Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Ghosts of Fascism
Rome's fascist history is a highly charged subject. In recent years historians on both sides
of the political spectrum have accused each other of recasting the past to suit their views:
left-wing historians have accused their right-wing counterparts of glossing over the more
unpleasant aspects of Mussolini's regime, while right-wingers have attacked their left-wing
colleagues of whitewashing the facts to perpetuate a simplified myth of anti-fascism.
Mussolini
Benito Mussolini was born in 1883 in Forlì, a small town in Emilia-Romagna. As a young
man he was an active member of the Italian Socialist Party, but service in WWI and Italy's
subsequent descent into chaos led to a change of heart, and in 1919 he founded the Italian
Fascist Party. Calling for rights for war veterans, law and order, and a strong nation, the
party won support from disillusioned soldiers, many of whom joined the squads of Black-
shirts that Mussolini used to intimidate his political enemies.
In 1921 Mussolini was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. His parliamentary support
was limited but on 28 October 1922 he marched on Rome with 40,000 black-shirted fol-
lowers. The march was largely symbolic but it had the desired effect. Fearful of civil war
between the fascists and socialists, King Vittorio Emanuele III invited Mussolini to form a
government. His first government was a coalition of fascists, nationalists and liberals, but
victory in the 1924 elections left him much better placed to consolidate his personal power,
and by the end of 1925 he had seized complete control of Italy. In order to silence the
Church he signed the Lateran Treaty in 1929, which made Catholicism the state religion
and recognised the sovereignty of the Vatican State.
On the home front, Mussolini embarked on a huge building program: Via dei Fori Imper-
iali and Via della Conciliazione were laid out; parks were opened on the Oppio Hill and at
Villa Celimontana; the Imperial Forums and the temples at Largo di Torre Argentina were
excavated; and the monumental Foro Italico sports complex and EUR were built. Abroad,
Mussolini invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in 1935 and sided with Hitler in 1936. In
1940, from the balcony of Palazzo Venezia, he announced Italy's entry into WWII to a vast,
cheering crowd. The good humour didn't last, as Rome suffered, first at the hands of its
own fascist regime, then, after Mussolini was ousted in 1943, at the hands of the Nazis.
Rome was liberated from German occupation on 4 June 1944.
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