Fascism in Italy and the 1929 Economic Crisis
Fascism in Italy
Fascism was also defined by its anti-parliamentarism, its anti-Marxism, and anti-capitalism. It blamed liberal democracy for all the ills of society. It pretended to implement certain social reforms to attract the middle classes, the proletariat, and the peasantry, who were threatened by unemployment and low wages. Initial anti-capitalism was tempered by the financial support of big business, which provided funding to Fascism. The use of paramilitary forces was intended to create a climate of violence and disorder conducive to the rise of the Fascist Party. The Fascist Party was the only one, and its organization merged with the state structure. It controlled propaganda, the media, and education in order to unite the masses in the exaltation of the imposed political regime.
Fascist Italy
In 1922, a general strike promoted by leftist groups served as a pretext for Benito Mussolini to prepare his rise to power and organize the March on Rome. Victor Emmanuel III, with the support of the army, appointed him Chief Minister in October 1922. Mussolini apparently respected democratic forms until the 1924 elections, in which the Fascists obtained an absolute majority through fraud and violence. Complaints were silenced with the murder of Socialist Deputy Matteotti, which unleashed a major scandal and marked the beginning of the fascist dictatorship.
The organization of a totalitarian state led by Benito Mussolini, the Duce, began. All trade unions, political parties, and individual freedoms were prohibited, and a political police force was created. In the economic sphere, the regime sought self-sufficiency, putting into practice an autarkic economic policy. Economic battles were initiated to increase production and become self-sufficient, avoiding recourse to imports. Moreover, attempts were made to absorb the unemployed through the construction of various infrastructures. The autarkic economy was stepped up, and initiatives were taken in most productive activities, such as creating an agency to enhance industry. Social policy was characterized by corporatism, which forced state employers and employees to cooperate. Social control was also carried out through the creation of various organizations that educated the individual in the fascist doctrine from the age of four until the end of their life.
The Economic Depression of the 1930s
The fall of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929 was the starting point of a global economic crisis. It affected all countries, all economic sectors, and all social classes. The catastrophe not only acquired economic and social dimensions but also emotional and ideological ones. It disbanded confidence in the model of prosperity and favored the rise of Nazism, which led to the Second World War.
The 1929 Crash
The stock market crash surprised a society steeped in the optimism of apparent prosperity. In the expansionary phase of the 1920s, the amount of investment was high because of increased productivity and wage moderation. But this situation, helped by high rates of unemployment, provoked production to exceed demand. The ability to invest in profitable productive activity was low, so investors turned to stock market speculation. The precarious balance between the stock market and reality caused the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange. On October 24, 1929, known as Black Thursday, an excessively high number of shares began to be sold. Shares fell in price, and a wave of panic invaded investors, who started selling, causing the share price to fall sharply. The stock market crash continued until 1933 and caused the ruin of millions of large and small investors.