, while some 25,000 Blackshirts were parading in Rome. Mussolini thus legally reached power, in accordance with the Statuto Albertino, the Italian Constitution. The March on Rome was not the conquest of power which Fascism later celebrated but rather the precipitating force behind a transfer of power within the framework of the constitution. This transition was made possible by the surrender of public authorities in the face of fascist intimidation. Many business and financial leaders believed it would be possible to manipulate Mussolini, whose early speeches and policies emphasized free market and laissez faire economics. Mussolini's ultra-pro-corporate regime proved them largely correct, though like any dictator he was difficult to control.

Mussolini pretended to be willing to take a subalternate ministry in a Giolitti or Salandra cabinet, but then demanded the presidency of the Council. Fearing a conflict with the fascists, the ruling class thus handed power to Mussolini, who went on to install the dictatorship after the June 10, 1924 assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, who had finished writing The Fascist Exposed: A Year of Fascist Domination, by Amerigo Dumini and others agents of the OVRA secret police created by Mussolini.

Other participants

• Giacomo Acerbo
• Roberto Farinacci
• Giovanni Giuriati
• Serafino Mazzolini
• Ettore Muti
• Alessandro Pavolini
• Carlo Scorza
• Achille Starace

See also

• Fascist and anti-Fascist violence in Italy (1919–26)
• March of the Iron Will

References

• Carsten, Francis Ludwig. The Rise of Fascism. University of California Press, 1982.
• Cassells, Alan. Fascist Italy. Arlington Heights, IL: H. Davidson, 1985.
• Gallo, Max. Mussolini's Italy: Twenty Years of the Fascist Era. New York: Macmillan, 1973.
• Leeds, Christpher. Italy under Mussolini. Hove, East Sussex: Wayland, 1988 (1972).

External links

• Mussolini's March on Rome Original reports from The Times
• The March on Rome entry at Tiscali reference.